Latest / The Mound Visit / Stop Wasting Your Bullpens

Transcript

Stop Wasting Your Bullpens · The Mound Visit

0:00
Speaker 1: All right, welcome back to the Mountain Visit podcast. Excited
0:03
Speaker 1: to dive into week two of being back on our
0:06
Speaker 1: regular rhythm of posting some episodes. This week we're going
0:09
Speaker 1: to talk about bullpens and specifically how to get the
0:13
Speaker 1: most out of them. Because let's be honest, nine out
0:15
Speaker 1: of ten times when you go and watch a high
0:17
Speaker 1: school kid throw a bullpen, or even a college kid
0:19
Speaker 1: and sometimes even a professional throw a bullpen for that matter,
0:22
Speaker 1: sometimes it feels like it's wasted reps. They're going through
0:25
Speaker 1: the motions, they're making their Four fastballs, they're then throwing
0:29
Speaker 1: their three change-ups, back to another fastball, then they're going
0:32
Speaker 1: to throw three curveballs. They're just kind of going through
0:34
Speaker 1: this monotonous order and structure of their pitches without really
0:38
Speaker 1: working on anything specific. They're almost just trying to keep
0:42
Speaker 1: feel for their pitches rather than actually working on something.
0:46
Speaker 1: And don't get me wrong, there's a time and a
0:47
Speaker 1: place for working on feel and just throwing a few
0:50
Speaker 1: of each pitch and feeling good about it and getting
0:53
Speaker 1: out of that session with a little bit of confidence.
0:55
Speaker 1: I kind of think of it almost like batting practice.
0:59
Speaker 1: Traditional batting practice where you're hitting, you know, your four
1:01
Speaker 1: rounds of five or whatever it might be. You're going
1:04
Speaker 1: off bow for the first round or then working up
1:05
Speaker 1: the middle. And then maybe by the last round or two,
1:07
Speaker 1: you're pulling the ball and trying to do a little
1:08
Speaker 1: bit of damage. I kind of think of that as
1:12
Speaker 1: being similar to our regular structured bullpens of throwing a
1:17
Speaker 1: few of each pitch, going to more of a blocked
1:19
Speaker 1: focus and not really challenging ourself in a specific way,
1:22
Speaker 1: but more of just working on the feel for our pitches.
1:26
Speaker 1: And I think hitting coaches, I'm not a hitting coach,
1:28
Speaker 1: but I think hitting coaches would agree that if all
1:30
Speaker 1: we did was just work on feel-good BP, as they
1:34
Speaker 1: would say, that yes, it might have a little bit
1:37
Speaker 1: of a positive effect on confidence and feeling good before
1:40
Speaker 1: a game. But when we're looking at the long-term development,
1:43
Speaker 1: it's probably not going to be as good as working
1:45
Speaker 1: with machines at higher velocities, working on hitting breaking pitches,
1:48
Speaker 1: doing actual game situations or facing live pitching. Everything has
1:52
Speaker 1: a purpose and can be used effectively effectively. but we
1:55
Speaker 1: need to make sure that we're dosing it appropriately and
1:57
Speaker 1: actually knowing exactly what that specific player needs. And that's
2:00
Speaker 1: where having more of a structured bullpen plan comes into
2:04
Speaker 1: play as well as structured BP or hitting process for
2:07
Speaker 1: that matter. Once again, not a hitting coach, but just
2:10
Speaker 1: looking from the outside and the hitting coaches that I
2:12
Speaker 1: do know that I've had really good conversations with, they
2:15
Speaker 1: would say something along those lines. So today, what I
2:18
Speaker 1: want to dive into is how do we actually go
2:22
Speaker 1: about designing these bullpen plans? Because I think a lot
2:25
Speaker 1: of you coaches out there, you probably want to have
2:27
Speaker 1: more structured plans. You want to give your players more
2:30
Speaker 1: specifics that are going to be tailored towards what they
2:33
Speaker 1: need to get better and ultimately perform better in the game.
2:36
Speaker 1: Because at the end of the day, that is the
2:38
Speaker 1: purpose of bullpens. It's to work on our craft so
2:41
Speaker 1: that we can perform better in the game. Sure, there's
2:44
Speaker 1: other details of we're working on volume in some cases
2:47
Speaker 1: and whatnot. But the bulk of what we're doing in
2:51
Speaker 1: our bullpens is to get better at something specific so
2:54
Speaker 1: that ultimately we can perform better in the game, which
2:57
Speaker 1: leads to winning more baseball games, which is the end
3:00
Speaker 1: product of what we're trying to strive for as baseball players.
3:03
Speaker 1: So today I want to dive into three main categories
3:07
Speaker 1: when it comes to developing a plan for bullpens. So
3:10
Speaker 1: if you're watching on YouTube right now, I do have
3:12
Speaker 1: some slides going with me as I am talking through this.
3:16
Speaker 1: So those three steps that we're going to dive into
3:19
Speaker 1: is step one is defining the goal. So we need
3:21
Speaker 1: to figure out what are we actually working on? Are
3:25
Speaker 1: we just throwing to throw or do we actually have
3:26
Speaker 1: a plan when we take the mound? Step two is
3:30
Speaker 1: once we've defined that goal, we then need to create
3:32
Speaker 1: the plan. A game like script built for that one
3:35
Speaker 1: goal is the side note that I have for this.
3:37
Speaker 1: So be very specific when it comes to this and
3:39
Speaker 1: build your plan around that to actually get the most
3:42
Speaker 1: out of that bullpen. And then the third step, which
3:45
Speaker 1: most people or a lot of people I should say, neglect.
3:48
Speaker 1: And I think it's one of the most important pieces
3:50
Speaker 1: to this puzzle, and that is tracking progress. We can
3:53
Speaker 1: define a goal. We can create the plan that is
3:56
Speaker 1: rock solid. But if we're not actually tracking what we're doing,
3:59
Speaker 1: if we're not seeing week after week, are we getting better?
4:02
Speaker 1: Are we getting worse? Is it having a positive effect
4:05
Speaker 1: on our in-game performance? Then it's all for nothing. Because
4:08
Speaker 1: without tracking that progress, how am I supposed to know
4:12
Speaker 1: what I need to change specifically within that bullpen session?
4:14
Speaker 1: Do we need to change the plan completely? Are we
4:17
Speaker 1: on the right track? Sure, we can have a general
4:20
Speaker 1: idea of if we're doing something correctly just by the
4:23
Speaker 1: fact of seeing in-game performance, but there's going to be
4:26
Speaker 1: a lot of details in the middle of that that
4:28
Speaker 1: we're going to miss and we're not going to be
4:30
Speaker 1: able to take full advantage of that development. So I'm
4:32
Speaker 1: going to dive into all three of these steps in
4:35
Speaker 1: detail of how I like to think about them and
4:37
Speaker 1: how I structure them with our pitchers at the Pitching
4:40
Speaker 1: Coach U facility as well as with our remote clients.
4:45
Speaker 1: And then also with the consulting that we do with
4:47
Speaker 1: other coaches on how we help navigate this to make
4:50
Speaker 1: it crystal clear. Because my goal, you know, personally as
4:53
Speaker 1: a coach and when I'm coaching a player and as
4:55
Speaker 1: well as when I'm coaching a coach is I want
4:58
Speaker 1: to make things as simple as possible. And simple doesn't
5:01
Speaker 1: mean not effective. And it also doesn't mean that it's rudimentary,
5:05
Speaker 1: but it's actually effective. potential complex topic or complex scenario
5:12
Speaker 1: that we're able to boil down to really simple keys
5:15
Speaker 1: that as coaches we can easily remember, easily implement, and
5:19
Speaker 1: then as a result we can actually translate that to
5:22
Speaker 1: our players where they understand what we're trying to accomplish
5:26
Speaker 1: and they can reinforce that positive feedback for themselves because
5:29
Speaker 1: they know what we're actually trying to work on at
5:30
Speaker 1: the end of the day. So let's dive into step
5:33
Speaker 1: one with defining the goals. So this first concept that
5:37
Speaker 1: I want to talk about is deciding what type of
5:40
Speaker 1: a bullpen is it. Are you over the rubber or
5:43
Speaker 1: are you over the plate? And I heard this concept
5:45
Speaker 1: at a Pitch-A-Palooza conference back in, I want to say, 2016, 2017.
5:49
Speaker 1: I was a young coach, was just getting started, and
5:54
Speaker 1: this was one of the first conferences that I actually
5:57
Speaker 1: went to. And this was Lance Wheeler's conference in Nashville.
6:01
Speaker 1: And there was a speaker at this named... Derek Johnson.
6:06
Speaker 1: And Derek Johnson is currently the pitching coach for the
6:08
Speaker 1: Cincinnati Reds. At the time, I think he was a
6:10
Speaker 1: coordinator for the Cubs. He was out of college baseball
6:13
Speaker 1: past his Vanderbilt days and was in pro ball, but
6:16
Speaker 1: wasn't yet a big league pitching coach. And he talked
6:18
Speaker 1: about this very concept of over the rubber and over
6:21
Speaker 1: the plate. And this is what I'm talking about when
6:24
Speaker 1: we can potentially talk about something complex that has a
6:26
Speaker 1: lot of layers to it and boiling it down to
6:29
Speaker 1: something very simple that I can understand as a coach
6:32
Speaker 1: and And ultimately a player can understand when I am
6:34
Speaker 1: talking to him about this. So over the rubber means
6:38
Speaker 1: we are internally focused. We're focusing on our mechanics. We're
6:41
Speaker 1: doing something pitch design related, something that is just purely
6:45
Speaker 1: focused on the process of what's happening over the rubber, right?
6:49
Speaker 1: So that's the visual that you can think about rather
6:52
Speaker 1: than what is going on over the plate from an
6:54
Speaker 1: execution standpoint, which leads me to over the plate. So
6:57
Speaker 1: over the plate is an external focus. So we are
7:00
Speaker 1: purely focused on the result of the pitch of what's
7:03
Speaker 1: happening down at home plate. We're no longer focusing or
7:06
Speaker 1: judging ourselves on what the shape of the pitch is,
7:09
Speaker 1: what the feel of a certain mechanical cue is. What
7:12
Speaker 1: ultimately matters at this point is, am I executing my
7:15
Speaker 1: pitch the way I want it to? And am I
7:17
Speaker 1: getting the result from that pitch that I want to get?
7:20
Speaker 1: So it's really simple when we boil it down to
7:23
Speaker 1: these two simple concepts. And when I first heard this concept,
7:26
Speaker 1: it got me thinking about all of the other bullpens
7:29
Speaker 1: I had ran before this. So at the time, I
7:30
Speaker 1: was the pitching coach at Arizona Christian University. It's an
7:34
Speaker 1: NAI school in Phoenix. And I was also still playing.
7:37
Speaker 1: So I was playing independent ball at this time. So
7:39
Speaker 1: a lot of what I was learning as a coach,
7:41
Speaker 1: I was also implementing with my own training and development.
7:45
Speaker 1: And I started thinking about, as he was talking about
7:46
Speaker 1: this process, I was like, well, I tend to kind
7:50
Speaker 1: of focus on both of those at the same time.
7:52
Speaker 1: Is that a bad thing? And sure enough, he starts
7:54
Speaker 1: diving into how we need to have a singular focus, right?
7:58
Speaker 1: And maybe we can split it up during the session.
8:01
Speaker 1: But at one specific time, I need to decide, am
8:03
Speaker 1: I over the rubber or am I over the plate?
8:05
Speaker 1: Because the second I start trying to do both, then
8:08
Speaker 1: I don't get better at anything. I'm trying to focus
8:10
Speaker 1: on this mechanical cue or I'm trying to focus on,
8:13
Speaker 1: you know, this new grip of a curveball or a
8:16
Speaker 1: changeup that I'm trying to get feel for. And I'm
8:18
Speaker 1: also trying to evaluate myself or judge myself on how
8:22
Speaker 1: well am I executing this pitch and think about how
8:25
Speaker 1: silly that is as a coach say I give a
8:27
Speaker 1: kid a new grip and we're trying to get feel
8:29
Speaker 1: for this change up and we're trying to get the
8:31
Speaker 1: right movement and the shape that we want on it
8:34
Speaker 1: but then he doesn't throw the ball exactly where I
8:36
Speaker 1: want it to go and I'm also bringing that up
8:38
Speaker 1: of well you know we can't be throwing that ball
8:40
Speaker 1: up and then we need to make sure that we're
8:41
Speaker 1: getting that down into the arm side like we want
8:43
Speaker 1: it to Meanwhile, the kid's like, well, if that's the case,
8:46
Speaker 1: if we're focused on what the result of the pitch is,
8:48
Speaker 1: then I'm just going to focus on doing what I
8:50
Speaker 1: know I can normally do, what's comfortable, and what's going
8:53
Speaker 1: to give me the location that you're wanting. So now
8:55
Speaker 1: we're not actually making progress on what we intended to
8:59
Speaker 1: by being over the rubber and developing that new pitch,
9:02
Speaker 1: and we're trying to execute the location. So now we're
9:04
Speaker 1: getting this back and forth where the player's confused of
9:07
Speaker 1: what are we actually trying to accomplish right now, what
9:09
Speaker 1: is the most important thing, and then you as a
9:11
Speaker 1: coach are getting frustrated as well. So that is the
9:14
Speaker 1: first thing that you have to decide is, are you
9:17
Speaker 1: over the rubber or are you over the plate? And
9:20
Speaker 1: then more importantly, you need to stick to that during
9:22
Speaker 1: the session and not jump ship and all of a
9:25
Speaker 1: sudden be focusing on over the plate when you said
9:27
Speaker 1: you were over the rubber. And this was just a
9:29
Speaker 1: huge moment for me as a coach 10 years ago
9:31
Speaker 1: when I learned this from Derek Johnson. And hopefully it
9:34
Speaker 1: has the same effect on you guys as you start
9:36
Speaker 1: diving into this. So the next step, step two, is
9:41
Speaker 1: creating the plan. So we've decided in step one what
9:44
Speaker 1: that goal is going to be and what we're going
9:46
Speaker 1: to focus on. Maybe it's pitch design and we're focusing
9:49
Speaker 1: on the slider shape. Or maybe we decided we need
9:52
Speaker 1: to work on command and we're going to do three
9:54
Speaker 1: pitch simulated at bats. And we're going to focus on
9:57
Speaker 1: executing our pitches and trying to get to one, two counts.
10:00
Speaker 1: as frequently as possible. So here, when I'm building my
10:03
Speaker 1: bullpen script, there's a few different options that you can
10:05
Speaker 1: go with this. You can have a predetermined script where
10:09
Speaker 1: every single pitch is already assigned where, okay, he's throwing
10:12
Speaker 1: a fastball middle in for pitch one, pitch two is
10:15
Speaker 1: a change up down and away, so on and so forth.
10:18
Speaker 1: Or it can be more dynamic. It can be more
10:21
Speaker 1: field-based where maybe you're having the catcher call some of
10:23
Speaker 1: the pitches or you're calling as a coach or the
10:25
Speaker 1: player's calling them. And you can kind of go pitch
10:28
Speaker 1: by pitch of determining in the moment what you're going
10:31
Speaker 1: to throw. Now, if you're doing that, I would highly
10:35
Speaker 1: recommend that you still have a full template of a
10:38
Speaker 1: plan that you're trying to follow. So let's just use
10:40
Speaker 1: the example of doing three pitch at batts. I'm going
10:43
Speaker 1: to have charted three pitch at bats for this, and
10:46
Speaker 1: I'm probably going to determine, okay, are we simulating a
10:48
Speaker 1: runner on first, runner on second, nobody on base? What
10:51
Speaker 1: is the game situation? Is it a left-handed batter or
10:54
Speaker 1: a right-handed batter? So I'm painting a script or I'm
10:57
Speaker 1: painting the picture of what is the scenario right now,
11:00
Speaker 1: but we can have freedom within that of the catcher
11:02
Speaker 1: calling the pitches or the pitcher calling them, whatever it
11:06
Speaker 1: might be, versus maybe another type of bullpen. Let's just
11:09
Speaker 1: say we're doing differential work. We're using You know, plus
11:12
Speaker 1: five and minus five differential balls working on fastball in
11:15
Speaker 1: zone percentages. That's probably going to be a pretty structured
11:19
Speaker 1: script of exactly the pitch type that you're going to throw.
11:22
Speaker 1: So that's just the freedom that you can have and
11:23
Speaker 1: the feel you can have as a coach when you're
11:25
Speaker 1: designing these plans to understand what is the actual focus
11:28
Speaker 1: for this specific bullpen. So like I kind of alluded to,
11:32
Speaker 1: you want to try to paint some game situations, especially
11:34
Speaker 1: if we're doing more competitive and game scenarios. Of course,
11:39
Speaker 1: we're going to want game situations for game scenarios. But
11:42
Speaker 1: just try to structure the environment that matches up with
11:45
Speaker 1: what you're trying to accomplish. And I would say, honestly,
11:47
Speaker 1: more times than not, even if it's a pitch design session,
11:50
Speaker 1: I like to have a dummy in there at the
11:53
Speaker 1: very least if you can't have a real batter, just
11:55
Speaker 1: because the visual of having that batter in there is
11:57
Speaker 1: going to be so important. And when we're designing, say,
12:00
Speaker 1: a breaking pitch or a change-up or whatever it might
12:02
Speaker 1: be in more of an over-the-rubber type of setting, there's
12:06
Speaker 1: a good chance that you're trying to use that pitch correctly.
12:09
Speaker 1: for a certain batter handed us more than another. So
12:11
Speaker 1: maybe I'm developing a sweeper as a right-handed pitcher. Well,
12:14
Speaker 1: I'm probably going to use that pitch mostly against right-handed batters.
12:17
Speaker 1: So it makes sense in the development process to actually
12:19
Speaker 1: have a right-handed batter standing in there or a dummy
12:22
Speaker 1: so that I can have the visual of what I'm
12:24
Speaker 1: trying to accomplish, what my starting point needs to be,
12:26
Speaker 1: all of those types of things. So that's step two.
12:31
Speaker 1: We need to build the plan. So in step one,
12:33
Speaker 1: we have developed our goal or defined our goal. Step two,
12:37
Speaker 1: we have built the plan of what we are going
12:39
Speaker 1: to actually do during that session. And then step number three,
12:43
Speaker 1: like I said at the beginning of this, is we
12:45
Speaker 1: need to track our progress. Objective feedback is going to
12:48
Speaker 1: show us if what we are doing is actually working
12:50
Speaker 1: or if we need to shift our focus to something else.
12:52
Speaker 1: And like I said, to me, this is one of
12:54
Speaker 1: the most important things. And I learned the value of
12:56
Speaker 1: this when I worked for the twins. We were as
12:59
Speaker 1: objective as possible with with everything, right? And there's certain
13:03
Speaker 1: things in this game that aren't objective and there needs
13:05
Speaker 1: to be some subjective things. There needs to be feel
13:07
Speaker 1: with certain aspects of this game. But there are so
13:10
Speaker 1: many things that you can quantify. And if I can
13:13
Speaker 1: quantify those things and simplify it, once again, coming back
13:15
Speaker 1: to simplifying it, simplify what the singular goal is for
13:20
Speaker 1: this player and how I am evaluating him, he understands
13:23
Speaker 1: whether we're going in the right direction or the wrong direction.
13:26
Speaker 1: This is kind of a little side tangent or side note,
13:28
Speaker 1: but I used to Play with a guy in college.
13:32
Speaker 1: We've become good friends, or have stayed good friends, I
13:35
Speaker 1: should say, throughout the years. I'm not going to say
13:37
Speaker 1: his name because I don't want to give away what
13:39
Speaker 1: this scenario was or what team this was that he
13:42
Speaker 1: was with. But he was in Pro Bowl for quite
13:44
Speaker 1: a while, and the organization that he played for did
13:48
Speaker 1: not really share any information with them. And he had
13:51
Speaker 1: no clue how he was being evaluated. Sure, he knew, okay,
13:54
Speaker 1: if I'm throwing strikes, I'm not walking guys. If I
13:57
Speaker 1: have a decent ERA, I'm probably doing good and I'm
14:00
Speaker 1: on the right track. But they never laid out for
14:03
Speaker 1: him what he needed to improve, what he needed to
14:06
Speaker 1: do to get promoted, to get to the next level.
14:08
Speaker 1: And when he was in AAA, what do I need
14:10
Speaker 1: to do? What am I missing to actually get that
14:12
Speaker 1: call up to the big leagues? And once again, he
14:14
Speaker 1: can guess. He can figure out, yeah, I probably need
14:16
Speaker 1: to improve these areas. But anytime he talked to a coach,
14:19
Speaker 1: he was, oh, just keep doing what you're doing. You're
14:21
Speaker 1: on the right track. But he never got that actual
14:24
Speaker 1: feedback of what he needed to work on. And for
14:27
Speaker 1: me as a coach, that's where this tracking the progress
14:31
Speaker 1: and being able to communicate it with players is so
14:33
Speaker 1: important to me is I never want a player to
14:35
Speaker 1: question where he stands or what he needs to improve
14:39
Speaker 1: to actually make that next step in their career. And
14:41
Speaker 1: that doesn't mean that you just bombard them with information
14:44
Speaker 1: and you just flood them with all the data. once again,
14:47
Speaker 1: here's a feel aspect. You have to have feel of
14:49
Speaker 1: what you're going to share with players and understand who
14:51
Speaker 1: that player is. And that's where the relationship building becomes
14:54
Speaker 1: so important of understanding what they need to hear in
14:56
Speaker 1: that moment when they need to, you know, pull back
15:00
Speaker 1: from seeing certain things. But there should be some key
15:03
Speaker 1: metrics that they are aware of because they understand that
15:06
Speaker 1: this is what I'm working on. This is my my
15:09
Speaker 1: process goal or my objectives that we have set out
15:12
Speaker 1: as a team, an organization, or at a facility in
15:15
Speaker 1: my case of what we're going to work on. And
15:16
Speaker 1: we need to make sure that we're actually going in
15:17
Speaker 1: the right direction. And I'll be frank with you. I
15:21
Speaker 1: think some coaches don't want to track progress because it's
15:24
Speaker 1: going to hold them accountable as a coach. If I'm
15:27
Speaker 1: tracking in zone percentage and it's not getting better for
15:32
Speaker 1: that player, well, that doesn't look too good on me
15:34
Speaker 1: as a coach because I'm evidently not setting the environment.
15:38
Speaker 1: I'm not helping them as much as I could. And
15:40
Speaker 1: of course, coaching or coaches are limited on the impact
15:43
Speaker 1: that they have. At the end of the day, the
15:44
Speaker 1: player has to do it. But if it's showing a
15:47
Speaker 1: track record of half of my team or most of
15:50
Speaker 1: my players I work with, they're not getting better. Well,
15:53
Speaker 1: now I got to look in the mirror and figure out,
15:54
Speaker 1: am I doing something wrong from a coaching standpoint? Where
15:57
Speaker 1: do I need to adjust as a coach? And I
16:00
Speaker 1: honestly think that some coaches are scared of that. And
16:02
Speaker 1: it makes sense. You got to look at yourself in
16:04
Speaker 1: the mirror. You're You got to tell a kid, yeah,
16:07
Speaker 1: we've worked on this. You haven't gotten better at this.
16:09
Speaker 1: And sure, I can push it on them. You're not
16:12
Speaker 1: doing X, Y, and Z. You're not getting the rest
16:15
Speaker 1: that you need outside of the facility or outside of
16:16
Speaker 1: practices and games. You're not doing this. And maybe those
16:19
Speaker 1: things are true. But what am I doing as a
16:21
Speaker 1: coach inside that environment that I do have control over
16:23
Speaker 1: to make sure they're making the most of those sessions
16:25
Speaker 1: or the most of those practices when they're with us?
16:28
Speaker 1: So that's just a little side tangent. Just something that
16:30
Speaker 1: I've been thinking about a lot over the years. And
16:33
Speaker 1: it's just, it's something that I've, I've struggled with, to
16:36
Speaker 1: be honest with you. Maybe struggle is not the word,
16:37
Speaker 1: but there's been moments where I'm like, man, I've got
16:40
Speaker 1: to look at myself in the mirror. This kid or
16:42
Speaker 1: this player, he's not making the progress that I've wanted
16:46
Speaker 1: him to make, and he's putting in the work. There's
16:48
Speaker 1: something that needs to change here. While it's hard to
16:52
Speaker 1: swallow that and see that maybe a player isn't making
16:54
Speaker 1: the progress you want, there's so much opportunity to explore
16:58
Speaker 1: new things and new ideas. I would say that's the
17:00
Speaker 1: other value of tracking what you're doing is... I can
17:04
Speaker 1: figure out what does work and what doesn't work more
17:06
Speaker 1: times than not. There might be a scenario where it
17:10
Speaker 1: worked for one kid out of 30 players that I've
17:12
Speaker 1: worked with. It's like, well, maybe that was just a coincidence.
17:15
Speaker 1: That's probably not the best plan. But if now I'm
17:17
Speaker 1: tracking things and I'm seeing, man, half the time this
17:19
Speaker 1: is working, 75% of the time this is working. Oh,
17:22
Speaker 1: I've noticed that this certain thing works with players that
17:25
Speaker 1: are in this bucket. Now I can start to figure
17:28
Speaker 1: out plans and have systems that are in place to
17:30
Speaker 1: where when I see certain things or we set certain goals,
17:33
Speaker 1: I have a good idea of how this is going
17:35
Speaker 1: to go and I have a good idea that this
17:37
Speaker 1: is going to work or not going to work. So
17:39
Speaker 1: that's just some advice that I have for you as
17:42
Speaker 1: a coach or as a player if you're doing this
17:43
Speaker 1: on your own is there's value in tracking it. So
17:47
Speaker 1: it's super simple, right? This is kind of a short episode.
17:50
Speaker 1: Three simple steps. You got to define the goal of
17:52
Speaker 1: what we're trying to work on and decide are we
17:55
Speaker 1: over the rubber or are we over the plate and
17:56
Speaker 1: we got to stick to it. Second thing is we
17:59
Speaker 1: got to build the plan. What is the bullpen plan
18:01
Speaker 1: looking at? And I didn't talk about this. This has
18:03
Speaker 1: been mostly bullpen talk, but outside of the bullpen, what
18:06
Speaker 1: are we doing to work on those goals that we've set?
18:09
Speaker 1: Is there things in catch play that I can be
18:10
Speaker 1: working on to improve these things? Is there things in
18:12
Speaker 1: the weight room? If it's a mechanical goal, whatever it
18:15
Speaker 1: might be, figure out how this whole ecosystem of this
18:18
Speaker 1: player development plan works with other departments, with our athletic trainers,
18:22
Speaker 1: with our strength coaches and other people involved. How can
18:24
Speaker 1: we create this cohesive plan to make sure that we're
18:26
Speaker 1: going in the right direction? And then step three, of course,
18:29
Speaker 1: we got to track progress. Like I just said, track progress.
18:32
Speaker 1: Even if you don't know what you're going to do
18:33
Speaker 1: with that information yet, track that progress. I can't tell
18:36
Speaker 1: you how many times I've done that to where I'm
18:37
Speaker 1: tracking different things. I'm like, I don't know if I'm
18:39
Speaker 1: going to need this or not need this, but I'm
18:41
Speaker 1: just going to collect this data and see if I
18:42
Speaker 1: can learn something from this. So assess, plan, execute that plan,
18:48
Speaker 1: and then rinse and repeat. So I hope you guys
18:50
Speaker 1: got value out of this episode. Before I let you go,
18:54
Speaker 1: I mentioned this last week. For high school pitchers, we
18:57
Speaker 1: have a two-day pitching camp in Phoenix, Arizona coming up
19:00
Speaker 1: November 7th to 8th. This is going to be our intensive,
19:04
Speaker 1: so to speak, to where it's going to be just hands-on.
19:07
Speaker 1: We are grinding for two days, working on things with you.
19:10
Speaker 1: It's limited to just 10 players because we want to
19:12
Speaker 1: make sure that you are getting the hands-on support that
19:15
Speaker 1: you need. We're going to be doing force plate jump testing.
19:18
Speaker 1: We're going to be doing some sprint testing. We're going
19:20
Speaker 1: to be doing some movement and range of motion assessments,
19:23
Speaker 1: and then of course the fun stuff with the pitching.
19:25
Speaker 1: We're going to throw on our force plate mound to
19:27
Speaker 1: see how you're moving and producing force. We're going to
19:30
Speaker 1: have our track man and our edutronic camera to see
19:33
Speaker 1: how the ball is coming out of your hand, what
19:35
Speaker 1: your arsenal looks like, and then throughout all of that,
19:37
Speaker 1: we're going to be giving presentations on pitching-related things to
19:42
Speaker 1: make sure that you have a clear understanding of who
19:44
Speaker 1: you are as a pitcher, what you need to improve,
19:46
Speaker 1: and then when you go home after that weekend, you're
19:48
Speaker 1: going to have a plan of how do I actually
19:51
Speaker 1: get better? I understand where my weaknesses are and what
19:54
Speaker 1: I need to improve. Now, how do I actually do?
19:56
Speaker 1: And that's the most important thing. And we're going to
19:58
Speaker 1: help you with that. We're going to create a plan
19:59
Speaker 1: for you and have a very smooth transition of going
20:02
Speaker 1: back home of you having exactly what you need. You'll
20:04
Speaker 1: have access to our Pearl player development app where you'll
20:07
Speaker 1: have your entire programming videos on how to do everything.
20:10
Speaker 1: and have access to all of your prior data as well.
20:13
Speaker 1: So once again, that is November 7th to 8th. It's
20:15
Speaker 1: a Saturday and Sunday for high school pitchers in Phoenix, Arizona.
20:19
Speaker 1: Looking forward to seeing you guys there. If you're interested
20:22
Speaker 1: in learning more about the camp, you can check out
20:24
Speaker 1: the show notes below or in the YouTube description. Well,
20:27
Speaker 1: that's all for this week. Looking forward to seeing you
20:29
Speaker 1: guys in our next episode next week.