Latest / From the Coach's Mouth / Episode 37: Jay and Ken Top 10 Coach Don'ts

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Episode 37: Jay and Ken Top 10 Coach Don'ts · From the Coach's Mouth

0:00
There should be no reason that anybody as a coach is wearing
0:04
jeans when you are coaching. I'm sorry.
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It is the biggest. It is the biggest for me.
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I get it. You're cold.
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It's cold out girls or anybody players, if you're listening,
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wives, if you're listening or if you're a coach, your husband,
0:18
your, your wife is the coach and and you're the husband
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listening. Please buy them their yoga pants
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or please buy them sweatpants, which still would look
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tremendously better than you showing up coaching a team in
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your blue denim jeans that looks like you just you're dressed
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ready to go to the bar at. The field in your car or on the
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couch. Get your basket from the coach's
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mouth. Welcome to the From the Coach's
1:00
Mouth podcast with your host, Jay Boldman and Ken Krause.
1:20
Hello everyone. Jay and Ken back again for
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another episode of the From the Coach's Mouth podcast.
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And for our Wisconsin listeners, I want to give you a healthy and
1:29
hearty moo. OK.
1:34
I'm not sure. I'm not sure what that's about,
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but you got to have to give us some details on that or
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something. Oh, it's just what everybody
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does when they're in in Wisconsin.
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You know, it is the dairy state. So when we cross the cheddar
1:47
curtain, you see the cows out there.
1:49
I think it's a law that you're supposed to yell moo at them.
1:52
But I did not know that. I did not know that.
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Yes, although it is, it's OK because I, I did check with the
1:59
Gerrings, with Abby and her daughter Avery.
2:02
They're from Wisconsin, and they said it would be OK to say that
2:05
I made sure I wasn't going to get in trouble for, you know,
2:08
being intolerant. I'm glad that you sought
2:12
clearance on that from them. Can I think that's super
2:14
important that you get clearance on that before you just come on
2:16
this podcast mooing. So now that we know, now that we
2:20
know that I think it's people will understand for sure.
2:23
So how was, How was your week been?
2:26
Your weekend been? It's been great.
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It was nice. On Halloween, we had two of the
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grandchildren over. They went out trick or treating
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in the area. The weather was beautiful Today.
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I met up with a buddy of mine that I worked with the two
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different places. In fact, he was responsible for
2:42
me getting into the second one, Tim Boyvan.
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So Tim, if you're listening, I don't know why you would be, but
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if you're listening, hello. Nice to see him and met his mom,
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Peg, 94 years old and still getting around, still causing
2:55
good trouble. And where did you, where did you
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guys meet up? I think you told me where you
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were meeting. The Old Warsaw Buffet down in
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Broadview. Oh, OK.
3:04
So I was a little worried because even though, you know, I
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have Polish heritage and it was brought up with that never,
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never been a big fan of, well, especially Polish sausage, but
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Polish food in general. However, they had, you know,
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pretty wide-ranging thing. I did the thing you're not
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supposed to do at a buffet, which is start with a salad.
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But but one thing they did have there that I really enjoyed from
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my childhood was potato pancakes.
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I don't think I've had those in a very long time.
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So, you know, I had that little pierogi, some beef, you know,
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and then like I said, nice big salad and stuff.
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And of course, a little little klotchke for dessert.
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Absolutely. So it was all good.
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How about you? How's your week been?
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It's busy week. It was great though.
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Halloween was awesome. The kids, you know, mine are
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still somewhat young, so they're still into it.
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We did that, yeah. If they had a good time and the
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like you said, the weather was great.
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We had decent amount of trick or treaters and it's fun.
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So yeah, that was that was really good.
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And then today I got up early and I went to the LP4U
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tournament in Peoria and worked the camp there today with some
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coaches. I did the pitching portion.
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I had Mallory Winters, who's the assistant coach at Butler.
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She was doing the catching portion with the catchers.
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So I always try to go into those things with trying to give the
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kids that come to that some feedback on their mechanics.
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You know, I feel like a lot of times you're paying for these
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camps and they go there and it's like they really don't get
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anything out of there. And so I would bring him over
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and I I talked to him a little bit.
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We worked on a little bit of some drive mechanics, did a lot
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of split and gets a lot of, you know, jump backs and goes trying
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to talk about getting out, you know, not getting open those
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things. So it was overall was good.
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And then I, you know, watched a game or two and then headed back
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home. So it was a was definitely a
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definitely a a busy week and I'm tired, but definitely great to
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get out there. And again, I love the
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networking. So talking to coaches, talking
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to to the players and other travel ball coaches is super
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important. So yeah, it was, it was a good
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weekend, so. Well, that's good.
5:03
I'm I'm glad to hear that. What was the state of the
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pitching mechanics that you were seeing?
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You know, Ken, it's, it's like you and I talk about this all
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time and I was actually talking to Mallory a little bit about
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this and it's, you know, I the first question I ask a lot of
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these kids is pretty simple is that, you know, how many of you
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actually watch college softball, right?
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Like, and all of them raise your hand and I'm like, OK, you're
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here, you're in the pitching portion, you're doing these, the
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pitching stuff here. Who's your favorite pitcher?
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Name me one of the pitchers, right?
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And so right then and there, they're kind of like they're
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racing. And I'm like, well, you know, if
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you have somebody. So finally they started putting
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out people, you know, Rachel, Rachel Garcia was was 1, Jordy
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Ball was 1. You know, you had some others in
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the, in the mix there too. Najeri, of course, right.
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And I'm like, OK, now have any of you actually taken time to
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actually like, you know, take your phone, screen record their
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mechanics during the pitch, you know, or watching the slow
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motion releases during the Women's College World Series?
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I'm like, there's some some similarities and some things
6:03
that are super important that you need to be paying attention
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to, you know, and you know, and are your mechanics aligning to
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that? Like, I know it doesn't have to
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be. And I tell them, like, we're all
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going to have different, different things.
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We're going to move differently. We're going to have different
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profiles and all that. But there are some things that
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are really close to being absolutes that we need to make
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sure you're doing and you know, and can some of them weren't
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even close to that. And I'm just I'm trying to
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explain to them like this is what we're at.
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So this is where we're at and why.
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And so you know what there was and there and I take that too.
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There were some really good ones there too that had really good
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posture. Dr. mechanics were good, but
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there's there's still a gap. I'm still, I can't believe it
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can that I'm saying this, but there I'm still seeing hello
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elbow at in 2025 and a lot of leaning forward and snapping the
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arm up. And, and these most of the kids
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that that were at this at this camp are basically it's 15 and
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you know, there are some fourteens, but fourteens,
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sixteens and eighteens. And I'm like, how are we still
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doing this at this time and, and era of pitching when we have
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slow motion video on our phones where we can break things down
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to see what's really happening or not.
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So again, a lot of that was more really focusing on drive
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mechanics. And I asked, I went around and
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asked him, I said, what are what are some things?
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I'm like, you're all taking lessons.
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So what are your, what are your travel ball coaches and what are
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your pitching coaches telling you you have to work on?
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If there's something I can give you and you take away from here
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today, then I'll feel like as I've given you your money's
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worth of this, of this camp. And, and so I think that was at
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least what I try to do. So yeah.
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And I, and I thought it went pretty well.
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I thought, I definitely thought it went pretty well.
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But it, it's very shocking to me that we're still seeing things
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like Hello Elbow when we, we're just at a time where we can slow
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things down and really see what's happening, you know, so,
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you know. Yeah, absolutely.
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I mean, you know, when I get a new kid in, first thing I do is
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I evaluate where she is and then I will talk to her and her
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parent or, you know, who's ever catching for her, kind of about
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what I see. I'll shoot a video, show them
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what they're doing. But I, you know, I ask them what
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they've been taught and say, you know, here, tell me if you're,
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if you were the instructor and I was a student, tell me how to
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pitch, you know, and if they can't really do that, then I'll
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say, OK, well, what do you want to do at this point in the
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pitch? You know, what are we were
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trying to do here? It's amazing how many of them
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still come in and they have, you know, like they'll do a, the
8:23
wrist flips up close. They're 5 feet away, and they're
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just flipping the wrist up. And then a lot of that today,
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Yeah. And then they move back to, you
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know, like AT drill where they put their arms out, you know,
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straight out to the sides. Like they're making the letter T
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with the ball facing down, and they're pushing that through.
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But then when you see them actually pitch, their bodies are
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either doing pretty much internal rotation mechanics or
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they're trying to, and it's just been coached out of them.
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And I can sit there and see this and show them that here's what
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you're trying to do. This is a good thing.
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In fact, one of the things I often tell them is I have good
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news and bad news for you. The bad news is you're not doing
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any of the things that you're trying to do.
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The good news is you're not doing any of the things you're
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trying to do. Yeah.
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You know, so, yeah. So the body needs to move
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properly. The body knows how to move.
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And if you just allow it to move the way it's supposed to, it's
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actually not that hard to get good pitching mechanics.
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Yeah, I'll say another thing that I saw a lot too, Ken, is
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the arm slot to me is something that's super important.
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I did see a lot of arms far away from the body today, right.
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Like you know, again, when I'm looking at at mechanics of
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Geordie ball or we're looking at Najiri, I'm seeing the arm close
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to the hip, I'm seeing the arm stabilize.
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I'm seeing the a lot of forward effort of shoulder pulling
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towards the catcher. I don't see a lot of that in
9:50
Geordie. I actually pulled up a video of
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Geordie that I slow mowed like last year and I'm like, where is
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she at? Look at where she's at at
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release. How many of you are are close to
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this right? And so a lot of just getting the
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arm through and can I, I'm working on getting somebody to
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come on our podcast here where I want them to talk.
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And then you and I have talked about this thoracic outlet
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syndrome and, and I want to get into why brush is something that
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really I feel and, and I think you feel the same way,
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alleviates some of that stress on that shoulder and those
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tendons through and ligaments through the arm instead of the
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arm just being fluid with no deceleration.
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And so I'm trying to work on somebody that's going to come in
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and not necessarily talk about the, the correlation, if there's
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a correlation between those two, but at least what brush, you
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know, having that deceleration of the upper arm does to
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alleviate stress on the shoulder and it, you know, in the, in the
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forearm as well too. So something I'm working on, but
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I saw a lot of arms away from bodies today where they're just
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pushing the ball through the release.
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But again, I, I think that's where it where's at 1:00 today
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was really shocking to me. We're talking about we're
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talking about rise balls, Ken and, and and I asked question.
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I said, So what kind of spin are we trying to get on a rise ball?
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And one kid said Corkscrew. And I was like, oh boy, no.
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No, no, no, yeah. Yeah, yeah.
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And, and again, I'm not knocking the kid.
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That's just what someone's teaching her, right?
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And I'm like, well, what we're really trying to get is back
11:21
spin on the ball. And so I'm trying to explain to
11:22
them like where the bullet spin comes from and how you get a
11:26
bullet spin and how we're trying to avoid getting a bullet spin
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and getting some backspin, if even if it's on some kind of
11:33
tilted axis, but getting backspin that's going to be
11:35
better than a ball that's going to just come at you as a bullet,
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you know. And so that was that was a
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conversation that that we had. So we tried to talk a little bit
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about spins. So I tried to give them as much
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information as I could. You know, they're only there for
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30 minutes, 40 minutes tops. And you know, so it's, it's,
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it's hard to do that. So I really just tried.
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That's why I brought them over and talked to them first like,
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hey, what are your instructors telling you you need to work on?
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So overall I felt it was pretty good.
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Yeah, I think that's important. Just try to give them an idea
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and and explain why, because I'm sure a lot of times when they're
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being told to throw their rise ball with a Corkscrew spin,
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nobody's ever said why they should do that.
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They just tell them to do it. And I always try to, you know,
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encourage the kids to be curious, you know, ask
12:16
questions. Yes, I know that some coaches
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will react negatively to a question because they think
12:22
you're challenging them. But I personally love questions.
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And I think you do, too because I want that kid engaged.
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I wanted to understand what we're trying to do.
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Not just be a robot. Not, you know, do something
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because I said to do it. Because, you know, I could be an
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idiot. In fact, I am, many times.
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And so I'll talk. Yeah, Yeah.
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Well, we all are to some degree, right?
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And I'll say this one thing that really kind of like, you know,
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I'm going to give some some advice.
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If you're a parent listening or you are a player listening and
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the coaches bring you over at the end of their segment, get
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your session, whatever you want to call it.
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And I'm talking about it when you're at a college camp and
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they go, OK, any questions or comments and you don't ask
13:02
anything to me that tells me right there, you may have not or
13:05
probably didn't listen to anything.
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And you're just listening to to do everything I tell you to do
13:09
to please me. That's not what I'm looking for.
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Like you said, I want you to be curious.
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I don't care if you ask me what I had for breakfast.
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Engage engaging conversation because you're going to have to
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do that eventually, right? And I think, you know, ask about
13:24
a certain drill or ask about why we want backspin on a rise ball.
13:28
Ask about why we don't want forward effort with our
13:30
shoulder, you know, ask about why we need, you know, we need
13:34
to, to have our, our body in the proper position to launch those
13:38
things. So a lot of, a lot of things is
13:40
just ask any questions. And so we only had one group
13:43
today and I, I think we did six groups.
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Ken and I only had one group that asked questions and then
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they were great questions that they asked.
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So it was pretty good. So I, if you're listening, ask
13:53
questions. It could be about the coaches,
13:55
when the coach started coaching, why they got into coaching,
13:58
anything you can ask to create conversation.
14:00
Those coaches are going to remember you more than you just
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shaking your head no, you have no questions or everything's
14:06
good and you're excited to get to your next station.
14:09
So hopefully, you know, people are listening to that.
14:12
Yeah, and I, and I'll second that and I will tell you that,
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you know, when I was younger, I often felt like, oh, I don't
14:20
want to ask a question because I don't want to feel like I'm
14:22
stupid or, you know, the have people think that I'm stupid.
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So I would just kind of nod my head along and, you know, and
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wouldn't ask those questions. When I finally got over that, oh
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gosh, it was so freeing. It you feel so much better and I
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just, you know, just stopped thinking like that.
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And then I, you know, somebody said something.
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And in my day job career, I talked to people in the
14:44
technology world about very complex technologies and across
14:48
a variety of industries. The last 7 or so years was at
14:53
Amendola Communications, which was all healthcare.
14:56
And so, you know, there was a lot of stuff.
14:58
There's some really, really smart people I was talking to
15:01
about topics I knew nothing about.
15:02
And they said something I wouldn't make them explain it.
15:06
Nobody ever said a word about, you know, me being stupid or
15:10
that's a stupid question or anything.
15:12
They were thrilled to be able to expand on something like that.
15:16
Now, you know, every now and then they'd use a phrase that
15:18
I'd be like, oh, I'll just look that up later.
15:20
I don't want to interrupt their flow.
15:22
But you know, if you and if you're in a group, and I've
15:26
heard this before, and I think that this is very important for
15:29
kids to remember as well, if you have a question, don't be afraid
15:32
to ask it because I guarantee at least one other person in that
15:35
group has the same question and wants to know the answer and is
15:39
afraid to ask too. But you get in and you be the
15:43
kid who's asking questions, especially in a coaching
15:45
situation. If you've got a halfway decent
15:47
coach, you're going to quickly become their favorite because
15:50
they know that you're engaged and you're trying to get better.
15:53
Yeah, absolutely right. I think being curious about
15:56
things is super important. And again, I, I feel, you know
16:00
that I like you said, I don't really feel that there are any
16:02
stupid questions, right, right. It's just to help you understand
16:06
better or maybe to do it. And again, you know, there's a
16:09
lot of different ways to do things as we know, right.
16:12
And so that's why I tell my listen, I'm just telling you my
16:14
experiences. What has worked for me, worked
16:16
with me in the bullpens at Saint Xavier when I was at Loyola and
16:19
works with my kids that I have that are that take lessons from
16:22
me. So I'm just giving you my
16:24
feedback from what I have, right.
16:26
If you find a different way to do that, then that's great, but
16:29
ask questions and, and the other thing is try new things.
16:33
You don't have to like it. You don't have to end up doing
16:37
it, but if you try it, it might be something that actually helps
16:40
you, right? And you can then move forward
16:43
from there. So I, I think that that was
16:45
important. So overall it was good and it
16:46
was good to watch some games play, you know, come see them
16:49
compete after that a little bit too.
16:50
So it was good and, and the LP for you, Dave Batcher does a
16:55
great job with his tournament. There was a lot of coaches
16:57
there. DePaul was there, Butler was
17:00
there, Lewis was there. I worked with Sarah Willis who's
17:02
the head coach at Bradley. Joe Kinsella at Lake Forest was
17:06
there. Mallory Winters from Butler was
17:08
there. There were other coaches,
17:10
coaches from other colleges there.
17:11
So it was a great, a great and well attended actual camp for
17:14
these kids to get in front of coaches from D1 to the D2 and
17:19
then AI and even junior college. So take advantage of those camps
17:23
when you, it gives you a Big Bang for your buck and you know,
17:26
and, and you eventually as they get older or start getting into
17:30
that recruitment phase, then you can go to your individual camps
17:32
of the schools that are interested in you and, and vice
17:34
versa. So, but take advantage from
17:36
these because you're learning. So, and again, it's a way to to
17:38
learn how to be coachable as well too, so.
17:40
Yeah, that's good. Yeah, absolutely.
17:43
All right, so I know we have a topic for today that we wanted
17:47
to get into, and that's the top 10 coach.
17:50
Don'ts think coaches shouldn't do or say or things like that
17:56
This Jay, that was your idea. So I think we're going to have
17:59
you kick it off. What's your number one or your
18:01
first, I shouldn't say #1 but what's your first coach?
18:04
Don't. So for me, I'm, I'm going to
18:07
start from the lowest and then work my way up to the to the
18:11
biggest. No, no.
18:12
OK, mine are just going to be random.
18:14
OK, OK, All right, so the first coach Nono for me is that you
18:24
should not. Well, I'm going to start from
18:27
the bottom again. These could be more random, but
18:29
you should not be degrading or screaming at a player right
18:33
after a play happened or period in general right there.
18:37
It's a it's a coachable moment. It's a teachable moment, but
18:40
bring them off to the side after, pull them off to the side
18:43
after the play is over. Do not, do not degrade a player
18:48
in front of their team or in front of their parents.
18:51
It is the number one thing that will you will lose a player who
18:54
will not play hard for you probably the rest of their time.
18:56
So that's my first one. Yeah.
18:58
No, I agree. That's an important thing.
19:00
And I would add on to that not to pull, you know, if kid makes
19:05
an error out on the field, don't pull her off the field as a
19:09
punishment. You know, you can set talk about
19:11
standards all you want, but all you're really going to do is
19:14
you're just going to make those kids play scared.
19:18
Kids who play scared don't get better.
19:20
Agreed. All right, So what?
19:23
About yours. OK, here's one of mine and this
19:26
is and again, I'll tell you a lot of these coach don'ts.
19:29
This is not me standing on my pedestal talking down to all of
19:34
you. This is stuff that I have done
19:35
before and learned the hard way not to do it.
19:40
So this one is hanging your head or just, you know, having kind
19:44
of negative body language, especially when something goes
19:46
wrong. I actually learned that in a, in
19:49
a coaching class. It was a general class on how to
19:52
coach. I, you know, they talked about
19:55
it, they showed it. They, you know, showed a coach,
19:58
you know, just something goes wrong and then the head drops.
20:01
And the whole team reacts to it. And I was like, gosh, yes, I do
20:06
that all the time. So I had to work at it just like
20:09
players work at their skills. I had to work at learning not to
20:13
do that and to be, you know, very, you know, just very calm,
20:18
very straightforward. OK, we've got this, you know,
20:20
everything is cool. And it actually ended up paying
20:24
off. I'll need to tell a quick story.
20:26
We were at, I think it was, gosh, it was the NSA Nationals
20:30
or World Series or whatever they call it.
20:32
Our team, you know, we were in a very, very tense game.
20:35
It was tied up. We did I think 4 international
20:39
tiebreakers and ended up winning, which was nice.
20:43
Afterwards, a couple of the parents came up to me and said,
20:47
how did you stay so calm during that?
20:50
So we were all pacing up and down the sidelines going crazy,
20:53
and we look over at you and you're just, you know, just cool
20:56
as a cucumber. And I said, well, you know, I
20:59
learned to do that. I worked at it.
21:01
But, you know, if I'm panicking, if I'm nervous, if I'm pacing
21:05
back and forth in the dugout, that's just going to affect the
21:08
team. And I know it's going to affect
21:10
the team. So I, you know, made sure that I
21:12
kept myself calm, keep the players calm, keep them focused
21:16
on the job they had to do. It's just softball.
21:19
And we ended up winning that that game and advancing.
21:23
Nice job Ken, way to stay cool, calm cool and collect, not
21:26
change coach style. Yeah, no matter how you're
21:30
feeling inside. How about you?
21:31
Did you did you ever suffer from that or were you always good
21:35
about? No.
21:36
Not showing your emotions. Yo, I mean probably too much
21:40
even still now a little bit I think.
21:42
And and sometimes I have to remind myself I have a story
21:47
real quick on top of that one too.
21:48
I remember probably in shoot, I'm trying to think you're 2013
21:56
ish playing for a regional championship and was way too
22:00
aggressive, tried to make too many things happen, getting
22:03
runners thrown out off the bases 100 times right now.
22:06
And at the end of the game we lost.
22:08
We lost by a run. And I'm like, you know what?
22:09
I sat my team down for regional championship and I said, you
22:13
know what? Today I lost you this game.
22:15
I did. I took too many, too many
22:17
chances. I took the bat out of your hands
22:19
way too many times. So Fast forward a year from
22:22
there. We're playing the same team.
22:24
We played them earlier in the year.
22:25
I was way too aggressive again and I walked out of the car.
22:29
My wife and I were going there. She's like, are you nervous?
22:31
I said Nope. You know what?
22:33
Today I'm just going to let this unfold.
22:35
I'm going to just stay calm. I'm going to let it come out.
22:37
I'm not going to run us out of this game.
22:39
I'm going to let my kids win this game for themselves.
22:42
And sure enough, I didn't run us out out of the out of the game.
22:46
They moved runners over. We had to play a little small
22:48
ball. We ended up winning I think 2:00
22:50
to 2:00 to 1:00. And that all happened because I
22:53
didn't get in their way. And I think that's a huge thing.
22:56
Sometimes as coaches, we want to be in control of the game and
22:59
we're not in control of the game.
23:00
The players are. So sometimes we need to let that
23:02
just unfold instead of trying to dictate every little thing that
23:07
happens. And I did that and I learned
23:09
that the hard way. That's a long time ago.
23:10
Can that's, you know, over 10 years ago.
23:12
And I learned that. And I've ever since I've really
23:14
kind of taken a step back and said, let's just let this play
23:17
out. You know, I always had a really
23:18
good assistant coach and, and I talk about him a lot.
23:21
I've known the guy coached his daughter.
23:23
She's coming up on 70 years old here in May and he's still
23:26
giving lessons, catcher lesson, stuff like that.
23:28
And he was always my, he was the salt and I was the pepper.
23:31
And there'd be times I'd start getting all fired up like God
23:34
can't believe it. And he'd look at me.
23:35
He goes, hey, hey, man, they're 14.
23:38
Yeah. I'd look at him and I'd look at
23:39
him. And I go, you know, you're
23:41
right. I'm sorry.
23:41
Yeah, you're right. Yeah.
23:43
And so he would pull me back off that ledge.
23:45
And I think you need to have somebody on your staff like that
23:47
that really does that because it's easy to get emotional in
23:50
this game because it's a roller coaster, you know?
23:52
So, yeah, definitely the same thing.
23:54
Like you can I I, I was a little too crazy.
23:57
And I've learned to scale it back and let things just kind of
23:59
happen. Yeah, and you know, it's funny
24:01
when you talk about running teams out of games, I would tend
24:04
to be aggressive like that too. And, and, you know, every now
24:07
and then I get a runner thrown out at home, which is a big no,
24:10
no. And I think I've told the story
24:13
before, But you know, at the end of the season when we would be
24:15
playing a friendly during the week, we had a tradition on, on
24:19
my younger daughter's team where we'd let the kids coach
24:22
themselves, my assistant coaches and I, we would all sit in the
24:25
stands. We'd jaw with the parents, have
24:27
a good time. We were there in case somebody
24:29
got injured. But basically it was, you know,
24:30
the team gets to run the show. You know, they coached the
24:34
bases, they made the line up, they did everything with it.
24:37
So we're watching one of those games and my, my daughter Kim is
24:42
is coaching third base. And we had a run around second
24:46
base. Ball gets hit into the outfield
24:48
and she's waving her around to go home, go home.
24:51
And you can just see what's going to unfold.
24:53
Sure enough, Kashali gets thrown out at the plate and I just
24:57
turned everybody. And then she's a chip off the
25:00
old block. I was never prouder of my
25:04
daughter. That's great.
25:08
That's great. All right, so let let me go with
25:10
another one that I have here of the coaches don'ts.
25:14
OK, This one for me here is I think a big one and that is do
25:20
not talk to other players or other parents about someone
25:24
else's kid. Yeah.
25:27
If you are a coach and you have friends, your daughter's on the
25:30
team, do not talk to any other player or any other parent about
25:36
anybody else's kid except their own kid.
25:39
That is a big no no. If you are doing that, you are
25:43
just stirring the pot causing drama, regardless of whether or
25:48
not that kid is good or bad. That's not for you to say to
25:51
anybody else. And I would tell you like, if
25:54
your staff has kids that are on the team, then keep that to
25:58
yourself as well too, honestly, because I feel like you're just
26:02
stirring the pot, right? And again, remember, kids are
26:04
developing it at different ages and they bloom at different
26:07
ages. But you saying stuff about
26:10
another another kid to another kid or to someone else's parent
26:13
is just is a is a big no no. Yeah, no, I agree.
26:19
I think it's important for coaches to remember that no
26:21
matter how it might feel, they're not, you know, these are
26:25
not your friends. These are the people that you
26:28
are working for. You know, you're working for all
26:31
of those parents and for all of those kids.
26:33
If you need a friend, get a dog, find a find a coaching circle.
26:38
And you know, you can talk all you want about this player, that
26:41
player to your coach friends, but you know that are not a part
26:46
of the team, you know, or someone else, you know, your Co
26:48
workers if you've got a day job. But yeah, talking about somebody
26:53
to someone else on the team, yeah, that's you're just asking
26:57
for trouble. And you're, Yep, there's enough
27:00
of that that goes on in the stands and there's enough of
27:02
that that goes on behind your back that you're not supposed to
27:06
know about. There's no reason for you to
27:08
encourage that and to try to stir up more of it.
27:11
Yep. What about you, Ken?
27:12
What's your next one? OK, so this one is fairly
27:15
specific. This is when you have a pitcher
27:18
who's having a little bit of trouble.
27:20
The worst thing you can do is yell.
27:22
Just throw strikes. Slow it down.
27:25
Just throw strikes if that's what you want.
27:29
Take that pitcher who's working hard and trying to develop
27:33
herself and become a real pitcher.
27:34
Take her out of there. Just get a volunteer from one of
27:37
the other players is not a pitcher and tell her.
27:40
Just Chuck that ball in there and throw strikes.
27:41
Let them hit it. You know you're going to.
27:44
Everybody will be better off for it.
27:47
And if you are a coach who does that, why don't you go to the
27:50
mountain and see how well you throw strikes if it's so easy,
27:54
right? People, people don't even, they
27:55
don't even they think it, there's a lot of kids that make
27:59
it look really easy, right, Ken? But it's not easy at all.
28:02
Honestly, I compare it to be in an NFL quarterback, right?
28:06
You got a great pitcher, you're going to have a really great
28:08
team, right? You got a bad pitcher, it's
28:10
going to be it's going to be a struggle and they're out there
28:13
working as hard as they can to get as good as they can.
28:15
So let them get out there and let them do it.
28:17
You yelling throw strikes to somebody does not help anything
28:21
at all except put pressure on that kid to now not even use the
28:25
proper mechanics, which is what we all don't want.
28:27
So Amen. That's a that's a beautiful one,
28:31
Ken. That one slipped off my list.
28:34
So I'm going to have to add that on to my list just now I'm
28:36
putting over here so. OK, good.
28:39
Well, and I, you know, I, of course, I always have a story,
28:42
so I have a story for that one too.
28:45
But you know, it's based on what you were saying about how, you
28:47
know, it's, it's, it's a lot harder than it looks.
28:51
And you know, yes, some kids make it look easy.
28:53
And I will often times tell the kids as I'm working on mechanics
28:57
with them and trying to get them to, you know, to be better, I
29:02
will tell them, I want you to get to the point that two years
29:04
from now, everybody says, well, of course she's good.
29:06
She's just a natural. So they they're not here right
29:09
now. They don't see how tough a time
29:11
you're having and how much work you're putting in to get there.
29:14
We want you to look like this is something you just walked up.
29:17
You picked up a ball one day and started chucking it in there for
29:20
strikes and moving it around and doing all of that.
29:23
So what I would do is this is when I was teaching, I would do
29:27
some clinics during the winter and you know, there'll be like 6
29:31
kids at a time. You know, some program would
29:33
hire me to teach a bunch of their kids to, to pitch.
29:37
And so, you know, we would do say, you know, either the 1st or
29:40
the second week that we were doing this, we get to the half
29:45
hour break and I'd say, OK, here, I need a parent volunteer.
29:49
And I'd always look for some big strong guy.
29:51
You know, guy looked like he was fairly athletic, like he worked
29:53
out and was in good shape. I would say, OK, here, I'm good.
29:57
I just want to give you guys an idea of, you know, kind of how
30:00
all of this works. So, you know, here, come on in
30:03
here, I'm going to just teach you how to do some simple stuff
30:05
for the pitching and, you know, just kind of make it look like,
30:08
you know, this is going to be fun.
30:10
This will be easy. So I'd have the guy doing it and
30:12
inevitably they were stiff, you know, and, and they were having
30:16
trouble. And I'd start out very calmly,
30:17
you know, going, OK here. We would just start from the K
30:20
position. Now, you know, you don't want to
30:21
turn that ball backwards. You want to kind of keep your
30:24
hand like this. You want your arm to come down
30:26
this way. And, you know, I'd be very
30:28
patient with them. And they try it and they can't,
30:30
you know, go and, you know, they'd be having trouble.
30:33
And then they start throwing the ball into the dirt and it's, you
30:36
know, get a little more agitated with them.
30:38
Come on. You're not trying to say, you
30:40
know, just just throw strikes and I just start yelling all the
30:43
stuff that parents yell. And all the other parents would
30:45
be laughing. And the person I was doing it to
30:48
would be laughing and say parents.
30:50
The whole point of this is that it's not as easy as it may
30:53
appear to be. None of your kids are out there
30:56
trying to throw the ball into the dirt or over the backstop.
30:58
It just happens. So give them a break, kind of,
31:02
you know, let them learn. Give them the opportunity to get
31:05
better and just support them. And it's a pretty good, pretty
31:10
good lesson. And think about that, Ken, we
31:12
had Emma Lemley on this podcast who said she still throws balls
31:15
to the backstop. So professional.
31:19
So lighten up and let the kids let the kids work through it.
31:22
All right, So since we're getting specific, Ken, I'm going
31:24
to add this one to my list, which I'm going to I'm going to
31:27
put a disclaimer was not on the list to begin with.
31:29
But now since you went there with the just throw strikes,
31:32
I've got to add this one to it. Please stop screaming for
31:36
everyone to throw the ball to the pitcher.
31:40
Drives me crazy. When the pitcher gets the ball,
31:44
the play doesn't end OK. And on my daughter's team coming
31:48
from wreck ball, that's all you would hear all summer.
31:50
Get it in, throw it to the pitcher, throw it to the
31:53
pitcher. And I'm like, Oh no, please,
31:55
please. And so first, first practice we
31:58
had, I'm like, we are not throwing the ball to the
32:00
pitcher. More times than not, you're
32:01
going to run the ball into the pitcher.
32:03
We're either going to throw it to a cut or to a base, right?
32:08
Not to the pitcher. I don't want a random
32:10
outfielders throw from the outfielder to the pitcher.
32:13
I just don't throw it to a base or throw it to a person, but do
32:17
not throw it to the pitcher because the pitcher shouldn't be
32:20
there anyways, Ken, they should be backing up a base.
32:23
So please stop telling kids, parents, coaches to throw the
32:29
ball to the pitcher. Yeah, I think that they think
32:32
that that's, you know, an automatic stop of play if they
32:36
get the ball into the pitcher. And it's like now the play could
32:38
continue and, you know, then the pitcher has to figure out what
32:42
to do with it, you know, as you want to make sure that
32:44
everything is settled, then get the ball to the pitcher.
32:47
At that point it stops. Correct, correct.
32:50
So this is this is a funny one. I've got a story for this one
32:53
too. This is actually fairly
32:55
shocking. I know.
32:57
So I have this this catching student.
33:00
You know, I do work with catchers now and then I have a
33:03
catching student and she was telling me about this and she
33:05
was very confused by her team coach who's a baseball guy.
33:10
OK, so we got one of these baseball guys used to a 90 foot
33:13
bases and you know the the way that baseball works.
33:17
And so he kept telling her, even with runners on base to just,
33:22
you know, when you get the ball, you receive the pitch, just
33:25
throw it back to the pitcher right away.
33:27
She said there'd be runners off base and she'd be kind of like
33:29
looking at them or kind of running them back.
33:32
And he'd just say, no, just throw it, you know, throw it
33:34
back to the pitcher. And she's like, I don't know
33:37
the, you know, it shouldn't be doing that.
33:38
And I said, well, you know, yes, you're right.
33:40
You shouldn't be doing that. But, you know, he's a coach.
33:43
Maybe he's going to learn by doing so, you know, next game
33:48
she's throw, she throws the ball back to the pitcher.
33:50
There was a kid on 3rd. Of course, she delays steals,
33:53
scores the run. And then she just told me she
33:56
just kind of looked at the coach and and then from that point on,
34:00
he didn't say anything more about, you know, you know,
34:03
throwing it back to the pitchers.
34:04
You know it's. Lesson learned.
34:07
And unfortunately for her, he's got a lot of those ideas.
34:10
So you know, something else has come up recently and I told her
34:14
said just like the run, you know, throwing the ball back to
34:16
the pitcher said this guy isn't going to you can't argue with
34:19
him. He knows it all.
34:20
You know, you just you got to do what he says.
34:24
Oh, it was a trying to do a pick off play to 1st with a runner on
34:27
3rd said, you know, OK, just if he wants you to do that, go
34:32
ahead and do that. The run will score.
34:35
And then he'll figure out that those kids, you know, if you
34:38
have 60 foot bases and they come off 20 feet, they're only 40
34:41
feet away, by the time that ball goes down there and makes the
34:44
return trip, that runner is going to score.
34:47
Yep, All right. What's What's your next one?
34:50
All right. Oh, using exercise for
34:53
punishment. Oh yes.
34:55
Oh I'm man, your list is so much better than mine.
34:59
Actually, Jay, two of your things were on my list, so
35:04
that's why I made extra ones just in case.
35:07
Just in case. Yeah, but you know, that's
35:09
another one. And you see that all the time
35:11
and again, you see the dumbest stuff with it.
35:14
So, you know, making kids go out and run foul polls, because I, I
35:18
mean, I've seen teams where the coach for every run that we gave
35:23
up, you know, you have to run a pole.
35:25
So if you gave up seven runs, you got to run 7.
35:27
If you gave up twelve, you got to run 12.
35:29
And boy, that's talk about putting negative thinking into
35:32
the game and getting the kids to play scared.
35:35
Besides the fact runs are going to get scored, especially these
35:38
days. Hey, Ken, let me just, I got to
35:40
interject here real quick. So you went, you watched a lot
35:44
of college softball, right? So after their games, I guess
35:47
all the college coaches have the kids on the lines and they're
35:50
just running lines and foul poles.
35:51
You see that? Yeah, of course.
35:53
Listen, I've seen plenty of errors in my time.
35:56
I've seen plenty of runs given up, sometimes more than I wish.
35:59
But I can tell you this, even at the next practice, we're not
36:02
making them run. No.
36:04
We're we're getting after what we need to get after.
36:07
So I sorry, I had to interject because, you know, I went and
36:10
watched Illinois State and DePaul play a couple weeks ago.
36:12
And yeah, I stuck around here for even after the game to talk
36:14
to their pitching coach at Illinois State.
36:15
And I didn't see anybody doing foul poles or sprints because
36:20
they gave up runs or lost the game.
36:22
Right. Interesting.
36:23
That's a very good one, Ken. Well, thanks.
36:25
And you know, I, I remember one of my, one of my pitchers who
36:29
was pitching in college was the D3 school out in Iowa.
36:32
And she said that after, you know, they, it was after
36:36
practice, but they had lost and they, you know, the team had
36:40
watched a lot of third strikes go by.
36:42
So the coaches made, you know, them run a pole for every 3rd
36:47
strike that they'd watched or every strikeout they had or
36:50
something like it was something like that.
36:52
And I said, boy, that seems like a giant waste of time If your
36:54
team is striking out a lot. I wouldn't be running, you know
36:58
they don't need to run to go back to the dugout.
37:01
I'd be working on hitting. Or pitch recognition.
37:04
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's, that's, that's a,
37:08
that's a great one. I, I, I love that one, Ken.
37:10
All right. I'm just going to add one more
37:12
thing too, is that, you know, then not only is that bad, but,
37:16
you know, especially at the younger levels, if you're doing
37:18
that kind of thing now, you've associated exercise and
37:21
conditioning with negative stuff, with bad things, and
37:25
that's just going to make your kids hate it all the more.
37:27
You know, nobody likes to, especially the younger ages,
37:30
nobody likes to just get out there and you know, and do
37:32
conditioning. But if you make it a negative
37:35
thing, they're really going to associate it with that.
37:37
They're going to hate it. And I mean, let's be honest, you
37:40
know, if you if you want them to run, then you should have been a
37:43
cross country coach or a track coach, not a softball coach,
37:46
right? You want them to do running
37:48
bases if you're going to do bases, like base work and and
37:51
that stuff. But yeah, no, I disagree with
37:53
it, Yeah. Yeah, that's sprints.
37:54
I mean, especially, you know, the distance running kind of
37:56
stuff, those long things, The what's the farthest you ever
37:59
have to run, you know, in softball, 200 feet from the
38:03
fence or 220 if you got a big field, 220, you know, from
38:08
there. But you're never going to run
38:09
from the fence to home. So, you know, that's kind of out
38:12
or 240 feet if you hit a home run inside the park.
38:17
And how often does that happen? You really don't need that kind
38:19
of conditioning for it. You need Sprint, you need burst
38:24
and recovery, burst and recovery.
38:25
And you can do all of that while you're working on other skills.
38:30
Yep. OK, Ken, I'm going to, I'm going
38:32
to throw one out here now and then, and this is more geared
38:35
towards maybe travel or high school or even college.
38:39
Please do not put your schedule on the wall and go through your
38:43
schedule and tell your team what games you're going to win and
38:46
lose. Well, you're going to lose this
38:48
team. And we're all, believe me.
38:50
Can you think that this is made-up?
38:53
Whoa, buddy, this is. Yeah, I've, I've heard from, you
38:56
know, several people that a coach has put, put up this list
39:00
of their schedule and said, well, if we keep playing and
39:02
we're playing, we're going to lose to them and we're going to
39:04
lose to that. Like who, who, who does that?
39:07
You're already sending the message to your team that
39:09
they're not good enough. That's not motivating anybody.
39:12
So don't go through your schedule with your with your
39:15
team and tell them who you're going to win and lose to, right.
39:18
And that's part of it. Nobody knows who's going to win
39:20
or lose. The, you know, the game has a
39:22
funny way of working its way out.
39:24
So yeah, no, that's, that's a real one.
39:26
Yeah, that's that's something that is a real true thing that
39:31
people are, people actually do. It's kind of crazy.
39:34
Oh my gosh, I just, I can't imagine that, Jay.
39:37
It's just why would you want to go out and do that now?
39:41
You know, I mean, I've had things before where you say, OK,
39:45
our goal right now, you know, sometimes you'll find yourself a
39:48
little over your head in a tournament.
39:50
And I I remember I think it was Kelly.
39:52
Anyway, Perez was talking about this and said, sometimes in a
39:55
game you have to change the goal or, you know, in the pregame you
39:58
say, you know, you haven't been playing very well and say, all
40:00
right, right now we've been shut out in the last three games.
40:02
So our goal is to, you know, we're still going to try to win,
40:06
but our goal right now is to score a run.
40:10
Yeah, that's our, you know, we need to take it like that and we
40:13
score one run, maybe we'll score another run and we put a few
40:15
runs on top of that and we can win.
40:17
But if you set your goal to set, score seven runs and, you know,
40:21
you don't get started right away, then it's a problem.
40:25
And you know, or it's like, you know, I've heard you say before,
40:28
and I've certainly heard this other places as well, is that
40:30
you're not just trying to win the game, but you're trying to
40:33
win the inning, trying to win the at bat.
40:36
You know, there are all kinds of things that you can be winning
40:39
the game within the game. So to just give up right away
40:43
before you even get a chance to play, you know, why not just
40:46
call in the forfeits on those games then?
40:48
Why even bother playing? All right, you're up.
40:52
What's your next one? All righty, my next 10.
40:56
This is kind of the corollary to the yelling.
40:59
Just throw strikes for the pitcher and that's coaching pit
41:04
or coaching hitting mechanics from the third base coaches box.
41:08
So how many times have you been at a game and you've got a coach
41:11
that's calling out detailed instructions?
41:12
You need to do this and do this. Remember, you know, don't do
41:15
this, blah, blah, blah. But you know, and it's like that
41:18
kids going to go in there totally confused.
41:21
She's not going to be able to perform.
41:22
You know, if you want to say something, you can If you know
41:25
that there's like one key, you remind her and I wouldn't say
41:29
don't drop your back shoulder, say bring your back shoulder
41:31
forward first. You can you know, there are
41:33
things like that. You can give them as a reminder.
41:36
But if you can say, OK, now get yourself set in there, bend your
41:38
knees, get your bat up here. You know, I'm pointed this way
41:42
and then you know, Ken in here, then start, you know, get your
41:45
hips going. Do this.
41:48
That's not the time to be doing that.
41:50
That's what practice is for. Yeah, you're better off saying
41:53
things like, hey, let's battle now, right.
41:55
Hey, see the ball? Like those are things that are
41:57
not mechanical. They're literally hey, see the
41:59
ball. Hey, hey, let's battle.
42:01
Like, right, put your front foot here, put your back, tilt your
42:04
back. Nope, Got to get on top.
42:05
Nope. Like it's too much, right?
42:07
Tell them to battle. Just battle.
42:09
Keep your eyes on the ball, things like that.
42:11
Simple things, no mechanical adjustments.
42:14
Yeah, I agree with you there, Ken, I agree with.
42:15
You. Yeah, although one of my
42:17
favorite things I ever yelled from a third base coaches box as
42:20
far as a player goes was we had a girl that was guest playing
42:24
for us. She actually played for the team
42:27
that was above us, you know, the older team.
42:29
But she was eligible to play at Irons, but her dad coached the
42:32
older team, so she's playing with us.
42:34
I thought, man, this is going to be great.
42:36
Leslie's going to have a great time.
42:38
She is going to just, you know, feel really good about herself.
42:41
She's standing up there and she's taking strikes left and
42:43
right. She had an Anderson Rocketek,
42:46
which was the hot. One at the time, those were
42:48
great. Yeah.
42:50
And I just at one point I got, I just got tired of watching her
42:53
like that. And I'd say, hey, Leslie, those
42:55
Rocketeks work a lot better when you swing them.
42:59
That's your statement. But that, you know, to me,
43:02
that's the kind of thing that you can say, you know, is that
43:05
you just want to encourage the kid or, hey, you know, you got
43:07
this. Let's go, you know?
43:10
So OK, what's your next? One another one.
43:13
This one drives me crazy. Do not have the players make the
43:21
starting line up and what position they should play.
43:23
Now I'm talking at the collegiate level or even high
43:25
school level, right? You should not be giving your
43:29
team a piece of paper that says who do you think should be
43:33
starting and not starting? Seriously, people do that?
43:37
What are they on? Drugs.
43:39
Ken, I'm telling you, man, you would you listen at the highest
43:45
level, they're doing that, let me tell you.
43:48
Well, like I said, you know when we would do the OK you guys
43:50
coach yourself game for fun, we'd let them do that.
43:53
But other than that, yeah, I can't imagine.
43:55
Of course, I don't control freak as a coach anyway.
43:58
That's completely different. I'm I'm talking about I just
44:01
like the chemistry that and what you're looking for there is just
44:06
going to cause and create drama amongst the team and you are the
44:10
job. You are the you are the coach,
44:13
the head coach and the coaching staff.
44:15
It is your responsibility to evaluate talented to who's
44:18
supposed to be where this where and and so on and so forth.
44:22
It is not the players to do that.
44:24
And we know how these things work, especially in a high
44:26
school setting. It's going to come down to you
44:28
know, who's who's my friend, right?
44:30
And it's not and that's not what it's about.
44:33
And then you know. Trying to elect prom queen.
44:36
No, no. So yeah, that's that's a big no
44:40
no. And like I said, these aren't
44:42
things I'm making up here, Ken. These are things that have I've
44:45
either actually witnessed or someone has told me is actually
44:48
existing. So this is not some random
44:51
conspiracy theory that I've made-up that kids are, that
44:55
coaches are doing this. I'm sure that some people that
44:57
are listening to this are probably going yeah, I've, I've
44:59
probably, yeah, I did that once or twice, right.
45:01
And again, like you said, we're not, we're not judging you.
45:04
We're just trying to help people.
45:05
And you and I have made a lot of mistakes, tremendous amount of
45:09
mistakes about this. But we we're learning as we go
45:11
still too. So that's that's one for me that
45:14
please don't, please don't have your players make a list of who
45:17
should start and who shouldn't start.
45:19
It's just it's not their job. It's your job.
45:21
Right, hang on. To me that's inconceivable
45:24
because I'm such a control freak anyway.
45:26
You know, I mean, I wouldn't give the line up to the
45:29
assistant coach unless I there was some physical reason I
45:32
couldn't do it. You know, if if we're going to
45:34
go down, we're going to go down because I made a bad decision.
45:38
I'm not going to throw that on anybody else.
45:39
So that, you know, the thought of that just really throws me
45:44
off. Yeah.
45:45
All right. So I'm just all about out here.
45:48
You got any left there that you want to share?
45:51
Yes, I give me a second here. Oh this is a good one.
45:59
Playing time wasting games at the end of a timed game.
46:03
Oh yes. You know your.
46:05
List is amazing. I hate, I hate to see your
46:08
Christmas list, man oh man. You know, I mean, I get it, the
46:13
gamesmanship and then you're trying to stall it and all that,
46:16
but it's really not within the spirit of the game.
46:18
You're not teaching them how to play at a higher level.
46:20
And, you know, one of my, my assistant coach Rich had pointed
46:25
that out to me once when I kind of did that.
46:28
And, you know, he made a very valid point.
46:30
He said, you know, the message you're sending to the kids
46:32
because we ended up losing it anyway.
46:34
So the message you sent to the kids was we can't win this game
46:37
without doing things like this. It's like, you know what, you're
46:41
right. He was a wise man.
46:43
So, you know, from that point on, I just let them play.
46:47
You know, we wouldn't, I wouldn't go out there to talk to
46:49
the pitcher of the pitcher didn't need to be spoken to.
46:52
I wouldn't have somebody go up and tie their shoes.
46:56
But the only thing I would do was I would tell them if you get
46:59
on base, we're not taking any chances.
47:01
You know, if we need to extend this game out a little bit more,
47:05
you know, I don't need outs. Outs are going to kill us.
47:08
So, you know, even if the ball gets away from the catcher a
47:11
little bit, just stay there and don't take any chance.
47:14
If the ball gets way away from the catcher and you could walk
47:17
down there, then yeah, go ahead. But otherwise, yeah, I don't
47:20
want you taking any chances, getting thrown out of second
47:23
base. And now we have an extra out.
47:25
We're going to have to play more.
47:27
You know, I just want to, I want to finish this game right here.
47:29
Yeah. And Ken, that's why I love the,
47:32
you know, the LP for you games and I love the PGF and Alliance
47:35
games. It's 80 or 90 minutes and it's
47:38
finished the inning. There's no, there's no time
47:41
thing, right? It's, it's basically you're in
47:44
90 minutes, you're going to play almost 7 innings, right?
47:47
You mean, but it's still finished the inning.
47:49
So there is no time thing where you're trying to do this.
47:51
And it's, it is. And for me as a college coach, I
47:54
want that because I want to be able to see kids coming in and
47:58
out of positions and so on and so forth, right?
48:00
So if we're just worried about winning the game and and beating
48:03
that time so that we don't have to play an extra inning, that's
48:05
an extra inning of eye candy time that you just took away
48:09
from some kid to get recruited, right?
48:11
I mean, honestly, like I see that kid make a diving catch up
48:14
the middle in that inning that you almost didn't let happen and
48:18
that kid doesn't get recruited by me, right?
48:20
And people need to think. And that's why I love, you know
48:23
what, what the LP for you does and Alliance and, and PGF, you
48:29
know, even some of the Triple Crown like you're, you're
48:30
playing the games and that's what and coaches want to see
48:33
that. So I think you see that a lot
48:35
more at the younger ages. The with some of the other
48:38
sanctions, they time limited. You're getting 65 minute games,
48:41
which means you're playing 2 1/2 innings and you know, you're
48:43
getting 66 games at at 65 minutes.
48:46
Yay, right. Like, you know, you never get a
48:49
flow on any of that. So yeah, no, I I agree with you
48:51
there. I agree with you for sure.
48:52
So. Yeah, you know, and plus the
48:54
fact that, well, I hate time games anyway, and I get why it's
48:58
done, although it's gotten to be pretty ridiculous by now.
49:03
You know, there used to be, if you set a 2 hour time limit on a
49:06
game for 14 and under and above, I think that's a pretty
49:10
reasonable time limit. You should be able to get 7
49:13
innings in in that time. When you start going to, you
49:15
know, 85 minutes or 65 minutes or something like that, you're
49:20
not going to get a full game in. So, and then these kids, you
49:24
know, high school coaches, college coaches wonder why their
49:26
kids can't compete for seven innings.
49:28
Well, they never really had to. They knew, you know, pitcher
49:31
knew that she could get through 4, maybe 5 innings and she'd be
49:34
done. So that's what she's oriented
49:36
toward. You know, 7 innings is a grind.
49:39
You know, that's a long time to be out there.
49:42
You know, now the game's changing a little bit and
49:44
they're starting to use more multiple pitchers, not just
49:47
relying on one, not just expecting somebody to complete
49:51
games all the time. But still.
49:54
I think that in fact, I had when I did the coaches College thing
49:59
at the Women's College World Series when I had the chance to
50:02
speak to our guests from a couple weeks ago.
50:04
Carol Brueggeman, she was sitting in the stands there with
50:07
us and all that, and I was asking her about it and she said
50:09
she felt the same way as that. These kids come in unprepared to
50:14
compete at the collegiate level because they haven't really had,
50:18
you know, they in high school, yeah, they did.
50:20
But most of their time and most of their intense time is spent
50:23
on travel ball. And they just get used to that
50:27
short, you know, 6575 minute game.
50:33
Yep, Yep, couldn't agree with you more.
50:35
That's a pretty good list we got there.
50:37
Ken, do you have anything else you wanted to add?
50:40
You know, I had something and I didn't write it down when I
50:43
thought of it and I lost it. So I can't can't think of
50:47
anything else right now. That's OK.
50:49
If you remember it, I'm going to, you know, me.
50:50
I, I got a couple things I want to talk about here too.
50:53
So I want to talk, I want to talk a little bit about coaching
50:56
attire. OK.
50:59
Listen, this is an athletic sport.
51:03
These kids are athletes. You are a coach that you are
51:05
going to be required to move your body, hitting balls,
51:09
catching balls, running after things, doing that.
51:12
I don't know why. And it's just maybe it's just
51:15
me. And if, if listen, if, if I'm
51:17
being ridiculous about this, can please tell me.
51:20
Or if anybody else who's listening to this thinks that
51:22
I'm being ridiculous about this, please send me a message and let
51:25
me know. A.
51:26
Better put it in the comments. Or or yeah in the comments if
51:29
yeah. So there should be no reason
51:33
that anybody as a coach is wearing jeans when you are
51:36
coaching. I'm sorry.
51:38
It is the biggest. It is the biggest for me.
51:41
I get it. You're cold.
51:42
It's cold out girls or anybody players.
51:46
If you're listening, wives, if you're listening or if you're a
51:49
coach and your husband, your your wife is the coach and and
51:52
you're the husband listening. Please buy them their yoga pants
51:57
or please buy them sweatpants, which still would look
52:00
tremendously better than you showing up coaching a team in
52:04
your blue denim jeans that looks like you just you're dressed
52:07
ready to go to the bar. It's just, it's a thing for me,
52:11
right? We want people to take you
52:13
serious. You want college coaches to come
52:14
talk to you, you for the players that you have.
52:17
I, I want to take you serious and know that you're not running
52:20
a practice in jeans, right? Because what is that practice
52:24
like? Then?
52:25
Your mobility isn't very good. And I know they make jeans a lot
52:27
stretchier nowadays. However, I still don't consider
52:30
them to be athletic wear. So again, it's not hard to go by
52:35
yourself. Some some Under Armour
52:37
sweatpants, some Nike sweatpants that'll match your team colors.
52:41
Shorts in the summer, fine. You know, I'm not a big khaki
52:44
short guy. I see those out there.
52:45
But that's, you know, to each to each their own on that.
52:49
It's still shorts and it still looks professional.
52:51
I'll take that. And I said, you know, I said
52:53
this to people. I watch basketball all the time.
52:55
I don't see any basketball coaches wearing jeans.
52:58
I'm watching the sidelines of football.
53:00
I don't see any football coaches wearing jeans, right?
53:03
Again, I I don't see it. But I go on A to watch a
53:06
tournament on a weekend and I see 3 or 4 coaches standing at
53:10
third base giving signs of jeans on what?
53:14
Yeah. So I I don't see any baseball
53:16
teams with dads wearing jeans. And, you know, like, I talked to
53:21
our baseball coach at our high school, he doesn't even let his
53:22
baseball players wear shorts. They got to wear their actual
53:25
pants to practice. That's how serious the baseball
53:27
guys are. But yeah, we're going to show up
53:29
and let our coaches, like even the coaches, coaches, staff
53:32
wear, they still wear like the full uniform.
53:35
I'm like, I'm not wearing a full uniform, but I'm, I'll gladly
53:37
put throw some sweatpants on and A and a shirt that represents my
53:41
school or my team. So please, I mean, think about
53:45
that for a minute, right? And we're all cold, but prepare
53:49
for that. Yeah, you know, put some
53:52
underarm Under Armour underneath and you're all set.
53:55
You know, some long Johns, you know, traditional ones you can
53:58
get, you know, get the ones with or without the flap.
54:00
But you know, I think, yeah, I totally agree with you, Jay.
54:05
For me, I know it for me coaching, just going out and
54:08
doing lessons, when I get ready to go out there, I always will
54:12
change my pants and I will put them out.
54:14
And in fact, you know, these days, if I was coaching third
54:16
base, yeah, I I could see myself wearing cargo pants, you know,
54:20
khaki shorts, cargo pants. I like having all the pockets
54:23
and everything. But when you're when I go out to
54:26
do lessons in that I've got a specifics, you know, few pairs
54:31
of shorts that I use for that purpose alone and it's a lot
54:35
more comfortable. And it's professional.
54:37
Yes, it's professional. It's how you represent your
54:41
organization and your team. It is professional.
54:44
I couldn't even imagine if I if I was at first base at Saint
54:49
Xavier and I went out there in jeans, I already know my head
54:53
coach would have a fit, right? Like it's just not happening and
54:57
I want to represent. So I wear my sweatpants.
54:59
I have Saint Xavier on it or I wear the ones that don't have
55:02
anything and they're Under Armour ones, which are still
55:04
part of our brand, right? Like I think, you know, it's,
55:07
it's just taking the time because the little things matter
55:10
and how you look matters, you know what I mean?
55:12
Like you're wearing your blue denim acid washed jeans, you
55:16
know, next thing you know, they're going to be the ones
55:17
that have all the holes in them, Ken and stuff like that.
55:20
We're wearing we're wearing construction boots over there at
55:22
third base. I mean, you're laughing, but
55:24
that's what it looks like when you're wearing jeans over there,
55:26
you know what I mean? Like, it's not hard to go buy
55:28
yourself some $9 sweatpants at Walmart if you need to, right?
55:32
Honestly. Yeah.
55:34
I mean, if you're wearing jeans out there, you look like some
55:36
jabloni that they just pulled in out of the stands, you know, to
55:40
come in and coach. And that's not the impression
55:43
you want to make. You especially think in terms of
55:46
retaining players. You know, the parents are
55:49
looking. They're judging everything.
55:51
You want to look like, you know what you're doing.
55:53
You want to look like a coach and like you say, Jay, the top
55:58
coaches, the professional coaches, the college coaches,
56:03
they're not wearing jeans out there.
56:05
They're not looking like they just, you know, rolled in in the
56:07
F-150 from the bar. You know.
56:11
They look like they're there to coach and that helps the kids to
56:15
take it more seriously as well. Absolutely.
56:18
So I just I just you know, I saw some of that and I'm just like,
56:22
I I got to say something. Hopefully again, you know, our
56:24
goal here is just to help people.
56:26
So really not we're not not yelling at you or anything like
56:29
that or jastising. We're just saying like think
56:31
about professional, this is still a professional thing here
56:34
and you want to represent yourself that way and your
56:37
organization. So think about that.
56:40
So awesome. I have one more coaching Don't.
56:44
I'm glad you remembered. Yeah.
56:45
Well, I don't think this is the one I was thinking of before,
56:47
but this one just popped up in my mind.
56:50
And I think this is probably the most important thing that you
56:53
can remember. And it goes along with what
56:54
we've been saying a lot here about how we've made all those
56:58
same mistakes and we're not trying to judge anybody or
57:00
anything. And that is don't think you know
57:03
everything. This, it's a very complex game.
57:08
There are many, many layers to everything that we do in it.
57:12
I know for me, I find that the more I study and the more I work
57:16
at it and the more I learn, the less I know it's.
57:20
True. It's, you know, it's, it's like
57:23
you're climbing mountains and you know, you finally got to the
57:26
top of this mountain and then you look out and you see a
57:28
bigger mountain off in the distance.
57:30
There's always another mountain. There's always something else
57:33
you can learn. If you are somebody who played
57:36
baseball or softball back in the 90s and you're still trying to
57:41
apply the way you were taught to, what's happening today?
57:44
We've learned so much more. There's so much more going on.
57:48
Get yourself to a class. Go to the NFCA coaching clinics.
57:52
Go to your local high school association, go somewhere where
57:58
there's, you know, coaches that can share information, find
58:01
specific things, motor preferences class for something
58:04
specific on that you can learn about movement, you can study.
58:09
You know, Jay and I both done corrective exercise.
58:12
I, I never finished the class, but I was looking and working on
58:16
performance athletics. There's so much information out
58:20
there that could be helpful to you, and if you're just doing
58:23
the same old thing that you were taught and you're not trying to
58:26
work at it and improve yourself, you're really cheating yourself
58:30
and you're cheating your players.
58:31
Yeah. And again, I think a lot of
58:33
that, Ken and I think you'll attest to this, is trial and
58:35
error. You have to be willing to try
58:37
new things, right? Because if you don't, if you
58:40
don't, I mean, try trial and error like so try it.
58:43
If it doesn't work, you can always go back to what you were
58:45
doing that did work for you. However, you might find a new
58:48
way to do something that's going to connect and resonate with
58:51
somebody else. And I think, or in a different
58:53
way with with different people. And I think that's the most
58:56
important thing. There is no cookie.
58:57
The cookie cutter stuff drives me crazy, right?
59:00
And I and I think, like you said, but can you?
59:03
And I like, listen, I tell people all the time they're
59:05
like, well, when is she going to learn a screwball?
59:07
And I'm like, never, not in this building because the first pitch
59:11
when I first started doing instruction that I taught to
59:13
kids was a screwball. So what did I teach?
59:16
Step wide over to your left, throw your body to the right.
59:19
And then all of a sudden those mechanics started leaking into
59:22
their fastball. And I'm like, what's going on
59:23
here? Why are why is she losing speed?
59:25
Why is every ball going to the right?
59:26
And I was like, oh, because I was teaching that pitch the way
59:30
I thought it should be instead of the way it really should be,
59:33
right? And I think I had to go back and
59:35
re evaluate myself as a coach as to what I taught.
59:38
We we say this all the time. If we were to go back 10 years
59:41
ago from when we've been doing this to see what we coach, then
59:43
we would laugh at ourselves probably out of the room, right?
59:47
And I think that's like surround yourself with people who are
59:50
going to challenge you to think outside of the box while also
59:54
you maintaining some of your core values and principles,
59:57
right? I think that's the biggest
59:59
thing. So I couldn't agree with you,
1:00:00
Morgan. That's that's a great one man,
1:00:02
and a great one to end on with that.
1:00:03
So. Yeah, You know, it's just, it's
1:00:06
so important to continue to learn.
1:00:08
You know, I, I didn't teach a screwball for a very long time.
1:00:12
I just, you know, just didn't believe in the pitch.
1:00:14
I've started bringing it back again, but it's not, you know,
1:00:17
when I say this, I'm saying it with air quotes.
1:00:19
A screwball. I tell them I actually call it
1:00:22
the faux screw because it doesn't have all those crazy,
1:00:26
you know, arm things going on and all this crazy movement, you
1:00:30
know, trying to do things. I said all this is we're going
1:00:32
to stride a little bit left. You're going to bring your body
1:00:35
around a little bit more behind you like you would on a rise
1:00:38
ball, and you're just going to throw a fastball and let it off
1:00:40
the side of your hand. So, you know, I'm not trying to
1:00:43
get any particular kind of spin. I just want a ball that's going
1:00:46
to kind of move inward on the hitter to give him a different
1:00:49
look and that's, you know, that's a 10 minute pitch.
1:00:52
I can teach you that in 10 minutes.
1:00:54
You. Know, and that's all the work
1:00:57
it's ever going to take and you know, unfortunately a lot of the
1:00:59
coaches like it. So, you know, they, they find
1:01:01
that and they fall in love with that pitch and it's like, no,
1:01:03
you know, that's, that's the palate cleanser, that's the
1:01:05
sherbert in between the, the main courses.
1:01:09
And I will say, can I have taught, gone back and taught
1:01:12
some kids some screwballs? And again, that's learning and
1:01:14
growing. Do I do it differently than I
1:01:16
first started 10 years ago or longer than that?
1:01:18
Yes, absolutely. And I'm more conscious of what
1:01:21
it's supposed to be doing now, like you said.
1:01:23
So yeah, I think that's that's a great, great thing.
1:01:26
So. Awesome.
1:01:27
I think that, yeah, all that stuff is important.
1:01:30
You know, again, just trying to learn, trying to get better,
1:01:33
doing more for yourself, you know, getting the feel of, you
1:01:39
know, what works, what doesn't, Understanding that what works
1:01:42
with one kid may not work with another kid.
1:01:44
You know, the, the whole trial and error thing.
1:01:46
I guess it's is the thing I would emphasize.
1:01:49
You know, I will tell that to kids all the time say, hey,
1:01:51
let's try this. It's the old Edison thing.
1:01:53
I didn't fail making a light bulb 10,000 times.
1:01:56
I just learned 10,000 ways not to make a light bulb.
1:01:59
Exactly. Awesome, man.
1:02:01
All right, you want to wrap it up?
1:02:02
It was a good one today. I like this one.
1:02:04
This was really good. We we got a little fiery.
1:02:06
Hopefully we help some people out a little bit.
1:02:08
This was this was good, man. This was a good one.
1:02:10
Yeah. You know, and if anybody has any
1:02:12
questions about this, you know, if you want to know if you're
1:02:14
doing something wrong, drop us a comment or send us a message or
1:02:18
something like that. Jay and I can tell you from our
1:02:20
personal experience think we've made many of the mistakes that
1:02:24
are there to be made and we'd be happy to share our experience
1:02:28
with it. Very true.
1:02:29
All right, so that's it for us this week.
1:02:31
Thanks to all of you for listening and the kind words
1:02:34
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1:02:36
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1:02:59
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