The RoundHouse | 4/2/2022 7:03:00 PM
Wichita State's Addison Barnard gives herself 10 minutes to ponder a bad game before forcing herself to move on. That may sound surprising for a softball player who seemingly hasn't had a bad moment in her short career.
While tough times seem almost non-existent for Barnard, the first scrimmages of last fall felt that way.
"I was putting so much pressure on myself to do so good every game," she said. "I was being so hard on myself. It was really hard for me to understand 'Addie, it's not your swing, it's up here.'"
Barnard, a sophomore center fielder, went to work on the mental game after a meeting with Wichita State coaches early in the fall. With Barnard frustrated by struggles in scrimmages, coaches told her to relax and let her talent do the work.
"That's what the sophomore slump is all about – putting the pressure on yourself to be able to repeat and do what you did as a freshman," Wichita State coach Kristi Bredbenner said. "She does put a lot of pressure on herself. When she fails, she struggles with it a little bit."
Barnard is enjoying a sophomore season every bit as imposing as her debut, even if the success came with more difficulty than the statistics show. She doubled and homered twice to drive in six runs in Saturday's 13-4 run-rule win over Tulsa in six innings at Wilkins Stadium.
Wichita State (19-10, 2-0 American Athletic Conference) pounded out 14 hits against three Tulsa pitchers. Sydney McKinney, with the game-ender, and Zoe Jones also homered for the Shockers. Pitcher Erin McDonald didn't allow an earned run and held the Hurricane (12-21-1, 1-3-1) to six hits.
Feel like we've seen this movie before.
Addie B doing Addie B things.
This 2-run shot nearly hit a car driving by 👋 pic.twitter.com/RpwHxB1ZMr
— Wichita State Softball (@GoShockersSB) April 2, 2022
Barnard doubled in McKinney for Wichita State's first run, helped when Tulsa left fielder Imani Edwards lost the high flyball in the sun. Barnard gave the Shockers a 9-4 lead in the third inning with a three-run home run. In the fifth, her two-run shot made it 11-4.
For the season, Barnard has 16 home runs and 43 RBI, while hitting .409 with a .957 slugging percentage and 21 stolen bases (already second on the program's season list).
Last season, she earned third-team All-American honors after hitting 22 home runs, a program record, with a .323 batting average and nine steals. Her 38 career home runs rank fourth in Shocker history and she will move into second with two more.
Opponents are throwing her more off-speed pitches and she no longer enjoys the protection in the lineup with experienced bats Madison Perrigan, Ryleigh Buck and Bailee Nickerson gone. So far, Barnard is handling the sophomore challenges.
"She swings at the right pitches, and when she connects you know that ball is gone," first baseman Neleigh Herring said. "You can see she's got a little bit more of that experience and a little bit more of that calm and she's ready and she knows what to expect. That helps her see the pitches she wants to swing at and execute."
Last fall's struggles, talks with coaches and sessions with Dr. Brianna Ward, athlete mental health coordinator, led to Barnard's 10-minute rule. Clearing her mind allows her quick hands, hand-eye coordination and powerful legs to smash softballs.
"You're going to have bad games," Barnard said. "I've been focusing on moving past it. You get 10 minutes to think about it and that's it."
Ward helped her with strategics to slow breathing and slow her body to relax. Later in the fall, Barnard saw results when her thoughts no longer got in the way of physical abilities.
"I was just really hard on myself, because I was expecting just to start up where I left off," she said. "You have adversity, and you've got to push through it. With the mental part, it took me awhile to realize that it's OK to fail. I worked on those strategies to calm me down and not be so anxious."
Last fall's anxiety seemed a long time ago on Saturday afternoon. Sunny weather brought out a crowd of 537 fans and several former Shockers cheered the home runs from the new party deck in right field.
No need for the 10-minute rule on that kind of a day.
Paul Suellentrop covers Wichita State Athletics and the American Athletic Conference for university Strategic Communications. Story suggestion? Contact him at paul.suellentrop@wichita.edu.
April 03, 2022 at 07:22AM
https://goshockers.com/news/2022/4/2/the-roundhouse-rh-i-was-being-so-hard-on-myself.aspx
RH: "I Was Being So Hard On Myself" - GoShockers.com
https://news.google.com/search?q=hard&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
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