Latest / The Layback Podcast / Mike Grady, Grady's Pitching School (Ep. 82)

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Mike Grady, Grady's Pitching School (Ep. 82) · The Layback Podcast

0:00
Hey everyone, welcome back to the Lay Back podcast.
0:03
I'm certainly excited to be back in interviewing someone else.
0:06
Hopefully the audio is OK. I am outside again trying to
0:10
avoid a crying baby. Your fingers crossed.
0:12
Not a crying baby. I can only assume it's going to
0:14
get bad in there at some point, but Mike, being a parent, knows
0:19
this all too well and was willing and accepting of me to
0:24
just do this impromptu talk with him today.
0:27
So yeah, that that'll bring us to our guest, Mike Grady.
0:30
Grady pitching school up in Ohio.
0:32
I've been following Mike on Twitter.
0:36
Gosh, I don't know, maybe since 2019 or something like that.
0:40
And we finally got connected and actually started talking a bit
0:45
earlier this year. He, he's spoken with Darrell a
0:47
good bit in the past, but Mike and I finally got connected and
0:51
it it was about time to actually have him on.
0:54
One of the things we're going to get into today with Mike is
0:58
discovery, learning process, iteration, and really how he's
1:03
built and changed his mission in coaching over the past 1520
1:09
years because he really has been at this for a while, not just as
1:13
a pro player himself, but coaching in college, coaching in
1:17
the private sector, and really doing amazing things up in
1:21
Northeast Ohio. So with that, Mike, hopefully I
1:24
didn't steal too much of your Thunder.
1:26
I know I mentioned you pitch professionally in there, so
1:29
please hit us with the other highlights that I might have
1:32
missed. Yeah, well, thanks for having
1:34
me. I'm super happy to be here.
1:36
Yeah, I've been doing coaching. I've been in the coaching world
1:39
since 2005. And it's a it's it's weird to
1:42
put your bio 20 years. It's sure gone fast.
1:45
So yeah, 2005 I actually was a player.
1:49
I played for the Washington Wild Things in the Frontier League at
1:52
the same time I was the pitching coach at Malone.
1:54
So I was 23 years old when I first got hired at Malone.
1:57
I was actually younger than some of the seniors on the team that
2:01
year. So they didn't know that.
2:02
I didn't tell them that, but that was just, that was my first
2:06
opportunity in coaching and I just wanted it from day one, try
2:10
to acquire as much knowledge as I could.
2:12
So I spent five years at Malone and after I got done playing and
2:17
then I ended up getting into public education because I
2:21
realized from coaching that I really do like teachings.
2:23
I spent 13 years as a teacher. I taught business and
2:25
entrepreneurship, accounting all at the high school level.
2:29
And in 2022 I left and now I coach full time and I run our
2:33
facility which opened in 2016, Velocity Sports.
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So really for the last 20 years I've worked with pitchers either
2:41
through a coaching, through coaching college baseball or
2:44
individually just working one-on-one.
2:46
And as you alluded to, boy, it's changed from, you know, me,
2:51
maybe we just go back five years ago, but but definitely, I'd say
2:55
starting 10 years ago is when the revolution happened.
3:00
And it was kind of cool to be a part of reading and learning and
3:04
going through that whole process as a coach of changing what we
3:06
do. That's all too true.
3:09
When you look at your offerings with Grady's pitching school.
3:12
I know you guys have been very passionate about adding the most
3:16
advanced technology you can not just to say you have advanced
3:20
technology, but truly to get measurements that will aid in
3:25
player development or to create a more objective path for these
3:29
guys to follow. That leads directly into player
3:33
plans, which I know you're passionate about.
3:36
So maybe we'll dive in there. We'll, we'll come back to the
3:39
outskirts of this later. We'll we'll go back to the
3:42
surface level, but why not just dive in since we're already
3:46
talking about how things have changed.
3:48
So we'll start in the present. You're, you're super passionate
3:51
about player plans. Maybe just walk that back ever
3:55
so slightly for how player plans have changed for you over the
3:59
years, and give us a look into what you're doing now to create
4:03
those plans. You're right, I think back when
4:05
I started a player development plan was a 5 minute conversation
4:09
on here's what you're doing. Well, here's what we need to
4:13
work on and it was simple as that.
4:15
And I think network great at the time.
4:17
And then all of a sudden you skip ahead a little bit and our
4:21
player plans were, hey, let's put video up on ATV screen and
4:24
let's go over that together. And so we did that for a while.
4:28
And then as more information is coming in and you specifically
4:32
look at rap Soto and just if you ask most players, do they really
4:37
understand the data on that screen?
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And the answer is no. Like they've seen their data,
4:42
but they've never had anybody explain that to them and all the
4:45
information that comes with that.
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We also two years ago, my brother in law's doctor physical
4:51
therapy. So our conversation where this
4:53
really started was a few years ago when we're going to be
4:56
training players all winter is we really need to know a little
4:59
bit more about how they move, their mobility, their strength,
5:03
make sure they're healthy for a full training program.
5:06
And so I worked with him to build and really he built the
5:10
rapport with with my input, both of our inputs.
5:13
And that was kind of like a new open door to more information
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because what I learned was on the PT side or the strength side
5:23
of the mobility side, if you're not able to move in a certain
5:27
way, there's no drill pitching that is going to solve that.
5:31
That kind of comes all the way to to now.
5:34
And now not only I'll get in front of you.
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So a player comes in our door and we're going to do a
5:39
functional movement screen, we're going to do a mobility
5:41
assessment, a strength assessment, and that all gets
5:43
put into a report from our PT. We're going to do a pitch design
5:48
report where we print the PDF or we download the PDF from
5:52
Repsoto, soon to be Trackman, but currently Repsoto.
5:55
And then now I'm using a bio mechanic software called Uplift
5:58
and that gives us APDF report. So I have all these reports
6:02
coming in, but what really is changing is AI because now what
6:06
we do amazingly enough is we take all of our coach's notes,
6:10
we take all of the reports and we upload it together into AI to
6:13
help us connect all the dots. And I think before if that
6:16
process would have taken hours and hours to do all of that.
6:20
Now we can do that a lot quicker and really have a better plan
6:23
put all together. And, and the most important part
6:25
of that is the player only has athletes only have a limited
6:28
amount of time to train. Their time is their biggest
6:30
limiting factor. So we need to go after the
6:33
things that are packed then the most.
6:35
And for every athlete, it's different.
6:36
Most of them walk in the door and they want to throw harder,
6:38
really all of them. But then the question becomes
6:41
how or how are we going to do that?
6:43
And sometimes it's we need to get in the weight room, we need
6:46
to fix a movement issue, we need to improve our mobility.
6:49
Sometimes it's all of those, but that's where we just need to all
6:53
be on the same page before training starts.
6:56
So that was a long answer to how we got to where we are today.
7:00
It is all good. I unfortunately don't have my
7:03
notebook next to me so I I going to put this out there now
7:07
because if I speak it out hopefully I'll remember it.
7:10
I've 2 questions and they both go different ways.
7:13
So 1 is going to be regarding specifically those tests that
7:20
are a part of the assessment, the variables that you're
7:22
looking at or the measurements you're looking at.
7:25
Another, which is pertinent to that answer.
7:28
You said you, you utilize AI when you're creating these
7:34
plans. When you look at Twitter now or
7:37
when you're online, maybe a year ago, it was in vogue to say that
7:44
you're using AI. Now over the past month, you're
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seeing some people that are demonizing the use of AI in the
7:51
creation of training plans. I have a decent understanding of
7:56
what you guys are doing and how you're utilizing AI, but I'd
7:59
love if you could go into it a little bit more and explain how
8:04
AI is assisting you and what you're doing, not doing the work
8:10
for you, right? Yeah.
8:11
So here's a simple example. So when we sit down with a
8:15
player, we take a page or two or notes.
8:17
So those questions that we ask, we go through what are your
8:20
goals? We write down everything that we
8:22
see in terms of how they move. And now we get APDF back from
8:26
our software, which is called Uplift.
8:29
Now it's a 2 iPad setup and it actually measures how fast the
8:32
player measures all kinds of things, but it measures how fast
8:36
their pelvis is rotating, how fast their trunk is rotating,
8:39
and how fast their raw moves. And actually then puts that in
8:43
an order and tells you the sequence of that.
8:46
And some players are in sequence and some aren't.
8:48
So what I like to do is I like to pull that data into our
8:52
coach's notes. And I will use AI to do that by
8:55
giving a prompt, say, look at our coach, look at coach's
8:57
notes, look at the data from this report and integrate that
9:01
into a plan or organize these notes in a way, but bring the
9:06
data into this and make it relevant.
9:08
And so it's just helpful because it's really just taking what
9:11
we've already seen for the most part, but attaching a number to
9:15
it. And I think that's good for the
9:16
player. You could tell the player that
9:18
hey, your pelvis rotation velocity is below average,
9:22
right? But if you tell them, hey, it's
9:25
350°, you know, per second or whatever the the number is and
9:29
the average is 500. And here's where you're at.
9:31
It gives them more concrete number to look at.
9:34
And then moving forward now that we're using this is we're going
9:37
to be able to come back and retest and do the plan.
9:42
So what we're doing is if it's a rotational issue, we're using a
9:45
lot of netball work, PVC swings, water bags, that kind of stuff.
9:52
Obviously integrating the strength training program into
9:53
that. And now we can, we have numbers
9:56
to go back and retest that, but AI is just helping us better
10:00
communicate the notes and the messages to the player in a way
10:04
that makes sense for them. And sometimes some of the stuff
10:07
we get we write is we're using terminology the player did not
10:10
understand. So we actually try to make it,
10:13
hey, make this understandable for a high school freshman, make
10:17
it understandable for them so they know what this means.
10:19
They don't know all those bio mechanic terms sometimes.
10:23
So not only is it helping with organization, it's on your end,
10:27
it's also helping the phrasing become more digestible for the
10:31
athlete. Then maybe one more piece on the
10:35
AI here, at least for the moment.
10:36
Who knows where this answer is going to take us, But are you
10:40
using AI right now to make drill or exercise suggestions?
10:47
Yes. And so that is interesting
10:50
because I have noticed and I just started playing with it
10:53
just to see what it would come up with.
10:54
And in fact, we've tested this about six months ago.
10:58
So back in the offseason we had a player, one of our strength
11:01
coaches, Matt Noel, performance performance coaches also adopted
11:05
physical therapy. So he does a lot of these
11:06
assessments. We have two, my brother-in-law,
11:09
Scott Bailey who started this and does a great job and now
11:12
Matt does them too. So we had a player, he
11:14
approached me with some shoulder soreness, complaining of some
11:17
shoulder soreness. So I talked him through and
11:19
basically I just wrote down what he was experiencing because I
11:23
wanted to give it to Matt. So before I gave it to Matt, I
11:27
actually took all those notes and put it in AI and say be APT
11:30
and you know, give me an assessment of this and actually
11:34
putting it out. I'm not a medical person, so I
11:36
would never use AI for that. Like I was never going to take
11:41
that report and then implement that.
11:43
What I wanted to do is I wanted to have Matt look at it and say,
11:46
hey, this is what I did. This is what got created.
11:48
Like what do you think of this? And he, he said, this is
11:51
actually a very good assessment of what was happening.
11:54
So Matt was the one that ended up working with that player
11:56
individually. But that was the first time I'm
11:58
like, wow, like this is kind of interesting to be able to see
12:01
something like that. But on the drill side, when you
12:03
started playing with that, about 80% of the girls I thought were
12:07
appropriate and a lot of them are ones that we did.
12:09
And then some of the drills where I don't want to say what
12:13
they were, but it was like never suggest that again, that that is
12:17
banned. We do not do that.
12:19
So that's kind of funny too. So you aren't following AI
12:23
suggestions as if they're gospel Right now, it's just a
12:28
additional assistance in the decision making process.
12:32
What I was talking, I was talking to a player about this
12:33
and I was telling him how we would would do this.
12:35
And I, I told him I said when we have 15 pages of PDF reports to
12:41
go through to create your plan. And I was helpful because I
12:44
couldn't pull that information into one page.
12:48
And I said getting a suggestion and idea is good, right?
12:52
The more ideas you have the better and then you make that
12:54
decision. Know that some coaches may be
12:56
hesitant to do that, but at the end of the day, you're the one
12:59
that is signing off on that plan and you're just trying to get as
13:02
much information in front of you as possible before saying, yes,
13:05
let's, let's do this and no, let's not do that.
13:08
So yeah, it's, it's our plan. It's just helping us organize it
13:11
in a way that is quicker and faster and makes sense for the
13:14
athlete. And discussing the reality of
13:16
the situation, you are having a program for 100 plus pictures on
13:21
a weekly basis. I don't know how many guys you
13:24
are seeing daily and I know you at any given point are in the
13:28
triple digits for athletes that you're working with.
13:32
If you have to go through the creative process of determining
13:37
the right programming for every single one of those guys, there
13:42
isn't enough time in the day to do it effectively and to give
13:46
every athlete the same amount of effort that they deserve.
13:51
So if if you can lean on something to provide support for
13:55
you, it makes sense to me. Well, Craig, I mean, reality is
13:59
we weren't doing this a year ago the way we're doing it now.
14:02
Much better. Now we were collecting a lot of
14:05
the reports, but I didn't feel like we were using it as well as
14:08
we could because we were kind of looking at the highlights and if
14:12
there was anything flagged, we obviously would look at that.
14:14
But now we're actually able to use the information that we have
14:17
much more effectively because we can summarize the information
14:20
faster. So I'll just argue that without
14:23
it, we weren't doing as good of a job with the info that we
14:25
have. And we've been able to take
14:27
massive steps forward. And that's one of the reasons
14:29
why I invested in the in the bio mechanic software because I knew
14:34
that we could use it. If I got APDF report, I knew
14:36
that we could integrate that really fast.
14:38
And I send those reports directly to the player, but then
14:40
I send them in summary and I tell them like this is an AI
14:43
summary that we're trying to pinpoint exactly where we should
14:47
start with the training process. So no, we just weren't doing the
14:49
way doing it the way we are now. So it's been massively helpful.
14:54
Do you? Have your AI software digesting
14:59
any Flexpro grip data? At this point?
15:01
Yes, I was about to say I need I really need to know what ChatGPT
15:07
or whatever AI you're using thinks of Flexpro Grip so far.
15:11
Well, I, you know, I uploaded some of the charts and you know,
15:15
I have my own tab with that. So when the members come in, I
15:18
just plug them in. I already knows where it needs
15:20
to be in terms of the force production versus Velo.
15:23
So that chart it's already uploaded.
15:25
So that's been massively helpful and then it explains what we're
15:29
talking about. Obviously the kid puts on a
15:32
flex, pray grip for the first time.
15:34
I always will say that you see that movie editor, it's in your
15:36
hands and a lot of them say yes, which is strange.
15:38
That's so. Old.
15:39
I'm not the one like for that. Like this is what that reminds
15:42
me of, but you know, so it kind of helps them understand and
15:45
that's we've been teaching a lot of that.
15:47
And you know, obviously the, the grip strength concepts around
15:50
grip strength and the UCL and grip strength and spin rate,
15:56
really a couple years ago that started and, and that's a big
15:59
part of our conversation with a training plan now, you know,
16:02
hey, your, your curveball spin rate is low.
16:05
Why is that? What could be a several reasons
16:07
could be grip, it could be pressure, could be their
16:10
strength, a lot of things. But now we're better at saying,
16:13
OK, this is what we need to do to address that.
16:16
I am so happy that you brought up the training plan again
16:19
because you have somehow brought me back to that initial point
16:23
where I didn't know which way to go with those two questions.
16:27
So now my question about the training plans or I guess rather
16:32
even the assessment in the data that you are looking at.
16:36
How do you juggle, I guess, the difficulties associated with
16:43
performing assessments and creating training plans for
16:47
athletes just to do better on assessments versus creating
16:52
training plans for athletes to perform better on the mound or
16:57
on the field? Because often, often times those
17:00
are related, but they aren't necessarily 100% correlated.
17:06
Right. I think we communicate with
17:07
athletes that number one, when you go through the functional
17:12
movement screen in the process our PT has, our number one goal
17:16
is to make sure that you are physically prepared for training
17:19
and that any risk factors that you have we have identified and
17:25
we've given corrective exercises to address that.
17:28
So whether it's range of motion with your fraying arm or non
17:32
throwing arm, range of motion selection, just whatever it is,
17:37
there's a lot of research based on we communicate with them.
17:40
So our PTS do a great job saying this is what we found and this
17:44
is what the research says. And some of the research is
17:47
stunning in terms of loss of flexion or loss of range of
17:52
motion, how much more at risk for injury that athlete is.
17:57
So if we can get ahead of that, number one, that's really,
18:01
really important and that's really what we are trying to do
18:06
with the the physical side of that screen.
18:08
And then on the mound that's more performance related.
18:11
But a lot of times we even tell the kids like we're not
18:14
assessing velocity when we do our assessment, we're looking at
18:17
how you move because your velocity is a result of how you
18:22
move with that. But even, you know, this just
18:24
happened about a month ago. One of our athletes was going
18:27
through the assessment with our PT math and he tested positive
18:31
on a on a labor test and he had been complaining of shoulder
18:35
pain. And so, you know, Matt walks
18:37
down the athlete and let me know what happened.
18:39
I told him I said we're not going to throw today.
18:41
We need to get that checked out. The doctor had confirmed that he
18:44
had a labrum injury and luckily it was found in July and not in
18:49
November when training starts. So that's a huge reason why we
18:52
do that because the athlete had really not indicated that his
18:57
shoulder was bothering that much.
18:58
He was, he was coming down to warm up his throat and our PT is
19:01
like, well, we let's, let's talk about this.
19:03
So we're sitting down and and you know, that's why we do these
19:07
assessments that reason along. And given the importance of the
19:11
assessments, are you finding athletes that are really just
19:17
chasing down success in the assessment?
19:20
I, I guess I'm just kind of rephrasing the question because
19:23
I do think that's super important.
19:26
I just want to get your take on the ambiguity surrounding being
19:31
good at a test versus how how it actually transfers to the field
19:38
because it doesn't have to. Right.
19:40
And I think all of our new athletes, they've never gone
19:43
through the assessment process before, so they have no idea
19:47
what to expect. So there's really no way to try
19:50
to be good at that assessment. They just are following
19:52
directions in doing it. Now our returning athletes may
19:55
have gone through because they go through it once a year.
19:58
So they're a little bit familiar, but we have, we do
20:00
change and update them annually. So we're doing different things
20:03
this year than last year. So I think in general they're
20:06
just following instructions and trying to do the best they can.
20:08
They're trying to do well and whatever they're being told to
20:11
do. But we've never really had that
20:12
concern about, you know, they're just trying to perform for this
20:16
assessment. Just get a really good shoulder
20:18
IR number for the sake of having a really good shoulder IR
20:21
number, yeah. They're just not aware of what
20:25
that means for most part. They're just following the
20:28
instructions and push hard here and let me you know, get you
20:31
into this range of motion here and balance here.
20:34
Like and from the Rotary stability test from the FM SI
20:37
know that they're not practicing that ahead of time because they
20:39
do not do well. That's the hardest, that's the
20:41
lowest scoring one on the functional moving screen for our
20:44
athletes by far. Maybe I was asking those
20:46
questions and so passionate about them because I know I was
20:51
that guy. If I was being assessed on
20:53
something, it didn't matter what it was.
20:55
I was trying as hard as I could to be as good at that specific
20:59
thing. It's.
21:00
Possible so the sit and reach in gym class back in school, I was
21:05
trying to dominate the same reach.
21:07
I was trying to dominate the pacer test all all those things
21:11
that in gym class they were cool and it brought me St. cred on
21:16
the playground in fifth grade. Let me absolutely nothing for
21:20
anything outside of being cool for my classmates that that
21:25
stuck with me as I went through a baseball career as.
21:28
Well, and that that makes sense and maybe our guys will do that
21:31
eventually it would be they become super familiar and
21:33
knowledgeable with these assessments when they get into
21:35
college. So I bet in college looks kind
21:37
of cheap, but now it's too new. Which is so weird.
21:41
It's almost like high school athletes have this beautiful,
21:44
blissful state that they operate in because they are so unaware
21:48
of what matters for the most part now that is both good and
21:52
bad, that social media has kind of removed that veil.
21:56
Because for the most part, it seems like high school kids now
21:59
know what they need to do to play college baseball at the
22:03
level that they want to or get drafted or all these different
22:06
things. They know how hard they need to
22:08
throw, which can muddy the waters for what's important in
22:12
the now. But thankfully, generally it
22:16
means athletes are going to be more open to going through the
22:20
process versus the college guy who's gone through it, who has
22:26
the time under his belt, is trying to win at every single
22:30
thing right now because they know their clock is ticking.
22:34
Correct. And I think I see that our
22:36
athletes, they're on social media, so they see the videos
22:40
and the content and they may be aware of things.
22:43
But a lot of times when we're going through, especially how
22:46
they move or we're talking about pitch grips or drills, you know,
22:50
and ask them, where'd you, where'd you get that?
22:52
Well, I saw it online and they just saw a quick video, but they
22:54
never really had someone like a coach in front of them
22:57
explaining more detail what they're doing or, or what this
23:01
means. So I think our athletes really
23:03
value that because they're taking a deeper dive into
23:07
everything than what they see. Online Now let's talk a little
23:12
bit more about your athletes and I guess the VIP program, because
23:18
I, I've seen that on your social media for years.
23:21
One, I like the branding. I, I definitely want to be a
23:24
very important person or very important picture.
23:27
I, I guess. So how do you set up your
23:30
programming, and how might it differ from other training
23:35
systems that you've seen? Yeah.
23:38
So VIP, the velocity improvement program, it could stand for
23:42
anything that you want though was first developed back in
23:48
2014. And I did a pilot group of eight
23:52
pitchers then when the model at the time was just kids did
23:57
lessons, one-on-one lessons. And when the idea of velocity is
24:03
trainable, which I would say 10 plus years ago became mainstream
24:08
versus you're born with velocity or not became the thing.
24:12
That's when we started to integrate the strength training
24:16
and the ballistic training on the on the throwing end into one
24:20
program. So the program started by
24:23
looking at drive lines, hacking the kinetic chain.
24:26
That was the first kind of resource that we used to train
24:30
athletes in that pilot group. We mainly did pull downs and we
24:35
used weighted baseballs, 4 and 6 oz mainly.
24:39
And from that there is a significant jump in velocity.
24:42
And so I saw that myself. And obviously now we know a lot
24:46
more on why, but at the time that was the start of like this
24:51
type of training works and let's let's build this.
24:55
And so I think the first year we had eight and I had no facility
24:58
yet. I was just renting a, a
25:00
facility. And then the next year we had
25:02
24. And then the next year was 2016.
25:07
That was when we had our first location.
25:09
I think we had maybe 50 athletes in that.
25:11
And so at that point I started bringing on staff and
25:15
performance coaches and having other people help do this
25:19
because what I realized was even at that time, your 30 minute
25:22
funding session once a week is not going to cut it.
25:24
You need to have a plan for your lifting.
25:27
You need to be able to throw X percentage of days through the
25:29
offseason. And, and we changed that program
25:32
significantly because I think it was 2017 when we got our first
25:35
Rap Sodo. So then we started building
25:38
pitch design into that. So we joke even today because
25:42
John Pusateri, who's one of our pitching coaches was with me
25:47
from day one. He and I have seen the evolution
25:51
in the training program to doing primarily pull downs to a shift
25:55
of mainly we do still do ballistic training, but we work
25:58
a lot from the mound now. So the program is in very
26:01
specific phases. Right now we're in the
26:02
assessment phase. So that's super important.
26:04
Then when we start, we'll do a build up phase with the throwing
26:07
because we start in November. So we don't expect athletes to
26:10
be 100% ready at that point. We'll do a five week build up
26:13
phase, but really we'll use that time to integrate all the drill
26:16
work, integrate the lifting plans, teach them the arm care.
26:20
There's a lot of learning that happens over the 1st 5 weeks.
26:22
And that 75 weeks is the high intent phase.
26:25
That's a mix of pull downs and below days and medium days and
26:30
then mount days. And then last part of the
26:31
program, which is my favorite, is we bring catchers and hitters
26:35
in and we run lanes of lives. So we have a rap Soto in every
26:41
lane and we have hitters and catchers and a coach with every,
26:44
every pitcher and they get to kind of use all of their stuff
26:49
and we coaching through all of their off speed stuff.
26:52
And so it's really at that point about execution, taking what
26:54
you've hopefully, hopefully the reload gains that you've gotten
26:57
and the strength gains and integrated on the mountain.
26:58
So 3 phases now and it just leads right into high school
27:03
tryouts, which honestly the biggest benefit is for our
27:07
basketball kids because those kids if they're not doing this,
27:11
they're in basketball. And a lot of times basketball
27:13
runs past the start of high school tryouts and those
27:16
pictures just aren't ready. But our VIP athletes are ready
27:19
and they're from day one when they get to their high school
27:21
team, they've been doing what they need to do to be
27:24
successful. And, and Jake Bean is an example
27:26
of that. He and high school broke the
27:28
high school basketball career points record and would come in
27:31
on Sundays and sometimes Wednesdays depending on his
27:34
schedule and get his pitching training done.
27:35
So Jake went to Kent and now he's at Louisville this year for
27:38
the first year. And so that's a great example of
27:40
someone just following the process, playing another sport
27:43
and doing it at a really, really high level.
27:45
I'm sure that's a bit more common for you than maybe some
27:49
of the other coaches that I talked to on here, given your
27:53
locale. Being in Northeast Ohio, there
27:57
is. Knowing my Northwest Ohio
28:00
background, there's still this huge emphasis on playing every
28:05
sport you can. He didn't exemplify that.
28:09
Myself as a high school athlete, I, I did play a little bit of
28:13
golf. I played some soccer, I played
28:15
some basketball. But without question, I skipped
28:18
everything. If I had a voluntary baseball
28:20
workout, everything, all my energy went towards baseball.
28:25
I'm not saying that doesn't happen now, but you still have
28:30
soccer players, basketball players, football players that
28:33
are coming in and training with you.
28:35
So how do you educate those athletes knowing the importance
28:40
of workload and building up in all these things?
28:44
Sorry if I stole your Thunder on that answer, but how do you how
28:47
do you express that to the athletes to ensure that they are
28:51
still coming in without a parent thinking?
28:56
He just wants our money so he can throw with us when it's not
29:00
even baseball season. Yeah, so it's interesting
29:03
because I just played baseball, the reason why I wasn't the best
29:06
athlete. And so if I was going to do
29:09
good, I needed to work hard on baseball all the time.
29:11
And that was just my personal background.
29:13
So what time has four kids are much better athletes than I ever
29:18
was, and it's awesome they can do that.
29:19
So we always support our your baseball players, they want to
29:24
focus on that because they know they need to to get to the
29:26
highest level or our multi multi sport kids, whatever works for
29:30
each individual. Back to that question, workload
29:33
is the key. In fact, couple years ago we had
29:36
a basketball kid and he was on AV load day and his velocity was
29:39
down 5 miles an hour. We track everything and we pull
29:41
them aside and like, Dylan, you know what's up?
29:43
Yeah, I'm OK. You know, I just had a
29:45
basketball game last night and I'm, I'm gas.
29:48
I'm like, OK, so let's stop. And we're going to treat this
29:51
more as a low intent or recovery day.
29:55
And so I think education is number 1.
29:57
And what we talked to parents about is a lot of parents will
30:01
want their multi sport athletes to do everything in the manual.
30:04
And that's a lot easier to do if you're not playing another
30:07
sport. So we, we talked to them about
30:09
it, say, hey, do, do your best. If you played a game and you're
30:13
gassed, then you need to recover.
30:15
And so we teach them a lot about recovery.
30:17
We adjust the workout and the weight room with our basketball
30:21
kids, all, all of our offs winter sport athletes.
30:24
And so it's just about like communicating with them and
30:26
helping them understand workload and what workload is.
30:30
Workload isn't just throwing workload is your body's battery.
30:34
And if you need to recharge, then we need to make that a
30:37
priority. So that conversation about
30:40
workload and about managing that and understanding if we're not
30:44
feeling up to it that day happens more than anybody can
30:49
imagine on the back end, just to make sure that we're putting our
30:53
athletes in good positions, not working them too hard.
30:56
We're we're here to train, not to make you tired.
30:58
So that's a. That's a different approach.
31:00
I'm sure this also ties back into what you're doing with
31:04
assessments, because how do you actually know how quote UN quote
31:08
tired or fatigued someone is an athlete, especially a high
31:13
school kids? Really, No, I'm fine.
31:15
What information I'm getting from No, I'm fine.
31:17
But if you know what their expected ranges of motion are,
31:21
they're expected force production, they're expected
31:24
whatever else velocity. I I know that's kind of an easy
31:27
one to go off of, but all these other pieces, because, as you
31:31
said, workload is more than just what you're doing throwing wise.
31:34
It's what your body is experiencing.
31:37
So if you can go back and look at these objective measurements
31:41
at any point on the body, you can tell when a guy is peeking
31:46
or a guy is in the gutter. Yeah, so we do two things and
31:50
they're both different. But the number one is our
31:51
coaches, you know, myself included.
31:53
We have a conversation with each player before they start and ask
31:56
them how they feel for winter sport, kid.
31:58
We ask them, you know, when they played their last game, what
32:01
their lifting routine is, just all of that.
32:03
Those conversations help us. And sometimes we change the
32:07
training plan that day based on what the player says.
32:09
But I think the most important thing that we started doing this
32:12
was a few years ago is there's AQR code in the weight room.
32:16
And as soon as they're done throwing, they come in and they
32:19
have to fill out that QR code, which is basically they have to
32:23
answer questions on their performance that day.
32:25
And so sometimes it's their Velo numbers, sometimes it's their
32:30
maxes that day if they're in the weight room, but every day it's
32:34
rate your arm health one through 10.
32:37
And so we educate them on that and we've learned that they will
32:41
tell us via the form much more than they'll tell us.
32:45
Players and opps just going to come out and say my arm host.
32:48
If you ask them, they might. But on that form, when we get
32:51
that back, it pops right in. That helps us go right at maybe
32:56
an issue with fatigue. You know, that's usually what it
33:00
is. It's so helpful for us to manage
33:03
the throwing workload just from knowing on a one through 10
33:06
scale how you felt that day. It's very important.
33:09
What software are you using for the QR code?
33:12
Is it just AQR code creator online?
33:15
It's AQR code. It links to a Google forum and
33:18
then a Google forum populates into a Google Sheet and we
33:20
literally have the Google sheet up and we see him come in live.
33:24
So usually we catch them before they even leave that day.
33:28
And usually it's hey, because of this, this is what I want you to
33:31
do tomorrow, the next day, or let's follow up here.
33:34
And so it's just something that we monitor very closely.
33:36
I asked because that's something that is easily applicable by
33:41
anyone. Anyone can do that, and it's
33:44
increasing communication. Now, from your experience both
33:49
as a coach and as an educator, although those two are pretty
33:53
much synonymous in my book, why do you think athletes are more
33:58
comfortable sharing that information on the Google form
34:01
as opposed to in person? You obviously have a
34:04
relationship with these athletes.
34:06
You'd think they'd be able to come to you and say what they're
34:09
feeling, but there's some sort of disconnect there.
34:13
Right, And it's almost like, you know, when you're answering
34:15
questions online, like have you ever lied about your birthday?
34:18
If somebody asks for your birthday on a on a forum, like
34:21
no, right. And I feel like it's the same
34:23
thing, like you're just not going to lie.
34:25
Like there's no benefit of it. And I don't, you know, it's just
34:30
there's so much more honest. It's and not, not that it hasn't
34:33
happened because we've had that happen where someone put your
34:36
arm health was 10. But then we knew that it wasn't.
34:40
And we said, hey, you know, yeah, I just, you know, didn't
34:43
want to tell you. You know, that does happen
34:45
still. But it happened much less than
34:48
not that they lie to us. They just won't disclose it,
34:50
right? They just won't say anything.
34:52
And it's also too we communicate with parents and parents know
34:55
that we're asking these questions.
34:56
They know why. So I think it at home, they're
34:59
hearing that from mom and dad saying hey, make sure you're
35:02
letting them know and you know someone raised their arm health
35:04
a 2 out of 10 parents get an e-mail too.
35:07
We'll work through that. And so it works so well.
35:10
It really does. Just a simple one through 10.
35:13
Then how do you connect that subjective feedback to what you
35:18
guys are tracking objectively? I know you've only had Flexpro
35:21
grip for a short period of time or other readiness testing,
35:25
whether it's jump testing or different things like that.
35:28
Are you seeing the objective outpace the subjective or is it
35:34
the subjective leads the objective?
35:37
If you follow what I'm saying, like do yes, yeah, yeah.
35:40
So then I, I won't talk anymore. I'll just let you.
35:43
Know be before you know, like now it's all objective because
35:47
we have all the data. But once the training starts, it
35:49
becomes much more subjective on how how they feel is what is as
35:53
how that's, you know, what's leading what.
35:56
And so the subjective is what we get first, generally.
36:00
And then Matt Knoll, who's also a performance coach as APT.
36:05
If there's an issue that needs to go to him, I'll just send the
36:08
athlete to him and he'll assess him.
36:10
And so then we can go back and say, hey, internal range of
36:14
motion, There's a deficit here that we didn't see before, so
36:19
we'll look at that, if that makes sense.
36:20
That's how that generally goes once training starts, yeah.
36:24
Totally. I guess I asked because I think
36:27
it's unique that we're at a point with a lot of systems
36:31
creations. I can call back to something
36:34
that happened at Lindenwood University, A pitching coach we
36:37
work with closely there, Denton McNamee, does force plate
36:41
testing, does shoulder dynamometry, utilizes Flexpro
36:46
grip. And often times we'll see
36:50
someone possibly entering a valley and before that athlete
36:55
even speaks up, he's approaching them saying how are we feeling
36:59
as opposed to the how are we feeling beating that objective
37:04
on the list. Granted, you're juggling
37:07
hundreds of athletes, but I, I wanted to know like how often?
37:12
I'm sure there's times where the objective is popping up before
37:17
the athlete says anything or vice versa.
37:20
I was just wondering where we are on that kind of spectrum.
37:23
Yeah. And we do do assessments every
37:26
four weeks. And So what we'll we'll meet
37:28
with the coaching staff and decide what we want to go back
37:30
and retest. This year will be the first year
37:33
that Flex Pro Grip will be a part of that.
37:35
Sometimes the objective does lead to the subjective when we
37:39
do an assessment four weeks in and the numbers have dropped.
37:43
Last year we really did that for the first time and that was very
37:46
helpful. A lot of times it just was
37:49
traced back to fatigue and not recovering.
37:51
And so it that intervention was important earlier than what
37:54
would have been if we didn't do that.
37:56
Given that you're working with so many high school athletes, I
38:02
hate to fully assume, but that's your greatest clientele, right?
38:05
That. Was.
38:06
High school age group is that kind of the lowest hanging
38:10
fruit, Even even lower than strength is just getting guys to
38:14
sleep enough and eat enough. It's it is amazing how that
38:19
sometimes is ignored in terms of you think about the strength and
38:23
the throwing all of that. But if they're up all night,
38:28
assume they're starting for a test for whatever reason.
38:30
Right. Yeah, Yeah.
38:30
Well, that's what we'll say. We'll assume, right, because on
38:33
Saturday morning at 9:00, that's what they're doing On Friday,
38:35
You know, that question is getting asked a lot more.
38:39
How late were you out? And sometimes that is the issue
38:43
that day. And you know, you can tell when
38:45
they walk in that they hadn't had enough sleep that night.
38:48
Or sometimes you can tell after school that it was a, it was a
38:51
tough day that day. And so we have to, we have to
38:54
factor that in as well because that is a part of the entire
38:59
training process is recovery and sleep.
39:01
And it's become something that we have talked more about just
39:06
as a in a general sense in terms of performance.
39:09
If you want to perform better, you need to recover better.
39:12
And that is, we're talking about that more now than ever.
39:16
So it's at least a buzzword at this point among those who train
39:20
with you. Correct?
39:22
Correct. Great.
39:24
I find that interesting because I don't work face to face with
39:28
many athletes anymore. And then even at that, most of
39:31
the athletes that I'm working with are college and pro guys or
39:35
the elite of the elite high school guys who seem to have
39:39
every tool in their toolbox at this.
39:41
Break. They they have woop, they have
39:43
aura, they have all these things that are tracking every single
39:46
bit of recovery in their grip testing.
39:48
They're doing all these things so they they seem to know where
39:50
their baselines are, but that isn't indicative of every single
39:55
athlete who cares about baseball.
39:57
So I definitely wanted to ask you about that.
40:00
Now let's let's step things back.
40:03
I know way back when we said we were going to talk about
40:06
discovery and process iteration. You have talked a good bit about
40:10
that, even if we haven't used those terms directly at this
40:13
point. You did mention hacking the
40:16
kinetic chain from Driveline, kind of kicking things off for
40:19
you back in 2014 with the Velocity improvement program.
40:24
What else has really influenced changes for you?
40:28
Or are there individuals that you have leaned on or followed
40:33
over the years that have kind of forced you to question the way
40:37
you do things? Maybe not fully alter or change,
40:41
but at least giving you pause for you to step back and audit
40:46
your processes. Yeah, but several, you know,
40:49
obviously Driveline was the the leader in that they're still
40:53
huge in terms of training. But I think now if you look at
40:56
what Tread Athletics is doing and the content that they are
40:59
sharing, what's nice is if there is a video out about a certain
41:05
concept, I'll be on the floor of an athlete and sometimes we can
41:08
test those things out. So that's been really helpful.
41:11
Obviously Eric Cressy in his work is amazing to me.
41:15
I'm always trying to find out what is out there that can help
41:19
our athletes. And so I feel like that's my job
41:21
is to always have an open mind in terms of understanding what's
41:25
new and So what people are doing and, and just more ideas the
41:28
better. So every year I go to the ABCA
41:31
Conference and that's been a great resource.
41:33
I go to our state baseball coaches clinics.
41:36
And so just having those conversations with people that I
41:39
know or people that I don't know and asking questions.
41:42
And last week I had lunch with Corey Douglas, not Your news
41:45
pitching coach, and we talked about process and some of the
41:48
things we're there doing. It's the idea that we never stop
41:51
learning and there's always something out there that we can
41:54
maybe better implement. And sometimes we dive into
41:57
something and and realize, hey, that are that current process is
42:01
pretty good and we're going to stick with that.
42:03
Even I know what's even new is motor preference experts and the
42:06
idea of motor preferences. Matt Swope was actually my
42:09
teammate. He's Maryland baseball's head
42:11
coach. He's my teammate for The Wild
42:13
Thing. So I got to hear his
42:15
presentation on that. I have his book.
42:17
There's just so many resources out there now.
42:19
And I just think keeping an open mind and kind of that sense of
42:24
this is how we're going to do things in our building, not just
42:27
for me, but from every coach and every player.
42:30
And it's even great when the players come with an idea that
42:33
they want to try a new drill or something that they saw and the
42:35
first thing will say, right, let's try it.
42:37
You know, let's see how you feel because everything works or
42:41
nothing works. It just depends on the athlete.
42:44
Sometimes maybe if it's not the best program or whatever the
42:47
athlete believes in it, then it can be effective.
42:50
So there's a lot that we could dive into on the content side,
42:53
but there's there's more out there than ever, right?
42:55
But I enjoy, you know, Twitter is a great resource on diving
42:59
into some of that content that's out there.
43:01
That's everyone's sharing their stuff, which is is great.
43:04
Something you brought up there that I, I want to spend a little
43:08
bit of time on. You actually mentioned it twice,
43:11
whether an athlete bring something up to you or going
43:14
over a drill with someone on the floor that you saw on social
43:18
media or they saw on social media.
43:21
I understand that that might be different.
43:23
It might not be a part of their plan, but how often are you
43:28
having more of a collaborative approach with your players as
43:32
opposed to maybe five years ago and even 10 years ago were I'm
43:37
assuming certainly 10 years ago you were likely being leaned
43:42
upon as the expert expected to know everything versus now with
43:47
the abundance of available information.
43:50
I would like to think it's leaned more collaborative, but I
43:54
don't, I don't want to assume your situation.
43:56
So how have you seen that change over the years?
43:58
You know, as a educator, I always have taken the cloud
44:03
better route always. I always felt that was that even
44:06
as a coach 20 years ago. One thing that I still do today
44:11
is it will tell our put on pitching.
44:13
I coach my son's team now and I say it's three against one.
44:16
And we always used to this is just a funny thing, but it made
44:19
a difference. So when I was coaching at
44:21
Malone, we would I would say it's three against one.
44:25
And we always said it when we left the bullpen and we always
44:28
walk slower, slower together. And I wanted them to know that
44:31
that it's me, the pitching coach, you the pitcher and your
44:35
catcher. We are all working to get that
44:37
hitter out. And you give the pitcher of that
44:40
mentality. I think it makes a difference
44:43
really that it's very powerful. And I think now what we see is
44:47
some of our athletes have a very clear understanding.
44:49
They've worked with a lot of coaches in the past.
44:52
They understand how they move and so it's really collaborative
44:56
then. And sometimes they're looking to
44:58
meet for guidance and then over time as they learn what drills
45:02
they like, it becomes more collaborative.
45:03
So it just all depends. We meet the athlete where they
45:07
are, but our college athletes, they've been coached by a lot of
45:10
people. And so usually I'm asking
45:11
questions about what works for you because at that point, I
45:14
think by the time they get to college, they do realize they
45:17
are their own best coach. I think freshman high school may
45:20
not realize that, you know, they don't have the knowledge base
45:22
yet and sometimes they're just going off whatever their coach
45:25
says. And I think over time the
45:26
athlete becomes a little bit more like, I know this works for
45:29
me. And so even the other day I was
45:32
talking to an athlete about short work bullpens that he
45:36
really felt that 50 foot bullpens really helped his
45:39
command. And I said, well, you need to
45:41
talk to your high school coach about that and get that
45:43
implemented into what you're doing at your, at your school, a
45:47
very easy thing. And I was just like, Hey, go
45:50
have that conversation because I don't know if sometimes kids
45:52
don't like to do could be a little bit scary.
45:54
But I told him, I said, a 50 foot bullpen, you know, that's
45:57
not something wild and crazy. That's an easy thing.
45:59
You know, even do it on your own.
46:00
Bring the catcher 10 feet in front of the plate and get him
46:03
down and and and do that short box.
46:05
Hopefully that kid isn't throwing 90 though because that
46:08
gets. Yeah, exactly. 7080% mats.
46:12
I don't know if you remember where you heard it from or if it
46:15
was self created. Feel free to tell me it was self
46:18
created if you don't want to reveal your sources.
46:20
But where did the three on one concept come from if you recall?
46:24
Because I really like that phrasing.
46:27
I don't remember exactly, but the idea of it came from my
46:32
college pitching coach my last year, Dave Kobutz.
46:34
Kobe. Kobe.
46:35
He's in Ohio's High school Baseball Hall of Fame.
46:38
As a high school coach, he coached at Duke, he was with the
46:42
Indians as a scout for a while and he was just the best in
46:47
terms of connecting with his players.
46:49
One of the best stories with him was we would meet after wins and
46:53
after losses, after the game. And obviously you know how those
46:56
meetings go after losses. No matter when Kobe's, you know,
46:59
he's driving down the street, he sees Jeep driving away.
47:02
He never was a part of that meeting.
47:03
One day I asked him, Kobe, you don't stick around for that
47:06
after game meeting. He goes, Nope, 24 hours, I won't
47:10
have a conversation with any of you good or bad until the next
47:13
day. I think a very pro mentality,
47:16
you know what I mean? And I said, well, why?
47:19
He said, well, I could tell you 1000 things that are positive.
47:22
But the one thing that I say that I wish I wouldn't have
47:25
because of the emotion of that game, I can't take back because
47:29
never want to put any of us in that situation.
47:30
Not that he would because he was just so measured in his words
47:34
anyway. But that is one thing that I
47:36
learned from him and I really, even to this day, try to model
47:41
myself after him because I know what kind of influence he had on
47:45
me. That's beautiful.
47:48
I paused. I paused because I, I guess I
47:53
didn't really know where to go from there.
47:55
Like how, how can I respond to the impact of relationships
47:59
other than say relationships are powerful?
48:02
It's what we all strive for in the coaching world or the
48:05
development world is how can we have that touch on someone else?
48:09
To think that every single day. Something someone told you 24
48:17
years ago What you graduated in O1.
48:22
OO4 from college. OK, so the college career was
48:26
2000 to 2004, right? So something that you heard 21
48:32
ish years ago directs what you do every single day.
48:39
As I said, that's what we strive for.
48:41
It's how can we make that impact?
48:43
And it's, I guess it's even crazier to think that we don't
48:46
know what phrase it is or what thing we say or what action we
48:52
make that is going to be the thing that sticks.
48:56
I've had athletes tell me, and one of the craziest examples is
49:00
Tyler Hampu, who was a 2024 MLB draft pick for the Rockies, his
49:07
junior high school. He was cut.
49:09
He didn't make the team. He was so developing.
49:12
He threw above average, but the command wasn't there yet.
49:17
He showed up the week after and I say, what do you want to do?
49:20
He's like, I'm going to throw 90 next year and make the team.
49:23
I'm like, OK, let's do that. He's just like, let's just get
49:25
to work, no questions asked, you know?
49:28
And then the next year he did make the team and then COVID
49:31
canceled his season. So he never played high school
49:34
baseball, got a JUCO opportunity, did well.
49:38
I went to Austin P and I'll never forget.
49:41
I was watching them on ESPN. Plus you can watch all the games
49:43
now from home and you know, he's pitching guys.
49:47
Mississippi State and got the save.
49:48
And then later that year he was drafted.
49:50
And then I had a conversation about like just that path
49:54
because how often do you hear that, right?
49:56
You go from you don't play high school baseball and four years
49:59
later you're drafted. And now he sends me videos
50:02
throwing 99 free. And I said, I'm not impressed
50:04
till you hit 100. You know, jokingly he told me,
50:07
he said it was the fact that I could come to your facility and
50:11
everybody believed in me and I can do my thing.
50:14
And just that belief at the time, you're just doing the best
50:18
you can for every kid you see. You don't think of that.
50:21
And then when you hear that, it just makes you pause.
50:25
And you have to just know that every single athlete you're
50:27
dealing with could be the next talent hamper.
50:30
You don't know, but maybe not. But maybe that experience of
50:33
baseball leads them to their next thing.
50:36
And so it is super powerful, you're right.
50:39
There's no sense of me trying to add on to any of that.
50:42
So the best thing I can do is pivot.
50:45
And what I am going to pivot to is something I read on your
50:50
Twitter a couple years ago and it was all your political takes.
50:54
No, I'm, I'm kidding. We're not going to get into
50:56
that. I don't think that has ever made
50:58
it on that. No.
51:01
So what I what I remember reading and I hope I didn't just
51:06
create this out of thin air, but if I'm not mistaken, you pitch
51:10
one game per year. If I'm not mistaken, a year or
51:14
two ago you posted all your thoughts of how you were
51:19
successful in this game or how you've out pitched these college
51:24
guys that are still competing. And I just want you to talk
51:28
about that experience and hopefully I'm right in that this
51:31
was you because I, I, I remember this.
51:34
I know it's someone I follow and I am 99.9% sure this is your
51:40
story. So I play summer ball still.
51:43
I'm 43, I play in a 25 and over league.
51:45
So I I pitched every Sunday. OK, so.
51:48
It's not just one game a year, you're still competing.
51:51
Exactly. And it's so much fun.
51:53
It's so different though now because I played, I I played
51:58
with a lot of adrenaline, just how my brain worked and I don't
52:01
feel that anymore. So I kind of wish I had that
52:03
back. Maybe I need like 20,000 people
52:05
there or something to do that. But the experience of that is
52:08
awesome. It's so much fun to compete.
52:10
It's so much fun to go through the same process that the kids I
52:15
work with everyday go through. And so that's why I love it.
52:18
I still get out there, still pick people off as a lefty
52:22
pitcher, still throw change UPS down and away.
52:25
I pitched the way I always have, which is change speeds, hit
52:27
spots, give your team a chance to win.
52:30
If you were setting up your own training plan so you didn't have
52:35
to be the crafty lefty that hit spots and doesn't matter if if
52:41
you walk someone because you'll just pick them off anyways.
52:44
If you were trying to be the best 43 year old possible, not
52:48
just a guy who goes out and has fun, how would you create your
52:52
plan? I would.
52:54
Follow the VIP manual, You know, which I do.
52:57
It's funny, like, like, you know, one of the things that I
53:00
think about a lot is back when I was in high school, it was even
53:05
at the time was like, yeah, you can live, but it's not going to
53:07
help you. You definitely don't bench,
53:09
spread, all that stuff. I just feel like if I had as a
53:12
player, because I always worked hard, I always kind of was an
53:16
underdog as an athlete and I always wanted to outwork people,
53:20
I would have followed to a tee. What we have available today, I
53:25
would have loved it and I know it would have made a difference
53:28
having the resources we have today.
53:30
And so I feel like if I could help be that coach for myself
53:33
and another kid, that's really important.
53:36
So I'll, I'll check back in a couple months and expect you to
53:39
be dead. Lifting four O 5.
53:41
Squatting 335. That's right, try not to get
53:44
hurt. Ripping pull downs with you
53:45
guys. All of it.
53:46
Let's go. I get on the floor and throw
53:48
with them, so you know, we're just got to be feeling good that
53:51
day so. Where's the Arsenal at right
53:53
now? So I my joke is if I can't throw
53:57
80I retire. So I'm still pitching.
53:59
So that's OK. That's pretty good.
54:01
That's the deal. That's exactly that's how I
54:03
feel. I have to imagine the 25 plus
54:06
league throwing throwing over 80s still probably has to be in
54:10
the upper 25%. For sure, Yeah, for sure.
54:13
There's a range, there's a range of ages of pitchers on all of
54:17
that. But yeah, that makes me feel
54:19
good. That's that's not slow like in
54:21
the other world. No, it's really not slow.
54:24
But yeah, good. Good for you.
54:27
I mean, I haven't I I tore my Achilles tendon in 2019
54:31
pitching. I was feeling a butt complete
54:33
rupture. My wife's like, well, that's
54:35
that's it for you. I'm like, yeah, we'll see about
54:38
that. I think I told her yeah.
54:39
And then next year I'm back out there.
54:41
So it didn't stop. The reason you married her was
54:44
specifically for her PT brother, correct?
54:47
That's right. That's right.
54:49
I figured that that was connected somehow.
54:51
Yeah. Mike, is there, is there
54:52
anything you feel like we missed in this conversation?
54:56
No, I, I appreciate not only kind of sharing the process of
55:01
what we do today, but kind of how I got there and just a
55:03
little bit even into the relationship side of coaching.
55:06
I think we hit a a nice range of topics today.
55:09
Awesome. Well, one more thing I need from
55:11
you and that is for you to drop how people can get in touch with
55:16
you. Sure.
55:17
So through my website whichisgreatestfishingschool.com
55:22
and then Twitter and Instagram, I'm just at pitching school.
55:25
And so I'm pretty involved and active on both those platforms.
55:28
If anybody has any questions or wants to talk pitching or
55:32
coaches, some of the process that we're using, we we did just
55:36
pull the trigger on a track man. So once that comes in next week,
55:40
kind of the new project is getting it up and running.
55:41
So I'm super excited about that. Great, man.
55:44
Well, I really appreciate the time today, Mike.
55:47
I didn't get interrupted on my side.
55:49
Might have gotten distracted a time or two by my dogs running
55:52
around the yard, but but I like to think I gave you the most
55:55
undivided attention I could as a new father just trying to escape
56:00
the madness for a few minutes during the day.
56:03
You did great, you didn't even look tired so I'm super
56:05
impressed. I definitely had coffee this
56:08
morning and I am macro dosing creatine, not a nutritionist or
56:13
anybody with those degrees. I cannot tell anyone that they
56:16
should be taking creatine I suppose.
56:18
However, I'm a big fan and if you take 25 grams of it per day,
56:25
there are studies to show that that can counteract the effects
56:28
of fatigue, and I like to think I'm a walking example of that
56:32
right now. Interesting.
56:33
Well my red Solo cup is my ice water with my creatine powder,
56:36
so that's what was in here today.
56:39
Yes, the Lay Back podcast brought to you by Creatine.
56:42
If any brand wants to sponsor us, please reach out.
56:46
I'm not a fan of gummies. I'm a powder guy myself.
56:49
So there we go. Anybody please.
56:50
But we'll take it and then maybe give a little kick back to Mike
56:54
in the process. But Mike, thanks a ton.
56:56
This was great. And to all the listeners out
56:59
there, thanks for laying back with us.