The Mental Game of Softball FREE BONUS INTERVIEW WITH CAT OSTERMAN This interview is with one of the greatest athletes of all time. Cat Osterman is a 4-time NCAA All-American softball pitcher originally from The University of Texas. The Houston native is also a 2 time Olympic medalist having pitched the USA Women's Softball Team to the gold medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics and the silver medal in the 2008 Summer Olympics. She has also graced the cover of sports illustrated on 2 occasions. Cat is the all time leader in the Big 12 conference in wins, ERA, strikeouts and shutouts, she is also the NCAA Division I record holder for strikeout ratio (14.34), WHIP and perfect games (7). She owns numerous other records for the Longhorns and within the NCAA, where she is also one of five pitchers to strikeout 1,000 batters with 100 wins, an ERA of under 1.00, and averaging double digit strikeouts. In this interview Cat shares her mindset for success and breaks down how mindset, the mental game, daily habits and decisions are all critical parts of her success as an athlete. You can follow Cat at her website www.CatOsterman.com or on twitter @CatOsterman, and on instagram @CatOsterman. Brian: Hi everybody, today do we have a special guest! Cat Osterman is a four-time NCAA All-American. She was a left-handed pitcher on the softball team at the University of Texas. The Huston native is also a two-time Olympic medalist having pitched the USA Women’s Softball Team to the gold medal at the 2004 Olympics and the silver medal in the 2008 Olympics. She has also graced the cover of Sports Illustrated on not one but two different occasion. Osterman is the all-time leader in the Big 12 Conference and wins ERA strikeouts and shutouts. She is also the NCAA division one record holder for the strike out ratio of 14.3 strikeouts per every one walk. She also holds the record for WHIP, and also holds the record for perfect games with 7. She owns numerous other records for the Longhorns and within the NCAA where she is one of only five pitchers ever to strike out 1000 batters, have 100 wins, and an ERA under 1, with also averaging double-digit strikeouts. Cat, thank you so much for taking time out of your insane schedule to join us on the podcast. Cat: Thank you for having me. Brian: Cat, I think our listeners know that you’re one of the greatest athletes of all time. Could you give them some insight though into how you define success for yourself. Everyone sees records, everyone sees the gold medals, sees you’re still dominating in the professional softball circuit, how do you define success for yourself? Cat: I think success, the definition of it has evolved over time throughout my career. But I think the one staple has always been progress. And not necessarily progressing as in adding new pitches or fine-tuning, but am I just better than yesterday. For the longest time I’ve always lived by that. If you look back at what you did yesterday and think it’s a big deal then you haven’t done anything today philosophy. So for me that is how I define my success is based on if today is better than yesterday. You know, even at this point in my career as a professional athlete, I am trying to one-up myself everyday or try to just have better control or something like that. So, progress is kind of my biggest definition of success. © Brian Cain Peak Performance, LLC. All rights reserved. Do not duplicate, distribute or train from this material without written permission. www.BrianCain.com Playing One Pitch At A Time Brian: What about from a motivation standpoint, Cat? How do you stay motivated, having this now for so long at such a high level? How is it that you stay motivated on a daily basis? Cat: I think the chase to attain perfection in something that is almost impossible to be perfect in is kind of what keeps me motivated. I’m a perfectionist in almost everything. But in this game, you can’t be perfect. It’s almost impossible. Even a perfect game usually isn’t 100% perfect. You find something, you missed one pitch here, you might have gotten away with it but you missed it. So, just being able to continue to try to find ways to be as perfect as possible, it’s fund and that’s kind of what motivates me. Brian: Now, you’re also not only playing in a high-level but you’re also a division one college softball coach. Could you talk a little bit about the balance between being a division one college softball coach, having the recruiting that goes with that and then also your practice planning and everything that goes with that responsibility, but also being a professional athlete at the same time? Cat: Yeah, it takes a lot to balance it all out. Obviously, in the fall, there’s of my recruiting since I’m playing during the summer. But I think the hardest part of it is turning off the coaching hat and taking the player role. Usually, it takes a couple of weeks to be able to do that and kind of sit back and play and not want to coach the game and over-analyze what we should do in certain situations. For me, the balance part of it isn’t terrible. I was able to work out when our girls left. I conditioned usually before practice and then once spring time rolled around, I benefit that my catcher and a couple of my other teammates are there, close by in Austin and they would drive down to St. Marcus and we’d have BP and then my catcher would catch my bullpen and I’d get to throw a little bit of live. So, we fit it all in, it’s not easy but it is fun to still be able to use my playing experience to relate with my college kids. I think, when they can see that we still play, it helps them really grasp what we’re saying a little bit easier. Brian: I couldn’t agree more. You know, Cat, we’ve had numerous discussions about the importance of the mental game and sports psychology in your work with Ken Ravizza and how you also coach the mental game and use the mental game. Could you take our listeners kind of on your journey into the mental game and when you got started and how it’s been important for you in your career as a player? Cat: You know, I think the mental part of my game…it started growing up a little bit. My dad was just very adamant about not showing too much emotion and taking it only one pitch at a time way back before I ever knew anything about really what the mental game was so we were kind of focused on that already and I felt like, for a young age, I had a pretty strong mental game even though it wasn’t something I was practicing. I got into college and coach Clark had played softball at Fullerton so she obviously knew Ken Ravizza as you mentioned, and we worked with Ken a couple of times when we came out to California. I think he came to Austin once and I had the fortune to be able to talk to him. Aside from college when I was with the national team, sometimes, we were I places that he was and he’d always want to meet up and talk about things. So, I got to learn from him which was really fun and I wanted to follow Ken in the footsteps, [00:05:57] I can go get my masters in sports psych under him. But obviously, coaching took me in a little bit different direction. But I think the biggest thing is learning from him is that you don’t have to be perfect. You don’t need every pitch to go your way. Once I © Brian Cain Peak Performance, LLC. All rights reserved. Do not duplicate, distribute or train from this material without written permission. www.BrianCain.com The Mental Game of Softball kind of accepted those, I think I was able to relax a little bit and play even better. So, for me, a lot of times, being present is the biggest thing because, obviously, as a pitcher, you have the ball in your hand every single pitch of the game. And so, if you’re not present, you’re not really going to do your job. But after that, it was just more of realizing that you don’t need every call to go your way. You don’t need to throw a no-hitter every time. So, for me, just being able to accept that, like I said, really helped me loosen up a little bit. Brian: And is something that you feel like with the mental game, Cat, that you kind of have it mastered now with all the success that you’ve had and your experience you’ve had at Texas and with the national team or do you still catch yourself at this point, even maybe falling back into thinking about previous pitches or future pitches and having to remind yourself, “Hey, get back in the present moment here and just win this one pitch.” Cat: You know, I think I’m pretty good about it about 90% of the time.