Photo Courtesy of Yasmin Mossadeghi

TOP DAWG — Softball coach Yasmin Mossadeghi was an All-American softball player at CSU Fullerton and remains the university’s all-time homerun champion. Now she is SC’s all-time most successful softball coach.

BY XIOMARA VILLARREAL-GERARDO

Softball coach Yasmin Mossadeghi wrote the book on how to hit a softball.
…no, really. She wrote the book.

“Between the Lines: The Mental Skill of Hitting for Softball” is still a best-seller among softball players and coaches across America, and an Amazon perennial. Chances are it is being read right now by persistent players in Pennsylvania, canny coaches in Connecticut and managing moms in Missouri.

Mossadeghi hits it out of the park wherever she goes. She was a high school star in Huntington Beach and a record-setting hitter at CSU Fullerton, where she was an All-American. She played professionally in Germany and Russia.

A fearsome power hitter, Mossadeghi hit .362 during her career at Fullerton and is still the program’s all-time home run leader with 47. She is second in homers all-time in Big West Conference history.

She has been SC’s head softball coach for 12 years, transforming a moribund program into a consistent playoff team. More than two dozen of her student-athletes have earned university scholarships for softball. They take The Book with them.

Just as MLB Hall of Famer Ted Williams transformed baseball with his revolutionary book “The Science of Hitting,” Mossadeghi is the Swengali of Softball. Her scientific examination of fastpitch has done for high school and college women what Isaac Newton did for physics.

Her magnum opus came less from inspiration than necessity, Mossadeghi said. While she was working on her Master’s degree in Kinesiology at Fullerton she had to complete a project, thesis or test-out. She decided to do a thesis and “Between the Lines” was born. It found fertile ground because it was the first book about hitting a softball.

SOFTBALL SCIENCE — “Between The Lines” was written with high school and college players and their coaches in mind. It introduces the mental aspects of the game and confidence-building for success on the softball diamond.
Image Courtesy of Yasmin Mossadeghi

“At that time, my specialty was being a very good hitter and being able to use my mental game to be successful,” she said. “I took those tips and tools from my sports psychologists, my teachers, and my coaches and created an easy how-to (book about) at hitting at the higher level.”

Like Williams’ masterwork, Mossadeghi’s book is accessible and user friendly. It has pictures and diagrams that put thought into the muscle.

It took Mossadeghi one semester to gather her interviews for the book, she said, and another year to finish it. It was published a little over a year later, in 2007.

Mossadeghi said writing the book was transformative.
“The greatest takeaway was all of the information I gathered from the student-athletes,” she said. “I think that information is invaluable and because I was able to take the time and they were willing to reveal what it took for them to be successful, it has made me a better coach.”

Growing up in Huntington Beach, Mossadeghi played soccer and volleyball, but softball was her first love. She was a prodigious home run hitter at Fullerton, but also had the brains to match the brawn. She earned a Bachelor’s in kinesiology and a Master’s in kinesiology with an emphasis on sports psychology.

Although Mossadeghi has no plans for another book in the foreseeable future, she said, she is cogitating on a video project.

“I am hoping to someday be able to (create) a video series to motivate athletes about the mental game and teach coaches how to coach the mental game,” she said.

Just as Williams was the master of out-thinking the pitchers of the mid century, Mossadeghi preaches that bat speed is worthless without quick thinking. “Between the Lines” is as much about what’s between the ears, she said, and she relishes her position as a coach who is also a college professor. Softball teaches young women valuable lessons in a hardball world.

“I am proud of the program and what I have accomplished,” she said, “but I am really proud of the athletes and the assistant coaches who have helped me support the program.”