Latest / The Layback Podcast / Payton Lobdell, Founder of Backyard Bullpens / Pitching Coach at HIU (Ep. 39)

Transcript

Payton Lobdell, Founder of Backyard Bullpens / Pitching Coach at HIU (Ep. 39) · The Layback Podcast

0:00
Hey everyone, welcome back to The Layback Podcast.
0:02
Joining us today is Peyton Lobdell.
0:05
Peyton has a couple of titles to speak of.
0:09
He is the pitching coach at the National Champion Hope
0:14
International University, as well as the founder and lead
0:18
instructor at Backyard Bullpens in Huntington Beach, CA.
0:23
And Peyton knows the drill. Now, I'm not going to say
0:26
anything else because I will make him sound like an idiot.
0:28
I'm going to kick it over to him.
0:30
Peyton, go ahead. Finish up your intro.
0:33
Thanks so much for joining us today.
0:35
Thank you, Adam. So yeah, man, like you said, a
0:37
pitching coach at the national championship, HIU Hope
0:41
International Royals, we did it my first year as a pitching
0:45
coach. So excited to say that, that's
0:47
for sure. I'm also excited to say that I
0:49
was a former player for them too.
0:50
So I was like a like an unreal experience going from player to
0:53
coach, hammering the hammering it, getting it out in one one
0:57
year and, you know, getting it done.
0:58
So that was pretty sweet. But yeah, man, a little bit
1:00
about myself. Played at Cypress Junior College
1:03
three years. Yeah, I registered in my first
1:05
year and then had a Tommy John issue on my media.
1:09
Epicondyle decided to just not be on my elbow and started
1:13
floating off, hit my older nerves.
1:14
So ended up having surgery for that, had the 12 month recovery,
1:17
and then from there just had the recovery plan, figured it out,
1:20
learned how to pitch, decided to actually throw correctly under.
1:24
And coming from the outfield, man, I was like just ripping it
1:27
right and just trying to figure out a way to throw fastballs
1:30
down the middle as hard as I could and get out.
1:32
So there's really no mechanics involved.
1:34
And then once I started like talking to my pitching coach and
1:37
starting to really understand who I am as a pitcher, and Greg
1:40
Harris was my pitching coach. He's actually formerly the first
1:42
guy ever in the major leagues for righty and lefty.
1:44
So he was my first pitching coach and like the guy that made
1:48
me fall in love with pitching. And so for me, once I understood
1:51
how to do that, it was it was lights out.
1:54
I fell in love with pitching. I understood who I was and I
1:56
understood what it took to be a pitcher.
1:58
And then he took me under his wing and kind of like taught me
2:00
how to be a starter. And then from there I got a
2:01
scholarship, went to University of Incarnate where down in Texas
2:04
where some things kind of fell short.
2:06
I was, it was about November, I would say.
2:10
And I got a call from the admin and they're like, hey, man, I
2:12
need you to come in like right now.
2:14
And I'm like, I didn't know what I did wrong.
2:16
Decided to come inside as fast as I could.
2:18
I had a class like within 45 minutes, but they're like, yeah,
2:21
you can come in right now. So I went in and basically told
2:24
me I was unit short of an A, A to transfer.
2:27
And I guess there was a class that didn't transfer from
2:29
California to Texas. So some things ran short.
2:33
Ended up having to get a call from one of my good friends and
2:36
he set me up with Georgetown University, which is an AIA out
2:40
in Kentucky. They took me on.
2:41
I ended up taking on the number one starting role, second team,
2:44
all conference, crushed it. And then got a call from my
2:47
former coach over at Cypress, Larry Mahoney, where he was
2:50
like, hey, we're starting a program and hope like we need
2:53
you to come and be our guy. And at the time it was like
2:57
winter break. I hadn't quite made a decision
2:59
to go to Georgetown yet. And I was like, look, man, it's
3:01
been a while since I've really fully competed in a full season.
3:04
I need to get after it. I really need to play baseball.
3:07
So he's like, that's fine. He's like, I totally respect
3:09
that decision. He's like, will you possibly
3:10
think about possibly, you know, coming back your senior year?
3:13
I told him I was like, yeah, I'll think about it.
3:14
But like, in the back of my mind, I was like, I'm already at
3:16
Georgetown, man. Like, what?
3:17
What does it matter, right? Well, push come to shove, we
3:20
lost like 24 games to snow that season. 6 of those were my
3:24
starts. And that probably would have
3:26
pushed me over into the first team conference if I would have
3:29
not lost six of those starts. So I needed those numbers to
3:32
like help me as well as like all American and kind of like rubbed
3:35
me the wrong way. And then and it's nothing the
3:37
coaches can do about it, right? Like it's weather, you know, But
3:40
with me having the option of even being in Hope
3:43
International, I was like, I totally could have just waited,
3:47
man and gone right. And so funny.
3:50
It'll all come back around here in a second where I end up
3:53
calling Larry and I'm like, hey, like I need to come back home.
3:56
Like I want to come home. And he's like, let's do it.
3:58
So I ended up leaving Georgetown that following year, my junior
4:01
year and after that season and I went to the senior year played
4:04
at Hope International where we started the program, man, and
4:07
it's been history ever since, right.
4:09
So started the program with them.
4:11
I think we set the record for NAIA wins as like a first year
4:14
team did some something crazy number.
4:16
And then I think after that, like they went on to win the OR
4:19
they win the World Series. They went to the World Series.
4:21
The second year following that was the year that was went to
4:23
pro ball. So like it was super bittersweet
4:25
because I was like, Dang, if I didn't play that first year at
4:28
Georgetown, then I would have went to the World Series as a
4:31
player in my senior year because I would have taken that year
4:33
off. So I would have gone to the
4:35
World Series that second year. So for me, I was like, Dang,
4:38
Larry was totally right. I should have been played at
4:40
Georgetown. I should have just taken that
4:42
time off and I wouldn't have lost 26 games and I would have
4:45
been there for the World Series. So I was like, Dang it, man.
4:47
So all these things came around full circle where I was like,
4:51
everything happened for a reason, though.
4:52
I mean, I believe that the whole reason why I went to Georgetown
4:54
was because I met my beautiful wife and like we were able to
4:57
figure and like we were best friends at the time.
4:59
And like everything just like I said, came around full circle
5:02
where she moved out to California.
5:03
So everything was like a big, big full circle moment, right?
5:07
But yeah, man. So after after Hope
5:08
International, went to play a couple years pro ball in the
5:12
Frontier League, started out with Southern Illinois and then
5:15
went to Lake Erie after that. After the next season in 2018,
5:18
got traded to Schaumburg in the spring training of 2018.
5:21
So it finished out the season in 2018 as an All Star, first half
5:24
All Star. So that was awesome.
5:25
And then went into my third year, I had a little bit of an
5:29
injury issue, had an ulnar nerve issue in my elbow, sidelined me
5:32
for a little bit, probably about I would say like six or seven
5:35
games in the first half of the season.
5:36
And then after that just kind of kicked off.
5:38
I mean, I had an all right year numbers wise, wins and losses.
5:42
I mean, no one really pays attention to those anymore.
5:44
But I guess as a starter you kind of pay attention to them.
5:47
It wasn't the prettiest, but ERA and all those numbers,
5:49
everything went down South. You can see that like I was
5:51
starting to have like a little bit of success, starting to
5:54
understand who I was again as a pitcher, starting to throw a lot
5:56
harder, breaking stuff and starting to get a lot more
5:58
command. And then next thing you know,
6:00
COVID happened 2020. So things came to a halt, got
6:04
the random calls to go plan, same random independent leagues.
6:07
And then next thing you know, you're just trying to figure out
6:10
a way to make money, right? And so that's when the yard took
6:12
place during COVID, we had the shutdown period that everybody
6:17
basically wasn't allowed to go to parks.
6:18
We weren't allowed to do anything right.
6:21
Practices were canceled. Police were going and canceling
6:23
kids over on the fields and stuff.
6:24
So it's like things are getting kind of outrageous here in
6:27
Huntington and it almost was like it was a calling for me to
6:31
open up my backyard where I was in my backyard one night and
6:33
stepped off 60 feet. I actually had 62 feet exactly.
6:37
And I was like, wow, cool. I can stand behind the kid.
6:39
I guess then and so ended up being, man, where it took off,
6:43
where the yard just, it went from one kid a week to ten kids
6:47
a week to 30 kids a week to 60 to 70 to 80.
6:50
And then I was needing a new coach and, and then I went and
6:53
played a Sunday league and now I'm have a new coach with my
6:56
assistant and Vince Payne and he's been amazing and helping me
6:59
like build this to the from the ground up.
7:02
And so, yeah, man, once 2020 hit and we started taking off, it
7:06
was like, do I go back to pro ball now?
7:09
And make that $700.00 a month paycheck or do I can send you to
7:14
grind it out and do what I love. But at the same time like kind
7:17
of give back to what we believe is like the ultimate goal here
7:21
is like making our game the best, right?
7:23
And I kind of just posted about it the other day.
7:26
It's like you kind of know as an athlete when your when your
7:29
clock is ticking and like you start to understand that age is
7:33
a bitch and like there's nothing you can do about it.
7:36
And at the certain time, it's like you can still give back
7:40
even though you've lost that time.
7:41
Like the bright lights may have closed on your dream, but
7:44
they're now opening up other kids dreams.
7:47
And so I started to understand that.
7:49
And I I'd started to really understand, like the calling for
7:52
myself wasn't necessarily for me to play professional baseball,
7:55
but it was to help other kids, like get to the next level and
7:58
get to that dream of playing to the next level when whether that
8:01
be high school or college or pro ball or the the next Sunday
8:06
league best guy, right? Like it doesn't matter.
8:09
But like, if as long as we're here for you, like that's, I
8:11
think that's what necessarily ultimately led to me to staying
8:14
off the field and more or less staying on the sidelines now.
8:17
So yeah, man, that's kind of like my my story and sticking to
8:21
it. Well, it's quite the banger of
8:24
an intro. Covered the whole career and
8:27
what you feel is your purpose. I mean, that's awesome.
8:29
I definitely align with what you're saying there.
8:32
When you begin to understand what the game means to you and
8:37
how you can impact the game, of course we love this game.
8:40
It's why we played it. It's why we pursued it to all
8:43
ends of the earth, just trying to be the best we could be.
8:46
But eventually we saw the end of the road and found a new way to
8:51
impact the game, Eric Supley, pitching coach assistant coach
8:55
at University of San Francisco, just said on his episode.
8:58
I know it's not out at the time of our recording, but he talked
9:02
about the value that we have or the time that we have and the
9:08
identity that we place in this game and what it means to us.
9:14
And for so many people, that gets taken away.
9:16
They only view themselves as a player, and when you lose it as
9:20
a player, it doesn't mean the game has been taken away from
9:24
you. You just might have a new
9:26
relationship with it. So it's awesome that you've been
9:29
able to develop this new relationship with the game where
9:32
instead of you pursuing it on your own to be the best player
9:36
you can be. Now it's how do you create the
9:38
best environment possible for all of these players that you're
9:42
interacting with, whether it's in the private sector or at Hope
9:46
every single day? Yeah, man, like I would just say
9:49
like, it's weird, 'cause like, you never really know, like I
9:52
said, like you never really know when the doors going to close,
9:53
right? But I will say this, like the
9:56
last start that I had, I had like a feeling where I was like,
9:59
this is the last one, like this is the one, right?
10:02
So like I actually got a double play ball in the 7th inning to
10:05
get out of it. And I remember every pitch, I
10:08
remember stopping, looking up the crowd, soaking it in,
10:13
walking into the dugout and being like, I'm done, like
10:16
mentally like locked out, like I'm done, right?
10:19
But then it's like, as you get going and I started training in
10:22
the yard and I started throwing way harder.
10:24
And I was like, dude, this is ridiculous, right?
10:26
Like I'm, I'm training, I'm having more fun.
10:29
Like I'm this is more organic. And now next thing you know, I'm
10:32
ripping the ball way harder. So I started getting calls from
10:34
the old guys and they're like, Yo, you want to like, come do
10:36
this again? And I'm like 2-3 years out of
10:39
the league, right? And they're like, I think you
10:40
can do it again. You look a lot better than you
10:42
did before bro. And I'm like.
10:44
And I'm like, you know what I think I would, but at the same
10:46
time, like you just kind of have that idea in the back of your
10:49
mind. It's like, why am I doing this
10:50
though, right? Like am I doing this to to
10:54
scratch the itch just because I feel like I need to play?
10:56
It's like, if that's necessary, I'll just go place on they
10:58
leave, bro. Like it's at the end of the day,
11:01
it's like we know in the back of our mind our ultimate goal and
11:04
our ultimate desire is to play. We know that, right?
11:08
But what is going to be best for the game moving forward isn't
11:13
for us to play baseball. It's for us to do exactly what
11:17
we're doing right now. And like, I'm passing on
11:20
information to kids that every day I have a kid that comes in
11:23
here and he's like, man, I wish I would have had you as a coach
11:24
when I was 10. And I'm like, dude, that's the
11:26
only thing that I asked for, right?
11:27
Is like, I just want a bunch of 10 year olds to just want to
11:29
love the game. Like I love the game because
11:31
then the game is going to be so much more pure than what we
11:35
currently have, right? Like right now it's such a
11:39
saturated, filled environment of just toxic travel ball throwing
11:44
every day, no workload management.
11:46
You can't play other sports, you have to play one.
11:50
And if you don't, you're going to get shunned from that
11:51
organization. It's like, it doesn't make any
11:54
sense. It's like these kids are 10 to
11:57
14 to 16 years old. Like, let their bodies develop,
12:00
man. Like let them have fun.
12:01
Let them make that decision if they want to be baseball only if
12:04
they want to play baseball and football.
12:05
If they want to be baseball, football, basketball, if they
12:07
want to do golf, I'm like, I think it sucks that a lot of
12:11
these seasonal sports are so seasonal too, that like they
12:13
can't even necessarily play the sport they want to play because
12:16
it's in the same season. And it doesn't make any sense.
12:19
It's like, dude, these are all the same kids that are trying to
12:22
outgrow themselves and understand who they are as an
12:24
individual. And then now we have people that
12:25
are like, now they can't do that.
12:27
You can't do that. You're not allowed to do that,
12:29
right? And and then I think that's
12:31
where the game is starting to take place too, where it's like
12:33
all these biomechanical readings.
12:34
It's like, all right, we understand that hips, shoulders,
12:38
arm, OK, we get that right Now, everybody knows that now, OK,
12:42
The problem is, is like isn't necessarily the best, right?
12:45
Like we're seeing an epidemic in Tommy Johns, right?
12:49
Epidemic, right? But we don't know why.
12:52
But yet again, we have all these awesome informations of the
12:55
kinetic chain and how we're supposed to move perfectly
12:58
right? And like the torque number has
13:00
to be low. It's like, well, dude, I have a
13:01
kid that throws out 130 Newton meters of torque, but he doesn't
13:05
have arm pain. But then I have another kid
13:07
that'll come in here and he throws at 60 Newton meters of
13:09
torque and he has major elbow pain.
13:12
Why? Why does that?
13:13
Why where is the where is the where is the pounds of pressure
13:18
that is taking place? Where are we getting hit?
13:19
Where, what? Why can't you sustain force in a
13:22
certain spot? Like, what is going on, right?
13:24
But then you have all these perfect biomechanical readings
13:27
that'll tell the kid with 16 meters of force that his
13:29
mechanics are perfect, but he has arm pain.
13:31
And you're like, well, what am I supposed to do, right?
13:34
And then you have the kid with 130 millimeters of force in his
13:37
elbow and you're like, he has no arm pain.
13:39
He's just fine. Everything's great.
13:41
He's shoving, arm feels good. Everything's good to go.
13:44
But it doesn't make any sense scientifically.
13:46
But like this model of like perfect molding, I feel like his
13:50
butt is kind of ruining the game.
13:52
But I feel like it's not just coming from the game, it's
13:54
coming from a lifestyle standpoint.
13:56
It's like everybody has to have this like perfect model of a
13:59
life, right? It's like not everybody has
14:02
that, man. And I feel like as a coach, we
14:04
have to be able to adapt to those things and like understand
14:07
who each individual kid is, right?
14:09
And like what every coach says that, right?
14:11
Everyone's like everyone's an individual, but no one actually
14:14
understands like each kid from the outside the sports
14:17
standpoint, everyone always does the assessments of like, OK,
14:20
your internal hip rotation, is this your external shoulder
14:23
rotation is that It's like, yeah, we get that.
14:25
But like, what is the picture that the kid sees to get this
14:29
goal done right? Like it might not be the same
14:33
for him as what you're seeing as a coach, right?
14:36
So like, maybe that's our job as the coach isn't necessarily to
14:40
like express how the job is or the task is supposed to be done.
14:44
Maybe it's our job as a coach to like just give them the mental
14:47
picture of what's actually supposed to be done right.
14:50
And so that's what I feel like is lost in this game where it's
14:52
like everyone's just going to the easy way of just saying I'll
14:54
pay this guy 4 grand a year to give me biomechanical feedbacks
14:59
every time I send a video in. So I make my job easy.
15:02
You know, it's like, that's not necessarily what this game is
15:04
about anymore. And there's so many facilities
15:06
that are just running to that standpoint.
15:08
Yeah, there are things that need to be said, like, OK,
15:11
biomechanical readings are probably the best thing to get
15:14
understanding of what your body is doing at the right time.
15:16
But is it necessarily for a 12 year old?
15:20
Probably not. Is it necessary for a 14 year
15:22
old that throws 96? Probably, right.
15:26
But like a 12 year old that throws 67 miles an hour and like
15:31
is constantly playing game after game after game.
15:34
Then he goes to practice and he hits another practice, then he
15:36
hits another game and then next thing you know, his parents are
15:38
trying to figure out why his elbow hurts.
15:39
It's like, well, you have thrown 14 days in a row at 100% and
15:44
your son doesn't understand that.
15:45
So that's why Little League elbow is now taking place.
15:48
And it's like once these kids and parents starts to understand
15:51
this and like everything doesn't have to be a perfect mole,
15:53
right? Like you can take a weekend off
15:55
parents, like I promise it's not going to kill your kids stats at
16:00
12 years old. And if he gets recruited at 12
16:02
years old, you can take the the weekend off and go to the lake.
16:05
You guys can go to the beach, you guys can go to the
16:08
mountains. Like it's not going to ruin
16:10
anything for him, right? Like, and that's coming from a
16:13
kid that literally lived his whole life playing travel
16:16
baseball. But when it came to like doing
16:19
vacations, like with my family during the summer, I made sure I
16:22
did those things. We made sure those things are
16:24
planned right. And like as a coach too, I feel
16:27
like we get super pissed off when it's like, we're hitting
16:31
all these goals. Everything's developing,
16:32
developing, developing. And then you get the kid that's
16:35
like, hey, I'm going to go on vacation for two weeks, see you.
16:38
And then now everything's gone. It's like, well, you've got to
16:41
understand the kid. It's like the kid just hit all
16:43
these goals. He's crushing it.
16:46
He wants to go spend some time with his family.
16:49
Let him do it, right? But there also needs to be the
16:51
background information to that kid where it's like, look, man,
16:54
even though you crushed all these goals, I'm proud of you.
16:57
Even though you want to go hang out with your family, cool, so
16:59
be it. But we still need to maintain
17:02
these goals. We can't just ride the roller
17:04
coaster up and down anymore. Like you got to just keep going
17:07
up. All right, We can go down a
17:08
little bit, but we can't go just down and up, down and up, right?
17:11
And I still, that's what I said about like the mold, right?
17:14
And like this perfect lifestyle is it.
17:16
Everybody has this perfect mantra, this perfect picture.
17:19
It doesn't have to be like that. It can be an up and down battle.
17:21
It just make sure that we just don't go down so much that it's
17:24
just another uphill climb. So I'm going to touch on that
17:29
last piece 1st and then I want to call back to something that I
17:32
found really interesting kind of in the middle of that response
17:36
you painted the picture of there.
17:38
I think about it like Icarus, just don't let the highs get too
17:42
high. Don't let the lows get too low.
17:44
Ride the wave consistent, chop wood, carry water.
17:47
Just do. Do what is necessary each day to
17:51
move on. It doesn't have to be perfect,
17:55
it's just doing what is necessary to move yourself
17:58
forward. So maybe if we need to get into
18:02
advice of how to go on vacation or separate yourself from the
18:06
game and still continue to get better, it doesn't mean you have
18:10
to make all your throws. It doesn't mean you necessarily
18:12
need to bring a baseball or plios with you, but you can run
18:18
sprints on the beach, you can go swimming.
18:21
All these different things are great ways to continue to stay
18:23
in shape, especially when you are 12:13, 14-15 years old and
18:29
maintaining the perfect acute to chronic workload ratio might not
18:32
be as necessary as it is when you are in college and pro ball
18:36
or you're entering a potential recruiting season as a junior in
18:40
high school. But now calling back to one
18:44
thing, I I like the way you stated it a lot, kind of
18:47
defining this perfect life and the way that I internalized it
18:52
is you are way more in touch with the youth world of baseball
18:56
right now than I am. I pretty much operate mostly
18:58
high school, college and pro. So I don't see anybody much
19:02
younger than 1516 years old. But from what you said, it
19:07
sounds like those in power or those who should be respected
19:13
are putting definitions on people that don't need
19:17
definitions at the ages they are.
19:21
Like yes, understanding who you are as a person, a pitcher, a
19:25
player, might be super important at 1920 years old when you're
19:30
trying to get on the college field for the first time and
19:32
show your coaches what you can do.
19:34
But why do we need to tell a 12 year old who he is and the type
19:40
of player he's always going to be?
19:42
At least that's the way that I understood what you said.
19:44
I'm curious if you have any response to that.
19:46
No, I mean, you hit the nail on head.
19:48
Like, I just feel like I don't, I don't want to put a player in
19:51
a box, right? I feel like when you when you
19:53
start to compare kids to other professional baseball players,
19:56
when you start to compare kids to other high school baseball
19:59
players in the area because you want them to be like them or do
20:03
this, it puts them into a very small box, right?
20:05
And it doesn't let their mind travel to what could be
20:07
possible. And that's not fair to the
20:10
athlete. I feel like the athlete should
20:12
be able to express themself in any single way.
20:15
But it's our job as the coach to guide them in the right way, I
20:18
feel like. Especially in the youth world,
20:21
at least what I've seen in our area, it just becomes you have
20:25
to do it this way or the highway, right?
20:27
And that's not true. We've grown around the game of
20:29
baseball enough to understand that there's guys that pitch
20:34
completely different than other guys and they still get the job
20:37
done right. So why are you trying to tell me
20:39
that I have to move correctly just like that?
20:41
You just got to figure out what you're really good at and get
20:44
really good at it. And it's easier said than done,
20:47
but like everybody is trying to figure out and trying to
20:51
recreate the wheel. And they try to, you know, like
20:55
Trent is doing a phenomenal job, don't get me wrong, right?
20:57
But they do this thing where they like, try to create new
21:00
pitches once a month. I feel like, like these new kick
21:03
changes that are coming out and these new sweeper grips and like
21:06
all these new spin profiles and like, it's sick, man, Don't get
21:09
me wrong. Like it's changing the way that
21:11
the ball is spinning. It's changing the way that the
21:13
game is being played. It's changing the way the
21:15
hitters have to react. So like, it's awesome, but it
21:18
just kind of kills a little bit of what these kids are trying to
21:22
really learn how to do. It's like you'll get a kid
21:24
that's like sees this video on Instagram now and he's now
21:27
trying to throw a kick change, but he thinks that he's a
21:31
supinator, but he's just early torso rotating and ripping the
21:34
shit out of it. And I'm like, no, dude, you're
21:38
just early torso rotating. It's like you're not a
21:40
supinator, right? And then you get the kid that
21:42
finally comes in, that's supinator.
21:44
He throws the kick change and you're like, that's what it's
21:46
supposed to look like, right? And so it's like this game is
21:50
being filled with a lot of very negative information, right?
21:54
And and I feel like if we can just go back to the way it was
21:56
where it's like almost getting rid of all of our Instagram
21:59
gurus and just clearing out all of Instagram data, it might just
22:03
solve this problem. But I mean who's to say that
22:07
like, I mean, I, I have an Instagram, so I, I can't knock
22:10
it. Everybody does it, right?
22:11
But it's just some of these pictures that a lot of these
22:15
Instagram coaches paint and a lot of these other coaches
22:18
paint. It's just hard for the 12 year
22:19
old to consistently stay in that box.
22:21
It's not fair to the 12 year old to say like you have to throw
22:25
like this, right? Like I'll have 12 year olds come
22:27
in here and they throw weird as hell, you know?
22:30
And I asked them all the time. I'm like, do you ever hurt?
22:32
And I'm like, no. And I'm like, OK, cool, go do
22:34
some scaff work. Let's go learn how to protract
22:37
and retract. Like let's go learn how to do
22:38
some like real body things rather than just the typical
22:43
body weight pushup. Now, don't get me wrong, the
22:44
body weight pushup is probably one of the most beneficial
22:46
things you can do other than like a wall sit for a 12 year
22:49
old. But that's where I think like
22:51
another thing wrong with training, you know, it's like
22:53
you get all these things that are going on and they're like I.
22:55
Need to squat 400? Pounds and you're like, no, you
22:58
don't. Compound lifts are a joke.
23:00
Like in my world, I think compound lifts are a joke, I
23:02
think. Jumping, I think knowing how to
23:05
move your body around left and right, I think being able to
23:08
like react to loads, understanding how to drop load
23:12
onto you and hold and catch load is going to be more beneficial
23:16
than you pushing a bench press right?
23:20
Like you going into a push up and like catching yourself and
23:22
falling at a standstill. Half the people probably
23:24
couldn't do it right, but I guarantee you that's the same
23:27
load that's going to take place on your arm when you go into the
23:29
throw going forward. There's just so many different
23:31
things that I feel like the game is losing or it's like kids are
23:34
just going to constantly think about like lifting big.
23:37
And because of Ericsson right now, I'm not saying Ericsson is
23:39
the worst guy in the world because he creates the
23:42
environment of like lift big, throw gas, right?
23:45
But now the lift big part gets misconstrued with all these kids
23:49
and now they're like crap, man. Like I got a lift big in order
23:53
to throw hard, but now you get these kids that rotate like 2 by
23:55
fours because all they do is compound lifts.
23:57
And this is a rotating game, right?
24:00
And so now you get like two different sides of the story
24:02
where it's like, it's just hard, man.
24:04
I just feel like putting these kids into a small box and like
24:07
making them feel like they have to pitch or they have to throw
24:10
and they have to hit all in this like, perfect mantra is just bad
24:15
for the game, right? I just feel like if we can
24:17
understand what they're the best at, understand what their
24:20
qualities are and let them excel at those qualities until they
24:25
need to really work on the little things, right?
24:29
And that's what our job as the coaches and when they come into
24:31
these lessons or when they when they set up first stuff at the
24:33
yard, right? It's like we know what they're
24:35
good at. So why am I going to constantly
24:38
do the stuff that they're good at right now?
24:41
Are we going to tell them what they're good at?
24:42
Yeah, man. We're going to let them know
24:43
like, yo, you're really good at throwing this fastball.
24:45
Your fastball's good here, your sweepers good here, your
24:48
curveball's good here, right? Like we know that this is the
24:50
good stuff, but let's go work on the other stuff for the hour
24:54
that you're with us that you're bad at.
24:55
So that way at least we're raising that floor a little bit,
24:58
right? So like that's kind of what we
25:00
do here is that we really crushed raising the floors.
25:03
So that way when I do let the rains go and just let you excel
25:06
at those things, it's just like an automatic uptick, right?
25:10
So I just feel like in this game though, that if if you can
25:14
constantly try to queue kids, constantly try to put them in
25:16
boxes, it just makes this game a lot harder for them mentally.
25:21
Again, I've got a couple responses.
25:22
I tried to write them down, so hopefully I don't screw this up
25:25
when I'm coming back at you. Going back to the beginning of
25:29
that answer, one thing that really stuck out to me from your
25:33
perspective in the youth baseball world, it's almost like
25:38
the two most fun things are being removed from baseball, the
25:44
game and the athleticism. It's more like just drill after
25:48
drill after drill, or as you said, my way or the highway,
25:53
which sucks because that's not how you develop athleticism and
25:58
then it's not how this becomes a game.
26:01
There's a reason it's called a baseball game.
26:04
It's because it's meant to be fun.
26:06
You're supposed to be able to express yourself, and whether
26:08
that's through physical activity or through emotion, it shouldn't
26:14
matter. It is still a game and you
26:16
should be able to try to win the game however you think you can
26:21
win the game. So if that means you have Nestor
26:23
Cortez mechanics, awesome. If it means that you are
26:27
throwing the ball like Zach Grinke, how probably every
26:30
pitching coach has ever wanted any kid to throw like it
26:35
doesn't, you can do it either way.
26:38
And both of them are great. Now the other thing I wanted to
26:42
call to which I think is a really unique perspective
26:46
because again, I live in the world where I'm working
26:49
constantly with higher level guys and I don't, I don't
26:54
interact with the youth as much. So to me, like the social media
26:58
stuff that you called out, I, I've never looked at it from
27:01
that lens of needing to understand who those posts are
27:06
for. And a 13 year old doesn't know
27:10
that understanding the kick change or understanding
27:13
horizontal approach angles isn't for them.
27:18
At the age of 13 it might be for.
27:20
Them at. 17 or the college. The posts are entertaining,
27:25
they're cool because you see a ball do crazy shit that
27:28
everybody would want to have that in their arsenal.
27:31
But when your hand isn't full grown, why does it even matter
27:35
if you're trying to throw a kick change or not?
27:37
And that's tough because as you said, it's nothing against the
27:41
treads of the world. It's nothing against these
27:44
massive well run baseball organizations.
27:49
They're just posting content for their clientele that then gets
27:53
viewed by people outside of their clientele.
27:57
And then it becomes your job, somebody who is working with the
28:01
1011, twelve, 1314 year olds to then have a conversation about
28:06
when to introduce something like that, when this can actually be
28:10
effective. Whereas at those ages, it's
28:14
probably more impactful to just learn how to move and understand
28:19
where your body is in space. And we do pitch design later we
28:22
we'll do pitch design when your stats actually matter.
28:27
But as you said earlier, your stats don't matter when you're
28:30
12, no? No, and I mean, and I'm not even
28:34
just trying to say that at like a 12 year old level, right?
28:36
Like you, you kind of like said that when it's like coaches are
28:40
more saying like my way or the highway and it's you're not
28:43
really teaching athleticism when you do that, right?
28:45
And like the athleticism part comes from understanding the
28:50
game of baseball, I feel like too, right, because then it's
28:53
confidence based off of knowing what you're going to do with the
28:56
baseball. So like that comes back to me
28:59
saying like, I feel like competition over mechanics is
29:02
huge, but when you're training, you need to work on mechanics a
29:07
little bit and like understand your throw, understand what
29:10
you're trying to do with the throw.
29:12
And that's in my world. And unlike the unlike the
29:14
pitching throwing side, right, understand what the throw is
29:17
trying to do what like you're trying to accomplish with the
29:20
idea, like what the mental picture is, right.
29:23
And then, like when you get into the game, man, get the out.
29:27
Like, don't worry about what the throw looks like because you
29:31
have drilled it into your mind of what the throw should look
29:34
like that mentally. You should just be telling
29:38
yourself now, now the picture is execute the pitch, execute the
29:42
game plan. It shouldn't be.
29:45
I need to make sure that my back hip is externally rotated 45° to
29:49
get that back in there. And this doesn't make any sense.
29:51
It's like you can't, you can't think of small moves while
29:54
you're trying to move fast, right?
29:56
And that takes out the idea of of kids being able to play free
30:01
and, and play with athleticism. Right now they're playing in
30:04
that box again where they're like, I have to play like this
30:08
rather than being able to get the damn out and execute the
30:12
pitch to compete right? And that's where the game is
30:16
lost, where it's like, we have kids that'll come in and I'm
30:20
like, hey, man, I just want you to throw a fastball just like
30:22
fill up the zone for a little bit.
30:23
And then once you're warm, we're going.
30:25
And they're like, OK, and I'm watching them get going and we
30:28
have a pro command. The thing doesn't move right.
30:32
It sits there and they still can't hit it.
30:35
And I'm like, you're supposed to be filling it up right now.
30:39
Like how, how am I supposed to do a pitch design when you're
30:41
not filling it up? These people don't understand
30:43
that like, if you're going to be like spending all this money,
30:49
you might want to start understanding what the hell
30:50
you're doing right? And if you're going to be
30:52
spending all this time, you might want to understand what
30:55
the hell you're doing right. Like don't just constantly come
30:59
in here and think that you're going to just get it done based
31:02
off of results. It's not just going to happen.
31:04
You got to understand that like when you're practicing, you can
31:07
work on your mechanics, OK. And then when you get into your
31:10
competition, it's time to compete.
31:11
I feel like that's the disconnect that people are
31:13
having in this in this world, is that it's like, I got to think
31:17
about mechanics perfectly every single time.
31:18
It's like, no man, you can, you can compete to get people out.
31:21
And that's where there's differencing and and ideas of
31:26
being a pitching coach now. Whereas it's like, oh, you have
31:29
the spin to make all this work, but you don't throw for a
31:32
strike. The hell does that matter?
31:34
It's like I started to learn this the really hard way.
31:37
Like once I got to hope because like I got to hope and I was a 4
31:40
1/2 year private pitching coach, everything was great.
31:43
And then I got to hope and my head coach was like, OK, sick.
31:47
These metrics are awesome, but they don't throw strikes.
31:49
And I'm like, oh shit. And then I started calling
31:52
pitches and I realized like, holy shit, they they don't go
31:55
strikes. And I'm like, Oh my God, right.
31:57
And this was last year during our national championship run as
31:59
a staff, like we had to start making adjustments fast, man.
32:02
Like it was like every bullpen is like starting to be charted.
32:05
It's like things had to start making adjustments.
32:07
And so now, I mean, I get it. I start to understand, it's like
32:10
I understand where people are on there and they're like ball
32:14
strike. Like I understand the joke about
32:16
it now is because like, it is a ball, it is a strike, right?
32:20
Like that's all we're trying to do on the pitching game is throw
32:22
balls and strikes, right? But now if we can make strikes
32:25
be balls, that's when we're really good.
32:29
And I'm like, that's where other people don't understand.
32:30
Everyone thinks that you got to throw strikes and keep up the
32:32
strike zone. I was like, no, no, no, no,
32:34
throw strikes for about 58 feet, make it a ball.
32:37
And they're like, like, yes, now you're playing the game.
32:40
And so that's when people started to get it.
32:42
And that's when we started going off.
32:44
And then guys on our team, we won like 19 straight.
32:46
I think it was right. And and then after that, we lost
32:49
like a game. I think it was like William
32:51
Jessup, we lost a game to break our 19 game win streak.
32:53
But we had just one conference. So we were like, screw it.
32:56
You know, at the same time, it was like we knew exactly what we
33:00
were we needed to do to get the job done.
33:01
Guys started to fall into that play of like, this is now I can
33:05
start doing pitch designs because guys are throwing
33:07
strikes. And then I started to teach guys
33:09
like, hey, this is what your sweeper looks like.
33:11
This is what your curveball looks like.
33:12
This is what you're forcing is starting to look like.
33:14
They're like, holy shit, I know what it does.
33:15
Boom, boom, boom, boom. And I'm like, yeah, wow,
33:17
congratulations, you're pitching, right?
33:19
And so the game just became so much easier then, right?
33:22
And now guys knew who they were. So now it's like we got kind of
33:25
fortunate to where we only lost a couple of our guys this year.
33:28
And now we're filling some pieces.
33:30
And the pieces that we're filling these guys that are
33:32
coming in, they understand what they're trying to do already.
33:35
So now we were like, Oh my goodness, like let's just make a
33:37
database. Let's just start throwing
33:39
numbers at them. And let's like, let's just start
33:41
throwing info as much as we can at them.
33:43
And it's been an amazing run with them.
33:45
Like the guys that we have this year have been soaking in all
33:47
the information we got with you guys on Flex Pro.
33:50
It's been a phenomenal change with the guys on spin rates, arm
33:53
healths. I mean, things have been working
33:55
phenomenally for us as of as of late.
33:58
Well, I love to hear that. That definitely makes me happy.
34:01
I was fully prepared to go down a different rabbit hole, but I,
34:04
I, I want to make sure I say thank you because that's, that's
34:08
awesome to hear. I, I appreciate you banging for
34:10
us a little bit on that. So the rabbit hole that I wanted
34:13
to go down, you mentioned 4 1/2 years in the private sector.
34:18
You're working with guys to kind of create really good stuff.
34:22
Then you get thrust into actually needing to get outs
34:26
again and everything kind of goes out the window.
34:29
So I want to go into, maybe the phrasing of this will make your
34:33
skin crawl, but I like talking about the differences between
34:38
coaching throwers and coaching pitchers or coaching the throw,
34:41
coaching the pitch. And you can do totally different
34:45
things to me. To me, there is a separation.
34:47
This was briefly brought up again on Eric Souply's episode.
34:51
I think it's like squares and rectangles.
34:54
Like, squares are rectangles, but rectangles aren't
34:56
necessarily squares. In order to pitch, you have to
34:58
be able to throw. But just because you can throw,
35:01
it doesn't mean you can pitch. So I know you've got a ton of
35:04
experience with this. You talked about even with your
35:07
own career transitioning from outfield to the mound.
35:11
I'd love if you could just even go farther down that rabbit hole
35:15
regarding the stuff, how you developed it, how you train your
35:19
guys, and then maybe the connection between the throw and
35:21
the pitch. Yeah, I mean, in all honesty,
35:24
man, like the thing that taught me most about the throw, and
35:27
I'll say this wholeheartedly, I got to train with pitching Dr.
35:31
Sethlins for about a year, and that was when I was throwing my
35:34
hardest, doing the best, like lifting the most.
35:35
So I got to really understand a lot about myself during that
35:38
training period, him and Brooks Hall and Seth Blair, like those
35:41
three guys. Those three guys like kind of
35:43
transformed a lot of how I thought about the game.
35:46
Seth Lintz was the one that really taught me everything and
35:48
then Brooks was just the background.
35:49
Seth Blair. So pitching Dr. is the one that
35:51
really like kind of got me into understanding like the
35:53
difference between a throw in the pitch, right?
35:55
What he kind of transformed me to understand is that there is
35:59
no difference and it is one throw.
36:02
It is all the throw that you're trying to make it, whether it's
36:05
a shortstop throw, outfield throw, pitching throw, catching
36:08
throw. The circle basically that we
36:10
make in order to create the throw is roughly the same.
36:13
Now everyone's circle is going to be different, whether it be a
36:15
three quarter and you know, lower arm slot underneath side
36:19
arm arm slot, complete submarine guy.
36:21
The circle is just changing based off the plane of rotation.
36:24
And as I started to understand that, I started to really
36:28
realize that like if you just understand your throw, whether
36:31
it be a guy that throws way over the top three quarter high slot,
36:36
12:00 degree, then you got a guy that goes 2:00 degree, right?
36:40
Like understanding the differences between those two as
36:43
a coach is good, but like understanding that as a player,
36:45
you don't really need to because it's your throw, it's your DNA,
36:48
right? So you're not going to want to
36:49
know how if I'm an over the top guy, I don't need to give a shit
36:51
about three quarter guy. When I started to understand
36:54
that and I was working with Doc, like I understood who I was as a
36:57
thrower and I knew that I was like a three quarter guy, really
37:00
internal, don't really like to sit in deep positions, right?
37:03
Like, so I started to get the vibe of like how he trained me
37:06
and then I started to apply that to kind of like what I do with
37:10
my kids. And that's a lot of rebound
37:12
exercises. It's a lot of EDI, you know,
37:14
reactive exercises. It's just, it's a lot of it's a
37:18
lot of exercises that are old school training that not a lot
37:21
of people would consider good, I would say, because you have to
37:25
consistently work that way for a long time in order for the
37:28
adaptation to actually maintain. So like I believe it was under
37:32
Jay Schroeder is kind of the same way that we trained a lot
37:35
of, like I said, reactive and EDI movements.
37:38
So I started looking into like how Jay trains and trained
37:41
right, a lot of the guys back in the NFL days and stuff and how
37:44
Seth does a lot of his training. And I kind of developed a new
37:48
model for us and a way for 12 year olds to be able to adapt to
37:52
that and 14 year olds. And then then I have my college
37:55
guys that that get the real model right and like the real
37:57
stuff. So there's different ways to to
38:00
have this happen now. Will I say it's the perfect
38:03
model now, right? Like it doesn't work for
38:06
everybody right now. I've seen a lot of times where
38:08
kids will come in here, they train like this, they crush it,
38:10
they crush it, they crush it, they crush it and then they stop
38:13
planning, stop training completely and they've lost it.
38:15
And a lot of it has to do with because they stop understanding
38:19
their own throw and where there are in space.
38:21
I believe that like you can teach a thrower to pitch, you
38:26
can't teach a pitcher to throw. I can eventually train you to
38:31
throw harder, right? I can train the arm to throw
38:34
harder. Yes.
38:35
Everybody can train the body to move faster, to move the arm
38:38
faster, to get the body to move faster, rotational faster
38:40
speeds, right? Eventually you're going to break
38:42
down. There's a going to be a there's
38:44
going to be a point where your body's going to stay no more, I
38:46
can't handle this anymore and you're going to break down Now
38:49
that's where I feel like understanding the throw comes
38:51
into a big play. It's like, was it necessarily
38:55
him breaking down because it wasn't necessary like speed that
38:57
his body couldn't handle? Was it that his body broke down
39:01
because it was too weak, right? It can hold the load that it was
39:05
trying to accept, right? And next thing you know that the
39:08
body just breaks down. So I think in my world, what
39:12
I've been trying to do with a lot of the kids lately isn't
39:14
necessarily trying to dumb them up and make them queued free and
39:17
queue them up to the point where they're like in that box again,
39:20
right? I tried to more or less like
39:22
give them understanding of where they're at in space, know how to
39:26
free them up, give them maybe one thing that they can think
39:30
about rather than 100 things. And then once that happens, then
39:33
it gives them a little bit of like freedom and to get them
39:37
back to athleticism again. And so then we take that throw
39:41
and we apply that to a sloped mound.
39:44
And then eventually the throw becomes a pitch.
39:46
So it doesn't necessarily have to be just because you step on
39:49
the mound, right? It's not just a pitch, it's just
39:52
a throw. Now you're just a shortstop
39:54
making a backhand throw down a slope, right?
39:56
So you can take it in any way you think.
39:58
It's just making sure that you understand that throws the same
40:00
throw every time. Right.
40:02
So repeating your throw, right? Understanding how to make the
40:05
repetitive throw. Now if I were to ask you to draw
40:07
100 circles, you probably wouldn't draw 1 circle the same,
40:11
right? None of them are going to be the
40:13
same. So asking to repeat the same
40:15
move over and over again is impossible.
40:18
But trying to be in the same awareness of space is something
40:22
that we can make aware, then we can know where we're at, right.
40:25
So for my world, I'm not trying to draw the same circle every
40:28
time with the throw. I'm not trying to make the
40:29
pitcher do the same throw every time.
40:32
I'm trying to have him feel the same thing every time, feel the
40:35
same way every time. Because then if he feels the
40:37
same way every time, he'll know where he's at in space.
40:39
So that's where I think the difference between like pitching
40:41
and throwing isn't necessarily true.
40:43
The throw is a pitch. If you step on a on a decline
40:47
surface, Yeah, sure. I guess if you wanted to train
40:50
it, I can make a guy that throws pitch, but it's hard for me to
40:54
train a guy to pitch the throw because they're also takes a lot
40:57
of competitiveness in that too. Because a guy that knows how to
41:00
throw has a lot of fire deep down that wants to throw hard.
41:03
But a guy that can just pitch is probably a guy that has learned
41:06
how to pitch because he's never really thrown hard.
41:08
So there's really not a lot of fire deep down to be throwing
41:10
hard. It's just to get outs.
41:12
So I want the guy that has a lot of deep down fire that's like I
41:14
want to throw 107 because that's the guy that I feel like would
41:19
be a lot of fun for me. OK, I like that breakdown.
41:22
Honestly, it wasn't, it wasn't fully what I expected, which is
41:25
part of the reason why I wanted to ask it.
41:27
And it's so, so funny. Just the things we remember.
41:33
But I think when I started following you specifically on
41:39
Instagram with backyard bullpens, and I believe it was
41:44
right around the birth of your child.
41:47
And I have this one Instagram Story burned into my mind of you
41:54
doing the arc, the throwing circle, the throwing arc with my
41:59
son, newborn's arms, my son. Yeah.
42:03
So it's so fun. That was that was my first ever,
42:07
like true impression of you. So, and when I, I remember, like
42:12
I didn't remember the exact words that you were using, but I
42:16
remember seeing the arc and I was like, I'm pretty sure this
42:18
is some of like the pitching dock stuff.
42:20
So I, I wanted, I wanted to be sure to ask about the pitch
42:24
versus the throw. It is let you get into the weeds
42:27
there. Yeah, it is man.
42:30
I've been ingraining the same circle with my son on the left
42:32
side for the last 16 months. So let's hope that when he picks
42:36
up that ball for the first time, wants to RIP it, that that
42:38
circle looks really good. So we'll see.
42:41
But like I said, like I, I try to paint a lot of pictures for
42:44
my son and like whenever he sees me throw a ball, I, I throw it
42:48
as hard as I can. Whenever I swing a bat, I swing
42:50
it as hard as I can whenever I like do anything that I can
42:54
that's physical. It's just, it's to the best of
42:57
my ability for him to see that because I want him to understand
42:59
that like this game is very hard.
43:01
So like, I need you to move as fast as you can.
43:04
Like if he sees something on the on the TV screen, Doc actually
43:07
taught me this. He's like speed it up.
43:09
He's like, put it two times faster and then show it to your
43:12
son. And he's like, and imagine like
43:13
what that's going to do for him. He's like, he's going to think
43:16
that every single person moves that fast, So he has to move
43:18
that fast. And I'm like genius, another
43:21
mentor of mine that I've like kind of looked to the side of
43:25
his like Lance Wheeler. And he even taught me he's like
43:27
anytime that you play catch with your son, he's like, make sure
43:30
he understands that like you're not throwing the ball back to
43:32
him. You're just under handing it for
43:34
him to catch it. He goes, but the second that
43:36
mother effort wants to play catch, he goes, you RIP it right
43:39
at him. And I'm like, what?
43:41
And he goes throw it past him, dude.
43:43
And he's like, throw it past him.
43:45
He goes, but like throw it as hard as you can.
43:46
He goes because then he will visually understand what the
43:49
throw is supposed to look like. And I'm like, wow, genius.
43:54
And like still to this day, I have not other than when I'm in
43:56
my facility and I'm like doing lessons, I have not thrown a
43:59
ball in front of my son. And my son does not see anybody
44:01
who sucks at throwing baseballs. And I like make sure of that
44:04
because I'm like, dude, I will not, I will not let my son throw
44:07
baseballs bad. But now if he doesn't want to
44:11
play the game, it's all on him. That's if he doesn't want to
44:13
play, will I be upset? No way, man.
44:15
Because it's probably going to be the smartest kid or the best
44:17
kid at whatever he wants to do and, and I'll support him 110%,
44:21
you know what I mean? But if he does want to play this
44:23
game, he's going to play it the right way, that's for damn sure.
44:26
I love hearing that. And based on those couple of
44:29
takes that you have, what you learned from pitching Dock, what
44:32
you learned from Lance Wheeler, I'm curious how you think that
44:36
might apply then in the rehab space.
44:40
I I don't know how much return to throw that you are a part of,
44:43
but do you think that maybe that's something that could be
44:48
tapped into in return to throw programs because there is so
44:52
much lobbying that goes on? Do you think that the throwing
44:57
partner should be chucking the ball back?
45:00
Maybe it's one of those like subconscious things that you're
45:04
just constantly getting exposed to slow movements while you're
45:08
trying to regain your own athleticism, your own throw
45:13
while you're. Returning, but I agree.
45:15
I I think your partner, yeah, I think your partner plays a role
45:19
completely right, because like your environment plays a role.
45:21
So if if I put you in a room full of guys that throw 100
45:25
miles an hour and you throw 90 after a month, I guarantee you
45:30
you probably throw 95. Yeah, it sucks to be the weakest
45:33
link. No doubt, right?
45:35
So if you are coming back from a rehab thing and you have your
45:39
partner and your partner is under handing the ball back to
45:42
you at 20 feet, 60 feet, 80 feet, right?
45:45
And now you're doing the same exact thing over and over and
45:48
over and over and over again, right?
45:50
Now you're consistently doing the same shit.
45:51
Now you're just going to go back into the same movement pattern.
45:54
So now rehab just becomes an issue, right?
45:56
So now we're just doing the same exact thing and now we're
45:58
hitting the same goals over and over again, but they're not good
46:01
goals or terrible goals. So I think that like making sure
46:04
that we hit this on the right way is going to be the best case
46:07
scenario. So like having a partner that's
46:09
going to push you to the highest limits and like pull you to the
46:12
highest limits or a coach to do that would be the best thing for
46:14
you. This might be one of the coolest
46:17
lives I've ever been a part of. Live recordings to see one your
46:23
sweatshirt match the wall behind you, which is just great
46:26
branding to we're on the layback podcast Flexpro grip while you
46:33
got a dude ripping Flexpro grip in the background.
46:36
Yeah, you have a guy ripping Flexpro Grip right there in the
46:38
background for your podcast right now.
46:41
That's so awesome. Yeah, there it is.
46:43
Oh my gosh, I didn't. I didn't have that on my bingo
46:46
card today. So.
46:47
I'm glad I was able to help you with that.
46:50
I'll give you like a little insight too, because I'm
46:51
actually going to help a kid out with his with his shoulder right
46:55
now. Cool.
46:56
All right, little live action. I don't know if if you want to
46:58
kind of commentate what you're going through right now.
47:01
I I'll try not to interrupt too much.
47:03
I guess we'll just get a a live listen in and for the viewers, a
47:07
live look at what goes on. Yeah, I mean, I guess I'll, I'll
47:11
kind of see what we got going on.
47:12
So Diego just came to me. He just let me know he's getting
47:15
ready for his lesson right now and he just did his arm care
47:17
test and he let me know that he's having pain.
47:20
Where Diego? Shoulder middle of the shoulder,
47:24
front of the delt, like right here.
47:26
So he's having like pain in the front delt.
47:28
So what I'm going to do is I'm going to actually set up our
47:31
Phoenix machine that we have and I'll apply the pads to front
47:37
delt and rear delt. And we're just going to start
47:41
with like an interferential setting and just put it on
47:43
continuous as well as like a red light setting as well.
47:46
And then just to warm up the area.
47:47
And then we'll start to like hunt the area for like hot spots
47:51
here in a little bit once he's done doing like a warm up period
47:54
with this. And then we'll figure out
47:56
exactly what's going on with the shoulder following the hunting
47:58
phase. After that, we'll figure out
48:00
exactly where to put the plot, where to put the pads and apply
48:03
some force. And then hopefully that pain
48:05
will go away. But yeah, man, that's basically
48:07
it. What do you got?
48:08
Very cool. What'd you say that this device
48:10
was or it's? Called a Phoenix globus
48:14
waveform. So it's kind of looks like that.
48:17
All right. Yeah.
48:18
So like an EMS machine basically.
48:20
It's a little different on the way that the waves are
48:22
contracted. So most of the times the waves
48:24
are contracted in big S waves. It's like a Mark Pro machine.
48:28
It's going to go up and down in an S manner.
48:31
So the time that the contraction gets to the highest point, it's
48:34
only going to have a small amount of Arc in that.
48:37
And like the the arc is only going to have a small amount of
48:39
contraction during that time to the time frame in that is not
48:41
that great. Note the globus, it's more of a
48:44
square pattern. So the top is a longer
48:47
contraction and then it drops down and off.
48:50
So it's easier for the muscles to lengthen and strengthen.
48:53
And then I'm able to figure it out what's going on with his
48:55
arm. Very cool.
48:57
OK. Yeah.
48:57
See, this is I guess we're really getting in the weeds here
49:00
with what goes on at the yard. Yeah, that's a, that's a Doc
49:03
special, man. I mean, I wouldn't have the
49:06
Phoenix if it wasn't for Doc. So he's the one that taught me
49:09
most of my stuff. He's still continues to send me
49:12
protocols left and right. So it's a, it's a nice
49:15
relationship to have, that's for sure.
49:17
I bet, yeah. I, I know you've got guys on the
49:20
floor. There's a couple more questions
49:22
I want to throw your way if that's OK.
49:23
Yeah, absolutely cool. So I, I do want to pivot now
49:27
talking about kind of structuring what you do for a
49:31
team, because we're, we're seeing this in the individual
49:34
setting right now. We've heard a couple hot takes.
49:36
We've heard a couple of, I guess theories that you operate on.
49:40
I'd love to know how you then apply it to the 20 plus arms
49:45
that you have at Hope. Yeah, man.
49:47
So last year we did it straight up organic, like no technology,
49:53
just I think the only technology we had at Hope was, and I
49:58
brought that from the yard. So nothing even crazy.
50:00
And then basically just told everyone how to do their drill.
50:04
So it was a constant battle between like time between our
50:08
two hour practice and 70 dudes and trying to figure out how to
50:12
make it work right. So last year it was, it was a
50:14
headache. I'm not going to lie, it was a
50:16
lot of work. This year we actually built a
50:19
database system. We built something that we can
50:22
just throw in drills. We can throw in their videos
50:24
from every time they have a live setting and just kind of give
50:26
them like excerpts, any type of data on their numbers, any type
50:30
of lifting numbers that they have, all of that's going to go
50:32
into the database. So basically it now comes into
50:36
like we have all of our videos for the yard that are already
50:39
pre made. We are all of them that we've
50:40
just constantly just keep throwing in there, throwing in
50:43
there, throwing in there, all of the videos that we do right.
50:45
And then now if we ever have anything for our players, that's
50:48
like, hey, this guy probably has this issue.
50:50
Let's see if this helps. Boom, plug it in, throw it right
50:52
to the database. So it became a lot easier this
50:55
year, especially for the guys that that we're working with
50:57
that really needed the help and and needed to understand what
51:01
drills to maintain to do and consistently do them.
51:04
If it was a lot easier for them to understand that, because now
51:06
it's like, stop asking me questions.
51:09
Go to your database, you have all of your information right
51:12
there. And then if, if they have any
51:14
questions after that, then it's like, OK, I will answer those
51:16
questions then, right. So our jobs became significantly
51:19
easier. Now we have 28 pitchers this
51:22
year. So you got to thank Matt.
51:23
Each profile took us an hour to create.
51:28
We're at like 28 hours of work. And between me and Vince, it
51:30
became a lot. So we figured out a way to like
51:34
manage our time and slowly put things in there and kind of get
51:37
it going. But from that side of things,
51:38
that's kind of how we manage it. Having Vince on my side is
51:42
awesome. I mean, he helps me out a lot.
51:44
I will say there's little things that I don't see that he does.
51:47
He he maintains the both instructors while I'm down there
51:50
calling pitches. He makes your guys are getting
51:52
hot while I don't even know that they need to be getting hot.
51:55
Next thing I know I'm freaking out because we need to got to
51:57
get hot. He's like I already got him.
51:59
He's 10 times faster than I would have ever expected for an
52:02
assistant to be and I wouldn't even consider him an assistant
52:05
man. I just consider him a second
52:06
pitching coach. He's he's the best man.
52:08
Like I said it there, there would be no yard if it wasn't
52:10
for Vince. Well, I guess shout out Vince.
52:13
Yeah, shout out V Payne. What it sounds like is moving
52:19
into year 2, you've done everything you could to turn
52:23
your role from firefighting to being proactive.
52:27
So then that way you can constantly play manager more
52:31
than. Just play firefighter, play
52:34
Jack, correct? Like it, it became, it became
52:36
more of like, hey, now I can watch them pitch physically
52:40
change the way that they're thinking about the things that
52:43
they need to think about. Like actually the guy that's in
52:45
here right now that was doing the Flexbro stuff, he would
52:47
constantly come in and ask me questions about like, was that
52:50
the right pitch that I should have made when I gave up the
52:52
hit? And I was like, yes or no?
52:53
And I'd give him the answers and then his next outing, next thing
52:56
you know, like when I'm calling the pitches, he finally
52:58
understands where my mind's at. Like when I want to do what I
53:02
would have done with your sequencing in that situation.
53:04
And then next thing you know, it's like he gives me a thumb
53:07
point from the dugout because he's exactly what he wanted to
53:09
do and he executed the pitch. And we're able to understand
53:12
each other more from a coaching player perspective rather than
53:14
me just telling him what to do consistently over and over and
53:18
over and over and over. Right now, he just believes in
53:20
the process. I give him something to do, he
53:23
believes in it, he trusts it. Now I just run with it.
53:25
So I just became more of a player, coach, fundamental
53:28
standpoint. Things became more organic.
53:30
Things became more simple. Guys stop stressing so much
53:33
about what they need to do in the background of time when they
53:36
have this whole database in front of them they can do all
53:38
their crap on. And the best part is too, is
53:40
that like, it's just a Google Sheet, man.
53:43
So there's 28 tabs on a Google Sheet, right?
53:45
So everybody knows what everybody has to be doing so
53:48
everyone can hold each other accountable.
53:50
So it's like, hey man, you have a bunch of shit you need to be
53:52
doing, why aren't you doing it? And then you got this other guy.
53:54
He's like, I've been doing my stuff.
53:56
He's like, why aren't you doing your stuff?
53:57
So now our whole staff just become stronger based off the
54:00
idea that like, like he is doing his stuff.
54:04
Now he has to do his stuff. Now that guy's not doing his.
54:06
It's like, what the hell are you doing, man?
54:08
Do your crap. It's amazing how far Google
54:12
Sheet can go. You and I have had those
54:14
conversations before. Google Sheet can go a long ways.
54:17
Yeah, in it, it really just is another piece of accountability.
54:23
Like you said, guys, guys know what they need.
54:25
It's a schedule. They can always go back to it.
54:28
They can access it from anywhere.
54:30
I I guess that speaks to no matter what your budget is as a
54:34
school or a program, there are advancements that you can make.
54:39
Absolutely. And there should be no excuse as
54:42
to why you can't give a player what he needs, right?
54:45
And this is what makes it so frustrating from a coaching
54:48
standpoint when you see organizations that thrive
54:51
because they have unreal player development, right?
54:54
And then you have other teams that thrive because they have
54:56
unreal recruiting skills, right? And so that's where it's like
55:00
you need to understand the difference between Hope
55:01
International and top tier NAIA. We don't get the players that
55:07
everybody wants. We get the players that come
55:11
back to us that have issues that have had off the field problems
55:15
that may have been overlooked, and we developed them into
55:19
probably one of the best athletes that they've ever been.
55:21
And then we take them, we turn them into a family and then that
55:24
family turns into a national championship.
55:25
So that's like the difference between like our program and
55:29
basically any other program that I've been a part of.
55:31
And it's like, I believe we got that culture from Cypress
55:34
College. And because we're all coaches
55:36
from Cypress College and we all understand what it's like to be
55:39
successful. And in all honesty, man, like it
55:42
just becomes accountability. That's all it comes down to.
55:46
So once you learn to be accountable, things become 10
55:49
times easier. So if a coach, if you as a coach
55:52
can't be accountable for making your players better, what makes
55:55
you think that your players are going to be accountable for
55:57
their own actions? Great points.
55:59
I I really like that and honestly this kind of rounds out
56:03
where I wanted to go with everything.
56:04
I just want to make sure you get to plug anything and everything
56:08
you want to plug. How can people follow you?
56:10
How can people get in touch with you?
56:13
Learn more about the training you do or if they're interested
56:16
in Hope International, maybe hit you up for some recruiting.
56:19
Yeah, man, just go ahead and reach out to backyard bullpens
56:22
on our Instagram. Reach out to our Twitter page
56:25
where the arm bar or what are the arm barn.
56:27
Yeah, think for the arm barn now on on Twitter because we got our
56:31
Twitter handle got taken for some reason.
56:33
I think when Elon Musk did the switch over, man, our Twitter
56:36
handle got taken. So we're the backyard arm barn
56:38
on Twitter. So hit us up on there if you
56:41
ever guys want to have a recruiting session, you know who
56:43
to call, man. We would love to take a look at
56:45
you guys. And if you guys don't have a
56:47
home at the D1 level, when you feel like you're getting
56:49
overlooked a little bit and I'll get some playing time, we'd love
56:51
to take a look at you guys. Well, I appreciate the time
56:54
today, Peyton. This was awesome.
56:55
Get a look into your mind, talk a little shop.
56:58
And yeah, man, I look forward to keep growing this partnership.
57:02
We we got something nice cooking now, so.
57:05
Yeah, thanks again for thank you, Adam.
57:06
I appreciate everything. Of course, until all the
57:09
listeners out there, thanks for laying back with us.