Maya’s Story: Finding Command Again
A single softball inning shifted how the game felt when the stakes were high.
The Situation
The individual pressure of standing alone on the mound can be overwhelming. No one knew this better than Maya. Maya was a standout Division I softball pitcher who had always been the best pitcher on her team since she started pitching at 9 years old. She dominated batters with her speed and movement, and her coaches often relied on her in high-stakes games.
But one night everything changed. Playing in a conference game, Maya couldn’t find the plate. She had experienced this before with a walked player here or a walked player there, but the problem persisted, and the inning spiraled. She couldn’t seem to find her release point on her throws anymore, and more than that, something felt off.
"It’s just a bad game," she told herself. "I'll be fine.”
Practice went well over the next few days, but when it was her time to take the mound, she immediately walked the first batter.
“I kept telling myself to just throw strikes,” she said. “But my body wasn’t listening. My hand felt shaky and my legs were tight. I could hear the crowd, the other dugout, everything. It’s like I forgot how to pitch."
The inning spiraled again, and she was taken out of the game without finishing the inning.
In practice, her mechanics looked sharp. But in subsequent games with performance pressure, when she stepped on the mound, her body betrayed her. She rushed her delivery, her grip would not feel "right," and she couldn’t command the ball. Nothing she tried helped.
The Breakdown
When we met, I asked Maya to recall the first time she felt that sense of fear on the mound. She immediately thought of that tournament.
“It was the second inning of that game,” she said. “I walked the first batter, then gave up a hit. I told myself, ‘Calm down, just get the next one.’ But when I threw the next pitch, it hit the backstop. I could see the frustration on my coach’s face. I felt embarrassed, like, I don’t even remember how to pitch. Since then, nothing feels right. The mound used to be home. Now I fear it.”
That experience had embedded itself deeply—not just in her memory, but in her body. The nervous system response from that game created a reaction that was activated each time she stood on the mound under pressure. Her body “remembered” the experience of failure, and her nervous system hijacked her ability to trust her motion and release the ball with confidence.
The Shift
Using a trauma-based approach to performance therapy, we returned to that moment—identifying the negative beliefs she had attached to the experience and began the work of reprocessing that experience. Through EMDR, with bilateral stimulation via a light bar, Maya’s brain was able to access memory and process it.
At first, the emotions were difficult for her to navigate. She felt the same humiliation and the same tension in her chest and hands. But session by session, her brain began creating new associations. The memory lost its power to trigger her nervous system, and her body no longer felt tense or uncertain at the thought of facing a batter. She felt calm when facing a batter for the first time in months.
As we continued our work, we installed new, empowering beliefs—ones that felt true in both her mind and body:
"I am capable. I can trust my training. I can stay calm under pressure."
We also prepared for future challenges, rehearsing how her nervous system could respond when adversity inevitably came in games.
The Result
By the end of our work together, Maya noticed a transformation.
“I feel like myself again,” she told me. “I can step onto the field and feel in control. I’m focused on the pitch, not the fear.”
Her confidence returned, her command improved, and her presence on the mound was steady once more. She wasn’t just pitching—she was leading, calm and in control.
Maya never forgot how to pitch, but she lost trust in the moment.
HOME throws BECAME UNCERTAIN
CONFIDENCE TURNED INTO anxiety
CONTROL SHIFTED TO SURVIVAL
When her nervous system settled, the noise did too.