This is Brentt Eads of Line Drive Softball.

We’re excited to announce that we’ll be working with some highly respected experts in their fields who will provide great content helpful to our softball community.

One of those—who I’ve known over the years in travel softball—is Ron Schmittling, who coached an elite national travel softball team for 10 years and served as program director for six years.

Today, Ron is a certified mental performance coach with 25-plus years of high-pressure corporate experience and wrote a best-selling book, Winning Starts Within, which is available now on Amazon and on his website, CoachRonMPM.com. He can also be followed on Instagram: @coachronmpm

With Christmas coming up a month from tomorrow, the Winning Starts Within book would make a GREAT stocking stuffer or present to wrap for your favorite softballer!

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FROM DROPOUT STATISTICS TO CHAMPIONS: WHY THE MENTAL GAME CAN’T WAIT

How one coach’s mission to train the mental side of softball became a book that could transform how athlete’s approach sports

Seventy percent of young athletes quit sports by age 13. When they reach college, another 33% walk away from the game they once loved.

As a certified mental performance coach and former director of an elite national travel softball program, I’ve watched talented players—girls who could hit, field, and compete with the best—decide they were done.

Not because they weren’t good enough. Not because of injuries or lack of opportunity. But because no one taught them how to handle the mental and emotional demands of the game.

We train their swing mechanics for hours. We run defensive drills until they’re automatic. We condition their bodies to be stronger and faster.

But wake happens when they step into the batter’s box with the game on the line and their confidence is shattered? When they make an error that costs the game and can’t shake it off? When the pressure becomes too much and softball stops being fun?

Most athletes have no tools to handle that. And so, they quit.

And here’s what should terrify every parent and coach: quitting becomes a habit.

When athletes walk away from softball because they can’t handle the mental challenges, they’re learning a pattern that will follow them into every difficult situation they face in life.

That’s why I wrote Winning Starts Within.

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The Stakes Are Higher Than We Think

I coached an elite national travel team for 10 years and served as the program’s director for six of those years, taking us to new heights and expanding our team counts by 300%.

We were receiving invites to the best and most coveted tournaments in the country. I watched hundreds of talented athletes come through our program, and I saw a clear pattern:

… the ones who succeeded weren’t always the most talented. They were the ones who could manage their minds.

But I also watched players struggle—not with their physical skills, but with self-doubt, negative self-talk, fear of failure, and pressure that became unbearable. And I realized that while we were investing thousands of hours into their physical development, we were spending maybe 5% of our time on the mental side.

That gap was costing us players. And it was costing them far more than just their softball careers.

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Ashlyn’s Story: When Mental Training Saves More Than A Career

One of my players, Ashlyn, was struggling with overall performance in critical moments. She was talented, dedicated, and highly capable—but something was breaking down when it mattered most.

What I didn’t fully understand at the time was just how much she was suffering internally. Years later, she shared her story with me, and her words captured exactly why this work matters:

“When I was an athlete, I was my biggest critic, and my own mind was my most daunting opponent. I had been suffering from negative self-talk and stuck in negative feedback loops as long as I could remember.

I had no idea there was another way to motivate or self-evaluate outside of pessimism and shame.

This mindset beat me down and broke me at a very young age. It caused me to not pursue positions that I was interested in because I thought I couldn’t handle the pressure, it robbed me of opportunities and stole the joy from a lot of moments in my career because ‘you always could have done better.'”

After watching her struggle through a month-long slump, I sat her down. She later told me she was terrified I was going to kick her off the team. Instead, I asked her how she was doing—really doing.

“Coach Ron’s kindness and value in mental health changed my entire perspective,” Ashlyn wrote. 

“Coach Ron saw me at my lowest and chose to invest in me. We spent the next two years reading sports-centered self-help literature, reflecting, and reshaping my mental tendencies from negative to positive.”

“Coach Ron helped take a weight off of my shoulders that I didn’t know was holding me back from excelling.”

But here’s the part that stopped me cold when I read her full testimonial:

“Without the care, support, and knowledge Coach Ron provided me in my teens, I probably would have quit sports before graduating high school and I may not have made it past my teens at all.”

This wasn’t just about softball anymore. This was about something far more important.

“I truly owe so much of my success and happiness to Coach Ron’s impact on my life when I was just a kid,” she concluded.

That’s when I knew this work couldn’t stay on the softball field. These mental performance tools needed to reach every athlete—because we’re not just keeping kids in the game.

We’re keeping them moving forward in life.

And, as an update, Ashly today is in her first year of law school…

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Green Means Go: A One-Week Transformation

Mental training isn’t abstract theory. It’s practical, it’s trainable, and when you give athletes the right tools, the results are immediate.

We were heading into the Atlanta Legacy national event coming off a dismal tournament the week before in Ohio, where we’d gone 0-6. This team was very talented, committed and loaded with great athletes, but we were under-performing and drowning in self-doubt.

Players weren’t trusting themselves, much less their teammates.

We were finishing a wonderful book on being a great teammate, but we were missing our own self-belief. You could see it. After every mistake, their heads went down.

That’s when I employed the green strategy—a quick visual reminder to stay positive: Green Means Go. 

“Green” means forward momentum, not dwelling on what just happened. Not dropping our heads in doubt. We grabbed rolls of green duct tape, and the girls put it everywhere—on their shoes, laces, hair ties, their gloves, their water bottles, their batting helmets.

The transformation was stunning.

We went 8-1 through the tournament, making it to the championship game.

You could see the team’s confidence rise with each game. Players were stepping into unfamiliar positions due to injuries. Athletes were pinch-hitting in key situations they never would have trusted themselves in before. A reluctant pitcher turned into our ace right in front of our eyes.

We won the championship game 2-1 over a great team. College coaches started calling for more information on our players. Parents and players were overjoyed at the one-week transformation of this team.

Same athletes. Same physical skills. Different mindset.

That green duct tape wasn’t magic. But what it represented was. It gave them a tool—something tangible to redirect their thoughts when negativity crept in.

It reminded them that they controlled their response, their energy, their next play.

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Why Softball Demands Mental Toughness

Softball is brutal on the mind. You can fail 7 out of 10 times at the plate and be considered excellent. One error can cost a game in seconds. You’re expected to shake off failure instantly and execute the next play perfectly.

The mental demands are relentless.

Drawing from my 25-plus years in high-pressure corporate environments, I recognized the same patterns:

… talented people crumbling under pressure not because they lacked skill, but because they lacked mental tools.

The difference is that in corporate America, you might get coaching or leadership development. In youth sports, we just expect kids to figure it out.

They don’t figure it out. They quit.

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Five Years in the Making

I’d had the idea for this book for about five years. I sketched out an outline early on and slowly added pieces to it. But I kept hesitating.

Finally, a trusted friend kept asking me, “What is stopping you? This is brilliant and needs to see the light of day.”

About six months ago, I started writing in earnest—daily. My wife really encouraged me, along with my trusted friend. The hardest part was probably just getting started, because it’s the start that stops most people.

Holding the finished book felt wonderful. But I also knew this was just the beginning. My mission is to make this book something every athlete should have and refer to—because these lessons transcend sports into real life.

These are principles that can be applied in your adult life, long after you’re playing days are over.

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The Mission: Changing the Conversation

Winning Starts Within is structured around the fundamental mental skills every athlete needs: confidence, focus, resilience, identity, and purpose. But this isn’t theory—it’s a practical playbook.

Inside, athletes will learn how to:

• Reframe failure using the “3 R’s” method (Recognize, Reframe, Respond) to bounce back from errors in seconds instead of spiraling
• Build unshakable confidence through daily mental reps that work just like physical practice
• Develop a pre-performance routine that puts them in control when pressure peaks
• Create identity beyond their sport so their self-worth isn’t tied to their batting average
• Use visualization techniques that elite athletes have relied on for decades

The book includes real stories from my coaching career, reflection exercises athletes can use immediately, and tools like the “Green Means Go” mindset that transformed my team in one week.

These aren’t just softball skills—they’re life skills that will serve them in college, careers, and relationships long after they hang up their cleats.

But more than writing and selling books, my mission is to change the conversation in softball and youth sports. Mental training can’t be an afterthought anymore. It needs to be part

of how we develop athletes from day one.

Whether you’re a player struggling with confidence, a parent watching your daughter think about quitting, or a coach who wants to keep your athletes engaged and resilient—the mental side matters.

And it’s trainable.

Ashlyn didn’t just become a better softball player through our mental performance work. She became more confident in school, more resilient in relationships, more equipped for life. She is currently in her first year of law school.  

The girls who wore green duct tape at Atlanta Legacy didn’t just win a tournament. They learned that mindset is controllable, that positivity is a choice, that they have power over their response to any situation. 

Many wore green the remainder of the season.  

When we train the mental side—when we teach athletes to manage pressure, reframe failure, build identity beyond performance, and develop resilience—we’re not just keeping them in the game. We’re preparing them for everything life will throw at them.

Let’s keep our athletes in the game. Let’s equip them not just to perform, but to thrive.

Because quitting doesn’t have to become a habit. Forward momentum can.

“Green Means Go”… and winning starts within.

— Ron Schmittling/Winning Starts Within