Latest / Dugout Dish Baseball Recruiting Podcast powered by EMD Baseball / Non-Baseball Offseason Checklist for Baseball Recruits — School Lists, Grades, Nutrition & More | Ep. 186

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Non-Baseball Offseason Checklist for Baseball Recruits — School Lists, Grades, Nutrition & More | Ep. 186 · Dugout Dish Baseball Recruiting Podcast powered by EMD Baseball

• 0:02
  Speaker A: Hey, parents and coaches, are your kids using the right glove? The most important skill for youth athletes to learn is how to play proper catch. The problem is most youth gloves are made with bad leather and are too big for small hands. They actually make it harder to play catch. That's why former Major League Baseball shortstop Kevin Smith created Cali Gloves. Cali gloves are crafted from 100% Japanese kip leather and are the perfect size for kids. All Cali gloves come with palm slits, finger loops and elastic wrist lacing that encourage proper hand placement. The right closing patterns and give kids more confidence to go make plays. Cali Gloves even allow parents to break in the glove without stretching out the fit. It's the glove Kevin wishes he had growing up and the glove all his teammates want for their kids. Visit caligloves.com to learn more and help your kids play better catch. Cali Gloves K a l I gloves.com
• 1:10
  Speaker B: welcome to this week's edition of the Dugout Dish podcast. I'm Andy Kirakidis, joined by my Wonderful Co host, Mr. Keith Glasser. How are we doing, sir?
• 1:19
  Speaker A: Great. How are you?
• 1:20
  Speaker B: Good. Today we want to step away from the obvious a little bit with regards to what the next six to eight months should look like for your 28s and your 29s. I think it's easy to continue to pound the table and this is it's not that this has become any less important around the physical component, the weight room, the nutrition, the sleep. They're just continuing to try to do the best that you can to close the gap. Get yourself into a place where you're a recruitable player based on the timeline than you are, whether you're a 28 who's going into the off season with no calls and you're trying to become a Division 1 player like we're going to do the next six months. If you're a 2029 who has aspirations of getting recruited this time next year, obviously the development from a baseball perspective is going to be paramount. There's no overlooking that. But I think there are a handful of other things that families can and should be doing over the next six to eight months in parallel with what I just talked about. That I think will be really valuable over the course of time and will help provide some more clarity when push comes to shove in this process and help you make some better decisions with your time, your focus, your money. So that's where we're coming at from this episode. Okay, Coach Glass, give me, give me one of your, your lead talking points with regards to kind of non development related tips that you think people need to be thinking about.
• 3:15
  Speaker A: Non development.
• 3:16
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 3:18
  Speaker A: Like is the weight room one of them or.
• 3:19
  Speaker B: No, no, we're gonna, we're gonna, we're,
• 3:21
  Speaker A: we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're passing on the, the weight room tonight.
• 3:25
  Speaker B: Passing on the weight room. We're, we're talking non development. We're talking what should families should be they be doing and thinking about that has nothing to do with their son's personal baseball development that will move the needle for them in the recruiting process or assist with their clarity in the recruiting process.
• 3:45
  Speaker A: Okay. I just wanted to at least get in there that that's something that you should be doing. The number one thing, I don't know if it's the number one thing, but I feel like of late a lot of the families I've talked to. One of the first questions once we get through kind of the initial questionnaire taking that we do is do you have a school list? And the overwhelming majority of them say no. And a good portion of them are 27s. There are some 28s I've spoken to, but I think that taking the time over the course of the next six, seven months and while yes as a 20, 28 division ones can talk to you, but division twos and threes, while they can, they're probably going to be starting their reach out process over the course of the next couple months because they're going to get out and see you way more next summer than they are this fall. But having a list of schools and it can be, it's a fluid list. It's not a list where you're going to start with 50 schools and all 50 of them are schools that you have interest in in 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12 months. Right. But at least have a starting point. Sit down and have discussions about the. Your academics, where you fit in, what you want to do academically in college you can know right now you can also not really know. You could have two or three things that you want to do and find schools in the region in which you want to play. Whether it's, you know, I want to play in the New England area, I want to play in New York, I want to play in the Midwest, I want to play in the South, I want to play in the Southeast, Southwest, Pac, Northwest, whatever it is, and find the schools in those areas that fit what it is you're looking for academically and start with a rather broad list Right. You know, have A, A division, 1, 2, 3, juco, naia, have them all on there and do some research on those schools over the course of the next six, seven months so that you can kind of start to get a feel for whether or not those types of particular institutions would be for you. You know, I think that that's one of the. It seems like a very big and hard undertaking. There are some, obviously there are some tools out there that you can Google to use yourself to find those types of institutions, but you can at least start to curate a school list that will give you an advantage when you get into the spring and the summer of being able to say, like, hey, I've here are some schools that I'm really interested in. I've reached out to them, I've sent some intro emails to these guys, I've sent some video, I've gotten some feedback. You know, I can also send them schedules and things of that nature so that I can figure out where they're going to be and they can find me if I'm at these events. And conversely, you can probably, you know, it goes hand in hand kind of with this. Like you fill out some questionnaires on these, on these websites and they can, you can get information on their camps and their clinics and such that they're going to have on their campuses that you can get in front of. And you know, as we've talked about ad nauseam, we are big fans of the on campus camp where you get a campus visit, you get to meet the coaching staff, the players, you get a real good feel for what that program and what that school has to offer you. And you can walk out of there and say yes or you can walk out of the say no. No is just as valuable in this process as yes is, you know, But I think it starts with that school list and being able to say like, hey, for the next six, seven months, we're going to carve out time, you know, bi weekly that we're going to add to this list or subtract to this list based off the research that I'm doing so that I feel very prepared going into next year. Right. I think it's really hard and it can be very daunting to walk into next year and be like, I have no idea what I'm doing and I'm just going to hope that I play well and people see me play well and they can make a decision on me then, you know, you want to be as prepared as possible and at least having a target for what it is school wise that you're looking for will at least give you a solid foundation and starting point for your recruitment into the 2027 summer.
• 8:15
  Speaker B: Yeah, I think that that's the core of it all is to, is to start to think about what you want. Like when you're compiling that school list, I think there's some questions and some information that you really need to bear down on. Right. First is going to be what are you looking to study? Right. And you're going to notice that I'm not going to mention any baseball stuff here. To start, what are you looking to study? Your school list, if you're looking for business versus engineering is going to be wildly different because of the niche nature of the niche nature of engineering. Just there's just far less institutions that are going to offer an engineering program. Right. So if you are looking at something broadly like I want to study business and I'm okay if I have an economics degree or a degree in finance or I go to a business school, entrepreneurship like the list under the broad umbrella of business is pretty long, which opens up your list of schools significantly in terms of schools that are going to check your academic box. But if you're looking for something that's a little bit more of a focus degree, something a little bit more unique. Right. We've had guys who are looking to do marine biology. Right. Guys who are looking to get into actuarial sciences. Well, that your list is going to be a lot different. So like that's a, that's one big question that I would say that most kids need to kind of have a number one and number two and number three and parents your 16 year old might not know lead them down the road a little bit if they don't know exactly what they want to study. Let's talk about, hey, what do you want to do for a living when you get older? As long as you don't, as long as they don't answer influencer, you're probably going to be able to find a degree that's going to line up with that. Right. So you know, trying to get at that. I think that that's a huge one. How far do you want to be away from home is another big one, right. Some kids will tell you, hey, I'll go play baseball anywhere. Okay, well if that's the answer, well, let's unpack that a little bit. Are you really comfortable being on the other side of the country by yourself with no support system? Right. It's one thing to go play baseball, it's one. It's another thing to be, you know, from Massachusetts and you go out west and you play in your six and a half hour flight home versus being a couple hours from home. Right. So having a legitimate conversation about that is going to help with the development of that list. Then you've got for me, the next one. And this is more for mom and dad. What's the sticker price and what can your family afford and what's the price range of schools that should be in consideration and what are the mechanisms to get money there? Like, those are some of the big things that I would want to better understand. I personally think that the size of the school is one of the least important pieces of the puzzle. Specifically, when you're first taking a look at a lot of you're trying to curate this list. And the reason is we haven't even got to the baseball stuff and we have these conversations with families and say, oh, you know, I'd like a school that's on the bigger side you know, between like, you know, something north of 10,000. All right, well, if you're not a Division 1 player, that's not an option. There's like, how many schools can you count on one hand that aren't Division 1 schools that are going to have an actual undergraduate population on campus of 10,000 or more? I'm sure we could look it up real quick. But it is a small group, a very, very small group of schools that are going to be that big.
• 12:27
  Speaker A: There's not many.
• 12:30
  Speaker B: So that's why I just don't think that that's a huge factor. I also think that the size of the school and college can feel as big as you need it to feel and as small as you need it to feel. So those are some of the big questions that I would ask. And then you back into the baseball stuff, right? And you start to bucket them. All right, well, which schools are a reach baseball wise right now, and what do I need to do to fill that gap? What schools do? The people that have an idea of what's going on around me think that, like, hey, these are legitimate targets. These are places we think you can play. Or these are a list of schools like, hey, we know you can play at these types of schools. And now you answer those questions and that list that you talked about becomes something that's pretty darn usable and gives you a really good jumping off point for the next six or eight months to plan around. Right? You're talking about campsite 100%. I think that not enough people take time in these kind of off months to go and actually step on campus at a place proactively. You know, I live in Virginia. If I, if I had a kid and I was driving up to see my family in Massachusetts and my son was 16 years old and he's a 20, 28 and he's looking like good Division 3 player. Maybe he's a division, you know, a guy with Division 2. Like my next trip up to see my family, we're going to stop at some colleges, we're going to take an hour to drive through campus, maybe get out and walk around a little bit. I don't think enough people do that to collect some of this information right now. They just assume that we'll do that when we go and visit. But I think it's important to collect that information early because you start to have this library that allows your son and your family to go, hey, I really like the setup at this particular school. A little bit more rural, which I didn't think I was going to like. But when I got to campus it was beautiful and had a really good setup. The facility was way better than I thought. So gathering this type of information and taking the time to do that, that would be my next piece of advice. On top of the school is starting is take some time to go and see some of these places. Even if it's a place that you're not super interested in. Drive through a campus, go see what a college campus looks like and get a feel for the aesthetic you like, the feel you like, how it's set up. I think that that factors in a lot. And the more information you can get early, the easier it is to narrow stuff down.
• 15:20
  Speaker A: If you are the parent of a high school baseball player with college aspirations, you already know the recruiting process can feel overwhelming. Endless showcases, non stop emails and big promises with very little clarity. That's why we recommend Diamond College Showcase Camps, the nation's premier academic baseball showcase. At Diamond College showcases, every college coach in attendance is there with a purpose to coach, instruct, evaluate and recruit. Every player is seen, every player is engaged, and every family leaves with a clear understanding of where they truly stand. This is not a mass camp. College coaches run the drills, evaluate every athlete and provide honest professional feedback that you can trust. Diamond College Showcase Camps are built for serious student athletes who value both baseball and academics. If you're looking for transparency, clarity and a recruiting experience that respects your time in your players future, Diamond College Showcase is the place to be. To learn more, visit diamond collegeshowcase.com. Yeah, yeah, my next one I would say that you should probably think about and likely schedule some standardized testing. Whether it's the SAT or the ACT. There's multiple dates. You can simply Google SAT dates for the fall of 26, spring of 27. Same thing with ACT. One of the things I know that there are a lot of we've talked about that, I think we talked about this on a podcast that's coming that either recently came out or is about to come out. But some schools are moving back to mandatory standardized tests. So if some of those schools are on your list, you're going to want to make sure that you are scheduling the SAT or ACT if they are going to have a, if it's going to be mandated for your admissions class. But the other side of it too is that if you are looking at some test optional schools, it's never going to hurt you, right? Like you can take the SAT or act, get good scores and likely increase your merit scholarship money because you had really good test scores, you know. So it's something that you should definitely know based off the schools it is that you're interested in and it can help you especially in, in some of the schools that are currently test optional but will be moving to test mandatory back to test mandatory. You know, like your engineering type schools being that I spent 10 years at one, if you're over 700 on the math, it's really going to help your admissions cause or case when your stuff gets sent to admissions like oh, he's a 750 math. Yeah, that's right in the, it's in the realm of where we want our kids that are being admitted to be here type thing. So if you're scoring well on those, on those exams, it's a really good thing for you to be able to supplement your application with even though it is quote unquote test optional. But again, you're going to want to make sure that the schools you're applying to because they've announced like you know, in fall of 27 there's going to, you know, we're moving to test mandatory or the fall of 28, whatever it is. So depending on where you are, like make sure you seek out that information and see what is going to be mandatory for them in your admissions class, not what was for previous and make sure that if it is going to be test mandatory, sign up for those tests, take them, study for them, try to do as well as you can and just understand that while you know, if they are Optional, it, it can't hurt you, but you know, it can only help you in those instances. So you know, but if they are mandatory, you want to try to get a test score and see where you're at, right? Like if you're going to be well below what it is they're looking for, you can then study a little bit more and retest and try to get better scores. So, you know, understand that over the course of the next six, seven, eight, nine months, it's not a bad idea to start sat, ACT prepping for those tests and sign up for one or two so that you can figure out a which one I'm better at, right? Like some people do better on the ACT than they do on the SATs, vice versa. Some people are better on the SAT than they are on the ACT, you know, so say you take the SAT and get a 1200, but you take the ACT and you get a 33. Focus your attention on the ACT, try to get a 34, 35, 36 and focus your energy toward the ACT because they're interchangeable, they accept both. It doesn't really matter, right? And you could get a 19 on the ACT and a 1350 on the SAT. Then focus your attention on the SAT and try to get as good a score as you can on the SAT there. So, you know, I think that that's something that a lot of people over the course of the last five, six years haven't necessarily had to focus on. Where I think a lot of schools are starting to, especially at the higher academic levels, they're going to start pushing back towards the test mandatory option. So if you are interested in those high academic schools, there is a high likelihood that those schools are going to, at some point in the near future, if they haven't announced already, will be moving back to test mandatory. So it's a good idea to a start getting at looking at dates in which they are going to be offered and then start prepping for them so that you can get as good a score as you possibly can. You know, obviously if you're not necessarily looking in that area or in that realm of, of academics and all the schools you're looking at or test optional, you know, then it's up to you guys, right? Like, you know, if you, if you don't want to take, you don't have to. But again, it can only help you in this process. It's not really going to hurt you.
• 21:19
  Speaker B: I think a lot of times what ends up happening with the test taking stuff is that if you if you're 20, 28 and you don't take it this fall or winter, you have all the built in excuses. You want to kick the can down the road and not take it until June, not knowing that the SAT takes two months off. Where they don't, there's no tests.
• 21:38
  Speaker A: Right.
• 21:39
  Speaker B: And this happens every single year where, oh well, we waited until the spring, but all of the test dates conflicted with my high school baseball schedule so I couldn't miss a game. Or you run into the situation of you're taking the test from 8 to noon and then you got to play a game in the afternoon, so on and so forth. So if you get a chance to get one on the board this fall, October, November, December, you should 100 take advantage of it. If you do, great, awesome. Maybe you don't have to take it again if it, if you're pursuing the high academics, yeah, you got an idea where you need to focus your time and effort. But the last thing you want to do is kick the can down the road and you haven't taken it in June. You get a school that recruiting you and they need an SAT score. Well, you can't take one until September. So you know, you could really back yourself in a corner by not having one of those test scores on the board. So something that really needs to get thought about. The next thing that I actually think is way more pertinent in the fall than it has ever been. It will be very valuable for folks come that February, March timeframe before their high school seasons really start in most in most states. Go and watch some college baseball. Every Division 1 school in the country will scrimmage four times this fall. Four times. If you live anywhere near a Division 1 school and there's 307 of them, they will play four full on scrimmages that are basically just games that you have a chance to go and attend. Right. I'm in Northern Virginia. I could go watch Mason, Georgetown, GW, MD, I could go down to UVA, William and Mary. Like if you're in the Northern Virginia area and you and you're serious about college baseball and you don't go to a fall scrimmage, I think you're, you're not allocating your time properly. Like take the drive to go see a place, you're in New York City or Philly or Boston, like, you know, I just saw BC schedule got released. They're playing UConn, they're playing URI. You can go watch some really awesome baseball and get a really good feel for what that level of play is. And I think that that's one of the quickest ways to close the education gap, is you think you're good enough to play at said school. Go watch that. Go watch that school play. And I would argue that seeing the scrimmage setting is even cooler than it is the real game setting, because you're probably going to see a broader spectrum of players, and the atmosphere is going to be a little more loose in terms of you're probably going to be able to get closer to the field, all that kind of good stuff. But go there and honestly look at yourself and go, can I play there? Right Now, I'm a 20, 28, and I think I'm good enough to play at the University of Maryland. Go and watch those guys and legitimately look yourself in the mirror and go, I'm. Am I good? Am I good enough to play for them? Do I look like those guys who are running around that field, or do I got. Do I got to do some stuff in order to be good enough to that. And sometimes that's hard, but I think it's really important for, if you have access to it, go. Go check out these. Go check out some of these scrimmages and certainly plan ahead for, you know, for the spring to. To make a point to go and watch some of these college baseball games. And I'm not just talking Division 1, Division 2, and Division 3, because I actually think that that's where. I think that that's where people don't understand how good that baseball is. But take advantage of this time to go and see that with your own eyes. One, it'll be fun. And then two, it can be a really. A really important learning experience to either validate, like, oh, yeah, I could play there. I just, you know, I got to find a way to. To perform well enough to catch that coach's eye. But, like, I. I fit on that field or. All right, if I want to play at this level, I got some stuff that I got to work on because all of these guys are a lot bigger than me. They're a lot faster than me, and I got some work to do, which is a really important thing to understand, too.
• 26:26
  Speaker A: Yeah, I think BC is playing URI at Cardines Field, too.
• 26:32
  Speaker B: Yeah, it's awesome in Newport. Yeah. Dugouts on the same side of the
• 26:38
  Speaker A: field, dugouts on same side of the field, and bullpens on the opposite side of the field.
• 26:44
  Speaker B: I think. Is it the oldest continuous. I think it's the oldest baseball stadium. Technically, quote unquote stadium in the country. I played there when I was in. When I played for Keen in the Necbo, we played Newport goals there.
• 27:02
  Speaker A: It's not. It's one of the.
• 27:05
  Speaker B: It's got to be one of those. If it's not the oldest. Got to be one of the oldest. Yeah.
• 27:15
  Speaker A: I think that it's one of the oldest existing ballparks in the country. Yeah. 1908 was the earliest documented proof of stadium construction.
• 27:28
  Speaker B: I'm pretty sure that Babe Ruth played on that field at some point. Dead serious. I think I might even say it, like outside the stadium. He was probably. They got that real. The. The walls. All kinds of weird.
• 27:44
  Speaker A: Yeah. The center field. The center field wall comes on a 90 degree angle in and then another 90 degree angle out. And then I believe the buildings are. The other. Are the rest of the wall.
• 27:57
  Speaker B: So you.
• 27:57
  Speaker A: Isn't it.
• 27:59
  Speaker B: I think the ground rule is, is that the building in right field is the foul line.
• 28:04
  Speaker A: Yes.
• 28:04
  Speaker B: If you hook it off the building, it's foul. So like it has to touch the ground before it hits the building. And it's fair. But if you hit the building in the air, it would be implied that that was going to go foul. I believe that's how tight it is. My memory might be fooling me a touch here. So if there's anybody out there, like, I'm not trying to embellish this, but that they've got the bar and stuff in right field.
• 28:30
  Speaker A: Yep. Sick.
• 28:31
  Speaker B: And you can snap. Hook a ball down in that corner and it's right. Like you can drive through Newport and almost not even know it's there.
• 28:41
  Speaker A: Yes.
• 28:41
  Speaker B: It's in the center of Newport.
• 28:44
  Speaker A: Right. Literally downtown. In the center.
• 28:46
  Speaker B: Yeah. Super cool. Probably the coolest place.
• 28:51
  Speaker A: It's one of the coolest ballparks in the. In the. In the world. Like I. I coached there and it was awesome.
• 28:58
  Speaker B: The dugouts on the same side of the field is super weird.
• 29:02
  Speaker A: Very weird. Super weird, but it is awesome. Yogi Berra, Phil Riruto and Bob Feller played there during World War II.
• 29:12
  Speaker B: Of course they did.
• 29:12
  Speaker A: And interestingly enough, they played in the Sunset League, which is an amateur league formed in 1919. And that league integrated before Major League Baseball did when Jackie Robinson broke in with the Dodgers. So Larry Doby and Luke Easter played in the Sunset League before Jackie did with the Dodgers.
• 29:34
  Speaker B: Larry Doby was the first American League.
• 29:37
  Speaker A: American League, yes. He's the first. He was the first African American to integrate with the American League with the Cleveland Guardians as they are known now,
• 29:45
  Speaker B: I believe
• 29:47
  Speaker A: my history.
• 29:49
  Speaker B: Show up for the recruiting tips, leave with a history lesson in baseball, if
• 29:53
  Speaker A: my history serves me right. And he was also very good, obviously. Yeah. Cleveland, 1947.
• 30:04
  Speaker B: Yeah. If you're within an hour and a half, two hours of Newport on that particular day that BC and Rhode island are playing, go just go check it out. You can go on a sunset cruise in a catamaran fall, whatever. You could do that later. But go check that game out. Like, it'll be awesome and you'll get a. Like, you've got it. Here's a great reason to go see that game. You've got Boston College, who plays in the second best conference in the country, top 25 team. Right. And then you've got Uri, who plays in the A10, who I would say lovingly is like the definition of mid major baseball. Yep. That program has played in the NCAA tournament recently. They have produced a good chunk of pro guys, really competitive program. You get a look at the top of the food chain in the middle of the food chain and what you walk away with is that there's a lot of guys who play on your eye that can shake it and play and run. And the gap isn't as big as people think it is, but it's a great example of being able to see those two different levels. I've seen a lot of stuff with Division 1 schools playing junior colleges. I think North Carolina's playing Walter State. You want to see the blue blood of college baseball get after it with a blue butt of junior college. Like, trust me, some of those Walter State guys are going to be having some conversations with the, the Diamond Heels coaching staff. Oh yeah. Upon the completion of that, when I
• 31:48
  Speaker A: was at West Style, we used to run tournaments on our field 100%.
• 31:54
  Speaker B: So I. The NCAA can get a lot of flack and it's easy to poke. It's easy to poke that bear. In terms of what they've done with the new rules and all that kind of stuff. One of the best things they've done for Division 1 college baseball is they've opened up the fall.
• 32:11
  Speaker A: Yes.
• 32:11
  Speaker B: I think the four scrimmages is like, it's the best thing you could do. I think it's awesome. I mean, yeah, I'm really running with this one. But like, I think Tennessee, I saw Elander at a press conference the other day. They're playing other SEC and ACC teams. Like they're not, they're not bringing in, you know, they're not Alabama football in it where they bring in freaking Georgia State to just kick the crap out of them. Like, I'm pretty sure that Tennessee's playing Vanderbilt or like Tennessee had Wake Forest there last year. I think they're bringing in big dogs to come in and compete and like they're trying to figure out like, who the hell can help me in the spring. Which I think is also awesome from a coach's perspective that this isn't a situation where you're trying to just make your guys feel good. Like it's a true weekend of competitiveness where you're trying to get after it and play some good comp. Good competition. Like UNC played UNC Charlotte the other day. Another. Another awesome matchup.
• 33:18
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 33:20
  Speaker B: Yeah. Go watch some college baseball. Who?
• 33:26
  Speaker A: All right, I lost my train of thought. I had my next one, but then we went down that rabbit hole of Cardines field and all the fun stuff, non developmental stuff that you can be doing. Here's two that kind of go hand in hand, but I think your sleep and nutrition that you can do off the field to supplement your weight room, that we're not going to talk about stuff, but getting on a schedule in which as you're trying to put on weight, you're eating right, you're getting enough rest, you're getting enough recovery. This is a critical time over the course of the next, you know, six, seven months as you lead into the upcoming high school season where you can legitimately transform your body and your habits to be able to get yourself prepped and fall into a routine that's going to make you a better baseball player. You know, by not doing some developmental stuff like it seems rather easy and upfront, but being able to put on good weight and being able to get enough sleep and rest and recovery is huge at this point in the year. So you can continue to build your yourself up not only from a, you know, obviously rest and recovery from your baseball stuff, but, you know, it might be hard if you're a dual sport athlete, but it, it could also be a little bit easier where you're in a routine of, hey, this is what I need to do in order to, you know, put on weight and you know, to be able to be a really good wrestler or, you know, well, maybe not weight there, but you know, backs, hoops or whatever. It might be like you still got to get your rest, right? So you're sleeping, you're getting enough sleep, you're. You're doing all of those things. Your recovery is at a right spot. So that way you can really hit the ground running when the spring comes of, like, hey, this is the routine I'm in. I got to make sure I'm getting seven, eight hours of sleep a night so that I feel recovered in the morning to be able to, you know, go ahead and be the best version of myself in the weight room and, you know, on the baseball field and in the cages and on the mound, all of those things. Because that stuff matters, right? Like, you might not think that it does, and it's something that, you know, it wasn't necessarily widely talked about when we were in college 20 years ago. Now it's a huge thing, you know, your. Your hydration, your nutrition, your sleep, your rest, your recovery. All of those things really do matter and factor into what it is that you need to do in order to make sure that you can go perform your best, you know, so finding some semblance of a routine or what that might look like for you over the course of the next couple of months is. Would be a good idea of things to kick around and try out with what you do. Now, obviously, they're high school kids and their college kids. Like, it doesn't happen all the time. But if you can get yourself into a routine where, hey, this is what I need in order for me to feel that as though I can perform my best, why not tinker with it over the course of the next six, seven months so that you feel like you're on a really good schedule once you go ahead and get into your high school season.
• 36:19
  Speaker B: Right.
• 36:19
  Speaker A: Like, there's no reason to not drink a ton of water and get enough sleep and eat right. And do all the things so that you feel you're getting the most out of yourself when you go to try to perform, whether it's in the weight room, in the cages, on the field, on the bump, whatever it might be.
• 36:40
  Speaker B: Yeah, that's a huge piece of the development pipeline that I think gets overlooked is exactly what you talked about. And there's a lot of kids that their biggest gap between that they need to fill to get recruited is that they're just not physical enough. And I think that it's easy to default to the weight room as the solution, when in reality, the nutrition and the sleep effectively is what is going to fuel that. And we did do a podcast. It was a little while ago now, but with. With your boy Dan, right?
• 37:23
  Speaker A: Yep.
• 37:25
  Speaker B: That. Shoot. If you could find that episode. Let's plug that. Because I don't know if there's a better argument for why all of that is so important than some of the depth that he goes into. In that particular conversation that we had around strength and conditioning and how that nutrition and the sleep can really, really be there. There are two levers that are going to give you a severe advantage if you can pull them correctly as you're trying to develop that speed and strength and conditioning stuff.
• 37:57
  Speaker A: So episode 96.
• 37:59
  Speaker B: Episode 96.
• 38:03
  Speaker A: We should probably have him back on.
• 38:04
  Speaker B: Yes, we should. He's awesome. I'll say this to kind of close it out. I think we've hit on some really good things for people to think about. But hammer in the classroom, right? And I think that this is particularly important for the 2029s, right, is that you have an opportunity to set yourself up for success academically by just putting your best foot forward. And specifically, if you have aspirations of. Of really leveraging academics in addition to your baseball skills, and we work with a lot of families, that the academics is very important to them. And as a 2029 or a 2030, a freshman in high school, like you have all of your academic career in front of you. You need to take advantage of the time. You have to make sure that you're getting A's and not B minuses, that you're taking a rigorous course load. Right. If you have aspirations to play in the Ivy League, all right, you. It's not just that you get a 4.0. You gotta have the rigor and the prerequisite course load to even be considered at any of those. So knocking that out for the high academic folks, paramount. We've talked about this before, but I'm going to hit it again. The better student you are, the more doors remain open and the more money is available to you, Period. Period. So as a, as a student, give yourself the best chance to be recruited. You need this. This landscape is competitive enough. You don't need to put yourself at a disadvantage because you didn't want to take school seriously and you didn't want to show up and do your homework and put a good foot forward. Take advantage of that because it'll pay off in the back end. You'll have access to more schools. You'll have access to more money. Very, very important. And often times gets overlooked. And honestly, coaches, they look, they don't want bad students, right? That doesn't mean that bad students can't be exceptional baseball players. It's not the case. But I do think that specifically with high school, most kids aren't. If you have a 2.5 in high school, I would argue that it's probably not because you're stupid, it's probably because you don't try. And that's a problem if you're a coach. So taking that stuff seriously can paint you in a better light with coaches as well. Just, just a kid being able to have a 3, 2 or 3, 3 like it at least tells me that you show up and you try, you start getting into the low twos. Yeah, you might be eligible, but probably not convinced that you care all that much about showing up and doing things that you need, that you're, you need to be able to do, which is like a big portion of being a college athlete is like you, you gotta kind of at times you're gonna have to do some stuff that doesn't fire you up and you're gonna need to do it know and school is a part of that. So the more you can do to avoid that label, the better.
• 41:40
  Speaker A: Yeah, I have one more and I won't take long. But my last, my last one is going to be if you are in communication with coaches, continue that communication and, or if coaches have reached out to you, have conversations with those coaches. Because you have no idea what's going to happen in the course of the next 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 months. You'd hate to, you know, quote unquote, ghost a coach and then have to go back hat in hand in 10 months because what you thought was going to happen didn't happen. And because you didn't have, you thought you were better or didn't want to have the conversation with the coaches at the time. Now they could be a good fit and they've likely moved on. Whereas if you can have those conversations with those coaches, you know, you might be able to foster a relationship and A, figure out maybe that place is for me or B, at the very least, like, hey, like I've still had this conversation with this coach going and he just hasn't had an opportunity to see me. And they want, they need an infielder or an outfielder, they need pitchers, you know, you can get to their camp or you know, maybe you're playing in their region and they can get out and see a play and that could be a spot that you might end up at. So I would say that, you know, from a non developmental standpoint, if you're reaching out to coaches and like with genuine interest, keep those conversations going. And it doesn't have to be something that you talk every night of the week or every week, you know, it could be especially over the off Season, it could be once a month, just following up with some updates about, you know, what you've been doing, how you've been doing, things like that. But as you get closer to the season, you're updating with what's going on and they have genuine interest back. Keep those conversations going and don't just ghost them because you think you should be at a higher level. Until you legitimately get those offers at higher levels and things like that pan out, then you know, you can have the conversation of like, hey coach, I have some, I have some offers and genuine interest out of, you know, these five or six schools that I'm really interested in. I appreciate your interest, but I, at this point I don't think that, you know, your program is going to be for me and you know, you'll probably. Thanks for letting me know. Good luck. If anything changes, let me know instead of never responding and then in eight months reaching back out and being like, hey, you got any spots? Because then it's like, well, so nothing panned out, huh? Like I already went with the seven other like, you know, I already got six other kids that really wanted to be here. So I'm, you know, I, I went in a different direction too. So keep those conversations going and you know, understand that you never necessarily know where you're going to end up. So when you have genuine interest and you reach out to coaches and they have interest back, keep those conversations going. Don't ghost them.
• 44:28
  Speaker B: I like those.
• 44:30
  Speaker A: Thank you.
• 44:31
  Speaker B: Anything else you want to add?
• 44:33
  Speaker A: No, that was it.
• 44:36
  Speaker B: Well, thank you for listening everybody. Hopefully that gives you some, some non weight room and strength and conditioning stuff to, to add to your list of to do's this off season. Certainly worth considering everything that we talked about today. I think it can only be beneficial for you. So tune in next week, we'll talk to you then. Thanks everybody. Thank you for listening this week. If you're watching on YouTube, go ahead and hit that subscribe button and smash that like button for us. Check us out on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts as well as Spotify. You can follow us on Twitter and Instagram MD Baseball. If you want to find out what me and Keith do to help families and players navigate the recruiting process, go ahead and check us out on emdbaseball.com take a few minutes to check out our new online academy. I promise you'll get some good information out of that. Thanks again for listening.
• 45:28
  Speaker A: Check in with you next week.