Ron Schmittling is a renowned Mental Performance Coach and author of Winning Starts Within and contributes articles frequently to Line Drive Media.

Ron is excellent at providing ideas, tips and training on how to improve “mental performance for fastpitch athletes!

In today’s post, he addresses the scary topic of burnout and deciding the very important difference between tired and done.

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Sunday night.

Third weekend in a row.

Her bag is still in the trunk and her hood is still up.

Nobody has said a word since the parking lot.

And somewhere between the highway and the driveway, a parent reaches a verdict: she’s burned out.

That word, burnout, has ended more fastpitch careers than any torn ACL ever did. Not because burnout isn’t real — it is — but because the word gets assigned in four days and carries a decision inside it.

Say it out loud and you’ve already started planning the exit.

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Tired And Done Feel Identical On A Sunday

Here’s what almost nobody teaches athletes or the people driving them home.

• Tired is a training problem.
• Done is an identity problem.

On a Sunday night, after a long weekend and a short bench and a coach who didn’t say much, they feel exactly the same. Same flat. Same gray. Same nothing-left.

They are not the same, and you can separate them. Just not with a feeling.

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The Sunday Night Test

Three questions. Run them in order. Answer honestly.

One — How long?

Four days after an 0-for-9 weekend is a Tuesday. That’s not burnout, that’s a normal human recovering from a bad tournament. Four weeks of the same flat is information worth acting on.

Most parents call it on day three, which is the exact moment a 15-year-old is least capable of telling you one true thing about her own season.

Two — Is it leaking?

Check the other rooms. Sleep. Grades. Friends. Appetite. If the only place the light goes out is the field, you’ve got a softball problem — and softball problems are fixable.

Workload. A role that changed without a conversation. A pitch she’s quietly stopped trusting. If it’s leaking everywhere, that’s a different conversation, and it isn’t a softball one.

Three — Does it turn off?

Will she still hit in the cage with her best friend on a Thursday? When nothing counts, nobody’s charting, and no one’s watching from behind the fence?

If the love comes back the second the pressure lifts, she is not done. She’s tired of the pressure. Completely different problem, completely different fix.

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Why Coaches Keep Missing This

Because tired and done look the same from the third-base coaching box too.

Slow to the circle. Quiet in the dugout. Adjusting gloves between every pitch and not really looking at anything.

A coach sees that and reads effort. Nine times out of ten it isn’t effort. It’s a kid carrying a load nobody has helped her set down — and she has no idea it’s allowed to be set down.

The fix isn’t a speech about wanting it more. The fix is running the test and finding out which problem you actually have.

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Most Families Land In The Middle

Short, contained, turns off — she’s tired. Rest, reduce, and train the response.

Long, leaking, dead everywhere — that’s real and it needs more than a coach.

Anything else is the honest answer: nobody knows yet. And nobody who doesn’t know yet should be quitting.

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YOUR CHALLENGE THIS WEEK

Athletes: Before you decide anything about your season, do one Thursday cage session with a friend and no agenda. Just hit. Notice whether you liked it. That’s data.

Coaches: When a player goes flat, ask “how long has this been going on?” before you say a single word about effort. You’ll be right more often.

Parents: In the car, don’t ask do you even want to do this anymore. Say “You don’t have to know tonight.“ Then drive.

Tired is a training problem, not an identity.

That’s the mental edge.

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Previous Articles:

• Mental Mindset: What A Big Event Like Club Nationals, the Women’s College World Series or the Olympic Games Reveals About Mental Performance (Aug. 12, 2026)
• Mental Mindset: What to Do When You Start Pressing at the Plate (May 11, 2026)
• Mental Mindset: The Silent Skill That Builds Confidence (Apr. 6, 2026)
• Mental Mindset: The Most Dangerous Score in Softball (Mar. 9, 2026)
• Mental Mindset: Why Teams Tighten Up in Big Games (Feb. 23, 2026)
• Mental Mindset: How One Negative Thought Hijacks an Entire Game (Feb. 2, 2026)
• Mental Mindset: Why Confidence Disappears in Games (and How to Build It Back) (Jan. 19, 2026)
• Mental Mindset: Why “Just Relax” Is the Worst Advice in Softball (Jan. 5, 2026)
• Mental Mindset: The 5-Second Rule That Separates Winners from Quitters (Dec. 13, 2025)
• Mental Mindset: From Dropout Statistics to Champions… Why the Mental Game Can’t Wait (Nov. 24, 2025)

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WANT MORE?

The Mental Performance Diagnostic helps you pinpoint what’s holding you back—confidence drops, overthinking, slow recovery after mistakes, or inconsistent performance.

In 30–45 minutes, you’ll get a clear breakdown of your mental game and a focused action plan with tools you can apply immediately to perform better under pressure.

To book your session: CLICK HERE

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COACHES:

Want your whole team trained in these tools? I deliver 60-90 minute workshops where players and teams learn and apply these techniques immediately.

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AUTHOR BIO

THE MENTAL EDGE is written by Ron Schmittling, MPM—Certified Mental Performance Coach, NFCA Coach of the Year finalist, and author of Winning Starts Within and Into The Storm.

After more than a decade coaching and directing a national fastpitch program with a 100 percentage college placement rate, Ron now trains the mental side of the game, helping athletes stay composed under pressure, reset fast, and compete with clarity and confidence.

Here’s how to access Ron directly and via his info on social media:

• • E-mail: ron@coachronmpm.com

  • Online (website): coachronmpm.com

  • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coachronmpm