Latest / From the Coach's Mouth / Episde 42: Rick Pauly Rides Again!

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Episde 42: Rick Pauly Rides Again! · From the Coach's Mouth

0:00
And if you're not right here at the very top of the food chain,
0:04
you're probably not going to have a real stud pitcher, so you
0:09
better find yourself 3 or 4 pretty darn good ones that
0:13
complement each other. Whether you live northeast, West
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or South, the best fast kitchen phone comes from the coach's
0:22
mouth. Welcome to the From the Coach's
0:38
Mouth podcast with your host Jay Bolden and Ken Krause.
0:58
Hey, we're back, everybody. We're glad to be back here at
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the From the Coach's Mouth Podcast.
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This is our first time after the holidays, so we're really
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delighted to be here. This is Ken, and of course, I'm
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here with Jay. Jay, how you doing?
1:14
Doing good Ken, happy 2026 to you.
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Absolutely looking forward to this new year.
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How about yourself? Did you have a great holiday?
1:21
Yeah, I did. Other than I got, well, let's
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put it this way. My wife's family and the adults
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on that side and we normally don't exchange gifts, but this
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year my sister-in-law decided to get me the flu for Christmas.
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So. It's the gift that keeps on
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giving the whole year through. Yeah, yeah.
1:41
Well, it's been given so. Yeah.
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So I was pretty wiped out starting Christmas Eve, you
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know, late at night, Christmas Eve, then Christmas Day, the day
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after day after that. I, I actually ended up canceling
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lessons on Friday and Sunday just because I just couldn't
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make it. Finally got back and did some
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lessons yesterday. So, you know, it's it's, you
2:03
know, getting better again. Yeah, so right after the
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holiday, you know how we had all that wonderful rain and then
2:08
turned into like freezing cold? Yeah.
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Yeah. Well, Santa brought me a late
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gift and then my sump pump went out down in the basement.
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So. Oh no, Yeah, that was a that was
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a fun day after that, but luckily we have my daughter
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caught it early. We went down there, got the sump
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pump changed out, started cleaning up real good.
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We caught it in the just the probably about the right time
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deal. And we had water down there was
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splashing around, but you know, yeah, so that's been that was,
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that was a little bit of my, my holiday vacation.
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But we, we plowed through it as a family, had the girls down
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there shot back in the water up and stuff like that.
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So the family, the the girls and the wife, we all busted it out.
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My dad helped out and we got it all cleaned up and good to go
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so. That's good.
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That's great that you were able to get the family out there,
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especially, you know, right there after the holidays, so.
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Yep. So we got it all cleaned up and
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things are things are back to normal.
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So it but definitely excited for this 2026 year man, how about
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you? Yeah, I am.
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You know, I saw a statistic, I just, you heard it on the radio
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or and then I, I checked it out. Did you know that according to
3:16
Riverside, which is the the platform we use, only 8% of
3:20
podcasts make it past episode 10?
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Really. I did not know that.
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Yeah. We are on episode 42 here.
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Full year. Full year of episodes.
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You believe that? Who knew?
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Who knew that people would want to talk to us?
3:33
To goofy dudes. I yeah, I'm always surprised,
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you know? I'm telling you, Ken, if we
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would have made this video, nobody would have absolutely
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listened to it and watched it. Yes, that's for those of you who
3:48
aren't aware. That's a little bit of a shot
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that's going to lead into our guest today because he keeps
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thinking that people want to see our ugly mugs because he likes
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to, he likes to watch the podcasts, whereas Jay and I are
4:02
more. I'll do listen when I'm driving
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around. So anyway, today's guest has
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been on the podcast before. In fact, he was our very first
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guest and the episode with him is still the most listened to
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episode a year later. That just goes to show how many
4:17
people value not only his ideas and input, but also his friendly
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and easygoing manner. Beyond that, our guest is not
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only a mentor to Jay and I, but also a friend.
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When we were thinking about who to bring on to kick off the new
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year, there was really only one choice.
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He is to us what actor Bruce Campbell is to director Sam
4:38
Raimi, A total good luck charm that assures success going
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forward. He has coached at every level
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from travel ball to high school to junior college to Division
4:48
One college and is still a highly sought after consultant
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for college teams. In addition to his direct
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coaching work with students, he has also established the premier
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pitching coach certification program in the world.
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Let's not keep him waiting any longer.
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Of course, ladies and gentlemen, we are referring to the amazing
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Rick Pauley. Rick, how you doing?
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Well, I am great. I'm not sure I can live up to
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that introduction though. Yeah.
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But you know me, I always like a good joke, you know, and, and I
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know you guys can take a little humor, right?
5:22
Start off the new year. So you guys were making a
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comment about whether you know, we get the video and see our
5:29
faces or not. And I'm, I'm actually looking at
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you 2 guys and you know what you guys, your faces are made for
5:36
radio. They are.
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Told you, told you that. Anyhow, sorry about that.
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That's my first jab of the year. Sorry.
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That's all right. Well, it was well worth it.
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Yeah, Yeah, we agreed now. So it's Rick.
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It's great to have you back again.
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We're excited. It's been a year since we
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started doing the podcast, so you know, we'll be interested to
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see what's happened with you in the last year and share some of
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the new things you've been thinking about and and
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discovering and some of where you're going with your career
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and all of those things that we think are going to be interested
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in. Yeah, well, you know what?
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Looking back on your 42 podcasts, you have had some
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really interesting people on there, really enlightened, I
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think a lot of people, your audience, you know, you just had
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one of from an old friend of mine, Roman four, who I mean
6:30
unbelievable person and coach. You know, when you get people
6:35
like that on, people instantly recognize how invested in the
6:40
softball world they are and how good they are.
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So keep it up. Do another 42 this next year,
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OK? All right, we'll shoot for that.
6:49
So before we get into it, how were your holidays?
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Were you able to take some time off?
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Spend time with family? Actually, I did.
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I took three days off. Wow.
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Yeah. It was like a small minor
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miracle Christmas miracle. Sarah came into town, Sarah flew
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in, and so we enjoyed Christmas with her.
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It's kind of funny because Poly Girl Fast Pitch financed her
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flight in so. So to keep things legal, I made
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sure she had to do at least one or two lessons.
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So I've I've got a couple little bitty girls.
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I say they're a little bitty. They're up 12 or 13 now, but
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every year they get a Christmas lesson with Sarah when she comes
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back, so. That's great.
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It's enjoyable. I mean, that's something to look
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forward to is a little. I mean, any, anybody who gets a
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chance to get a lesson with Sarah would be, I mean, it's
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absolutely worth it, so. Yeah, I enjoy just sitting back
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and listening and watching. When she does the lesson, I try
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not to interject. You know what?
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You for me is hard. OK.
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But I guess I I just. I'm amazed what a good
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instructor she is. You know, I just.
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She had a good role model follow.
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You know, she and she's so good with the kids.
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Oh my goodness. The kids just, you know, first,
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you know, you say they look up to her while they do because you
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know, she's 6 foot 3 or 4 or whatever.
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But I imagine most of the littles, they look like an elf
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on the shelf compared to her. They do.
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They do when when we do the the closing, you know they want to
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do a photo op with Sarah, sometimes even with me.
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But Sarah will be on this side, I'm on this side and the kids in
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the middle. We put the kid on top of one of
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our plyometric boxes. So her.
8:29
Hands up near us. That's awesome.
8:33
That's awesome. What you guys should do is do
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one of those pictures just as a joke where the two of you're
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saying side by side and you just have the very top of the kids
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head in there. So here's your picture with with
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Rick and Sarah. Lots, lots of potential here.
8:50
Awesome. Yeah.
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So, Rick, I want to, I want to get into some of the questions.
8:55
I think a lot of people know that you had a chance to speak
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at the NFCA convention. But, you know, putting modesty
9:00
aside, how do you think, how do you feel it went?
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And did you feel the audience was receptive to the information
9:06
that you were you were putting out there?
9:08
Yeah, well, you know, it's an honor to speak at the convention
9:11
nurse. They had the largest attendance
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they've ever had. This year is over 2000 people.
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While my presentation was going on, there were two others at the
9:19
same time. So the crowd gets split between
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whatever, you know, their interest happens to be.
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But you know, when I'm looking out into the crowd and we're in
9:27
the big presentation room, I think there's probably 8 or 900
9:31
people out there. I felt I felt good about, you
9:35
know, my part of the presentation.
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I think it was well received. And I say that because when the
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presentation was done and it was all over, you know, you try to
9:45
walk off the stage. Well before I got off the stage,
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I had like 5 or 6 people lined up just, you know, asking
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questions and things like that. One thing that I would say, and
9:55
I've heard this criticism or critique of lots of the
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presentations at the NFC convention, is that the speakers
10:03
don't get very deep into what they're trying to tell you.
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And sometimes I think that's by design.
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Me, I would prefer to get in deeper, but the time is really
10:13
restricted. We had, we had 55 minutes total.
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We have a moderator, you know, Morgan Rd.
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Smith, the pitching coach at Tennessee was a moderator and
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then it was Asaya Rivera and myself.
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So and we have like 6 prepared questions that I get to speak on
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it and then Isaiah does and then Isaiah speaks and then I do, you
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know, but when you split that up, there's just not a lot of
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time to get in too deep on any particular subject.
10:43
OK. But overall, I think it was
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great. It was a great experience.
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I hope I can do some more, maybe some of those regional NFCA
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classes that they do where maybe there's more time to get in
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deeper and maybe get into things that are more technical, some of
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the things that scare the bejesus out of a lot of coaches.
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So we may talk about those later.
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But yeah, overall pretty good. Yeah, good convention.
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So I always, I, I, if I, I don't want to forget to do this.
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Give a shout out Carol Bruggeman, you know, the head of
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NFCA president, great job putting that together.
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Huge, huge job. And Joanna Lane, who's the
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director of education for NFCA, man, those two work their butts
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off. They do a great job.
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I, I, I tell you during that convention, it's, it's got to
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feel like they're herding cats all day long, you know, so.
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Yeah. And we're we're proud to say,
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we're proud to say that they were both guests on the From the
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Coach's Mouth podcast. Yeah, definitely.
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Good, good people. Yep, Yeah, I think I'd love to
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see you, Rick. You know, I've been to Ken and
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Ken and I have been to a lot of those NFCA coaches clinics,
11:54
right. And you go there and I think
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probably the most in depth person I saw about pitching and
12:00
I saw, you know, Mike White spoke was Rachel Lawson from
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Kentucky really talking about, you know, foot strike and
12:08
deceleration and what she I still use a term that she even
12:12
talked about. I was like, you have to train
12:14
your decelerators, right? Like you have to train
12:17
deceleration. And I think that was probably
12:19
the most in depth I've ever seen somebody get with pitching at
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some of those things. I would love for you to be up
12:26
there because I feel like you would just kind of you would dig
12:28
into some of those things the about deceleration and about
12:32
peak arm speed and and shoulder hip separation with 40 emotion.
12:36
Like I feel those things are absolutely valuable that for
12:40
people when I'm when I was there going for the pitching thing,
12:43
some of those I left, I was like, OK, yeah, like everybody
12:46
knows those things. Let's get in more depth it.
12:48
So I think I'd love to see you at one of those like either
12:51
Chicago convention or the Louisville one or someone out,
12:54
you know, out there by you. I think you'd be great for that.
12:56
So hopefully I'm going to see as you do that.
12:58
Yeah, I would love to do that. And and I've got a couple things
13:01
in mind that I'm going to actually throw at the Joanne and
13:04
see if, you know, if she bites off on them.
13:07
But you mentioned Rachel Lawson, one of my favorite coaches, and
13:10
her and I talk, you know, relatively often and a big
13:16
treat. We talked pitching and it's it's
13:17
fun. So what was the basic topic of
13:20
your the panel that you were on? OK, Well the the premise was
13:26
what are your tools or techniques that you use to make
13:31
pitchers efficient or effective or turn out, you know, a stable
13:36
of of really high level pitchers.
13:38
And I will tell you what what I used and I had a few slides up
13:41
there and my first slide was basically, you know, a toolbox.
13:45
And to me that's is my approach. I think, you know, we all, all
13:50
of us people from our PCC group probably feel that way also.
13:53
But, and I would say this, the first thing I talked about in my
13:57
toolbox was our PCC group. Really.
14:02
Yeah. And I talked about it and and of
14:04
course, I had a small gathering of PCC people sitting down here
14:07
in front, you know, and holding up the applause sign and that
14:10
kind of stuff. How?
14:12
Much you pay him to do that, Rick, Yeah.
14:14
A lot. Starbucks, yeah.
14:18
You know, it was, I guess interesting.
14:20
I talked about, you know, if I hit the biggies course motor
14:25
preferences. I talked about Ford Emotion a
14:27
lot. I talked about how I use the
14:30
pitch logic ball for all the spin metrics.
14:33
I mentioned, you know, can you're familiar with this, the
14:37
corrective exercise specialist program from National Academy of
14:41
Sports Medicine. And I just, and I did mention,
14:44
you know, I said take a look at me folks.
14:45
I'm a little bit old. I do have a few years of
14:47
experience and I have a either in my head or actually on paper,
14:52
one heck of a databank of, of numbers and metrics because,
14:56
yeah, I'm a data metric kind of geek.
14:59
That, that was kind of my side of it.
15:01
I, I felt again, I felt good about it.
15:04
I actually had one young gentleman come up after the
15:07
presentation and he said, how do you go about forming one of
15:11
those PCC groups? And, you know, I, I kind of gave
15:16
them the formula. Somebody has to take the bull by
15:18
the horn and run with it, you know, and you know and organize
15:23
it and like you guys have that longevity of 42, you know,
15:27
sessions is this year already episodes.
15:30
You got to make it routine, you got to make it regular, and you
15:33
have to have people in there that want to not just listen but
15:36
also contribute. Yeah.
15:38
You know, I want to talk to you about something real quick here,
15:40
Rick, since we're talking about, you know, the ability to share
15:43
ideas and things amongst each other.
15:46
Why do you think it is that college coaches don't want to
15:50
share or communicate with pitching coaches?
15:54
Right? Like I feel like I've had a lot
15:55
of, I'm not saying all of them don't, but in my experiences
16:00
this year, I've had more communication with college
16:03
pitching coaches when we're talking about working with their
16:07
kids. And I have prior, right?
16:08
Like I feel like sometimes they don't want to share.
16:11
Like I want to know what you're working on with, with kids that
16:14
I've had that are going to your school so that I can help this
16:18
kid be better. And I think that's the goals
16:19
that we're all trying to help these kids, but when we're not
16:22
communicating with things right, like, hey, I'm going to teach
16:25
her to try her drop this way or instead of that way.
16:28
Why do you think that there's that lack of communication
16:31
between college coaches and and pitching coaches?
16:34
Oh, I'm going to use one word. There's an awful lot of ego
16:38
involved, OK, You know, And it could be on both parts.
16:42
You know, I probably have a little bit of that going on
16:44
myself. OK.
16:45
We all think we're right, OK. And we probably all think
16:49
there's, I'd hope I don't anymore, but like, my way is the
16:53
right way. It is my way or the highway.
16:57
So when you engage in a conversation with those people,
17:01
sometimes it gets a little bit difficult.
17:03
And you have to maybe be the biggest practitioner of
17:06
wordsmithing in a world to not ruffle too many feathers, you
17:10
know, And you don't want to ruffle the feathers of a coach
17:13
that might be coaching one of your kids, OK, or might be a
17:17
future prospect for one of your kids to go to their school.
17:20
I, I, I don't know. I, I don't, I, I feel the same
17:23
thing that you're suggesting there, Jay.
17:26
There's not enough sharing of information, I think from the
17:29
college coaches this direction on pitching on the in depth
17:34
stuff like what you said, Rachel Lawson and talked about, you
17:38
know what, what is I mean? What do you mean?
17:40
Deceleration is how you throw fast.
17:42
That sounds stupid. Well.
17:44
It's not stupid, it's smart. OK, I, you know, this last fall
17:48
I did quite a few college assessments.
17:51
I went out to different colleges and did assessments on their
17:54
pitchers and that was really interesting.
17:58
You know, I think just by doing that, I upped my game.
18:01
I got to work with all high level pitchers.
18:04
When you're out there and you know, what you find out is not
18:07
every high level pitcher moves exactly within your little, you
18:13
know, range of metrics, efficient metrics.
18:15
OK, there are some some outliers there that will just make your
18:19
head scratch and it makes you think and dig deeper and
18:22
question what is it that you think makes a kid pitch fast or
18:28
have good location or speed spin spot the whole thing?
18:31
So let's talk about the state of fast pitch pitching in general.
18:35
Do you think it's getting better in terms of understanding what
18:38
makes for efficient and effective mechanics and
18:42
performance and certainly, you know, for safety and and health
18:46
for the kids? Or is there still a lot of
18:49
resistance to new information? Oh man, I'm sitting here and
18:53
breathing deep because I I spent time, I think I sent you guys
18:56
each one today. I hit Instagram today and I when
19:00
I did it, you know, I'm saying don't do it.
19:02
Don't do it, Paulie. But there is a plethora of just
19:08
pitiful, terrible, inefficient stuff that I see on Instagram.
19:15
It is just unbelievable. What really concerns me is it's
19:18
young instructors putting this out.
19:22
Well, those people are going to be around for a long time and
19:26
they're they just can't have possibly done their homework.
19:32
They can't ever have looked at high speed video of how what an
19:35
elite level pitcher really moves.
19:38
OK, They they haven't been around high level.
19:41
Here are drills that reinforce the movements that a teacher
19:45
should do. I have a really a big concern
19:51
about that. I know, you know, we could pick
19:53
on the other side of that equation.
19:55
There's still quite a few old school and probably a little
20:00
older in age. There are still well, this is
20:03
the way we did it back in the day.
20:05
I'm hoping we can get by that. I, I will tell you one quick
20:10
side note here after my presentation, I was down working
20:13
the 40 motion booth and a lady comes up and she says, hey,
20:17
Rick, could I ask you some questions about your
20:19
presentation? I was in it.
20:20
It was really good. By the way, I had to put that in
20:23
there, didn't I? More Starbucks.
20:28
OK, yeah, now I'm going to tell you what I'm not going to tell
20:31
you the name, but this is a high level veteran in the Hall of
20:37
Fame coach and she says, Rick, you know what, these metric
20:42
things really scare me. These things like your your 40
20:46
motion or your pitch logic mix, they're really scare me.
20:49
I've always been kind of, you know, I I kind of go by feel and
20:52
what I see and I just think I'm really missing things here.
20:56
And so I was trying to be as good as I could be and shorter
20:59
here's, you know, yes, this can be scary.
21:02
All this technology can be scary.
21:04
All these metrics and graphs can scare the bejesus out of you.
21:08
But you can kind of stick your toe in the water and work your
21:11
way into it and start removing some of those barriers of fear.
21:16
And, and I highly would encourage you to to do that.
21:20
And I offered, I says, you know what, anytime you want to jump
21:24
on a Zoom session, I'll step you through the basics of what is
21:28
all this motion sensing stuff for.
21:30
You know, what does all this stuff mean when you get a a
21:32
reading on a pitch logic ball, and I do that for you would
21:36
think it would be a lot of old mom and dad that don't know
21:38
anything about pitching. I do it for a lot of college
21:42
coaches and I'm happy to do it, Yeah.
21:46
Yeah, You know, it's funny with that too, because like the pitch
21:50
logic ball, getting those numbers there, you know, as I've
21:54
been using it with the kids and you know, at first they're a
21:57
little surprised to find out, oh, Gee, my spin isn't what I
22:00
thought it was. Pitch has been effective for
22:02
them, but it's not as good as it could be.
22:05
But once they see it and they work with a little bit and
22:08
they'll be like, OK, you know, and I'll be calling out the
22:10
numbers for them and you know, they work on it.
22:13
They actually get better because that feedback helps them to
22:17
understand something that just saying lift your wrist a little
22:21
bit more for your for your curveball.
22:24
It doesn't necessarily translate to them.
22:27
But when they see what the spin is like and say that's because
22:29
your hand is like this and if you put it this way, that'll
22:33
change that spin axis on here or you know, we need to do a little
22:36
bit more of this. We need to get it going that
22:38
way. When they see that it it has
22:41
really been helping them. And I think that that's the
22:43
thing for coaches. They can't be afraid to find out
22:46
that things aren't what they thought they were.
22:48
One of the things that was the ending of my presentation at NRC
22:51
was a question, you know, what if you if you could just throw
22:57
one thing out to the crowd that would make a difference in how
23:00
they would instruct? OK, my reaction or my response
23:05
was help your pitcher become her own coach.
23:10
OK, You know, I do a lot of things I call self correction,
23:13
you know, and what you just described can I just was doing
23:16
it last night of my lessons with pitch logic.
23:18
The girl would throw a pitch, you know, and we were let's say
23:21
we're working on a rise ball and it turned out wasn't metrics
23:25
weren't so good. And I said, come on back here,
23:26
let's look at this. And I'll point like like at the
23:29
efficiency number. And I'll say, OK, you tell me
23:33
what caused that efficiency to be low and what's your
23:36
correction? And if I've had a kid for any,
23:40
any period of the time, they can wrap it off right now.
23:44
And now this will ruffle some feathers when I say this.
23:49
When my kids go off to college, I want them to be better
23:53
pitching instructors then the pitching coach they're
23:57
inheriting at the college. And I, I believe that many of my
24:02
kids are on par, above par just based on some of the feedback I
24:08
get when my kids come back at Christmas time, like they all
24:11
are right now. Yeah, I'm pleased when I hear
24:15
some really good stuff coming, you know, feedback from college
24:18
coaches. But I'm kind of shocked by
24:20
something. So that's part of the of the
24:23
ego. And, you know, some of us know
24:26
everything, right? But yeah, interesting.
24:31
Make make a kid be her own coach.
24:33
When when I do that kind of stuff, I look at her said, hey,
24:36
am I going to be able to stand right here in the middle of the
24:38
game and tell you this stuff? You better figure it out.
24:41
You better look at read what the ball is telling you.
24:45
The ball will tell you a big story.
24:47
And then you look at the metrics and now you understand the
24:49
story. You know, I, I say that I think
24:53
I just yesterday, the ball's going to give you feedback every
24:56
time it comes out of your hand, whether you have a pitch logic
25:00
ball on it or not. I mean, I love pitch logic as
25:02
well too, but the ball's going to tell you things even
25:05
mechanically about what you're doing every time you throw it.
25:08
So paying attention to what your ball is doing, how it's moving.
25:12
I had a kid come back, college kid Rick, and once the wants to
25:17
change her drop action into that, turn the hand over, bring
25:21
the shoulder forward, get on the front leg and the ball's just
25:24
moving straight downward on an angle.
25:26
There's no breaking that ball. And so I'm trying I'm trying to
25:29
to to to work her through that and say, let's let's take some
25:33
video here and actually see what your hand is doing so that you
25:37
can go back and have a conversation with your coach
25:39
because you're it's not doing that.
25:41
And then those mechanics are going to bleed into to
25:43
everything else. And I'm trying to show her like,
25:46
sure, your ball is moving down on an angle, but there is no
25:49
break in that ball. And so every time you throw this
25:51
ball, we need to see where the break is happening on this
25:54
pitch, you know? And now she's like, oh, oh, I
25:57
get it. So I'm like, every time you
25:59
throw a ball, you're going to get feedback.
26:01
Was there a break on that ball or did you just throw a downward
26:04
on an angle? Right.
26:05
And I think a lot of what you're saying is I want them to be able
26:09
to self correct. It's my biggest thing for them
26:12
because I don't want your dad yelling from the outfield,
26:15
right, Or behind home plate. And I, I want you to be able to
26:18
say, OK, that's off. And I felt that.
26:20
So a lot of is what did you feel on that?
26:22
What did you see the ball do? Right?
26:23
Those are important things that you're talking about.
26:25
I think that's you have to do that in lessons.
26:28
And, and I think we want all of our kids to be the, to, to not
26:31
only be self correct, but also self advocacy.
26:35
I, I told my kid, you need to have a conversation with your
26:38
pitching coach about this, right?
26:40
And you need to do it in a way that in a manner that is that
26:43
you can get her to buy in with you as well too.
26:46
So we'll see what happens. And like I said, I'm, I'm hoping
26:49
that I get a, a phone call from that pitching coach that we can
26:51
walk through that together for this kid, you know, and, and so,
26:54
yeah, what you said is, is absolute gold.
26:56
I do want to, I do want to ask you a question too, though on
26:59
with that. You can come back on that if you
27:01
want, but what are some things this year that you've you've
27:05
learned that's new that you've kind of implemented into your
27:09
coaching or coaching style? Well, I will say it's probably
27:14
within the last year and and I'm in my infancy in this.
27:18
I'm trying to get into what's called pulsing.
27:22
OK. You know, Doctor Stewart McGill,
27:24
I think he's he's kind of he's not the inventor of it, but he's
27:28
a big promoter of it. And when it's kind of like what
27:30
what McGill says, I believe, you know, he's the top spine
27:35
specialist in the world of sports and he's probably the top
27:40
guy on how do you support a spine?
27:42
And of course, that's with your core.
27:43
And he's big into this this pulsing thing.
27:46
And then he uses like, you know, Bruce Lee, the famous martial
27:49
artist and the Bruce Lee one inch punch.
27:52
And that's all about pulsing. And I've had some really, you
27:57
know, successes implementing that with kids, both on the
28:00
speed side, but maybe as much on the the stability, which gives
28:05
you location accuracy when you get things to pulse.
28:09
And I'm, I've said this for about 3 months now.
28:12
I'm on the verge of putting out another course on pulsing.
28:16
Yeah. And I wanted, I want to really
28:21
do this one right. I want to kind of do McGill
28:22
service. I'm not that I really owe him
28:25
anything, but because I bought a lot of his product already, he's
28:29
he's deep into my my wallet already, but.
28:31
He he owes you now. Yeah, he owes me.
28:34
Yeah. But I, I think it's, it's
28:36
really, it's important. You know, Jay, you mentioned the
28:40
Lawson and the deceleration, you know, well, pulsing is a is a
28:44
big thing on stabilizing the body.
28:47
It's a big thing on decelerating the body, whether it's hip,
28:50
shoulders, upper arm, lower arm, you know, stride leg, whatever.
28:54
So that's it's high on my list. I think I'm really in the
29:00
infancy on that thing now. I think I got deeper stuff.
29:03
How do you tie pulsing into the nervous system is what's
29:08
controlling it? How do you train pulsing or
29:10
train the nervous system to react fast?
29:13
And breathing is tied into it pretty deeply also.
29:18
Yeah, there it is in a nutshell that I mean, I probably got, I
29:21
got 8,000,000 things. We all know our good buddy Linda
29:24
Lynch, right? Anytime I get an e-mail and it's
29:31
coming from Linda and saying, oh, God, no, she's got something
29:33
more for me to research. She is a research genius.
29:40
OK, so Linda's keeping me busy and the and the PCC group, I
29:45
mean, we are throwing out new stuff in there every every week.
29:49
That's just, it's awesome. Yeah.
29:51
There's not. I'm not going to live long
29:53
enough to get a chance to dig deep into everything.
29:56
I know it. Yeah, I know.
29:58
That's how I feel. You know, it's funny because you
30:00
mentioned Doctor McGill and I just had one of my college
30:04
pitchers in last night and she was talking about, we started
30:07
talking about something and I was talking about doing squats
30:09
with her. And she says, yeah, I don't work
30:11
my legs much. You know, my back, you know, it
30:14
gives me some issues and all that.
30:15
And I said, let me send you the McGill big three.
30:18
Just give her some, some core exercises to use.
30:22
I've got them saved off in a little YouTube thing and, and
30:25
said, you know, try doing these exercises and see how you feel,
30:29
you know, and that was something you would turn me on to.
30:31
It's amazing how much is out there that can be helpful if you
30:34
just can come across it. It is.
30:37
I do a fair amount of virtual programs.
30:42
Somebody will send videos of them pitching and doing some
30:45
physical exercises or a physical assessment movements and stuff.
30:48
When we analyze it, putting together corrective programs and
30:52
the program can be a combination of pitching, corrective drills
30:57
and corrective exercise drills or programs.
31:01
And so I'm, I'm getting deeper into that.
31:03
Also, I spent Sunday evening 3 hours, I had one of my young
31:10
students come over with her mom and dad because the mom is a
31:14
personal trainer, OK, and this kid is fit OK.
31:18
And we did nothing but video her doing exercises like the McGill
31:24
big three kind of stuff. So I've got I've got a whole
31:27
iPad full of videos. I got AI, got to edit and get
31:30
ready to be able to put into my strength and conditioning
31:34
programs. We know that one thing that
31:36
you've explored more depth than in motor preferences.
31:40
Do you feel that they've had an impact on your teaching, and if
31:43
so, why? Well the answer is yes, and
31:48
motor preferences can buy a lot of Starbucks on what I've, you
31:52
know, spent on them also. Me too.
31:55
I, I think it's had a pretty big impact on me.
31:58
I know it has, you know, I, I could tie in with that.
32:01
You know, we're we're kind of getting into the action types,
32:04
which is motor preferences also. I use it a lot.
32:09
Any brand new student that comes in, I'm first and foremost, the
32:13
first thing I do is a motor preference assessment.
32:16
OK. And then the second thing I'm
32:17
going to do is a 40 motion assessment.
32:20
I try to tie a motor preference assessment into what I see on
32:25
the 40 motion assessment along with the, you know, a pitch
32:29
logic assessment. And that's that's my toolbox.
32:31
I'm going to start right there and that's how I'm going to try
32:34
to instruct this young lady and how she prefers to move.
32:39
And I think we all know the, the 1st place we always use the
32:42
motor preferences is in the drive mechanics.
32:44
What's, what's the preferred way for this kid to drive that
32:47
theoretically is, you know, using the muscle chains that fit
32:50
her aerial or terrestrial profile or whatever.
32:54
But the second part I think is landing on a stride leg lands,
33:00
you know, there's some technique there that would vary depending
33:03
on aerial, terrestrial flexion leg, extension leg kind of
33:06
stuff. So yeah, the answer is, yeah,
33:08
you use a lot. I'm going to say this though, I
33:11
think in the teachings, at least this is what I got, is there
33:16
wasn't much of A love for pitching mechanics like 40
33:23
motion or exercise, corrective exercise.
33:28
And I'm saying that by the motor preference people.
33:31
And in my book, you absolutely cannot separate those.
33:36
They are. They're like they're one and the
33:39
same, you know, they support each other and that's the way I
33:43
look at it. Yeah.
33:45
And I think, I think motor preferences is starting to come
33:47
around on the corrective exercise thing.
33:50
At first I think that they were more of a just this is how they
33:53
move and you don't really need to fix anything.
33:55
But you know, it's come down to more.
33:57
They certainly have gotten a big thing about, you know, flat
34:00
feet. So if your feet turn in you're
34:04
you're on the kind of on the, you know, you have flat arches
34:07
or you're on the inside part of the feet, they'd certainly want
34:10
to correct them. They've got the insoles for the
34:12
aerials and terrestrials. So that's corrective.
34:16
So if you're going to go to that length of correcting it, why not
34:19
just try to fix it at the muscular level as well?
34:21
Yeah, I agree. Yeah.
34:23
Yeah, I agree with you to the rickets.
34:25
It's got to connect so. Yeah, well, yeah, let me throw
34:28
this out too. I'm sorry to interrupt you
34:30
there, Jay. Go ahead, man.
34:31
Sometimes when we get a thought, if I don't do it right away it
34:33
goes. We'd much rather hear your
34:36
thoughts, buddy, so let's. Go.
34:38
Well, Ken, I think we had talked about this.
34:41
I know we did a Zoom together and I posted it on core
34:43
principles. Our little PCC group kind of got
34:48
together and we developed what we thought were core principles
34:51
of pitching and I still believe in those 100% firmly and their
34:58
their core principles, which is different than saying, oh, this
35:02
is absolute, you got to be right here.
35:06
Some of our core principles would be, you know elbow bend
35:09
for arm whip, another one would be your brush trigger, another
35:13
one would be internal rotation and pronation.
35:15
You know, those things, those, those are core to what we do in
35:20
pitching. OK, there's all kinds of minute
35:24
fine things somewhere all over the place, you know, but those
35:27
are, those are the core. There's seven or eight or ten
35:30
other ones that we've identified also, but there's a couple of
35:33
the biggies and I think I try never to lose sight of those.
35:37
You know, when I'm looking at some of these Instagram things,
35:40
I'm thinking, Oh my God, I got to send this person my core
35:43
principal list. You.
35:45
Know there's one Rick I want to tie.
35:46
I was, I was working with a kid yesterday who's committed to a
35:49
Division One school this this year, not one of mine, but I got
35:54
her from somebody else that this came and one of the top things I
35:58
did with her yesterday was the Polly pull together.
36:01
Drill. Because she's very over
36:05
rotational wants to yank everything around and I'm like,
36:08
we need to work on the pull together, right.
36:11
I think people don't understand what what even what that is and
36:14
and having her do that her again, the stability you're
36:17
talking about when doing that drill, that kid, all of a sudden
36:20
accuracy is she's like, this is I've never had this before.
36:23
I'm like, well, now we understand why.
36:25
Like this is what's going on here.
36:27
And and again, I think that to me that's one of my core
36:30
principles is that drill that you do even at those clinics
36:33
that the Poly pull together drill is to me that's in the
36:38
that's in the top, top five for me so.
36:41
That's, that's on the tradition list.
36:43
Any clinic, you know, Jay, we've done one up at your place.
36:46
Can you've been with me in Fairmont, MN a couple times.
36:51
That's Sarah and I, that's our signature.
36:53
We do it every clinic. We do the pull together drill
36:57
and something. I, I, I make a point.
37:00
I'm got a microphone on shouting out to the parents.
37:04
You get your phone out right now and video this because this is
37:07
the best your kid will ever look when she's doing this drone.
37:11
Of course, we're we're doing it first of all, without a ball.
37:14
So you know they're going to look pretty good, but it is
37:16
mechanically it's the best the kid will ever look.
37:20
So I thanks for the call out on the on that drill because I it's
37:24
big time in my repertoire. Yeah, and I think that that for
37:29
people that are interested in something like that, Rick's got
37:32
his intermediate course and that's one of the many drills
37:35
that are in there. So if you're interested in
37:38
getting deeper knowledge there, check out on Poly Girl.
37:41
Fast Pitch is. I think that's the URL, but you
37:46
know. Poly Girl.
37:47
Fastpitch.com. Right.
37:48
And just, you know, go in there, Yep, look up the look up that
37:52
course and you'll find that there's tons and tons of good
37:55
information, things that are actually practical and
37:58
translatable into pitching. Which reminds me, I, I did want
38:02
to bring up one thing. When you keep talking about the
38:04
Instagram drills, and I've been seeing a lot of this lately.
38:08
There is so much start and stop and start and stop in one drill.
38:14
And it drives me crazy because the thing I'm always working on
38:17
with kids is getting the energy to flow.
38:19
Get it to come up from your toes to your fingertips.
38:23
And you know, these things where kids are sitting down and then
38:26
they jump up and then they stop and they freeze and then they
38:29
make another move and they make another move after that.
38:32
You know, it, it, it. I just don't understand why
38:34
anybody thinks that's going to work.
38:36
Yeah, I wish you wouldn't. I wish you wouldn't have talked
38:38
about that, Ken, because my guts turn on right now.
38:41
Wait a minute, just. I mean I.
38:42
Love back all those Instagram memories, yeah.
38:45
I love the screwball drills where you're spinning it around
38:47
a bucket or a Volkswagen or a chair or, you know, next thing,
38:51
yeah, next thing you know, you're going to have like an M80
38:53
there. They're going to light it on
38:54
fire. You got to spin it around the
38:55
M80 before the ball's gone. I mean, it's just some of it's
38:58
just, it's like I I don't even go on Instagram.
39:02
I have to blame you, Rick. You're the only reason I go on
39:05
Instagram. I'm going to make a New Year's
39:09
resolution. No more Instagram.
39:11
How's that? There you go.
39:14
Man, I won't ever have to go see a doctor again if I don't do
39:17
Instagram. And just think of all the extra
39:20
time you'll have to research all the stuff Linda sends you.
39:23
Yeah, that's right. She won't be recovering.
39:27
Hey, I want to move on from the kind of the mechanics and the
39:30
tool stuff to a little bit more of the philosophy of of pitching
39:34
and how it's being used right now.
39:36
One thing that we're seeing a lot more college teams doing is
39:39
moving from riding one stud pitcher every inning of every
39:43
game throughout the season to more of a staff and even a staff
39:48
that has a wider toolbox of different abilities.
39:52
So you don't have to have all kids that are throwing 65 plus,
39:55
you know, some of these schools are looking for kids that are
39:57
maybe throwing 58 but have incredible spin and it's just a
40:02
different look. Do you agree with that, that
40:04
approach of kind of widening out the toolbox of kids?
40:07
And if so, why? Or if not, why?
40:11
Yes, I do agree with that. Let me give somebody else a bit
40:14
of shout out on this. One of the I didn't, I didn't
40:16
get a chance to attend it, but at the convention, one of the
40:19
speakers, Riker Jason spoke about developing a staff and how
40:25
to use a staff and, and I the feedback I heard it was a great
40:28
presentation. OK, so good for Riker.
40:32
I would say it's sort of a force feeding.
40:36
Maybe people are coming to the realization that what are there,
40:39
how many Division One colleges are there in the country?
40:41
280 years. I don't know how many there.
40:43
There's a bunch right? There aren't 280 stud pitchers
40:49
out there that can throw 5 out of six games.
40:52
They just aren't OK. So you should come to that
40:56
realization. And if you're not right here at
40:58
the very top of the food chain, you're probably not going to
41:02
have a real stud pitcher. So you better find yourself 3 or
41:08
4 pretty darn good ones that complement each other.
41:12
The other side of that is, let's say you do have the stud pitcher
41:16
and you want to win a national championship.
41:19
You can't ride that horse to death.
41:22
So you should develop a staff so you feel comfortable that you've
41:27
got somebody that can pitch that midweek game.
41:30
You don't have to have your stud down in a in a bullpen warming
41:33
up, thinking, oh God, what's going to happen you.
41:34
Know, you know, it's funny you say that Rick, I want to, I
41:36
don't mean to interrupt you, but what popped into my head when
41:39
you were saying that is how Mike White handled the staff in the
41:42
in the in the championship. He brought Mack Brown in.
41:46
You guys remember that like he gave Yvonne a rest.
41:49
He brought Brown in drop ball pitcher right lasted a few
41:53
innings, right gave just gave Yvonne that rest that she needed
41:57
for then when she came into the last for that the next game the
42:00
next day was just on fire where the on the other side of that
42:03
just kind of ran out of gas and everybody had seen it for 3-3
42:06
days in a row. And I think that's huge.
42:08
You know, you've if if Texas Tech, which they do now have
42:11
another arm that can come in and give her a break now, it's going
42:15
to really be tough this year. A lot of dynamics.
42:18
Yes, yes. Yeah, I mean, the single turning
42:22
point in the College World Series last year was when that
42:25
girl reached out and got a hit off of the intentional walk.
42:30
Yeah. OK, that gave Texas a win and it
42:33
forced that girl to have to pitch three days in a row, and
42:37
she's as good as there is. But at some point in time, the
42:41
body just says enough. I can't do it.
42:44
Well, yeah, and again, at that level too, I'd like Jay was
42:47
saying, you know, they've seen her, you know, already seen her
42:50
twice, and now they're going to see her for the third day in a
42:53
row. And at some point, you're going
42:55
to be able to make some adjustments and everybody's
42:58
human. Yeah, yeah.
43:00
Well, back on on the whole staff thing here.
43:03
I think one of the the new skills that head coach, pitching
43:07
coach has to have is they have to take their evaluation of the
43:11
opposing team, the opposing hitters to another level.
43:15
And you have to say, well, golly, my number 4 pitchers got
43:18
this great change of speed stuff going on.
43:22
And we're coming to their lineup with their big swingers are if
43:26
we just throw gas at those girls that are going to go to the
43:29
park. So I'm going to put this girl in
43:31
for maybe she might only be in for two or three hitters, 1
43:34
inning, half an inning, but she's going to do her job to get
43:38
them through that chunk of the lineup.
43:41
OK. Or sometimes it comes down to,
43:44
you've seen it, Major League Baseball.
43:45
Sometimes you bring a pitcher in for one hitter.
43:48
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's matchups.
43:51
With the analytics available nowadays, it's amazing what you
43:55
can know about your opponent. Yeah, it really is.
43:59
And, you know, and I think, yeah, we've seen that with
44:01
baseball and now we're starting to see it with fast pitch
44:03
softball where they're just, you know, not afraid to go in there
44:07
and use somebody just for a couple of hitters.
44:11
Yeah, and you know, I feel good for those girls that, you know,
44:15
used to be buried as the number 345 on the staff because I got
44:20
like no innings. We're starting to see number 34
44:23
and sometimes 5 play a play an actual role in the success of
44:28
that team. It's got to be better for the
44:32
kids, got to be. For sure.
44:34
Rick, I want to ask you a little bit about rest and recovery.
44:38
So, you know, I think one of the challenges for teams, especially
44:41
as it gets later in the season, is giving their players enough
44:44
rest and recovery time. So what are some things that
44:47
coaches can do to find the balance between, you know,
44:49
needing that win today and not running their players down to
44:53
where they're just, you know, gas the rest of the season?
44:56
Yeah. Well, there's a lot of things
44:58
that play into that. I think start way in the
45:01
beginning I think is you've got your offseason strength and
45:04
conditioning programs. They have to be really solid and
45:09
they have to be in place before you ever get to a season because
45:13
in season you're going to have a different strength and
45:15
conditioning program. That's probably #1 right there.
45:20
Then I think your pre pitch, pre pitching warm up, how you warm
45:25
up your body, how you stretch, whatever you do to get the
45:29
juices flowing before you ever pick up a ball.
45:32
And then when you're done, what let's say it's your bullpen or
45:36
let's say it's a game. What's your cooldown recovery?
45:40
Probably as important as your warm up was.
45:44
So you got to have that in place, OK.
45:47
And then you're training people at a university are so important
45:52
and, you know, the whole arm care of the whole things they
45:54
can do with, you know, massaging or, you know, not deep grasting,
45:58
but grasting and things like that.
46:01
And then on more than anything is rest.
46:06
If you got you got a stud pitcher and she pitched 2 games
46:09
or three or 2 1/2 on a weekend. He does not need to practice on
46:13
Monday. He probably doesn't have to
46:15
practice on Tuesday. On Wednesday, Yeah.
46:19
See if the arm still goes in a circle good enough.
46:22
You're ready to throw Friday. They got to have rest.
46:24
And then of course, you know, this is the toughest one in the
46:28
world for kids the age that we coach.
46:31
And that is how do you take time off from the, the grueling
46:36
travel ball high school schedule.
46:38
And you, you know, if you're a parent, I hope you listen to
46:42
this. You, you need to take the bull
46:43
by the horn and you need to make sure your kid shuts down.
46:48
You know, I'm in shutdown period right now and I'm just coming
46:51
out of it right now, as a matter of fact.
46:53
But from Thanksgiving till Christmas, I encourage my kids
46:57
at least you got to take off 4 weeks.
47:00
And that's, I think that's a great thing.
47:02
I and I think sometimes Rick, it's not the kid, it's the
47:05
parents. I'll tell people, listen, I got
47:08
family in town. I can't do lessons for two weeks
47:11
and I'll get text messages. You doing lessons this week?
47:13
Like, no, I'm not take time off. It's the holidays.
47:18
You're right, it is. It's probably more parent driven
47:21
than anything else. That's why parents take note of
47:24
what we just said. You got to let that kids body
47:26
heal up for God's sakes a little bit.
47:28
You got to let the brain kind of heal, fill up and maybe actually
47:31
be a kid, you know? Yeah, and, you know, get to the
47:35
point where you miss it a little bit too, because you're going to
47:37
be more enthused if it's something that you're jonesing
47:40
to do as opposed to, you know, one more day in the grind.
47:43
Yeah, if a kid takes out four weeks, I encourage them still do
47:47
your strength and conditioning program.
47:50
Don't. Don't stop doing that.
47:52
In four weeks, guess what? You will not have forgotten how
47:55
to pitch. Are you going to throw your top
47:58
speed the first day out? No, but it's going to come back
48:01
and you're probably going to surpass it anyhow.
48:03
I get kind of passionate when I start talking about that.
48:06
I, I probably was part of the guilt.
48:09
I, I put this guilt trip on the people at the NFC convention
48:12
again, I think the question was something about if you were
48:15
going to try to change anything and saw Paul, what would it be?
48:18
And I looked out at the crowd. I said, I'm looking out at all
48:20
you people out there. You're part of the guilt
48:22
problem. This whole chasing a college
48:25
scholarship is killing kids. They are worn out and injured
48:30
before they ever get to college because when a kid becomes
48:35
sometimes even 8th grade but freshman, sophomore, junior
48:40
years, it is non-stop 360 and it's all about ace in a
48:46
scholarship. There's got to be a better model
48:49
somewhere, you know? This has to be.
48:52
Yes, for sure. Rick, I want to ask you a
48:55
question. I'm going to change gears just a
48:57
little bit here because I know this is not on the list.
48:59
Sorry Ken, I gotta ask him this. Well, by all means.
49:02
I I want your to I want you to give your thoughts and opinions
49:07
about weighted plyo balls for a warm up or just in general.
49:12
However you want to do it. I need you to give your your.
49:15
I want people to hear your thoughts, your opinions and why
49:18
you feel that way about weighted plyos as a warm up say to a
49:22
catcher or just in general. So in general, I'll make it
49:28
short and sweet. I hate them, OK, Because when
49:31
you say plyos, they're they're weighted, they're heavier than a
49:34
regular ball. OK, we all know what happens to
49:38
let's say you got a little 10 year old, he's thrown from 35
49:41
feet, 11 inch ball. And now we say, oh, you're 12.
49:45
You go to a 12 inch ball and go to 40 feet.
49:48
They they compromise their pitching mechanics dramatically
49:52
because of that. Same thing happens when you put
49:54
a heavy ball and you go over the shoulder.
49:57
In other words, make an arm circle with a heavy ball.
50:00
Your mechanics, your muscle firing patterns are going to
50:02
change and the weight of that ball, the centripetal force,
50:09
your arm can't handle it. So what used to be a nice
50:11
beautiful bend in the elbow evaporates and goes away.
50:15
I say this, I have never seen a documented softball study that
50:23
said weighted ball programs increase speed.
50:26
I've never seen it. When I say a document, I should
50:28
said controlled, which means there's a placebo group and a
50:33
weighted ball group. And I would almost guarantee you
50:36
the placebo group will probably increase speed more than a
50:41
weighted ball group. OK.
50:43
I mean, I just, I hate it. Do I use weighted plyo balls?
50:47
I do. And I do it right here at
50:49
release and just in here. I never want to go over the top
50:53
of the shoulder with an arm circle with a weighted ball.
50:56
I, I oh man, you got me going here, Jay Sherman.
51:02
Now I want to throw something in there on that because I do use
51:05
plyo balls, but not the not the heavy weighted ones.
51:10
You know, I have, I use the four, six and eight ounce balls,
51:14
you know, as part of a program and kind of going back and forth
51:17
doing a pyramid with them. And wouldn't you agree that, you
51:21
know, something like that is fine because you're not really
51:23
stressing the shoulder, but I wouldn't go above, you know, so
51:27
a typical ball is going to be 6 1/2 oz, right?
51:30
You know, regular softball. So, you know, going up to 8 I
51:34
think would be OK, but you know most of the concentrations on
51:38
6:00 and 4:00 so that we get that arm speed going and it just
51:42
had a short distance given that chance to slam in there, how do
51:46
you feel about that? Not good.
51:49
OK. Anytime, anytime it's above 6
51:52
1/2 oz, I don't feel good. OK, I am a big proponent of you
51:57
take your regular weight 6 1/2 ounce ball and then I've got the
52:01
five ounce ball and I've got a four ounce and I got a three
52:04
ounce and I will work lots of proprioception or location
52:10
drills doing that kind of thing. Also, I like to once in a while
52:14
take my light little light flight ball and have a kid do a
52:18
walk in light flight and make them feel good.
52:19
Because, you know, the kid that maybe couldn't break 52 miles an
52:23
hour all of a sudden throws a ball 63 and it's like, Oh my
52:26
God, right. And, and, and the kids thinking,
52:30
Oh my God, I could be good, you know, So I, I, I love the
52:35
underweight factor just because things react quicker.
52:38
That's more into the fast twitch kind of thinking.
52:43
I've got, you know, 100 years ago I got all the Marquart
52:46
balls, you know, I've got the, the 8 answer, you know.
52:49
Then of course I got a regular ball and I got the five and the
52:52
four and the three and I not even sure where my 8 oz ball is
52:57
anymore. I hope it's gone somewhere.
53:01
Sorry, Ken. That's OK, All right.
53:04
So we also know you love to track data, but you've also said
53:08
data without understanding doesn't do very much to help
53:11
drive improvement. So what should coaches be doing
53:14
to take advantage of the data they're gathering or learn how
53:18
to use it? Well, I call it the secret sauce
53:21
really is where we're getting more and better measurement
53:27
tools out into our sport. I'll I'll pick on pitch logic
53:30
because I love them. OK, It's one thing to get
53:33
metrics and you look at them and say, oh God, man, I'm excited.
53:36
I got metrics right now. It's another thing to say, is
53:41
that a good or a bad metric? Is that in an efficient range or
53:44
inefficient range? Well, once you know that, then
53:48
you got to go another step and say, Oh my God, what caused that
53:51
not to be good? If it's not good, And then the
53:54
secret sauce is how do you correct it?
53:57
OK, well, the data can tell you that.
53:59
Like we were talking earlier, you know, Jay, we said, well,
54:02
watch the flight of a ball that's going to tell you a
54:05
story. You watch a flight of a ball and
54:07
you look at the metrics on a thing like a pitch logic and
54:10
man, you, you can connect all the dots.
54:14
I'm in the same way on, you know, with the 4D motion and
54:16
those metrics, those scare the bejesus out of people.
54:19
You know, when you look at those graphs and things.
54:22
And myself and a couple other guys are trying to simplify that
54:25
and put out a program that's not so scary to a parent or kid or
54:31
maybe even a college coach. OK, so we're trying to simplify
54:37
it, make it more understandable kind of use, let's say the Cliff
54:41
Notes version of some great big quadratic equation.
54:46
But metrics, me personally, I it's a little bit I'm a engineer
54:50
by trade or education or whatever.
54:53
I couldn't, I couldn't instruct pitching without metrics.
54:57
Couldn't do it or wouldn't put it this way.
55:00
I probably could, but I wouldn't want to.
55:01
I'd probably quit. Metrics tell you they're
55:04
everything data. I mean, every kid of mine has a
55:09
metric sheet that once in a while a college coach will call
55:12
me, tell me about this guy to say it, I'll send you her metric
55:15
sheet. And I know they get another
55:17
thing whole. Jesus, what kind of an animal
55:19
will I working with here? You know.
55:22
It's like, is that all this guy does is put numbers on a piece
55:26
of paper? Talking about this this, this
55:29
data stuff, I want to talk about the Polygirl Fastpitch
55:32
certification. How many certified coaches have
55:35
come through your program now? Man, I just did one last night.
55:39
I just did the final Zoom certification with one.
55:42
It's exactly 261. I know that because I yeah, I
55:47
just sent his little e-mail out to him congratulating and all
55:53
that kind of stuff. 261 And I will tell you, it's really heavy
56:00
population in the Midwest where you guys live, Illinois,
56:03
Indiana, Ohio, North Carolina, Virginia, heavy population.
56:09
I'm starting to get a fair number on the left coast out
56:13
there. I got a few internationals and
56:16
it's a pretty good mix of male and female.
56:20
Well, that's good. Yeah, it it really is.
56:23
And I would say if I thought, well, I've got this sweet spot
56:27
of who who does my programs, I'll bet you I'll use the
56:30
number. I'll bet you 70% it's mom or Dad
56:35
who has a daughter who's about 9 or 10 or 11, maybe 12.
56:39
And they're trying to help their own kid first, OK.
56:43
And then what happens is they start helping the other kids on
56:46
the team. And I'm pretty soon now people
56:50
are seeing those kids really perform well at A tournament and
56:52
their phone starts ringing and people from outside are called
56:56
say, hey, could you do some lessons with my kid where it's
56:59
kind of you would call out a ground up, organic kind of
57:01
growth kind of thing. And I have this feeling is we
57:07
really need to hit the youth first.
57:11
So my program is really designed to train the trainer of those
57:16
kids. That's, that's how you reach the
57:19
masses of kids. And you know, I guess I'm, I
57:23
feel pretty good about it. I've met some unbelievably great
57:26
people. You guys are part of that great
57:29
people group, Some of the first ones, yeah, yeah.
57:33
Feel good about it. I don't.
57:35
I've got a list this longer than I can reach of well, I need to
57:40
get this drill into the course number, such and such.
57:42
I need to modify this because some of my thinking has changed
57:46
maybe because of motor preferences or what I learned
57:49
with 4D. And I seem to run out of time to
57:52
get everything done that I need to get done.
57:54
But I I don't have a lot of free time for an old guy, man.
58:01
Yeah. Yeah, it is amazing.
58:03
But you know, with all the people you work with, the kids
58:05
you work with, the coaches you help out, yeah, I can see where
58:09
that's, you know, going to take up a good portion of your time.
58:11
And I'm sure your wife likes to get a little of your time here
58:14
and there too. Well, I'm not sure about that.
58:19
Of course she does, yes. All right.
58:22
So you know, we've taken up a lot of your time here, Rick.
58:25
I know you've got some things you have to do today, but I do
58:27
have a couple more questions I think that we want to cover.
58:31
And one of them is if you if you had one piece of advice for
58:34
coaches looking to recruit players, what would it be?
58:38
OK, when you're out recruiting, a look at Jay College Co chair.
58:44
OK, when you look at that kid pitch, if she fits what you
58:50
think is the mold of what a good pitcher is, recruit her.
58:55
If he does not fit that mold, do not recruit her.
59:01
Here's why. At the age that you're looking
59:03
at from a recruiting standpoint, what you see is kind of what
59:09
you're going to get. So if you're going to take Susie
59:12
Q, whose mechanics are not good, got the ninja move, you know,
59:17
the whole everything not so good, and you think that you're
59:20
going to get her into college and you're going to remodify her
59:23
and mold her into what what works, Probably not going to
59:27
happen. Don't have the time?
59:29
No, no, it and you will be like me.
59:33
It really frustrates me and it's not a kids fault, OK, but it
59:37
frustrates me seeing how difficult it is for a kid to try
59:42
to change major movement patterns.
59:45
It's just, it's unbelievably is, is not easy, you know?
59:50
Yeah, and if that kids being successful doing something that
59:54
just doesn't fit your mold, let her go and be successful
59:58
somewhere else, right? Yes, can exactly.
1:00:01
Yeah, when you get kids that come into your program, oh man,
1:00:06
I'm going to get on a little bit of a soapbox here.
1:00:10
I, I see an awful lot of kids coming fresh out of college and
1:00:16
all of a sudden they're a pitching coach at a really good
1:00:20
D1 or maybe even a power 5 power 4D1.
1:00:26
And they are like 3 months out of college and now they're
1:00:30
instructing. And I don't think that formula
1:00:34
has a chance of working or it's going to be 6 or 7 years down
1:00:40
the road before that person is really a good coach, whether
1:00:43
it's hitting or fielding or pitching.
1:00:46
I feel like you need to pay your dues.
1:00:49
You know, people like us right now are, we're paying our dues,
1:00:54
OK? Jay has paid his dues.
1:00:58
He's a great college pitching coach, OK, But had he jumped
1:01:02
right into Division One coaching college, he probably would have
1:01:06
been pitiful. You know, because, because he
1:01:08
was going to mold everybody to be the way he thought you ought
1:01:12
to pitch or maybe the way he pitched.
1:01:15
Oh, everybody would have been. Taught how to pitch.
1:01:17
Everybody would have would have been doing wrist flicks and
1:01:19
talking to their elbow, you know, I mean.
1:01:23
I think, you know, maybe I'm biased because I jumped into my
1:01:27
college career. I was a junior college coach,
1:01:29
right? I think it should be mandatory.
1:01:32
Anybody that wants to coach at a higher level should be a junior
1:01:35
college coach for two or three years at least.
1:01:39
So you'll learn how to coach, you learn how to what a program
1:01:42
is all about right now. I mean, a kid comes out of
1:01:46
college and they're they're slotted right here.
1:01:48
Oh, you're my pitching coach. That's the only thing you do the
1:01:50
rest of your life. How boring is that?
1:01:53
Right? Yep.
1:01:54
So any off my soapbox but. You know, when we were talking
1:01:58
to Prasha and he was talking about how they do it in the UK
1:02:01
and you have to get this licensing.
1:02:02
Yeah, You know, some of it's pretty basic and it's fairly
1:02:05
easy to get, but you have to spend a certain amount of time,
1:02:08
you know, that license, that first license you get allows you
1:02:11
to be an assistant coach, following directions, and then
1:02:14
you have to work on it and get, you know, your next licensing
1:02:17
level if you want to be able to design practices.
1:02:20
Otherwise they don't even allow you to do it.
1:02:21
That just makes so much more sense.
1:02:24
Yeah, it's like it used to be back in the day of of trades,
1:02:28
you know, like, you know, you had to be like a beginner
1:02:30
plumber and then you were a journeyman, then you were
1:02:33
finally a master plumber. And and that was not a a
1:02:37
three-week course, right? Yeah, it was about a four or
1:02:40
five year course. Yeah.
1:02:42
So go ahead. No.
1:02:44
I was going to say that's everything you said.
1:02:46
They're super valid. And and I think that's what
1:02:48
you're seeing a lot in this sport is they're just, you know,
1:02:50
there's, like you said, people aren't paying it, not so much
1:02:53
they're paying their dues or just because they were a good
1:02:55
pitcher, they're going to make a great pitching coach.
1:02:56
And we know that's as far from reality as possible, right?
1:03:00
And and so that's just a valid statement.
1:03:03
I just wanted to say that again, that was huge.
1:03:05
Yeah, I think if they if they inherited a pitcher that that
1:03:09
moves exactly the same way they did, well, they're going to
1:03:12
that's pretty easy. They're going to look like the
1:03:14
best pitching coach in the world.
1:03:15
But when they inherit Susie Q over here, that kid will be in a
1:03:20
portal next year because she's going to hate you.
1:03:22
Yeah, Yeah. So just one last question, I
1:03:25
think, right, Ken, are you good with that?
1:03:27
Yeah, I don't want to keep Rick any longer.
1:03:28
Thanks for your time today, Rick.
1:03:29
We, you know, we we love spending time with you This
1:03:32
fantastic. Thank you so much.
1:03:33
But just one quick one here, and it's not even pitching related,
1:03:37
but what's one thing about you that people would be surprised
1:03:42
to learn? You do something.
1:03:44
Can you play the trumpet, trombone.
1:03:47
Bang on a drum? You drummer, former former rock
1:03:50
band. Drummer, are you?
1:03:51
Are you a professional juggler? Ken.
1:03:53
Ken was a former rock star, right?
1:03:57
You know, I saw that when you sent me some questions in
1:04:00
advance and I thought, what the heck.
1:04:06
Get to know the player right? Well, yeah, you got to you got
1:04:09
to know people. I think I I like anything that
1:04:15
has physical activity. OK, If, if, if I'm sequestered
1:04:20
like I am now because of the weather and can't get out and do
1:04:23
my mountain bike riding or something, man, I'm less
1:04:26
pleasant to be around than ever. You know, my wife begins to hate
1:04:29
on me, but I got to, I've got to have physical exercise somewhere
1:04:33
in my daily routine somewhere. I don't know if it's, you know,
1:04:37
sense of those endomorphs or whatever and it makes you feel
1:04:39
good or whatever. So I'm a little bit on the
1:04:42
competitive side. When I do my mountain biking, I
1:04:45
use the thing called Strava, which measures every time you go
1:04:49
out. How fast did you do on this
1:04:51
section of the trail? You know, and not only, not only
1:04:55
that, but it tells you who else was on the trail that day and
1:04:59
how do you rank against them? So I'm, I'm comparing myself,
1:05:04
you know, and I'm thinking, oh, God, another woman beat me, you
1:05:07
know, but yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm kind of competitive that way.
1:05:11
But it's, it's kind of intrinsic driven.
1:05:14
It's not, I'm not, I'm not out there telling somebody I beat
1:05:16
them. I'm looking at my little Strava
1:05:19
and saying, oh man, Paul, you got to go out more than once
1:05:22
every two weeks. These.
1:05:24
People are killing you. Yeah.
1:05:27
So that's. I don't know there's probably
1:05:30
other things I should we should ask my wife that maybe that
1:05:33
question, right. Yeah.
1:05:38
Well, but I want to say this. I enjoy, you know, chatting with
1:05:42
you guys all the time and we do you know we've said this before
1:05:47
I've said it before. I think up in your part of the
1:05:50
neck of the woods is a great place.
1:05:52
If we can't do through NFCA, maybe we put on our own little
1:05:57
high level coaching clinic for for coaches, for parents,
1:06:03
coaches, whatever, Yeah. Yeah, that'd be awesome.
1:06:07
Yeah. So that would be great.
1:06:08
Count me. We've got some real high level
1:06:10
people in our group, you guys and people that just, yeah, we,
1:06:15
we got some people that are just really, really good.
1:06:19
Yeah. Yeah, whole bunch of pitching
1:06:21
nerds. Yeah, pretty much.
1:06:25
Yeah, love it. All right.
1:06:27
Well, thanks, Rick. We really appreciate you coming
1:06:30
on helping us kick off the year. Again, like I said, you're a
1:06:33
good luck charm. So hopefully it'll continue into
1:06:36
2026. Yes, I'm sure it will and keep
1:06:41
up the good work. OK, enjoy the podcast and don't
1:06:45
hesitate to put them on that new Poly Girl community.
1:06:49
Absolutely, yeah. We will for sure.
1:06:52
Absolutely. All right.
1:06:54
Thank you. Thanks, Rick.
1:06:56
All. Right, that's it for us this
1:06:58
week. Thanks to all of you for
1:07:00
listening and the kind words you've been sharing with us.
1:07:02
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1:07:05
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1:07:20
On behalf of the From the Coaches Mouth podcast, have a
1:07:23
great rest of your week and weekend and a great 2026.