The Real Secret Behind Alabama's Softball Title

[Southpaw729]

Winning a National Championship is never an easy feat and it certainly wasn't so for the Alabama Crimson Tide softball team this week in Oklahoma City. After going down in game one fairly convincingly against the hottest pitcher and team in the tournament, Oklahoma, Monday night Alabama was just seven innings away from another disappointment at the NCAA Women's College World Series.

But something magically happened overnight to the Bama team and they came out in game two a different team.

As I say often...success is a choice and so, apparently, is winning a National Championship.

In addition to some tremendous on the field adjustments Head Coach Patrick Murphy and his staff employed the Bama girls brought an incredible energy, enthusiasm, focus and a skyrocketed expectation for victory.

As Alabama had been close several times before in the OKC the team's motto for the season was "Finish It!" And finish it they did in jumping out to an 8-1 lead in game two against a virtually un-hittable Keilani Ricketts (the NCAA Player of the Year).

Almost as exciting was Oklahoma's last inning five run comeback to make it close. Alabama won it all with another comeback in game three winning, arguably, the most exciting softball championship series ever.

So what is to be learned from both Alabama and Oklahoma?

1. Both teams never gave up and never gave in. They got to the championship series because of their talent and their character. Champions simply never stop competing.

2. Alabama made critical adjustments in the batter's box that served to take away one of Keilani Rickett's main strengths...the outside corner on her devastating curve. All great players and teams must make constant adjustments to maintain their edge and give them the best shot at victory.

3. Alabama got incredibly noisy on the bench. Their energy became contagious and absolutely spilled out onto the field and got into the Oklahoma players' heads. This energy literally shifted the momentum back over to Alabama's side and was the outside emotion of the inside thoughts (cause and effect).

4. I guarantee you that inside each of the Bama players' heads were nothing but positive, "can do" thoughts. Their internal conversation was all about "finishing it" and the expectancy for success. Their ultimate success was not an accident. It was the result of design...including incredible mental toughness and rock solid self-confidence.

5. There was an absolute absence of doubt on the Alabama team, starting with their coaching staff. I would suggest that immediately after game one Coach Murphy was already minimizing the loss and framing it as but a challenge to be overcome. Alabama played hard and lost. Game over...let's make some adjustments and come out tomorrow and win (one game at a time, one inning at a time, one pitch at a time). This is a huge reason why the Crimson Tide came back, and one your athlete needs to learn. Any adversity she faces can deflate her or pump her up to rise to the challenge like Alabama did.

In the end Alabama refused to lose. They willed themselves to victory against a tremendous opponent. They chose victory...this is the Alabama Advantage.

In the bigger picture each of the players on Bama won something much greater than a National Championship...they learned a life lesson they will never forget: If you work hard enough, keep believing long enough and never give up dreams can and will come true!

Congratulations to both teams for putting on a phenomenal show of effort, competition, sportsmanship, drive and passion. They demonstrated for three days what makes the game of fastpitch softball so great!

Your athlete and her team can use the Alabama Advantage whenever they choose to. Remember, success is a choice!

Sign up for my FREE high performance video training series: 6 Powerful Strategies to Skyrocket Game Day Performance HERE: http://www.softballsmarts.com/p/free-vi ... eries.html.

Thanks for reading! -- John Kelly, Softball Smarts

[Trophy Hunter]

So Alabama was more confident, made better adjustments, and wanted it more. This doesn't reflect very well on Gasso and Oklahoma.

[Informal]

I thought it came down to Ricketts not pitching well in the slop.. but, ok.

[fastpitchdad05]

I thought the turning point was when the TD or UIC or whoever that lady was that Murphy was shouting at during the rain delay, came to the realization that Murphy could well be an axe-murderer and therefore bent to his psychotic will and allowed the game to continue in a downpour.

[Sam]

In the end, Oklahoma was hurt by the fact that their conference is loaded with patsies. Bama had to battle in their conference constantly. That is why the PAC-12 (or however many it is today) dominates this tournament. Same thing happened with Texas and Cat Osterman years ago.

[UmpSteve]

Just wondering if there has to be exactly one right answer? Seems to me all of the above (at least those with a point) had some part in the outcome.

That said, only one part makes for a good motivational tool. A well stated article, in my opinion.

[DP3816]

I think it was more about Ricketts falling off to her left and having to depend on the Cropduster. She couldn't hit the paint on that side of the plate. I couldn't believe that not once did the OK coach go out there and say hey kid quit faling off and go hard to your catcher. I'm a huge Ricketts fan and I've never seen her fall off to the left this much. JMHO.

[Crazy888]

Let me fill you in on a little secret.....this "finish it" or "will to win" or "never say die" crap doesn't do anything. Alabama won because they are better than OU from top to bottom. Every good team has that attitude, but only 1 can win it all. All thay rah rah crap looks rec league

[fastpitchdad05]

Better from top to bottom?

I emphatically disagree and feel that was a bizarre overstatement possibly fueled by emotion or agenda or both.

I realize this is only your entitled opinion, but do you need to be reminded of the scores of the games?

[jonriv]

Let me fill you in on a little secret.....this "finish it" or "will to win" or "never say die" crap doesn't do anything. Alabama won because they are better than OU from top to bottom. Every good team has that attitude, but only 1 can win it all. All thay rah rah crap looks rec league

8's I am sure there are many people that might argue that there were other teams in the WCWS with more talent than Alabama. We also all know many examples of "weaker" teams winning championships. I think it was pretty obvious from this three game series these two teams were pretty equal. To dismiss "finish it" or "will to win" as crap and rah-rah is simplistic. Rah-rah is something that a team might just say because they have to, not because they mean it. It seemed obvious Bama meant it.

To win at the top level- teams need three things:

1) Talent
2)Execution
3)Will(or desire)

Talent without execution or will does not win. many times lesser talent with excellent execution and will does. There are many great teams that never make it all the way.

Alabama was an excellent team(so was OK)