ATHLETE INTERVIEWS: Katelyn Linford (CHS/Diablo Diamonds Coach & Former SJSU Athlete)

In order to cultivate mental toughness, I often seek advice from those around me and those who I look up to. I've found that hearing the experiences of others can make me feel better and I can learn new methods and strategies that I can apply to my own game. As a result, I decided to create a series of posts on my website dedicated to interviewing athletes (titled ATHLETE INTERVIEWS) so that anyone visiting my site can potentially use the words of others to better themselves.

In this fourth installment, I interviewed Katelyn Linford:

Tell me about yourself.

My name’s Katelyn, and I’ve probably played softball for around 20 years, and then I’ve been coaching travel ball and high school over the last 8 years. I probably started playing travel ball in fourth grade, then year round in sixth grade, and kinda worked my way up to playing very competitively and then in college. On my teams we focus a lot on mental health and how you’re thinking throughout the game, and using the mental side of the game to help them through it.

How did you start playing softball?

I started playing softball in first grade because my friends were playing, so I asked my parents if I could play too. They signed me up, and I got very invested in it over the years. I started playing travel ball in fourth grade and then year round in sixth grade, then worked my way up to playing very competitively then in college. Both my sisters played and my dad coached it, so it was definitely a very family activity.

How did you stay so committed to softball throughout the years?

When I was younger, I wasn’t the best player on the team, so it was more like ‘are you going to stick with it and keep working hard, or are you going to give up,’ because I didn’t make quite a few teams when I was younger. It was more if you’re having fun, and willing to put in the work, than if you have talent.

What’s your favorite part of the game and why?

I think it’s the competing, and the strategy. I mean like, for me, my favorite position is obviously pitching. But even like, just, competing, like when you’re pitching, having a strategy of ‘oh, what does this batter look like they’re gonna miss if they’re swinging,’ or ‘what did I throw, what do I throw next?’ and kinda seeing all your hard work pay off as well, whether that’s things you’ve been working on strategy wise or just like, I’ve been working on a pitch and now it’s working.

How has softball impacted your life?

Softball has definitely had a huge impact on my life, since I’ve been playing for so long. I know when I was younger, it definitely gave me a chance to spend more time with my dad when he was coaching me, and my sister played on my team for a few years too, so we got to spend a lot of time together. Even just, because I was a pitcher, I’d pitch in the backyard multiple times a week, so that’s extra time that my dad and I spent together working on things. Then, once you get to a competitive level, you’re traveling all the time, so weekends would be like, a weekend away where I’d have my dad with me, or my mom and my sister would go, so just a lot of family time. Even traveling, and getting to know all the different people that you’re playing with, and seeing all of the different people that are out there, and learning how to be competitive.

Even now that I’m done playing, going into coaching, it’s kind of the same thing where I’d coach with friends and family, so I’d get to spend more time with them, and then also learning all of those competitive skills, organization skills, how to put effort in; it all definitely helped with work life as well. You can tell who has played sports, and who hasn’t, when you hire someone. I know when I came in, I was very on top of things because in college, having played a sport and done engineering, I knew that I had to be on top of things or I was gonna fall behind. So, when I joined my company, I was very on top of things especially with being proactive to ask questions versus waiting for someone else to ask you to ask questions, and just being on top of your work, compared to, I guess, not, because you’re more relaxed and had more time to do things, if that makes sense.

How do you define mental toughness?

Mental toughness, to me, is your ability to bounce back from something that is challenging, and it’s also how you’re handling success. It kind of goes both ways, because if you’re not handling success well, then you’re kinda going to end up back in a slump, as well. So, can you bounce back and improve yourself if you’re failing without giving in, and then if you’re succeeding, making sure that you’re still doing whatever’s needed to keep succeeding.

Do you believe sports help cultivate mental toughness and in what ways?

Sports definitely cultivate mental toughness because it gives you a place where it’s safe to fail and learn from it, and it gives you time where if you fail, you have the ability to learn from it and persevere. A lot of the time, especially in baseball or softball, you fail a lot. Hitting-- being a successful hitter-- is hitting .300, so three out of ten at bats you’ll get a hit, so you’re gonna end up failing a lot. Even in the field, when fielding, you’re gonna make errors, so it gives you a lot of opportunities to struggle and improve on it.

Was it easier to focus on mental or physical challenges while you were playing?

I think it’s easier to work on the physical challenges and fix them than the mental challenges, because physical challenges, especially when coaching, I can see what they’re doing wrong and help them change it, but you can’t really see into someone’s head to tell them what they’re doing wrong. Same with if I was the player; I’m probably having so many thoughts running through my mind that I’m never gonna tell a coach. It’s just not gonna happen, right? So, it’s much easier to fix the physical side of things because it’s more visible, and it’s probably also more controllable because you can tell your body what to do, and you can try to train your mind, but it’s much harder to train your mind than your body.

How did playing in college affect your mental health?

I feel like it was good to go into college and have a group to hang out with right away, just because you’re basically going into a whole new area and you don’t really know anyone. Especially in the beginning for me, I wasn’t in major classes, so all I had was people in GEs-- very different than going into your major classes, which I found out later. It gives you a good group of people-- community. My coach was super supportive, so that was also really nice to have because you always kinda have that family you can go to, which is super helpful with mental health just because you know you’re being supported even though you’re away from home.

I think having that group is good. Our team also worked on mental health stuff quite a bit; I know we had someone my sophomore year who came in and talked about some mental health things, and did some exercises that [my team] has probably done, over the years. For me, when I was really struggling I just talked to my pitching coach again, because I felt like she understood what I was saying the most. I could always talk to teammates as well, but sometimes it’s just easier to talk to someone who’s known you longer. But, I mean, playing college is a completely different level than you’re used to, and even just, like, you’re way more involved because every single morning you have weight training, and you have practice, and who knows what else you’re doing for softball that day: lots of travel. So, just like, knowing how to handle all of that by talking it through with teammates, or coaches, is really helpful.

How would you compare the mental strain of playing travel ball/high school varsity to playing in college?

I, actually, think I had more free time when I got to college than I had during high school. And it sounds weird, but for me, during the high school season you’re so busy because you practice after school, or have a game, every day, and on the weekends, you’re probably practicing with a travel team. Or, like for me, I’d pitch to my dad when I’d get home from practice, because when I was in high school I didn’t pitch at practice everyday, so sometimes I’d go home and pitch after practice. Then, you still have all the homework that your teachers assigned you to get done, so to me that was actually probably more stressful than college in some ways. And same with travel, because you’re managing your high school workload and not all your classes are as interesting to you. Plus, for me I was traveling to LA all weekends in the fall, so it would be seven hours driving both ways, trying to do homework in the car, so. . .

I felt like that was very stressful, whereas when I got to college, I was a little stressed out about traveling, and flying, because I hadn’t flown since I was in like, fourth or fifth grade, so I didn’t really know what I was doing that first year. So I was more stressed about that, than I was for the actual traveling with the team. Once you get used to it, it’s not bad. And like, for me, I would just bring my homework with me and be like, ‘okay, we’re in the hotel for like, three hours-- I have three hours to do my homework.’ That wasn’t how everyone did it; a lot of people took the time to hang out, go to the pool or whatever, but I was like ‘Nope, we’re in the hotel,’ and I’d just take the desk because everyone on my team knew I was gonna come and do homework. I’d grab the desk from whoever I’m rooming with, and then I’d just work on homework during our breaks. So, for me it was a super easy way to get all my work and studying done. And then, even classes, when I was on campus, I had friends in my engineering classes, so we’d hang out and study at the same time-- all the time.

So, it was way easier in college, which is kinda a surprising answer, probably. . . but that’s how it felt for me, because you get in your workout and your practice in the morning, and then you have all afternoon to do school and study. The playing is probably a little more stressful because it’s more competitive, but the rest of it really isn’t.

How was the recruiting?

The recruiting was more stressful because I didn’t get recruited for a long time; I didn’t sign something until right before my senior year-- or verbally commit-- so I was more concerned about that. I was getting offers to play back east, but I didn’t want to. So the summer before my senior year, probably one of the most stressful things: having to call coaches. Like, I would just dial them up randomly and call them. I’d be like ‘Hey, this is who I am, I just wanted to see if you’d had a chance to watch any of the videos I sent, or see me play,’ and you’d just kinda hope they didn’t answer so you could leave a voice message. But, I remember the LMU coach answered, and was like ‘Oh yeah, I know who you are, I’ve watched you play,’ they were like, ‘We don’t have the money to offer you a scholarship, but you could walk on.’ And I was like, ‘Oh, okay, thanks for letting me know,’ and, obviously, didn’t go there. But, that part was extremely stressful for me, however, when everyone else was applying for colleges I already knew where I was going, so I only had to do one application, so it did balance out a little bit.

Where do you turn to when you need emotional support and what has that support meant to you?

Definitely, I turned to my family quite often to talk to them. I know in college, I had talked to my coaches about it at one point too, because I had a somewhat rough sophomore year with them changing my motion, and then, just, didn’t have the best year in general. So I had talked to them about it at one point, talked to my parents, and then I think, talked to my pitching coach, and then, like, talked to my boyfriend about things, as I was like, having issues, just because he’s there to talk to and understands the sport, so that made sense. There were definitely teammates you could talk to as well, but sometimes it was easier to talk to people outside of softball-- outside the team-- just because it’s a different group who has an outside perspective.

What would you say was your biggest challenge as a softball player and how did you overcome it?

Probably the biggest challenge I’ve had was after my sophomore year of high school-- playing in the high school season-- where I got my mechanics messed up to the point where I’d either pitch it in the backstop, or in the dirt, and I could not find the strike zone at all in the game. I could pitch perfectly fine in my backyard, but I could not figure it out in a game, which was more frustrating because I knew I could do it on the sidelines. And, I’d finally made one of the top Sorcerer teams, so one of the top teams in our area, and I remember being in the first tournament of the summer, and like, literally could not throw a strike: in the ground, in the air, and my dad’s like ‘Oh, this is what you’ve been talking about,’ and I was like, ‘Yeah, this is what was happening in high school. I don’t know what’s wrong.’

And so, I think I tried to pitch again the next tournament-- didn’t work-- so I ended up having to talk to my coaches and they were like, ‘Obviously you need to get this figured out; what do you want to do?’ So, I ended up deciding with my parents that I’d travel with the team all summer, but I wouldn’t pitch. And, I wasn’t playing an infield position at the time really either, so it meant I was pretty much just traveling with them. Eventually, they let me hit, which was nice, because then I got into a game somehow, and occasionally would pinch run, but I was pretty much just traveling with them and then working with my dad in the backyard-- a lot-- to try to fix my motion, so that I could get comfortable pitching again. And then my coaches-- I think it was when we were in Colorado-- let me go back in the game, and I remember that I think I walked the first batter, and then the second batter hit a hard line drive, which my second baseman dove for and made an amazing catch and got a double play (she played at UCLA), but, I was like, ‘I was saved,’ because I didn’t trust myself at all at that point.

So, just having to slowly work back from that, and starting to trust myself and my motion again, then that fall I was going to a bunch of camps, because that happened the summer before my junior year; it was a very big recruiting summer, so I missed out on people watching me pitch that summer, so I was like ‘Okay, I need to go to all these camps,’ so I had to start getting used to pitching to batters; I’d pitch in practice, to my travel ball team, or I think I pitched to my sister’s team too, trying to find different places to practice so that I’d be ready for all those camps and start trusting my motion more.

How well do you handle criticism? How have you reacted and learned from it?

I think it definitely depends on where it came from. Like, I worked with my dad a lot-- pitching in the backyard multiple times a week-- and there’d be times where like, I’d take what he said, and there’d be times where I’d just completely fight it, but that was more daughter-father relationship struggles.

But I think, overall, I took it well, especially when it was coming from trusted sources (pitching coaches, or other coaches I’ve had), because it is how you are gonna succeed, and learn, because if you don’t accept people telling you what you need to fix, then you’re just going to stay where you are and you’re not gonna get any better.

I definitely think that the more you trust a coach, the easier it is to take the criticism and actually apply it. If you don’t trust your coach, which I probably had a couple times where like, I didn’t get along with them quite as well, it’s harder to trust what they’re saying and do exactly what they’re telling you. So, I think when you have a solid relationship with whoever’s telling you the criticism, it’s a lot easier to take it and apply it.

Do you have any advice for anyone dealing with pressure or mental health issues when on the field?

I think the biggest thing is to first acknowledge that it’s there, and know that it’s something that’s normal. Especially if you’re struggling with pressure, because you’re not having a good day, or, this I see a lot in younger kids; they don’t realize how much of the game is failure, so they get upset every little time it doesn’t go their way. But, that’s just part of the game. You have to kinda just acknowledge that’s okay, that’s part of the game, and just know that it’s something to learn from, not something to get stuck on. You need to take it, learn from it, and then forget it. It’s gonna happen, but you just need to keep moving forward. If you keep thinking about that over and over and over again, it’s more likely to happen again. So, just trying to turn it into something positive and saying ‘I know that this happened to me, but I’m gonna take it and learn from it, and then move on.’