The next logical question is when do you work on your softball swing mechanics, if not in the batting cages? The answer is simple: whenever you can...wherever you are.

In his book, Golf My Way (New York: Simon & Schuster), Jack Nicklaus describes the process: I never hit a shot, not even in practice, without having a very sharp, in-focus picture of it in my head. First I "see" the ball where I want to finish...Then the scene changes quickly and I "see" the ball going there...Then there is sort of a fadeout, and the next scene shows me making the kind of swing that will turn the previous images into reality.

In The Mental Game of Baseball (South Bend, IN: Diamond Communications, Inc.), Reggie Jackson shares a similar approach: When I want to turn it on, I have a routine I go through...I imagine myself putting the "sweet spot" in the hitting area just as the ball is getting there. I see a line drive going to center field...When I visualize, I feel my approach and the contact...I "see it" the way I am going to see it.

What they are describing, of course, is mental rehearsal, or visualization, which applies not only to the moments immediately preceding game performance, but anytime you have a quiet moment. It is a powerful practice technique, particularly useful in those long winter months when the season shuts down because the weather is too cold, the fields frozen or wet.

Harvey Dorfman and Karl Kuehl, authors of The Mental Game of Baseball, have this to say: Visualization programs the nervous system, muscles, and fibers of the body. The clearer the image - the more detail - the greater the effect on the body. Imgination can trigger nerve and muscle response.

In essence, the mind cannot distinguish between practice that is "real" - i.e., physical - and practice that is not. the same muscle memory is created whether you take your cuts in the batting cages, or whether you take them in your mind. (Which of course does not eliminate the need for physical training. Although there have been studies that suggest the body can be reshaped and conditioned to some degree through mental techniques, strength, flexibility, agility, and endurance unquestionably require physical training for optimum results.)

As Dorfman and Kuehl point out, when visualizing your performance, it is important that the mental picture be as vivid and detailed as possible. Feel the dirt from the batter's box under your cleats, the breeze tossling your hair as it blows out to left; test the weight of the bat in your hands, the tack of the pine tar; smell the onions grilling in the concession stand behind the backstop. Whatever sensation that you associate with where you play ball, incorporate it into your fantasy. Then "see" yourself performing to the utmost of your ability. Work on the mechanics that you know are your weaknesses. If you have trouble keeping your head down, in practice see the ball flatten as it impacts with the bat. If you tend to uppercut, visualize a perfect, straight-line path for your swing plane. If your hips fly open, keep them closed. And if your mental image goes awry, keep seeing it until you are perfect, until your image of your swing is dead-on with what you know to be right. Blister line drives all around the park, split the gaps between the outfielders, drive the ball through the box like you do on your best days in BP...hit some bombs!

Then, and only then, will you be "programmed" to perform at your best.