We all know everyone is very aware of vaccines right about now. As the world works to get out of the COVID-19 pandemic, many people are getting vaccinated and it appears that getting back to a more normal life is just around the corner.
We get vaccinated to prevent getting sick, we take medication to try to recover from the illness we already have. One prevents the problem while the other tries to fix the problem after it exists.
Well, all this talk about vaccines made me think about something that applies directly to hitting.
You knew I would get back to softball eventually, right?
When a hitter makes a mistake, they’re quick to think about what they did wrong and to try to fix it. They, and their coaches, have a laundry list of things that need to be adjusted or fixed before the next swing or at bat. They take the medicine for the mistake they just made. They are trying to correct the problem that just happened. Most hitters are very good at trying to correct the mistakes they make, but they lack the ability to take the next step.
When we make a mistake, we hope to learn from it. There is an old saying that goes something like, “Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” This is where the vaccination metaphor comes in.
A hitter who is “vaccinated” is already thinking about the mistakes they have made in the past and have been working hard to prevent them from happening again. Their goal is to never make the same mistake twice. They don’t want to get sick and then take medicine, they are working to insure that they never get sick in the first place.
To become a “vaccinated” hitter, a hitter will make many mistakes. What sets them apart is that they’re determined to remove the mistakes they’ve already made from the list of things that can go wrong in the future. If they never repeat a mistake, eventually the list of things that can go wrong gets pretty short.
Vaccinations don’t guarantee that you’ll never get sick, but they sure improve your odds.
