By Israel de Jessus Nieves
“Baseball is 90 percent half mental,” said New York Yankees catcher/philosopher Yogi Berra.
A pair of brainy Southwestern College coaches may argue with the math, but not the thinking. Traditional training thwarted by the pandemic has evolved into a mind and body approach under soccer coach Carolina Soto and football boss Ed Carberry.
Soto sent her players training kits, then invited a yoga instructor and a sports psychologist to work with her team over Zoom.
“I’m a big believer in mental health, so I reached out to the clinical staff at the Personal Wellness Center,” she said. “We had a sports psychologist come in and it was really cool because he talked about things that we missed like the mental game and competitive mindset, and how to apply sports psychology methods to enhance our performance.”
Soto said she tries to instill in her players the need for flexibility.
“Life is about that,” she said. “You’re not gonna have everything the way you plan it, so you do have to be able to cope and adapt and to build that resilience when challenges come.”
Soto said she is very confident that when her team hits the field it will be ready to compete because of the effort invested in home training.
Michelle Posada, an attacking left back, said the pandemic has not stopped her from staying fit, but made it difficult to do school work and soccer practices through Zoom.
“I’ve been more fatigued than usual,” she said. “It’s been tough, but I’ve been trying my best to stay fit in other ways besides soccer.”
Aside from online practices, Posada said she runs, walks her dogs regularly, and trains at the park and gym. A psychology major, she said she enjoyed the opportunity to listen to a sports psychologist in action.
“It was really interesting getting to see that aspect of the game from a psychologist’s point of view,” she said. “It shows me that every part of the game is mental.”
Soto’s drills focus on dribbling, first touch and endurance, Posada said. There acknowledged improvement in her game, she said, but wished she could practice long distance runs and crosses.
Since training has been relegated to her backyard, the improvements Posada has manifest are technical skills like ball movement and control, she said.
Attacking right back Norma Kacsinta said she has suffered from unreliable Internet and sometimes does not know how coaches want drills done, but she does her best. In the early days of the stay-at-home order she used “Insanity,” an intense cardio workout she credits with boosting her endurance, confidence and discipline.
“It’s affected my cardio a lot,” she said. “Before my endurance wasn’t even there. I couldn’t even last, but doing the Insanity videos I felt so light doing the mile runs.”
Joey Rodriguez, a lefty freshman pitcher, has relied on a home gym, healthy diet and Cutter Nation, a training facility he regularly attends.
“I’ve been lucky to have the chance (to attend Cutter Nation) because there’s not a lot of people that I know that have the chance,” he said. “I know some of my friends that have not been doing baseball at all for a couple of months.”
Rodriguez said he has been able to play baseball in Arizona and Mexico. He said he is thankful for the opportunity to play and immerse himself in new cultures.
Carberry said he and his staff have done their best to keep football players in shape, but keeping track of 50-plus young men has been challenging.
“It’s very difficult,” he said. “It’s like they say about the boxer who has a plan on how to win until he gets punched right in the nose then his plan doesn’t look very good.”
Some colleges in nearby counties are allowed to practice in person, Carberry said, and he remains hopeful SC will get the same opportunity.
Aside from physical fitness and endurance, Carberry said he has placed added emphasis on the mental health of his athletes.
“We’ve brought in some guys that played at Southwestern or worked at Southwestern…that’s been a real positive,” he said. “We ask the players to tell us what they took away from that experience and a lot of them say, ‘well, it was a struggle.’ They are right. No matter what, it’s going to be hard.”
