Ep. 180 - Lizzy Ristano: Swing fundamentals and how to build your competitiveness

Back when I was in high school I used to go to Notre Dame Softball camps every year…it was the premier softball university within 2 hours of my home and my dad was always set on making sure I was coached by the best. Lizzy Ristano was the hitting coach on staff at the time and she really knew how to throw an epic clinic…she LOVED practice, and every clinic I attended you could tell this was her passion — from teaching us some signature drills the Irish did, throwing us in front of tough machines and live pitching, getting what felt like MILLIONS of reps and even giving us a dog toy to lean how to have better barrel path — I always left their feeling refreshed and eager to take the work I just did into my own practice with dad at home…

Needless to say, Lizzy was a huge reason why I started LOVING the art of the swing and working to become as great as I could at it.

Fast forward to 2019 — an opportunity arrived where I got to coach with Lizzy at Notre Dame as their volunteer assistant. I felt like a fly on the wall oftentimes at practice and REALLY got to learn the philosophy behind Lizzy’s expertise with the foundations of the swing, with plate approach, game IQ, timing, visualization and more…it was a year I’ll never forget and I’m so excited for you to learn a bit of her incredible knowledge today on the pod:

After spending 17 years as an assistant and eventual associate head coach at the university of Notre Dame where she and the rest of the staff received three staff of the year honors…she now works for WeCOACH as the associate director of member outreach and engagement. Their mission is to support women in coaching of all sports, at all levels. They work to recruit, advance and retain women in coaching through professional growth and leadership development programming. 

Being a coach is a profession that requires no formalized education or certification and Lizzy is passionate about providing these opportunities so we can continue to represent a strong female presence amongst our growing ranks of badass female athletes! Learn more about WeCOACH here>>>

In this interview we discuss:

•  How a group of neighbor boys in Irvine California launched Lizzy into become a competitive gamer early on in her life
•  Why she believed playing soccer helped her become an overall better athlete
•  Why she has a deep love for PRACTICE and a bit of behind the scenes of what the Irish used to do each week in the cages
•  What the work load looked like in her collegiate athlete’s fall, winter, spring and off-season practices — and what coaches should be implementing in EVERY hitting practice
•  And we spend a large chunk of the interview talking HITTING from teaching fundamentals and foundations, how you can get hitters to own their swing a bit more, how to work on timing and tempo, the power of visualization and the importance of letting hitters have their own STYLE.
•  How she worked to continue to grow her knowledge of hitting 
•  And you already know we talk about a few signature drills that you’re going to want to add to your own hitting library!

Like I said…Lizzy has a superpower IQ of hitting and is an incredible mentor to me and I’m so dang excited you get to meet her this week! Now this is a bit of a longer interview, so feel free to tap in to the full interview during your walk, while doing the dishes, or driving to and from work or the ballfields — pause whenever you need to and make sure you stay til the end, cause some of this interviews BEST moments are a bit later!

Tune in to the show here>>>

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I hope you see the value of the FUNDAMENTALS and why we should be working on them DAILY — and hopefully you’re motivated to get your reps in today! Remember, small, consistent work is the key to becoming a great hitter. 

Lizzy's email if you want to discuss all things hitting or WeCOACH - [email protected] 

If you haven’t already, please subscribe to the show maybe even leave a review and share it with a friend so we can together make this one of the premier sports and coaching podcasts out there!

Stay awkward, stay humble and keep smiling :)