This interaction was incredible.
So many things to dissect, analyze and breakdown but the biggest IMO is player’s response to being challenged by a demanding coach.
No hurt feelings.
Constant eye contact.
Direct and prompt response.
Get back to work.
FRESHMAN:
Deep breath.
It’s not supposed to be easy.
That senior who makes it look easy struggled just like you are.
It’s the bad days that make the good days become great ones.
Watched a young man play a DH today, he went off w/ multiple hits, outstanding plays in CF & flew around the park w/ plus energy all day.
But what did I notice most?
He was the only one left after the game picking up cups, bottles & trash in their dugout.
WE. SEE. EVERYTHING!
Iowa HS baseball season ends tonight (only state where HS sports have taken place since pandemic)
It wasn’t exactly smooth sailing with Covid but:
- 94% of teams were unaffected
- 96% finished season
- all infections reportedly mild
- fans were allowed all season
(📸
@iahsbb
)
RECRUITS:
After you get done playing today.....
Take a second to thank your parents for dedicating THEIR summer to YOU!
They don’t have to drive all over the country, spend $ on hotels, sit in unbearable heat and take days off work.
But they do. And they do it for you!
Coached a 6U kid tonight that had never played before…
His smile was ear to ear and never left his face!
After he gave me a high 5 standing on 1B he turned and said, “I don’t understand it, but I love it!”
Me too kid, me too!
Your AB should be selfish & selfless at the same time.
The first two strikes are yours.
The last strike, belongs to the team.
Do whatever you want with the first two strikes but when you get to the last one, you have to fight for the team to be the toughest hitter you can be!
I can’t tell you how frustrating it is as a coach to have to move on from a really good recruit because of the way that he conducts himself in the dugout or off the field.
But at the end of the day, I would rather lose with the ones I love than win with the ones I can’t stand!
HEAD COACHES:
Let’s make a deal.....let’s treat opposing assistant coaches the same as their head coach.
As an assistant, there is nothing worse than getting big leagued by an opposing head coach.
Especially one that you respect, look up to or potentially want to work for.
I still whole heartedly believe that college baseball should start in April and finish in July.
The benefits outweighs the negatives IMO and most importantly I think that you would see a “non revenue” sport become an “high revenue” sport in a short amount of time!
If you are a baseball fan......this week of college baseball has to be the greatest week of baseball all year!
D1 Conference Tournaments
D2 Regionals
D3 Regionals
NAIA World Series
Juco World Series
High School State Tournaments
LETS. GO!
Kicked 6 guys out of practice today because of unsatisfactory grade reports. We will never sacrifice what we do off the field for what we do on the field. Baseball is and will always be WHAT we do, but it will not define WHO we are.
#4inthe40
#TLC
.
@MLB
needs to encourage all of the clubs to give more insider looks at one on one coaching sessions like this. How much better did we all get in 3+ minutes? Imagine how much better we could all get with more access to some of the best teachers in the game!
When I recruit, I find myself trying to find players who come from really good high school programs.
It’s not a deal breaker but it sure is comforting knowing that they have been given a foundation to build on.
I will never lose sight of what a good high school coach does.
Private lesson coaches......I believe you owe it to your clients to go watch them play.
See if your work is translating.
If it isn’t, you have live reasons why.
If it is.....life is grand!
What do you have to lose?
The last thing my dad asked me was, “If he was a good dad?
My response:
“You concreted in our backyard and put a cage in, no other dad would have done that for a pitcher only!”
He was the absolute BEST!
If you have never ran a showcase tournament or dealt with tournament schedules that are plagued by weather......take a deep breath, relax and get a coffee.....because you have no idea what those tournament directors are going through. Hats off to all of you that have!
MLB players should start their own league and play at all the best college baseball stadiums around the country this summer.
In turn provide funding for increased scholarships and a paid 3rd coach.
Everyone wins.
(Except the owners of course)
Slow down
Take more pictures
Call someone tell them you love them
Give free hugs
Hold a door open
Write a thank you note
Ask a stranger how they are doing
Listen longer
Forgive
Forget
Mend broken relationships
Build new ones
Laugh more
Make lifelong memories
Slow down
Just remembered something the umpire said before the last game yesterday:
Ump: Your team plays w/ class, is respectful & seems like great group of young men. They get that from you.
Me: No sir, they get that from their parents. I just make sure they live up to those standards!
Let’s start a thread:
Coaches.......
What did you say to an umpire to get you thrown out of the game?
(I will start)
“I just need you to be better......”
HS dudes......not only do college coaches search your accounts.....your future teammates do too. Like it or not you start your reputation before you even step foot on campus.
This is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time....
It’s called GAP BP.
We push the shell all the way back to the backstop, extending the distance and shortening the fair area, expanding the foul area, making the middle of the field more important.
When interviewing for a job, it’s not the employers responsibility to hire you, it’s your responsibility to be hirable.
Same goes for playing time.
It’s not the coaches responsibility to play you, it’s your responsibility to be playable.
You’re being interviewed everyday.
I just watched a team only make one bad throw during their warm up catch play......
I have no idea if they are going to win or not but I do know that they care enough to make catch play important.
Tag the best small college/HS pitching coaches that you know!
I would like to connect with them as they are the ones who are getting it done w/o big budgets, pricey gadgets and fancy machines.
These are the unsung heroes in the
#Darkside
!
Stole this from Nate Yeskie at the
@ABCA1945
convention this winter. We use a weighted vest with our taller, more lanky pitchers who are trying to develop more core strength and stability through their delivery. Body awareness & feel increases when the vest is removed.
#Darkside
Coaches. If I can give you any advice. Any. Include your kids. Greatest thing ever. Even if they almost beat the umpire to the dish to make the call. Love it!
#PassionBaby
#13yearsindugoutwithdaboyz
#👊🏻
It’s exciting to me that our profession is moving away from the notion that you have to coach at a certain level to get jobs at that certain level.
We’re starting to understand that if you can coach, you can coach.
Period. End of story.
4 yrs of college student athletes lost a yr of eligibility, not just SR’s.
It’s going to be a long drawn out process to decide, correct & make right.
I’m going to chose to keep faith in the decision makers & believe that they will make the best decision for all those involved.
High School Players/Coaches:
There are
@NAIA
opening round tournament games playing right now....midweek....at all times of the day.
Go see what this level looks like. Compare yourself to what you see. I bet you’ll walk away w/ a different mindset.
Dude after dude after dude!
I’ve watched a lot of games over the past few weeks.....not one time did I look up, ask or even care about a players ranking.
Generally, as coaches, we could care less.
What we do care about.....
Playing hard.
Quality teammate.
Physical tools.
Game IQ.
Coachability.
I guess what hurts the most is that my players were informed via social media / email and not by me.
Wish I could have stood in front of them and told them myself.
Wish that they could have been together.
Wish they could have had broken it down one more time.
Sad day.
At some point you do this thing long enough that you simply become a baseball coach.
Not just a pitching guy, or a hitting guy, or a outfield guy, or an infield guy, or catching guy....
Just simply.......a baseball coach.
Head Coaches:
3 things we should never lose sight of.
1) How hard it is to be a freshman
2) How hard it is to be an assistant
3) How much we can help 1 & 2
We have 52 players on our roster.
We meet w/ each player individually, every 4 weeks.
We call these check in’s.
We started our 3rd (of 4) series of check in’s today.
They take up 3 full days of our time as a coaching staff.
They are completely worth every minute of our time!
Something I’ve been thinking about all day…
We stole 120/146 (82.2%) bases last spring.
Not bc we were exceptionally fast or unbelievably athletic.
I believe it was because we didn’t fear the 17.8%.
Take the fear out of the game and you free yourself up to do cool things!
PLAYERS:
Don’t for one second take for granted that you GET to put on your uniform.
You won’t remember every loss or every win, but you WILL remember what it felt like to get ready on game day!
These days will be gone before you know it, take a second to soak it all in!
COACHES…(YOUNG COACHES)
We, (I), got our tails kicked yesterday. I failed to prepare our team.
Over the years (this has taken time)
I’ve learned that less is more
Write more and talk less
Turn frustration into fruition
We’re coaching/teaching people
Use notes to replace words
After a full weekend of games this is how our dugouts looked!
@CoachSheets3
I believe we have turned the proverbial corner!
Big shoutout to all of the teams who played in our team camp this weekend.
PITCHERS:
Your thumb placement on the ball can manipulate the pitch more than you recognize/realize.
Small adjustments, could make a big difference.
Cut ~ Sink ~ Straight ~ Run
FRESHMAN:
Consider having this mindset when thinking about playing time this spring,
Quality over Quantity.
Turn one quality appearance/AB into two, turn that into 3, that into 4…etc
Earn the Quantity by producing Quality over and over again!
My pledge as a head coach (one of many)
I promise, with all my capabilities, that I will return every email that I get from coaches who are seeking positions on my staff within 48 hours!
I know how bad it sucked and how discouraged I felt when I got the “no response” response.
My wife will make me a cup of coffee before she leaves for work,
ONLY IF........
I put my coffee cup next to the coffee maker.
Point being, people will do amazing things for you but you have to be willing to put yourself in a position for them to help you.
No cup, no coffee.
If you are going into the coaching profession, you have to be willing to give up 24 hours of your day, 7 days of your week for everyone in your program.
Doesn’t mean you will be required to do so, but you have to be willing to do so.
Haven’t talked a lot about it to many outside my family & my team, but my sister had a significant mass removed this week.
Cancer hasn’t been kind to my family & it’s been a huge stress for the past month or so.
Got the results back…
Everything came back benign!
God is good!
I’ve contemplated on whether or not to post this, but here we go....
My wife is a pediatric nurse, she sent me this pic today.
The health professionals need our help, they need us to follow the guidelines issued!
You may not see it personally, but they live it professionally!
STUDENT ATHLETES:
You are a walking billboard that represents your school, program, coaches, teammates and alumni.
Shoulder the weight of that responsibility appropriately!
I’m excited for all of the high school kids who didn’t get an opportunity to play last spring, to do so this spring.
They don’t get redoes on their high school seasons.....
Some perspective on what keeps coaches up at night...
Woke up at 3am & couldn’t go back to sleep because I couldn’t stop thinking about how we are going to feed our guys over spring break next week...
Most of the things that keep us up have very little to do w/ the game itself.
Id love one year for the
@ABCA1945
convention to have someone present, either on the main stage or a breakout session, on unique ways to fundraise.
And I don’t mean using gofundme or big company fundraisers.
Really want to find some new ideas or avenues that coaches/admins use.
Had a scout, someone who I have respected for a long time, tell me something that has really hit home:
“It’s not, what you know.
It’s not, who you know.
It’s, who knows you?”
Everyone knows something…
Everyone knows someone…
But how many people really know you?
They’re learning what falling in love w/ a game feels like.
They’re learning what falling out of love w/ a game feels like.
They’re learning why we love the game so much.
I’ve relearned my why…..
Thank you boys!
It’s hard to come up w/ the words to properly describe what this lineup card means to me.
I’ll just simply say thank you. Thank you to everyone that has ever done anything for me to be in this position.
There are so many of you.....I share this w/ all of you my friends!
#TLC
To honor our late friend
@dcronk17
, myself and
@CoachEspo8
are going to switch our jersey number to 12 this spring.
If you knew DC and feel compelled to join us in honoring him, we would love to have you!
#HonorDC12
Here is the truth about small college prospect camps:
(add where you see fit)
1) It’s essential for recruiting
2) It’s used to showcase facilities
3) It’s a chance to build interest
4) It’s helps in fundraising
5) It’s typically smaller in attendance
6) It’s more personal
One of the most challenging jobs that a college coach is faced with today, is to convince their athletes that patience combined with work ethic will pay off, without being able to provide them a due date on their expected return on investment.
Skim through
@MLBDraftTracker
& look @ all the colleges that young men are being drafted from:
1/4 of them you can’t pronounce correctly
1/4 of them you can’t locate on a map
1/4 of them you can’t say what level they are
1/4 of them you can’t play at
THEY. WILL. FIND. YOU.
I appreciate the NCAA working to grant another year of eligibility to the seniors.
Let me throw out there for the seniors who will graduate this spring:
They only have to be enrolled part time in both fall/spring next year. Eliminating a fraction of fees & cost of attendance.
Pitchers:
Stand on the mound with the type of swagger that screams, “There is no way ANYONE can touch me!”
PSA:
It’s hard to hit someone that’s holds a mound presence like that.
#Darkside
Had a lot of
@RavenBaseball
parents turn their sons over to us today.
It’s a massive responsibility that I don’t take lightly.
Some day, I will do the same for both of my boys.
For the next 4 years, we will do everything in our power to prepare these young men for the next 40!