Latest / UNCOACHED / Building Better Youth Athletes: Coaching, Tryouts, and Player Development

Transcript

Building Better Youth Athletes: Coaching, Tryouts, and Player Development · UNCOACHED

• Brad: Welcome to Uncoached, a podcast for volunteer coaches and parents figuring out youth sports as we go. Each episode we keep things simple, five questions to talk about practical insights you can actually use with your youth athletes. Today, my guest is Jason Fetters. Jason is a longtime baseball coach, the founder of a youth baseball club built around developing players the right way, and a creator of a coaching app called Practice OS, designed to help coaches show up to practice with a clear plan. Today, we're talking about some of the biggest challenges facing youth baseball, from the pressure of today's tryout system to what great coach preparation really looks like, and how we can create a better experience for youth athletes, parents, and volunteer coaches. Jason, thanks so much for being here. I appreciate your time. Do me a favor and, and just introduce yourself and let the folks know who you are. Jason Fetters: Hey, thanks for having me, Brad. Uh, great to see you and catch up again as well. And, uh, my name's Jason Fetters. I am the owner of 816 Futures. Uh, we also have our, uh, building facility, which is 816 Athletics, which is how we got started into this space. Uh, my wife and I, four years ago, we decided that, you know what? There's not enough practice, indoor practice space for families and teams, uh, here in the Kansas City area. And so we were able to start our own facility four years ago and then gradually, uh, grew that into our own baseball organization this past year. And, uh, I'm a dad of two. I've got a son, Brody, who's 18, getting ready to go off to college, uh, going to McPherson University, or excuse me, McPherson College in near Wichita, Kansas. He's a pitcher only out there. And then I have Reagan, my 12-year-old, who is the one that keeps me on my toes every single solitary day. Uh, and I'd be remiss if I didn't mention my lovely wife, Carly. Uh, she is the rock that holds our family together. She's a coach herself. Uh, she's been a competitive gymnastics coach for 25 years approximately now. And, uh, coaching is just in our blood. Uh, it's a thing that goes to my day-to-day job from a leadership standpoint, and it's a way that we give back through a game that is just a fantastic game, in my opinion Brad: No, that's awesome. I appreciate you going through that. I, I like that you, you know, your idea there of the indoor facility, and that's kind of how it started because there's not a lot of indoor opportunity to, to continue to train. And I'm in the Midwest too, right? And it's get-- I mean, even if it's hot and humid like it is, you know, this week where we're at, it's nice to have an indoor facility you can jump into for a little bit. I've-- I, I give you kudos because man, I would love to do that myself, 'cause I coach a lot of soccer, and I'd love to have more indoor opportunities here too. I just didn't have the nerve to, to start something like you did, and I think that's, uh, that's awesome, man. Congrats. Jason Fetters: I, I, I appreciate that. I think y- what you call nerve, I'll call brains, and I, I don't have very much of those either. So, uh, you know, it, it was a, it was honestly, it was a deal where we, we found an opportunity, we searched through this, and we, we went through it multiple times from building business plans about this of, do we build a new facility? Do we find a warehouse space? Do we, you know, find a retail space that is kind of in a defunct, um, situation that needs just tenants? Uh, we looked through it in, in a multitude of ways, and then we were actually able to find a facility that was already built out, and the tenant was leaving. The organization was, uh, being absorbed elsewhere through another organization that utilized it, and we made it our own. Brad: No, that's very cool. We could probably have a whole other show, uh, discussing the, the process and how it actually works to start an organization, to bu- to, you know, create a facility and to get something up and running. So, you know, maybe we'll, we'll touch back again on that, uh, at a later time, 'cause I looked into all of it too, man, it's, it's expensive. So I'm glad you were able to find one that was kind of built and ready to go, because doing that stuff from scratch is, it's, it's just crazy how expensive this stuff can get. But let, let's jump into the, the content here, if you don't mind. Jason Fetters: Yeah, for sure Brad: of, one of the biggest complaints that I hear from parents is the pressure that's surrounding tryouts, and I know you and I recently swapped some messages on this. Uh, I've got my own feelings that I, that I'll, I'll jump into, but oftentimes organizations and families feel like they have to get back within 24, 48 hours to make a decision that really is gonna affect the whole next year of, you know, their family's life, their child's life, how they're gonna develop over the next year. so do you think the youth baseball tryout system is broken? Maybe I should ask, hey, do you think the youth baseball system, um, needs some things to change in your opinion? Jason Fetters: Yeah, I, I definitely think that it has some areas that it could be improved upon. Um, the, the timing of things, while, uh, it, it's, it's very tough and stressful on families, uh, but from an organization standpoint now, you know, being in this, going through our second tryout season, we just completed it over the last couple of days, uh, it's been going on for the last two weeks. Um, a couple of things that I think are broken are not only the, the fact that you only have, you know, typically 24 to 48 hours, but also the fact that it felt like this year in Kansas City, it felt like everything was moved up two or three weeks earlier than it had been in the past. Like, there was still highly competitive tournaments from a youth space going on over the course of the last couple of weekends, and yet we're having to host tryouts. And the unfortunate thing is, is we had built out our tryout plan, we had it built out in February, and we knew-- We had identified the dates. We timed it around the MLB All-Star break. It was about the same time as it had been last year. We weren't gonna do anything during the All-Star Game or the Home Run Derby so that families could be at home watching that stuff, and, and what a great show that was by, by your own, you, you know, your hometown guy, Jordan, there. Um, but the day that we went to announce when our tryouts were gonna be, our director of baseball, who is also the head varsity coach at Staley High School here, um, a very, uh, high-level 6A school, uh, he, he reaches out to me and he says, "Hey, we gotta, we gotta change this up." And I said, "What do you mean we have to change this up?" "Because we gotta go early." And I'm like, "Okay, why?" And he said, "Well, we don't wanna be last to the dance, and we want to make sure that we still have a chance to evaluate the appropriate level of talent that we feel that our program offers, and so we're gonna have to move our dates up by two and a half weeks." And so we did. And, you know, to be hosting tryouts the, uh, before the Fourth of July is, is just wild to think. Um, and then the, the, the other part of it that you really touched on that I don't like But I understand it, and that's the timing of things, right? And I, and I know you've talked about this a little bit in the past. Uh, we, we offer a 48-hour window, and, um, we are flexible with that window, so long as there is two-way communication happening with the families and ourselves. And so, for example, we, we actually had to disband a, a team this year just last night because we had, uh, X number of kids had accepted our offers, X number of kids had asked for extensions, and we hosted, uh, makeup tryout dates, uh, two different times, a couple of private workouts, and we weren't able to get the same level of talent of the kids that had accepted. Well, now, fast-forward two weeks from when they accepted to now, you know, a good portion of tryouts have happened, but yet we were, you know, lenient on the, um, expiration date of the acceptance. And now these poor families are left high and dry, so to speak, s- you know, trying to find a new spot. And we did a little bit of, of help with it, where we, we reached out to a couple of different other organizations, and they were looking for players, thankfully, and so we sent the families that information. But, you know, from a, a... I was talking to the, this morning with my workout partner at the gym, and we were talking about this. And he, he said, "This timing of things is terrible." He goes, "But now that you've explained it, what you guys had to do with your, your team and disband that whole team, and now these families are left looking," he goes, "I understand it." He goes, "Baseball is a team game, and the unfortunate thing is that those other families that delayed this for a couple of weeks, they were the selfish ones And now they hurt the whole team. And so I see, I see it from all areas, right, all avenues. And, uh, I, I was thinking about how you fix it, right? Because that's what, you know, anybody that's ever in leadership, you're a, you're an okay leader if you can identify the problem. You're a great leader if you can help provide a solution for the problem. Brad: right. That's right Jason Fetters: And I don't think that this would ever really work because of egos, to be honest. But, uh, a- as I was thinking about it, if, if in Kansas City, right, so Kansas City is a, is an area that has-- You have your Kansas City, then you have your met-- you know, your, your Northland, you have your Southland, you have East Kansas City, Overland Park. You have all these other surrounding areas, and all these other areas have their own organizations. And if the organizations within each area could work together and say, "All right, X organization, you're going to hol- host tryouts this week. We're all gonna host them this week." Okay? So X organization, Y organization, Z organization, A organization, okay, everybody hosts the tryouts on the same week. Okay. X, you're gonna do 12U on Monday. Y, you're gonna do 12U on Tuesday. Z, you're gonna do it on Wednesday. A, you're gonna do it on Thursday. And then, you know, you rotate the days, uh, of what everybody does, and then that way all the families know when the tryouts are gonna be. You, you post it online. You can work together and create one flyer so we don't all have the same ChatGPT f- looking flyers. And, um, you know, and, and then everybody has the same week to get ready for. Brad: Yeah Jason Fetters: I, I think that i- is it foolproof? No. Um, but I think that it would definitely help everybody that is involved, and most importantly, it would help the families that are involved, and that's at the end of the day what's most important. Brad: I think you're right. We're in this nasty cycle of that your club experienced, where you're getting word of earlier and earlier tryouts for organizations, and then you felt the pressure, you bumped yours up, and it's just kind of, you know, it's just this cycle of constantly going earlier and earlier. And what an awkward situation it is too for the team that you're currently playing on to have tryouts, right? And have to make offers. Some kids are getting office offers, some kids are not getting offers, and you still have tournaments to play with that current team. So that's, that's one thing that I think is just absolutely awkward and, and really unfortunate with the system that we've got today. Um, I like your approach. I actually wish that the organizations that lead our youth, um, sports would step in at maybe a state level and say, "Offers cannot go out, um, until this date." There's a, there's a key date. You run your tryouts however you want ahead of that date, but there will be no offers that go out, and if you're found to have been making offers, then there's whatever penalty happens to the organization. Um, again, that's ... You're right, what you said, egos get in the way. Um, it's become more and more where the club's more concerned about the club and what product they're putting on the field, more than it's about how this is affecting families and the actual people that are engaging with their organization. So it, it's unfortunate, and it's not just baseball. I'll tell you, you know, um, I'm big in soccer o- on our side, and soccer's the same way too. Baseball's the same way here. Soccer's, you know, even earlier, and we've got this, this tricky thing where there are some regulations in our state here where it's you can only have tryouts and there is an offer date period, but the organizations are still getting around that. So instead of calling it a tryout, they're calling it a, a kick around or some other friendly term. Jason Fetters: work out Brad: It's, it's come, come give me a, give me a look type of thing. It's not technically a tryout, but it is what it is. People are evaluating kids and they're having this verbal conversation that, "Hey, I'd love you to join my team." And I just don't know a good solid way to get around it. I just know it's, it's troublesome right now in youth sports. Jason Fetters: Yeah. Well, and I, I, I know like some of it, and this, I think that we'll probably touch on this later. Um, but I think that a lot of it can be helped or, or derived if we were to get back into like the, the, the more leagues and the competitive leagues, and not so focused on tournaments and things like that. Because, for example, youth football here, uh, they, they are restricted within the league that they are all associated with on when their tryouts are and how many workouts. They're, they're run just like a Misha, you know, from a high school level with how many workouts they can do, you know, when your, your tryouts can be. Um, they're restricted from a t- a temperature standpoint, you know. So if it gets to 100 degrees, they can't be outside. We've benefited it from a facility standpoint through one of the organizations here, and, and they were able to come inside and work out, you know, the last couple of years when other teams, you know, they didn't have that, that, uh, ability Brad: Yeah, for sure. And, and so I think just talking about it and maybe airing our opinions might help something, change some opinions, same, change some things. So I don't, I, I don't know if there's gonna be an, an immediate change, but I do like the, the structure that your f- football organization has there. You probably hear a lot of stories. Um, you know, Norway's a hot topic. The soccer was great with Holland and, and it put a lot of, shed a lot of light on kind of their youth system, and they do a lot of this too, where it's, um, you know, under 13 there's a lot of regulation that goes into their youth sports. So don't know, maybe Jason Fetters: Good Brad: some opportunity there in the future for that to change. But I do wanna talk about some things we can control. And the Jason Fetters: Yeah, Brad: the next Jason Fetters: for sure Brad: you, you're building this, this baseball club, uh, for a reason. Like, you wanted to get back into it because you wanna build it the right way. Um, but I, you know, I just wanna know your opinion. Like, what does that actually look like for you? What's the right way? What, what does that look like beyond just the X's and O's, the wins and losses of, of a baseball game? Jason Fetters: Yeah, so we, we, we do it and we start it from tryouts is when we try to start what our expectations are as an organization, as the, myself and Coach DeAndre, Coach D. Uh, we, we meet with the p- the families, and we talk to all the parents. We thank them for coming out, and we tell them what the... W- you can't over-communicate, right? Like, you have to let them know, "Hey, this is what your child is going to go through today. They're gonna do a, uh, version of a dynamic warmup. They're going to go and play catch, then they're going to run a home to first. They're gonna get timed on it. If you have a catcher, they're gonna get their pop time to second." And we lay out what the whole workout's gonna be, right? And then they know that. And so while we have our other coaches working through the dynamic warmup, we're talking to the parents. We're letting them know this, and then we're telling them, "Hey, here is about us. We care about wins and losses, because the more wins you get, the more you get to play. But at the end of the day, our goal is that our teams all finish with around a 500 record, because then they're playing the appropriate level of competition." If our teams are playing and they are going 30 and five in the spring and the summer, we're doing those kids a disservice. Because as Coach D has always said and tells the families, "I don't want your kid great at 12. I don't want them great at 13. I want them great at 18 so that they have options after high school." Brad: sure Jason Fetters: And so that's, you know, kind of our message is we want families that are bought into our message, we want kids that are there to work, and we also acknowledge and we tell the parents during the parent meeting that at the end of the day, we tell them a couple of things. One, don't watch your kid during this tryout. Watch all the other kids, because they're gonna be of and around the same age. You need to see what your kid does well compared to what these other kids do so that you answer your own questions if your kid doesn't get an offer, right? Or if your kid does get an offer and you see that's the level that's out there, you see why and that he's earned it. Um, and so we, we urge parents to do that. And then, um, we tell the parents too, we acknowledge the fact of how wild the travel baseball scene is these days, and the expectations that parents put on it, and we remind the parents that this is a game for these kids that are out here on this side of the fence. Nothing happens over here in a negative way. The only negative connotations that happen and that are, are, are culture killers or team killers, they happen from the bleachers. So you as parents need to be ready to make sure that you are a part of this. If you're not, we will ask you to leave the organization, because we're not gonna tolerate you upsetting the masses. Brad: It's, it's amazing to me how often communication Jason Fetters: related Brad: things come up when it comes to a well-run team or a well-run organization. Um, I, I, I'm with you. Over-communicating not a problem because where you get big issues with parents verse coaches or parents verse an organization is when they're kind of left in the dark and they don't understand what's going on. So keeping them, know, in the know and, and along the path with you of the development of their kid, I mean, it, it can only benefit you. And I think you also embrace their opportunity to support the kid at home too, right? 'Cause they're only with the organization or the team a certain number of hours a week. Um, you want the parent representing what the, the team wants to do or what the coach wants to do at home too, and helping to, you know, support the child in whatever they're, they're doing at home in, in that environment too. So communications is fantastic and, know, your message there to the parents about what happens in the bleachers is, is so, you know, so accurate. Um, I absolutely love it. I, I wonder how's, how's the response been, um, from parents and the feedback been so far? Jason Fetters: So, so I will tell you, we've been doing this now twi- two years, and our first year I, I purposely and intentionally watched their faces. 'Cause I knew, because I've, I've, I've had a partnership with Coach D for a handful of years. He, he gave my son private lessons, um, for hitting for many years, and he's become a friend in the industry, uh, and in life more importantly. And he... I knew where he was going with, with this during the first year, and so I purposely watched all the parents' faces. And the majority of them, you know, they kinda grinned a little bit and they just started shaking their head, like Brad: Yeah Jason Fetters: you could see that they were acknowledging it. Some of them, they just kinda looked like appalled, um, that he would even insinuate something like that, right? And so, like, those are the ones where I made mental notes of who they were. And fortunately, this past year we, we've, we've established ourselves as far as what our, um, internal org structure is, so to speak, and Coach D handles all the baseball. He handles any baseball-related questions from families. He helps with the coaches. He doesn't coach any of our teams because he's coaching in the high school season, right? And they, they coincide with each other, and he can't. And so he handles anything and everything baseball and development-wise. I handle everything financial, and so if you have a question about your payment, you have a question about what's going to what, I'm the one that takes care of that. We don't cross-pollinate with what we are doing. If a parent comes to him about finances, he will look at them and say, "Have you taken it to Jason?" Okay, well you need to. He's the one that's gonna answer that. And in turn, when, if I get emails, uh, because my email address is out there a little bit more prevalently than, than Coach D's just because of communication through the organization, if I get emails about questions about stuff from families, I just flip it over to him, let him handle it. And, and it's been a very, very good marriage when it comes to that. Brad: that's great Jason Fetters: Um, and, and some of the other stuff too, like that, that we end up... Parents see it, and, and I think that this is crucial because we're not-- We're, we're here to build you up and help you enhance yourself as a baseball player, right? But more importantly, we're here to help you advance yourself as a young human. And there's not enough good mentorship on what being a good human looks like. And so some of the little things that we do and we teach our teams, you know, they're, "Leave the dugout better than you got it." That's a phrase that every one of our teams tells the kids. And so when we go to leave the dugout, it's clean as a whistle. Um, if it's not, there is a penalty. You may have to do some burpees or, you know, something along those lines. Brad: it Jason Fetters: Um, make, make sure that you hustle on and off the field. Make sure that you, um, are putting in work outside of practice. Like if you, you know, this day and age, having our own facility, like if you're not putting in extra work to get better, you're only working at practice, and, you know, little Timmy over here is at the facility working on the drills that we've worked on in practice and is asking for more drills, little Timmy's advancing a little bit more than you, there's your answer, right? Um, and then most importantly, I think, is to be respectful and good stewards of the game. And so we finish every post-game speech with a reminder to the kids to make sure that they thank their families, thank their friends, thank all their relatives that came and supported them, whether they were here in the stands or if they were watching on GameChanger. And we always make sure that, that we're doing that. And, uh, it's developed so much so that there's probably, uh, seven kids on, uh, the two teams that I ended up helping with this past year that all came up to me and we created our own little dap-up session at the end of it after we're done, because they wanna make sure that they thank me and thank the other coaches as well, not just their families. And, you know, those are the things that you and I know that get you through life, being respectful, making sure that you pick up after yourself, making sure that if you see a piece of trash on the ground, you go and you pick it up. Like those are just little things that, um, you know, get forgotten in this day and age because we're so tied to the screen time. Um, we're so tied to everything else that's just about us. Let's worry about everybody else too. Brad: Yeah, I love it. A- and to, to back up a little bit, one, one thing I wanna make sure to call out to the, the parents that might be listening, you can ruin it for your kid, um, on a tryout or on a team with your behavior because, uh, this is an evaluation for the kid, but I think coaches also want to have a good community supporting the team as well. I know at least that's what I look for too. I look for good families and good athletes. I, I've not taken some kids on teams because I, I know the behavior that goes along with that child. It's unfortunate to say, but you wanna have good people there, and you wanna present yourself in the best way possible and, and for the kids, right? This is ultimately for them, and the behavior is a, a big part of that. And I love what you're doing here as far as the behavior, cleaning up the dugout. Man, how many times do you walk out of a dugout and you see, you know, plastic water bottles, caps, gum, uh, seed, you know, seeds all over the place? Um, it's, it, it can be a nightmare scene. It's Jason Fetters: Boxes of pretzels and half-eaten hot dogs Brad: Yeah. I mean, who's raising these kids? I don't know. But, um, Jason Fetters: What do their rooms look like? Brad: I, I can only imagine. O- otherwise, they're just, they're just, um, letting it all out on the baseball field where, where they can... where they're getting away from it because they don't have a coach that's trying to help lead them the right way. Jason Fetters: Sure, sure Brad: most coaches, they genuinely, they-- I think they genuinely want to help kids, but a lot of them are just showing up to, to practice, and I, I think they're winging it, to be perfectly Jason Fetters: Mm-hmm. Brad: don't think they're going in with a true development plan, not only just for that day, but thinking a little bit longer term, maybe a whole seasonal approach to development for that child. So give me some of your perspective on what separates a coach who's just running drills for the sake of running drills and one who's actually spending time developing players. Jason Fetters: Yeah, so that's a great question because that's of our, our messages is that the game is the reward to the work that you put in at practice and outside of practice. And so our drills, we, we start our practices, uh, organizationally the same way as we do a game. And so we treat... There, there's one minor thing, we don't hit before practice whereas we hit before a game because where we play at, there's, there's hitting tunnels. Um, but we do the same dynamic warmup before every practice that we do before the game. We play catch. Uh, we then get, and our, our outfielders, everybody goes out to the outfield and they work on their drop steps. Uh, our infielders, they go and they work on their short hops and their picks. And so we've created a system to where they know what this is, and they know that that's gonna be the first, you know, 15 to 20 minutes of every practice is the same as every game. Because I, I'm a firm believer in the old adage of you, you play how you practice. And so we've built that piece of it out and, um, one of the things that, that kinda drove that was that you- There's so many arm injuries that occur, and they occur because of overuse of the arm. And if you warm up, you don't need to throw to, uh, you know, 50 throws to get loose. If you warm up your whole body, your arm takes that much less. So, like, our warm-up in throwing is less than 30 throws, Brad: Yeah Jason Fetters: we have it that finite down. And so then, you know, then you get into the lessons, and we structure, uh, how our practices look. Coach D has, has shared his 30 years of, of coaching. He's shared all the drills that he's ever done. We have a, a online, um, portfolio of that for all the coaches. He's given us a practice plan that he's used in the past, that he uses now for Staley High School, which has been a top six program in, in Missouri the two years that he's been there. Finished second two years ago in state. And so we have those practice plans, and we get that finite to where your dynamic warm-up is listed and you've got 20 minutes. Your playing catch is, you know, 10 minutes. This is this, this is this, this is this. And then from a drill perspective, when you get into the drills, it's not about how many repetitions you take of it, it's the quality of the reps that you take. And so how you can differentiate or, or as a parent if you're listening, what y- what you should look for is are they running through it fast to just get 30 reps in per kid? Are they timing these? Or are they stopping when they see something wrong, asking the kid, you know, the, the, the player, "Hey, what did you see on this drill? What do you understand of this drill? Explain it back to me," to make sure that they understand the drill. And then it's not just for them, because if they don't understand it, there's probably another four kids in line that don't understand it too. And so you explain it, you stop, and you have to reset the drill if they don't understand it. You as the coach need to make sure that you can explain it in multiple ways. And so, um, you know, we, we don't put as far as like, um, number of reps, the only... There's only one drill that we do where we actually take a finite number of reps, and that's our warm-up batting drill. Um, and, and that's just how many swings they get doing certain... 'Cause we start with a situational batting drill. And so, um, the-- You, you as a parent need to look and see and make sure that your coach understands the drill himself, right? Because YouTube is a wonderful thing, ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, whatever other AI options are out there, they're wonderful things to help you build these things, but if you don't know how to execute them, Brad: Yeah Jason Fetters: then you're not doing the kids a, a... You're doing the kids a disservice. And so what that did was it ironically it led to a, a friend of mine who used to own an organization here, um, in Kansas City, we've become friends. He works in the tech space, and him and I were talking about this type same thing. Um, fortunately at that time it was over a, a nice cold beverage, but, uh, we'll, we'll, we'll have one sometime soon, right? Brad: next time. Jason Fetters: Um, but it, it led to a, a conversation of, you know what? We both understand technology. We both understand, um, how valuable a practice plan can be for a coach. And so, that's what led us to create this Practice Plan OS. Um, you know, or Practice OS is technically the name of it, but it's a practice plan, right? And it utilizes AI, it utilizes, um, the data that we've given it, and it's, it's a great way of, of introducing a coach to what a practice plan looks like. And so, uh, we went so in-depth with it that if, if you, Brad, you're the coach of the team, you sign up for our subscription. You put that you are a, uh, 12U coach, you've got 11 players on your roster, you guys play at a AA level, your coaching understanding is intermediate level, and this-- so that you build that information in. You can build the individual players in as well. And then you take from there, and you wanna build your practice for tomorrow, right? 'Cause if you're planning it the day of, you're failing yourself, you're failing your team. You know, this takes, this takes less than five minutes, and you can be prepared. And so, you put in that you're gonna be doing an outdoor practice. You're gonna go for 90 minutes, and then we, we have a bank of, of, of items that we want you to work on. And you select, you know, three of those items, for example. And then it calculates and it builds what your plan looks like from your dynamic warm-up, all the way down to water breaks and everything else. It embeds, um, links to the drills that it wants you to do, and it's not going to be... If you have an hour and a half long practice, we've restricted it to be able to select three subtopics so that you're not sitting there and trying to do 37 different drills, right? You're gonna do six different drills so that the time is spent appropriately. And it's, it's a very intuitive app. Uh, we just completed the beta testing of it, and, um, we've rolled it out to a local league here, uh, to where the president of the league has been testing it with his 6U team. I've been testing it with our 13U team. Um, I've had a high school coach, Coach D, he's looked through it and worked through it as well. And, um, our, our most recent enhancement was we actually put an upload feature so you can take your game changer stats, export them through a CSV file, upload it into here each weekend, and it will build you a recap of your season and what your team, and more specifically, what individual players need to work on based on what the stats are. So, then it goes into, you know, is, is whoever is running your game changer, are they being honest about how they're scoring the game or are they not? Like, that's a whole nother podcast, right? it was, it was something that we, we, we saw that we were doing it the right way. Um, this gentleman, he used to do it the right way and, and build these things out. And now it's like, all right, let's give back even more. Let's build this out. And so we've developed it, and, and we're pretty happy with it, and we'll continue to enhance it. Brad: Well, it sounds like it's offering a good development plan too. You're not just running through some drills because you wanna work on, you know, double plays for a day, right? You, you've got some stats that back it up that say, "Hey, this is really where we need to, to step in." Or, you know, if you've got some kids that need extra help with hitting, you're, you've got the stats to help back that up too. I like the game changer opportunity there too. you know, going back just a little bit in the conversation one thing that I really like that you said is that you warm up or you prepare for practice the same way you pr- prepare for games. I've had a lot of conversations with some mental coaches and performance coaches, and one thing I think that's doing, and whether you're, know, maybe paying attention to it or not, is helping calm those nerves too of certain kids that might be getting a little nervous because they get into that mode of, "This is the warm-up, this is what we're gonna do," and, and the mind and body's ready to go. And whether it's a practice or a game, it's the same consistent thing, and I think that's a really fantastic approach, so I just wanted to call that out really quickly Jason Fetters: Yeah, I appreciate that. It, it w- you know, I learned, um, unfortunately for my son, uh, he was my guinea pig growing up as a coach, Brad: always are, Jason Fetters: and, uh, right, and, and, you know, I, I was overly hard on him being a coach's kid. I was always going to make sure that, you know, he batted in the bottom half of the lineup. Uh, he was, you know... It, it didn't matter that he was my son, right? Like, he, he got it extra hard because he was my son, and beyond reproach, nobody was gonna ever question that. And so, you know... But I learned a long way, too, that, you know, I, I used to yell and scream and be that guy that would, you know, thinking that the louder that I yelled, the more impactful that it was going to be, the message. I learned a long time ago in doing this that if I pull a kid in who just made an error, and we got out of the inning and we're in between innings, if I pull him over and I look at him and I say, "Hey, Timmy, what did you see on that play?" And he tells me and he breaks it down. Okay, this is what I saw from my vantage point. One, I'm gaining that, his trust in me that I'm not just gonna yell at him and bench him, right? I'm gaining his, what he views and his baseball IQ so that I can then help him enhance that as well. And we have that conversation because what I learned is, and, and not only in, in personal life, but also in professional life, like you get a lot more with sugar than you do spice. And the minute that you yell at one of these kids because they made a mistake, you've lost them for the entire game. You know, that's not fair to the team at that point because you wanna yell at them. Like, change your approach. You're the adult. You're supposed to be the better human being here. Have the conversation. Brad: Yeah. Such, Jason Fetters: Control your emotions Brad: a great approach. You think about your own life, you know, you wouldn't want your boss yelling at you in front of your entire team. That's gonna make you shut down. It's gonna make you angry. Uh, it's gonna kill your confidence. So same approach, you know, even more with kids who are still learning how to handle their emotions and these pressure situations. So Jason Fetters: Well, and think about, think about baseball too. Like, they, they, they always talk about the unwritten rules of baseball and remain composed and don't show emotion, but yet all these coaches show emotion. All these coaches lose their composure. And so, you know, I, I, I always do a bunch of self-reflecting and, and that was one of the things that I've picked up over the course of the last probably seven years Brad: Yep. And, and along this same path here, if you're taking over a brand new team starting tomorrow, let's say, what's, let's say one thing that you'd focus on during that first month that might have the biggest impact on player development? Jason Fetters: Oh. So the one thing is building the routine. Um, I, I think that that is so crucial. Uh, you know, you talked about it with the, um, the, the mental side of it, and if you build what that routine is... Like, we had our 12 and our 13-year-olds, our 11-year-old team last year, um, even our 10-year-old team to a certain extent, like they didn't need the coach out there leading them during their warm-up. Like, the leaders within the team stepped up. They knew what, what we wanted from a warm-up side. And so if you can build that routine from day one, it's massive. And so this year, uh, we, we brought over, uh, an entire team and we meshed two teams together and added a few other pieces, and I was already having a conversation with that coach 'cause he's coming from outside of our organization, from a different organization. And I said, "Hey." I sent him over, I said, "Hey, here's our warm-up. Here's our, our pre-practice, pre-game routine. You know, here's all these things." And he looked at it and he's like, "Oh my gosh. Like, I needed this, you know, two years ago, and this is awesome." Because, you know, that way organizationally because, for example, last year our 12U team was short a player. We brought up an 11U player to play with us. We didn't have to worry about what he was gonna do from a routine standpoint. He already knew what our warm-up routine was. He already knew what the expectations were. And so, you know, if, if you can build it out from day one what that routine looks like practice one, then you're that miles ahead of everybody else. And if you build it out as a coach or an organization, you build it out because the ultimate goal is to get these kids ready for high school. If you build it out in such a way that is, you know, indicative of what your high school, local high school program looks like, you know, go to their practices and watch, talk to those coaches. Those coaches love talking. And, you know, w- again, we're fortunate because we have one, uh, my son's high school coach, he is a, a resource and a friend as well. Uh, we talk baseball quite frequently as well. And, you know, if, if you can build these kids, you know, from day one to be prepared for what your expectations are, your practices are that much smoother, your games are that much more fun Brad: I think something you teased out too that I'm totally on board with is al- along the way of building these athletes, you're also building leaders. And by giving them an opportunity to lead the team, even through a warmup or a drill, you're giving an opportunity to become that, that vocal person on the team, a leader on the team. And I'm a huge proponent of that. I do it with my team where, you know, different kids will lead things even in a practice. But you want to, you want that to happen, right? You wanna be able to say, "Hey, I've got kids I can lean on that are real leaders." Because when it comes to the game time and you're in the game, you've got o- other coaches, other leaders on the field with, with everybody that's gonna help replicate the things that you've been driving in practice and the, you know, the mantras you're trying to lead with the team and, and what, what have you. So, you know, along with the, the athletic skills, it's fantastic to build mental leaders, let's call them, uh, as well Jason Fetters: Yeah, for sure. And it, it just helps your job as a coach, right? Like, you don't have to always have that conversation with a player that might be down on themselves 'cause they struck out or didn't come through in whatever the situation was. Those leaders on your team are over there picking them up. Brad: for Jason Fetters: And I'm getting, I'm getting the goosebumps, you know, talking about it now because it's, it's... When you see that happen, it's so rewarding. Like, that's why we're in this, right? We're not, we're not in this because, uh, again, here's another famous Coach D line that he tells parents. He goes, "If you... If- parents, if you're in it for trophies, come to my house. I got a basement full of them." You know? I'm, I'm here to get these kids ready. Like, we're here to get these kids ready and, and, and ready for life. Because if you look at the stats, and I know that you probably have, you know, 7% of graduating high school kids go play colle- collegiate athletics. You know? That's Brad: It's Jason Fetters: a very finite amount. And then the number obviously becomes exponentially smaller as you advance to the next levels and, and, and, you know, we just had the MLB draft. Well, the MLB draft, for people that don't know this, this was actually talked about on Sports Talk Radio in Kansas City. They didn't realize it, that a handful of years ago it went from 50 rounds down to 20. And, you know, look at all those that, uh, don't necessarily pan out Brad: A- and you add the international folks, right? There's a big international part Jason Fetters: Yep Brad: any sport, so that further dilutes things. So it's, it's a tough path for sure. And so, Jason Fetters: Yeah, so, so you wanna get 'em ready and through the leadership piece, you know, to, to, to bring that back in so that they are ready when they get into life and they get into college and, you know, they're presented other opportunities, they, they rise to the top, so to speak Brad: Yeah, that you're not-- Your ultimate goal isn't to get them to the pro level. Your ultimate goal is to, to create a good athlete, uh, to, to create a good human being, a good person that can walk off the Jason Fetters: Yes Brad: some things that are actually gonna impact their life. And we're kind of Jason Fetters: That's right Brad: right now. So maybe the measure of success for a coach is you look out on that field of play and you see your players replicating the things that you've been talking about, and taking leadership opportunities on the field, and helping teammates, and things like that. I think that's a fantastic measure of a great coached team. A lot of people judge a coach or judge a team based on wins. What's something you think would be a good measure instead of the wins that we've been talking about here? Jason Fetters: Yeah, so I think the, to me the wins are, is that, is that group of kids better at the game than they were when you first got them? Are they better humans? Right? And at the end of the day, did, did they have a good experience? Do they wanna continue to come back? Because, you know, when you get to the, you know, 11, 12, 13, 14-year-old standpoint, that's when, for whatever reason, kids start to, or parents or coaches from other teams and sports push you to become a single sport athlete. Um, I don't want you to be a single sport athlete. My son was a dual sport ath- my oldest son was a dual sport athlete. My youngest son, you know, he played multiple sports at, at different points of his life. And so, like, we build our fall schedule around that, and we truly embrace it. Like, we do one practice a week in the fall, and it's an optional practice. Um, our families are gonna know what, you know, their three or four tournament weekends are, uh, by probably the first week of August, so that they can plan those weeks accordingly. And they can let us know, "Hey, no, we've got a football game. We're not gonna be able to make it." You know, we're gonna have to find a sub, um, you know, or, or we're just gonna run short that game and instead of having, you know, 11 or 12 on the, on the bench, we're gonna only have 10. Brad: Yeah Jason Fetters: Um, you know, I think that making sure that, you know, to, to, to bring that back, make sure that the kids are better at the sport and at life, making sure that they are having fun and they wanna come back, and then making sure that they've represented themselves and they've represented the brand. Like, we don't do last names on jerseys. We do our organizational logo on the back name because, on the back of the jersey because you're playing for a team. You're playing for an organization. You're not playing for yourself Brad: That's great. I wish others would model, and maybe they will after listening to this, what your organization is doing. Um, I'm gonna take a stab at answering this next one with my perspective first and, and maybe get Jason Fetters: Okay Brad: your opinions, because you touched on it a little bit with your, with your last, uh, little bit of this conversation when you talked about, you know, making sure athletes can play multiple sports. Sounds like you don't have a, a lot of, you know, tournaments playing in the fall, things like that, uh, to, to allow them to have this other life and this other opportunity. I'm gonna ask you, like, what's, what's something that's been considered normal in today's youth baseball that we're gonna look back in 10 years and think, "Man, that's crazy. Why did we ever do it that way?" My answer is always going to be the year-round push that we're putting on youth athletes, U8, U9, U10, to, to just continually push them throughout an entire year to focus on one sport, and I... It, it's so tough, 'cause I think, think a lot of organizations do that, in my opinion, because they wanna secure that revenue, honestly, throughout a, throughout an entire year, some security to the money that's coming into the organization, not just a, a spike in the spring. They wanna have it in the winter months, in the fall months, in the summer months too. So, you know, my, my perspective is the year-long focus on one single sport is, a little bit brutal, and I think it's pushing burnout, it's pushing kids to, to stop playing, you know, by the time they get to be 12 or 13 years old, and I think we're missing out on a lot of good athletes because of the, the hard push that we're putting on them in such a young age. So that's my answer. Let me, let me open it up and get your thoughts Jason Fetters: So I don't, I don't disagree with that one bit. Um, you know, I, I experienced it with my oldest where, uh, he was told by, uh, by a, a coach, um, outside of baseball, "Hey, we..." And, and families we were told this too, like, "Hey, we want dual sport athletes. We want dual sport athletes. We push dual sport athletes." But then in the summer when it's not that sport's season and they're hosting workouts, and a kid misses a Wednesday morning workout because he's playing in a baseball game, and when he returns Thursday to that sport's workout in the morning, he's penalized because he skipped a workout Brad: Terrible. Jason Fetters: I mean, what, what-- you, you can't have your cake and eat it too, coach. Brad: That's Jason Fetters: And, and, and I had a real hard time with that, um, because I, I looked at it from a coaching perspective. Do I want my, my kid, my, my player, do I want him practicing for something that is probably three or four months away? Or do I want him out on a different field competing, driving that competitive burn, and pushing himself athletically and mentally into a game situation? I'm sorry, but every day of the week I'll take him in the game situation over that. So I, I agree with you on that, but, but I actually wanna take a different turn on this because I, I've entertained and I've had some conversations with a national, uh, program, um, because I think that the art of the baseball league, at least here in the Midwest, at least here specifically in Kansas City, I think that it is falling by the wayside, and I think that it is a huge, huge miss. And so Kansas City, for example, is a massive tournament-focused baseball, um, and softball city. And I think that you as a team, as a player, as a family, as an organization, you miss out by not playing in those leagues. You know, how when my son was coming up, uh, he played in a league and at, you know, 11, 12, 13 years old, those formidable years in baseball, because pitching is becoming more and more, kids are, you know, developing faster, puberty is hitting, et cetera. And the-- we utilize those leagues to develop our pitching, Brad: Yeah Jason Fetters: okay? My son, we knew my son could pitch, right? We didn't need to see him pitch in a league game. We, we needed him to be ready on the weekend. So if he pitched in a league game, it was an inning in the middle of the week just to get him some work, because it was probably gonna be a bullpen day for him to pr- uh, practice anyway, right? You know, it allows you to develop kids in other positions and in a less intense environment. And, but we are so focused on tournaments and we are so focused on the exposure and, you know, um, being at, at the hottest tournament. So, like, this year, in, in our first year, we... PBR, Prep Baseball Report, is a massive brand here in Kansas City that hosts a lot of tournaments. I was taking a step back from high school baseball, where my son had been playing, into the youth space. Brad: Mm-hmm. Jason Fetters: I just assumed, and shame on me, that PBR is where our youth teams needed to play. Now, each coach of each team dictates where they play and what tournaments they play in. We don't mandate that. But I was coaching two of the teams at the time, and so I put them into PBR tournaments. And it was, uh, it was a mistake on our side. Um- And the mistake was, was the fact that not that the tournaments were awful, because they were fantastic tournaments, the, the fields, the umpires, everything was great about them. But what I realized was the age-specific fields. You know, you have a 12-year-old kid playing on a 400-foot to dead center field with no temporary fence in between, anything down the line or in the gap is a home run. And when these tournaments are focused on your tiebreakers, and you've got, you know, 20 teams in your bracket, and your tiebreaker is runs allowed, Brad: Crazy Jason Fetters: well, you know. I mean, there was-- Of the-- I think they have, between the two complexes, they have 14 fields maybe, and only four of them ever had temporary fences, and you never knew if they were gonna have temporary fences. And so there's so much emphasis placed on this, like why not play in a league where you're on an age-appropriate field, and when a kid hits a home run, he can celebrate and come in and party with his f- you know, his teammates and celebrate, "Hey, I just, you know, hit that nuke out to left center. Did you guys see that?" Right? Like, whereas now you look at it and you see these, um, you know, these scores and they're, you know, 15 to, to 12, and you've got seven home runs between the two teams, but you're playing on a high school field. Brad: Right Jason Fetters: Like, what, what are the kids gaining from that? Whereas... And, and it's such a high-pressure situation because, you know, because of these runs allowed and you're pitching your better pitchers earlier in the tournament because you don't wanna, you know, allow these runs, and then you're exhausting all of your pitching because you don't have a chance to develop it. And so I, I think that if we look back in 10 years, or at least I hope if we look back in 10 years, that we will see the, um, we will see the leagues reinvent themselves here. Um, and like I said, I've had some conversations with a, a national organization that runs leagues, and they do a fantastic job out on the East Coast. They have-- They pull from a four-state area, uh, in their, their number one, uh, enrolled league, and they have over 1,200 teams in their leagues in all ages. Brad: that Jason Fetters: And, uh, it's just fantastic. And so we're, we're working with them to see what it would look like to bring that to here. But their big fear and mine is how do you enter and penetrate a market that is so tournament-focused? Brad: I, Jason Fetters: And so Brad: think it's there 'cause I'm right there with you. I, you know, rec great again or make leagues great again type of mentality. Jason Fetters: Yep Brad: We are missing athletes who aren't making the... I, you know, most clubs will take your money and they'll put you on a team, they'll put you in a division somewhere. But opinion is these clubs that have three, four, five teams at the same age bracket or s- age division, those t- teams that aren't your top team, why are we not putting them into a league where those players can further develop? Same mentality, right? It's, it's a, it's a f- look at it like a feeder thing possibly or something, but let these kids have lower pressure situations, lower cost, and have the opportunity to really find themselves and then, give them an opportunity to make a team, you know, m- more and more. And, and for, for the record, I cannot stand that tiebreakers in tournaments are runs for, or in soccer it's goals for. It's crazy because you get these mismatched teams playing each other and you wind up with a score that's 20 to three, and it's like that, that helps nobody. It doesn't help the team that's winning by 20. It doesn't help the team that's losing, certainly. So it's, it's brutal. I wish they would find some other tiebreakers for, for s- a lot of these tournaments Jason Fetters: Well, yeah, like our, this past year what, what kind of brought it to light and I had, uh, we had internal conversations about it was our 11U team on Friday played at one complex that doesn't have temporary fences. They won 15 to 10, and then the next night they played in a game and it was at a field that had the temporary fence, and they played, uh, to a five to three game. Well, they ended up 2-0, but at 2-0 they were still like the eighth seed because there were so many other 2-0 teams. But all the other 2-0 teams had played at the other fields with the temporary fences giving up less runs Um, you know, our-- Where I became a huge fan, and maybe it had to do with a little bit of winning, but it was how we won, uh, where I became a huge advocate for the age-appropriate fields was, uh, our 12U team played in a wood bat tournament. Brad: Cool Jason Fetters: And which are awesome, right? Like, that sound is just great to hear coming off a wood bat. And when you see a kid... Even at 12U, we had one. Uh, our, one of our kids, he got his bat broke, uh, off of a swing. And, and just to see the excitement and joy. Like, he's like, "I just grounded out to the pitcher," but he's celebrating like he hit a, you know, game-winning double because he broke his bat, right? And, um, you know, but we played on age-appropriate fields, and it was just baseball. And it was good, clean baseball all weekend long. And, you know, we were fortunate to win that, that tournament, and we got, you know, a nice wood bat. All the kids signed it. We've got it hanging, you know, headed to hang up in the new facility. And, you know, the way that we won it, we were, we were-- we dominated on the bracket day and, you know, the first game, second game, then we get to the championship game, and we're up in the last inning six to one, and uh-oh, here comes a doinker, you know, off the wood bat. Here comes this. Next thing you know, we're heading into extra innings tied, and we had blown the lead, and we just executed. And seeing them play on that age-appropriate field, seeing them play... You know, because we teach our outfielders, we play the gaps. We're taking away doubles. We don't play the lines. Our pitchers know if you give up one down the line, that's a double on you, not on the fielders. And so seeing them play the gaps and making the diving plays and making the plays in front of them and hitting the right cutoff and throwing to the right base, like seeing it on those fields, because they had a chance to, right? If we were at the high school field, they wouldn't have a chance to make those. And so it just gets them that much more prepared. And, um, I, I made a, a concession that, you know, from... I, I will push our coaches. They still get to dictate where they play, what tournaments they play in. I do not control that. But, uh, I push them to consider that as an option, and we had a very in- long internal conversation about it, and all of our coaches agreed, like, uh, we might be onto something with making sure we do that. Because the umpiring wasn't that much different. Um, you know, we have another whole, whole other philosophy about umpiring and, Brad: Yeah. Jason Fetters: and all of that. So, um, that way it keeps the parents from chirping and, and, you know, the coaches stay in line and things like that. So, um, at, at the end of the day, the, the baseball was good baseball, and that's what we want Brad: That's awesome. Such good insight. I love getting the perspective and the inner workings of what you've... You know, your perspective as a parent, your perspective as a coach, as a club creator, as an app creator. It's so many different things that you've got your hands in, and it's such a good perspective. I appreciate your time. I'd love to let people know where they can find out more about, you know, Practice OS app or, um, the organization if they're looking in, into the area. Help me out. Where can people go to find more out about you? Jason Fetters: Sure. Uh, first of all, I wanna thank you for everything that you have done with this platform and how you have grown it because, um, as we were talking earlier, uh, before we started recording, it was, uh, you know, you, you started to show up on my feed, right? Like, uh, the algorithms of the phone, they're, they're, they're much like Mother Nature, they're undefeated. And, uh, you know, they nailed this one. It, it allowed you and I to reconnect after many years and, um, you know, you're doing great things for this community, and the guests that you've had so far have been spot on. Um, I'm-- I know that I'm taking the, the sponsorship lady, I'm gonna take a lot of that information and, and take it to our parents because, uh, we, we allow for fundraising, but I don't have enough bandwidth to be able to dictate what that looks like. Um, and so I let each team take care of it, and so I'm gonna take that, um, and, and share that with all of our families. Um, but where you can catch us is, uh, our website is 816athletics.com. That incorporates our, both our Futures program, which is our youth side. Uh, we are developing it into a high school program as well down the road. And so 816 Athletics, you can find, uh, information about us there. Um, for you coaches or you parents as well that want to get help getting drills for, uh, your son or your daughter right now, our, our practiceos.pro is the name of our website and app. Um, you can just add it to your home screen on your phone and get a membership, uh, set up, and you can-- Right now it's restricted to baseball and softball, but we do have the intention to grow it to soccer, to grow it to basketball, hockey, um, football, you know, all the sports, uh, that are out there. And so while it is geared for the actual coach of a team, you as a parent, if you are, um, you know, wanting to, it's a, it's a very low cost. Um, I think we're at $5.99 a month right now is, is all it costs. And so you as a parent can download it and get a membership as well for those times of, of need where you're going to your facility, your organization's facility, or whatever alternative facility that you guys use. So, uh, Brad, again, I appreciate the time. Brad: love it, Jason. if this episode helped you, share it with another coach or a parent who's figuring it out too. You can find Uncoached and this episode wherever you listen to podcasts. You can watch the episode on YouTube, and make sure to follow The Coaching Dad on Instagram, TikTok, or Facebook. We'll see you next time on Uncoached