MEET SONDI MUNOZ
Early in life I discovered my love for the game of softball. My journey began at age 10 which was late compared to my peers. As I began playing, I was in awe at how fast I was able to get the ball to move. I quickly realized I had a God given talent in my arm. At this early age, speed and consistency rarely go hand in hand. It wasn’t until I combined my talent with a specific technique that I was able to realize the true art of pitching.
I come from a family of baseball and softball players. I am born and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico and graduated from Eldorado High School. I received scholarships to Trinidad State Junior College and West Texas A & M and pitched at the collegiate level for 3 years before sustaining a career ending injury. I received my bachelors degree in exercise science and have developed a proprietary technique of pitching mechanics to support balanced kinetic arm movements. For the past decade, I have been privately coaching girls to effectively pitch, hit, catch and field as well as helping them sharpen their thinking skills while competing on the field.
Currently, I do my best to balance between mom life, wife, all things softball, and continuing to scale my business. I have two beautiful children and I’m married to the most supportive husband. Most likely just like you I want my children to find “that thing” or “that coach” who lights them up like a lightning bug. I strive to not only be a skill based softball coach but also a mentor. Young girls will go through several stages of growth and their softball journey can teach them life lessons.
Elite Softball Pitching
sondi@elitesoftballtraining.com
SONDI'S BLOG
I was Coachfished in College!
What does Coachfished mean? You know like Catfished from MTV? Someone pretends their someone they are not. Now I’m not saying I’m perfect as a coach and nor was I as a player, I’ll talk more about that next time. But I will show my true transparency through expectations, rules, boundaries, and limitations. (Did anyone here Caesar Mulan “The Dog Whisperer”? Haha 😂)
After playing 2 years at my Junior College, also known as JUCO, I was on the hunt for a 4 year school so I could further my education and also play at a higher level. That was my dream since I was 10 years old. I went to a tryout, impressed the coach with how hard I pitched only being 5’5. We had lunch with him and my dad, and we talked about my values and what I wanted to achieve in softball and and how I could contribute to the future team. To be honest, I fell more in love with the beautiful campus, mainly the amazing gym, along with the small class sizes, and cafeteria food 🍲 I know…. what?! But if you ate what I did the past 2 years you could see why.
I didn’t do my homework enough on this coach, I didn’t come watch him interact with his current players during a game, without him knowing I was there. I didn’t ask enough questions with the current players but they probably wouldn’t have told me the truth anyways. I knew he was gonna be tough but I sure didn’t know what I was getting into. This was my first experience with a narcissistic coach. Gas lighting his players, making jokes not knowing if he was actually joking. Ruled us by control and fear. Who the heck was this guy?! Definitely wasn’t the person I had lunch with. I became less and less confident about my abilities, I stopped worrying about how to beat my opponents and became much more concerned about what he was going to say to me. He was arrogant and had no way of connecting with us as players.
Don’t get me wrong I understand that job has to be tough, relying on young girls sport performances and wins that help determine future jobs. EXTREMELY STRESSFUL! See I can have empathy for what he must have been going through but guaranteed he didn’t bat an eye at giving two 💩 s about what I was going through during my injury. At what point can we care about our players well being, physically and mentally, and know you gotta roll with your next best. I was injured and there was no amount of him wanting me to come back faster that was gonna change that. I felt that pressure every day. I came down with chronic migraines EVERY DAY! Now that is the true definition of TOXIC ENVIRONMENT. Every part of me was wanting to jump out of my body and saying F*** it. I was miserable, lonely, defeated by pain and depression and completely lost. What did I do? That will be next on my story time but for now…
I will say there is an upside to this nightmare… I declared that when I was a coach I wouldn’t purposely do any of the things he did or say to me. I want to connect with my clients as PEOPLE. I want to know about their lives, families, how they think, and how I can help guide them.
TIPS FOR SOON TO BE COLLEGE ATHLETES!
*Go watch your coach at a game without them knowing
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Ask to spend more time with the current players
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Look to see how many girls have left the program in amount of time that coach has been employed
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Remembering that although its a huge commitment now its only a very short 4 years so make decisions based on growth and happiness