Latest / From the Coach's Mouth / Episode 39: Jay and Ken on How the Game Has Changed

Transcript

Episode 39: Jay and Ken on How the Game Has Changed · From the Coach's Mouth

0:00
You know what I see a lot of being taught and what I teach
0:02
myself is to keep the hands in and then you reach toward the
0:07
ball as it comes in and it sorry, I keep hitting my mic,
0:11
that's OK, but you getting a little and I'm hitting my mic as
0:15
I'm describing this and only Jay can see it so.
0:18
You're looking good though. It's Yeah, your form looks, your
0:21
form looks amazing. Awesome at the field, in your
0:24
car, on the couch. From the coach's mouth.
0:44
Welcome to the From the Coach's Mouth podcast with your host,
0:49
Jay Bolden and Ken Krause. Hello everyone, and welcome to
1:08
the From the Coach's Mouth podcast.
1:11
If you're a first time listener, welcome.
1:13
Glad to have you along. I'm Ken Kraus and I'm here with
1:17
my partner in crime, Jay Bolden, and we're gonna talk about a
1:21
whole lot of different things today.
1:22
It's just the two of us, so, you know, that's always fun.
1:25
It's always quite the ride. Jay, how are you doing this
1:28
morning? I'm doing Ken.
1:30
I'm doing great, Ken. Sorry.
1:31
I need more coffee after that. So I definitely think I need
1:34
more coffee. I actually, yeah, yeah, I'm
1:36
doing pretty good. I'm very excited for the
1:39
holidays coming up. Give me a little break, You
1:41
know, detach a little bit. I always say it's a good time to
1:44
take a break and not think about softball, not do softball.
1:47
So I'm excited for that and spend a little bit more time
1:50
with my family. How about you?
1:51
Yeah, well, to put it into perspective for people who are
1:54
listening, by the time you're hearing this, we're in December
1:58
and, you know, we got the holidays coming up, then we're
2:02
actually recording this the Saturday before Thanksgiving.
2:06
So looking forward to that as well.
2:08
So, you know, but yeah, we're definitely in the holiday
2:10
season. I am taking a little bit of a
2:13
break because we're going down to visit my daughter in
2:15
Nashville, my daughter Kim, former softball player.
2:19
And you know, she and her husband Andrew live down there
2:22
and we're going to go down there, have some nice
2:25
Thanksgiving dinner and just kind of hang out with them.
2:28
We haven't been down there in a while, so it'll be fun to to do
2:32
that visit. So no lessons while I'm out, but
2:35
then I will be back. But at the same time, I always
2:38
tell people don't feel bad. If you want to take a little
2:40
time off around now, it's not a bad time to do it.
2:43
Yeah, for sure. I actually encourage it.
2:45
So I, I think there's nothing better than getting a break.
2:49
I feel like the fall season keeps getting longer and longer
2:52
and longer and, and it's a lot of wear and tear on those arms.
2:55
And then now it's kind of like, hey, time to put the work.
2:58
And we, we have a little bit of a, a sample size from fall.
3:02
So now let's take a look here and see if some of the things
3:04
that we can improve on some goals that we can get after, But
3:08
you definitely need that to have a a break there.
3:10
I always say like, even with some of the college kids can
3:13
when they finish their season, you know, in May, most of them
3:15
in mid-May, most times I won't see them till like the first
3:18
week of July. And I think that's the important
3:21
message that they're they're the one making that choice.
3:24
And that's because they need, they need that time to shut
3:26
those arms down, to just detach mentally and, you know, again,
3:30
be a person first. Softball players, you know,
3:33
third on that list after being a student.
3:34
So I think that's a huge thing. And, and especially at the
3:38
younger ages, people think that because they're young or they
3:40
can handle it, they can handle it like, no, that's that's not
3:43
the case. You know, they need time to just
3:46
get away from softball, be a kid.
3:48
Think about all the things that softball players miss, Ken,
3:52
right? There's homecomings they miss,
3:54
there's there's birthday parties they miss, there's, you know,
3:58
family get togethers that they miss.
4:00
And we need to to, to take that into perspective.
4:03
These kids are sacrificing a lot of their childhood to be a
4:06
softball player. And when we the opportunity
4:09
presents itself to let them just go be a kid, we need to let them
4:13
do that, not keep forcing lessons and practices on them.
4:16
So. Yeah, and I think that I'm going
4:19
to coin a term here. It's fo fib fear of falling
4:22
behind, you know, and I think that, you know, so many parents
4:26
have that they have this idea that if their kid skips a lesson
4:29
or skips a practice, you know, with with a call, but you know,
4:34
if they miss out on a week, they're going to fall behind and
4:37
then other people are going to get ahead of them.
4:39
It's like if your kids falling that far behind after, you know,
4:43
missing one thing, you know, you've got to really re evaluate
4:46
everything you're doing. Absolutely.
4:49
Yeah, again, I have yet to have somebody who's taking a break
4:52
that came back in and forgot how to hit her pitch.
4:54
So I'm not sure if you had anybody that's forgotten how to
4:56
hit her pitch, Ken. No, not at all.
4:59
You know, I think maybe sometimes it looks like it for a
5:01
little bit, but they get it back.
5:03
Sure, that's just knocking the rust off.
5:04
But yeah, so I, you know, things into perspective with that.
5:07
Let him let him take a break, especially around the holidays.
5:10
They've had a long season. Let them go be a kid, let them
5:13
go hang out with their friends. They're not going to forget how
5:15
to hit or pitch so. Yeah, for sure.
5:17
And I, I, you know, that's important to all of that
5:19
socialization stuff there. You have friends on their teams
5:22
and it depends, you know, if you are playing on a on a local
5:26
team, then your friends are your teammates and your teammates are
5:30
all of your friends. But there is also that thing.
5:34
If you know, if you're on a higher level travel team and
5:37
you're, you know, kids are coming from all over, you've got
5:39
the kids from school or from your neighborhood or whoever
5:42
that you like to hang out with as well.
5:44
It's nice to be able to do that. Go to an amusement park, go to
5:49
just a regular park goat. I don't know, maybe kids still
5:52
go to the mall. You know, there's fewer and
5:55
fewer malls than there used to be.
5:56
But, you know, going wherever it is, kids go a concert there.
6:01
There are lots of things that they can do and lots of
6:04
experiences they can have that don't involve a bat and a ball
6:07
and a glove. So I'm, you know, all in favor
6:10
of that. I like, you know, my kids to be
6:12
well-rounded. Yeah, for sure.
6:15
So what do you, what do you want to get into today, Ken?
6:17
What are we going to talk about here?
6:19
Well, Jay, I had an idea and I thought, you know, run this by
6:22
you and see if you what you think.
6:24
You know, we're a couple of old guys.
6:26
So maybe how the game has changed since, you know, maybe
6:29
the early 2000s. You know, there's been a lot of
6:32
change to it, the way the game is played, the tools that are
6:36
used around it, the opportunities that are out
6:38
there. So I thought that might be an
6:40
interesting perspective, especially for the families that
6:44
are kind of new to all of this. And they just kind of take it
6:47
for granted that the things that they do are, you know, the
6:51
things that have always gone on. It's kind of like, you know, the
6:54
digital kids that have no idea we didn't have cell phones, you
6:59
know, throughout our whole lives that there was actually a time
7:02
when you had to have a, you know, a grounded phone.
7:05
If you if you were out, you want to make a call, you had to find
7:07
a phone booth or a pay phone. Somewhere pay phone?
7:10
Yeah. People don't even realize it's a
7:11
pay phone. What's a pay phone?
7:12
Yeah. Yeah.
7:14
Is that one? Is that one of those burners you
7:16
buy? Yeah, yeah.
7:19
All right, so let's start. Let's let's let's try to to dig
7:22
into this is is fast or not as fast, but as as much as we can.
7:26
Let's start on the pitching side and then we'll go to the hitting
7:29
side and then we'll look at some defensive stuff.
7:32
So what what do you think since you know, the you know, the the
7:36
early 2000s two thousand on what have been some of the changes or
7:41
biggest changes that you have that we've seen with in in in
7:47
pitching? Well, I think, you know, I
7:49
actually want to start general. This effects all of those areas,
7:52
and that's just the proliferation of places where
7:55
you can go to practice or to get lessons.
7:59
When my oldest daughter Stephanie was starting, it was
8:02
hard to find a place to go inside.
8:05
When she and I would go to pitch, a lot of times we would
8:08
just sneak into the high school and go into one of the rooms
8:11
that they had and, and just act like we belong there and, and
8:15
try to do that or we'd have to run out to a field.
8:17
In the summer. There were no real indoor
8:19
facilities around. And even when I started doing
8:22
lessons, I was traveling for way, I was going to a place
8:26
called Grand Slam USA, which was more of an amusement place
8:30
really than a than a training facility.
8:34
Where was that place at? Ken, that was up in Spring
8:37
Grove, IL So, you know, they had a little basketball court there
8:41
with a plastic floor, was not a full size court.
8:45
It was like a couple of half courts side by side.
8:48
And I would teach my lessons on one of those.
8:50
And a lot of times there'd be a basketball game going on right
8:53
next to us. And then as far as batting cages
8:56
went, it was the commercial batting cages with, you know,
8:59
pitching machines. And then you could also, you
9:01
know, you could have a party there.
9:04
You know, they had a little shop where you could buy bats and
9:06
gloves and things like that. So it was, it was not what you
9:11
would think of as a training facility today.
9:14
You know, now you look around today and you can hardly swing a
9:17
dead cat without hitting a training facility.
9:20
Yeah, I mean it's true statement that's definitely A2.
9:22
I think another thing, and and maybe that goes hand in hand
9:25
with that is I think, you know, as a lot of the wreck ball
9:29
leagues are just, they're struggling, you know, like it's,
9:32
it's hard. There's one or two teams.
9:33
I remember back in the day and the wreck ball was just, it was
9:37
popular. You they had, they'd have
9:39
10/15/20 teams. You have a big old tournament at
9:42
the end of the year, right? It's not like that anymore.
9:45
You know, I mean, there's some of them are struggling.
9:47
They've got to combine with other, other neighborhoods and
9:50
towns just to have to put a wreck ball team together.
9:53
And I think, you know, that's changed a lot too.
9:57
And we have all these facilities now, but it's it's more geared
9:59
towards the travel. Yeah, and certainly travel ball
10:02
has gotten a lot bigger than it used to be.
10:05
You know, our local high school was a big powerhouse in high
10:09
school ball for a long time. And that was because there was a
10:12
travel team in town and, you know, it was seen as a feeder
10:16
type of team. But most of the high schools
10:18
around us didn't have anything like that.
10:20
So their kids were all coming out of wreck ball, whereas these
10:23
kids were at least playing a little bit higher level of ball.
10:26
But I also remember that, yeah, with the wreck ball used to be
10:30
able to have, you know, like 8 teams at each level.
10:33
So all the teams would play each other.
10:35
And I think these days, you're right.
10:37
You know, it's most of these teams.
10:39
You know, there's one wreck ball team in each town, maybe 2.
10:44
And so different, different organizations have to get
10:48
together and schedule. So it's kind of travel ball
10:51
light or travel ball ish because you're going to different towns
10:55
to play kids you don't know. Yeah, another thing too, I'll
10:59
tell you, you know, since when I when I started to is multi sport
11:03
athletes have kind of really gone away.
11:05
I mean, now what I mean by that, I'm not saying like, you know,
11:07
you have a kid that'll play 2 sports.
11:10
I see, I see a decent amount of those.
11:12
But I remember when I first started can, I would have a kid
11:15
that would do cross country in the fall, basketball in the
11:18
winter, and then we'll play softball in the, in the spring.
11:22
And rarely do I see any of that anymore.
11:24
It's they might play 1 sport in the fall and then they play
11:28
their, their other sport, you know, either in the winter or
11:31
spring, not 3 sport athletes anymore.
11:34
And I remember, you know, when I first started teaching and
11:37
coaching, it was, I mean, we, I had AI was the JV coach for the
11:40
first two years there in like 9899.
11:43
And we, I had to make cuts on the JV team and we had 2024 kids
11:49
trying out for AJV team and our varsity team had to make cuts as
11:53
well too. And now, you know, it's, it's
11:55
just most, most high schools are just down to a, either just a
12:00
varsity team or just like a varsity and one JV team.
12:05
And then you know, they struggle and getting numbers for that.
12:07
So that's just been a big change I've seen over the years too.
12:10
And I think it's become more specialized.
12:12
I think all sports have become more specialized, not just, not
12:16
just softball. So I, you know, and I think that
12:19
the demand on, on these student athletes has become greater and
12:22
greater for their specific sport.
12:25
And is that healthy or isn't it? I, I don't know, you know, I, I
12:28
think there is a part that, you know, both of us, like we
12:32
specialize in certain things and hitting and pitching, but at the
12:35
same time too, like athletes are, are what I need first.
12:39
You know, what we can, we can make you into a good softball
12:41
player, but I need an athlete first.
12:43
I need to learn how to your, you know, let your body move.
12:45
So those are things, at least from my perspective, that have
12:48
changed wholly since I started. Yeah.
12:51
And I, and along with that, it used to be, again, when I first
12:55
started the organization, I was a part of the old Mundelein
12:57
Thunder. One of our big advantages was
13:00
that we were offering offseason training.
13:03
And what that consisted of is we had a deal with the park
13:06
district where we could use their gym and on Saturday
13:10
mornings we would have open clinics.
13:13
And the only, the only caveat on it was that we couldn't restrict
13:17
it just to our players. So, you know, it was through the
13:20
park district, anybody could sign up.
13:22
Even people from out of district could sign up, so we drew a lot
13:26
of kids that were on other teams.
13:29
So we were training our competition for a large part of
13:32
it and we had a lot of wreck ball kids whose parents wanted
13:35
them to get some work in and all, and it was a huge
13:37
advantage. As time went on, more teams
13:41
started having their own practices, and then they were
13:43
specific to their teams and what had been an advantage and a
13:47
fundraiser, to be honest with you, But what had been an
13:50
advantage for us became a disadvantage because we were
13:53
still doing these more general clinics with kids of all kinds
13:57
of different abilities while other teams were training their
14:00
players specifically. So, you know, it's very
14:05
different how it's approached. And you know, like I said, we
14:08
were once a week. Now I hear about these teams in
14:11
the winter practicing two or three times a week.
14:14
And I got to honestly say, I don't know why that's going to
14:18
cut into the ability to have multi sport athletes who learn
14:21
how to move and learn how to use different muscles.
14:24
Because if your travel team is practicing two or three times a
14:28
week and you have to be there for those practices in order to
14:32
get playing time or in order to kind of keep up with the rest of
14:35
the team, it's going to be tough for you to be in other sports.
14:40
Yeah, agreed. Yeah.
14:41
And and that is tough. And I think we've seen that
14:45
change quite a bit too, you know, just with scheduling, like
14:49
you said, we have all these facilities now.
14:50
It's just, you know, Yeah, yeah. And I think, you know, we need
14:56
to allow the kids to to be athletes and not punish them.
14:59
Like we've talked about that before here on the podcast.
15:01
Like the punishment part of that just really bothers me.
15:04
You know, like it's the kids trying to be the best athlete
15:07
they can be there. Like I said, they're not going
15:09
to forget. And a lot of them when they do
15:11
miss the practice, they're going to go to the facility with their
15:14
dad and hit or come for a pitching lesson or do those
15:17
things. So it's not like the kids aren't
15:18
putting it in the work. It's so again, I think that's
15:22
just, you know, a philosophy thing for organization and I
15:24
think, you know, allowing these kids to be athletes is probably
15:28
the number one thing that we need to let them do.
15:31
Yeah. And, and you know, it's funny
15:33
because I have a good example of that with it being an athlete.
15:36
I have a, a new gorilla that started with me and she's never
15:40
played any sports before, as far as I know.
15:42
And trying to work with her on hitting things that you just
15:46
take for granted, you know, the starting point is way further
15:50
back than it typically is. I mean, this girl just doesn't
15:55
know how to move her body in space.
15:57
And so that's kind of, you know, that's where we started.
16:00
I mean, she's a sweet kid. I love her to death.
16:02
But whereas if you tell a kid to take a swing, they might have an
16:06
ugly swing, but they know how to swing the bat.
16:08
This girl has no idea even how to do that.
16:11
So I had to really, really, really go back to basics.
16:15
And I told her, I'm taking videos now because in six
16:18
months, if you work at it, you're not going to recognize
16:21
yourself. This is going to be, you're
16:23
going to look back and go, Oh my gosh, how did I ever do that?
16:27
Yep, Yep, I agree. All right, let's let's break
16:30
into the into the pitching side, if you're OK with that.
16:32
Yep. All right, So what do you think?
16:34
And since, you know, early 2000s, what changes have been
16:37
drastic for the pitching side? Well, I think probably the most
16:42
drastic thing has been the advance of technology.
16:45
And again, we can talk about that in terms of hitting and
16:48
fielding and all the other things.
16:49
But I think more than anything it's pitching.
16:51
You know, I mentioned cell phones before, you know, the use
16:55
of video. OK, So that's, that's a big one
16:57
for me is how video is being used.
17:00
And it seems simple because everybody thinks, OK, yeah, you
17:03
whip out your phone, you shoot a video, and then you take a look
17:06
at it and see what's going on. That didn't exist when I started
17:10
doing lessons. If I was going to video kids, I
17:13
had to bring my laptop, and I had to bring this big old
17:16
camcorder. And, you know, I had to probably
17:22
either put it on a tripod or have a table handy and run power
17:25
to it. And, you know, it was a big
17:28
production for it. And then after we shot the
17:30
video, have to, you know, run it back on the computer.
17:33
So you had to have cables to do that just so that you could see
17:37
one little movement or, you know, one pitch.
17:40
And so, you know, I might capture four or five pitches as
17:44
we go along for each pitcher. I mean, heck, I can do that in
17:47
10 minutes now. Yeah, yeah, definitely the, and
17:51
again, the slow motion aspect of that too is even even more
17:55
incredible, right. Like, you know, being able to
17:58
frame rates now to be able to see and, and, and again,
18:01
technology wise, you have instruments now that'll tell you
18:03
what finger the balls coming off last, you know, which way it's
18:07
spinning. You know, I mean, we and not
18:09
that not that, you know, I still don't use it, but the electrical
18:13
tape on the ball is still one of my favorite things to use.
18:16
It's just for, you know, visually for me to see instead
18:19
of using the the the camera from time to time, But I still rely
18:23
on that camera. So technology is definitely I
18:25
agree with you. It's it's it is helped pitching
18:27
so much. Although can I will say as much
18:31
technology as we have and as much slow motion video as we
18:34
have, we're still seeing people teach.
18:37
Hello elbow. Yeah, unreal.
18:39
Even though I, you know, I'll have several people say, Oh
18:42
yeah, she she does hello, elbow. And I go, OK, well, let's slow
18:45
it down and take a look. Well, you see that right there?
18:47
She's kind of internally rotating.
18:49
And then how she finishes really doesn't make a difference
18:51
because that's just what you're thinking.
18:53
So however, there are still people out there who are
18:56
teaching that but don't understand that the term
18:59
internal rotation is biomechanical.
19:02
So anyway, but one I want to talk about Ken is I, I think
19:07
things on the pitching side that have made the biggest difference
19:10
is 1 people do not remember that the mound used to be at 40 feet.
19:14
Right, right. Now, with that being said, the
19:18
mound was at 40 feet, but you had to have both feet touching,
19:23
right. So we didn't have that where you
19:24
can start with your foot off off the the rubber there.
19:27
You had to have it. They both had to be touching,
19:29
which made for people really hard to use their legs.
19:33
They really had to, you know, load and go.
19:34
It was it was it was crazy. I think those two things right
19:37
there are are big time help to pitching.
19:40
I still think batter still have the advantage with with some of
19:43
that stuff. I'm sure we'll get into.
19:44
But hitter still have the advantage.
19:45
But the the feet not being, we're not having to touch.
19:50
And then again, the mound being at 40 feet now moving back to 43
19:55
feet all over I think has been two big things.
19:57
So how about you? Yeah, well, I would have put the
19:59
mound or the pitching rubber moving back to 43 feet.
20:02
I would have put that as a hitter advantage.
20:04
It was harder for the pitchers. Yeah, it definitely made a
20:07
difference. And, and what's really amazing
20:10
about it is that when you think about it, back in the day when
20:15
the official distance was 40 feet for college and for high
20:19
school. 35 feet was still being used in 12.
20:22
You Yeah, you know, but the training, I think, you know, the
20:28
the proliferation of training that you have now, it's made it
20:31
pretty easy. It would have been ridiculous
20:33
for a lot of these kids to be thrown from 35 feet at that age
20:36
now. But yeah, I, you know, I agree,
20:39
Jay, you know that the change to how you can use your feet and
20:42
then even, you know, we look at the leaping rules, how that
20:46
changed. Yeah.
20:47
You know, although there are those out there who are trying
20:49
to abuse it and you know, you know, you know who you.
20:54
Are the the ninjas the ninjas? Get them up there.
20:58
That flying high kick? Yeah, but, you know, all of
21:02
those things, you know, the changes to the pitching rules
21:04
have, you know, enable the kids to be more athletic when they're
21:08
moving. You know, in some cases have
21:10
taken a lot of the ticky tacky out of pitching as well.
21:13
So coaches can't just complain now they're, you know, they
21:16
didn't do a good job of training their hitters.
21:18
And so now they're going to just try to use the rules to get a
21:21
good pitcher out of there and get someone in that's just kind
21:25
of stepping and tossing. Yeah, yeah.
21:28
So I, I think to me, and you'll, you'll remember this back in the
21:32
day, can I remember when lineups were like slap hitter heavy?
21:36
Yeah, yeah, I think everybody would slap it except for like 2
21:39
kids, right? Like that's back when the mound
21:42
was 40 feet, right? So like and they had to have
21:44
both feet on the rubber. I remember like, OK, SO11
21:48
through three are all slappers. Four hits, right.
21:50
Six or 6789 are all slappers too.
21:53
It's like wow, wow. Right now you don't, you know,
21:56
you'll see a couple here or there, but it's just, you know,
21:59
and I think that's because again, that mound being at 40
22:02
feet in the in the short distance and it was, it was, it
22:05
was just different. It was, I don't know, it's it
22:08
was, it was a different time. Yeah, yeah, it really was, you
22:12
know, the game was very, very different with it.
22:14
And certainly, you know, those were the days when Arizona and
22:17
UCLA dominated and, you know, that they had a lot of those in
22:21
their lineups. Yes.
22:23
And I, I remember hearing a story about one of the, you
22:26
know, it's still a premier program now.
22:29
And they said that, you know, when they did tryouts, they
22:32
didn't even bother with all the hitting and in, you know, all of
22:36
the other skills, they would just line the kids up and have
22:38
them Sprint. They said, you know, we can
22:40
teach them everything else. Can't teach them to be super
22:43
fast. So you know how they would just
22:45
be like, you know, we just got to get these kids put the ball
22:47
on play and beat, put the ball in play and beat it out.
22:51
Yeah, it was, yeah, I agree. I will say too, and and I'm sure
22:55
we're going to get into into the hitting aspect here pretty soon.
22:57
But the bats, we got to talk about the bats, the bats and the
23:01
ball. I mean those two things have
23:02
changed drastically over the over the years.
23:06
So we'll get into that. Anything else that you can think
23:09
of on the pitching side that has, you know, kind of kind of
23:12
changed or you know, not advantage, but just just
23:15
different than when back in the day?
23:19
Well, I think, you know, again, I'm going to go back to
23:21
technology and things like 4 demotion or where you have, you
23:27
know, the other the video captures, if you can afford to
23:29
go and get that done, but they can really get under the hood
23:33
and take a look at what's happening.
23:35
Some of the EMG stuff, you can see what muscles are firing and
23:38
then are they firing in the right order?
23:41
The amazing things that you're able to do and and a lot of it
23:44
at more of a consumer level. So like I have 40 motion
23:47
technology. It's not cheap, but it's not
23:50
crazy expensive either. So if I want to, you know, poke
23:54
a bunch of sensors to the kid and have her throw some pictures
23:57
and then go ahead and take a look at it.
23:59
You know it really it gives you even more answers than just the
24:03
visual. So I think that, you know,
24:06
that's been an important thing. And then you kind of mentioned
24:08
it, the the ball spin and all that.
24:11
Like, you know, now you have the pitch logic ball that came out.
24:14
And as you guys are listening to this, I did do a product review
24:18
of the pitch logic on my life in the fast pitch lane blog, pretty
24:22
in depth. So, you know, grab yourself a
24:24
cocktail and have a seat because it's going to take you a while
24:26
to get through it. But it's, you know, the, the
24:29
ability to say, OK, here, this is how fast the ball is
24:33
spinning. This is the exact direction it's
24:35
spinning. You know, these are some of the
24:37
other things about it, like you said before, which you know, the
24:40
last touch on the ball and how the it's coming off the fingers.
24:44
So much detail available that can be used to say, OK, you know
24:49
what? You know this is working pretty
24:51
well, but let's see if we can make it work even better.
24:54
Yep. All right, let's switch over to
24:56
the hitting side, Ken and you you do a lot more hitting than I
24:59
do, so I'm going to I'm going to rely on you.
25:01
So I'm going to talk about the there's a there's a couple that
25:06
I want to just flashing back to the to the 90s.
25:09
I mean, I missed the 90s. I think the intro should intro
25:12
to this one should be like should be Pearl Jams Jeremy,
25:16
just to just to bring us back. Ken, I think would be a great
25:21
for this one. But anyway, the point of that is
25:25
I remember back in the day the way that they used to teach
25:28
hitting and well, the bats #1 everything used to Ding, Ding.
25:31
Riley we used to hear that all one piece bats aluminum, I mean
25:36
full whether it TPSS or TPXI can't even remember was it TPS?
25:41
Yeah, and the the Louisville burgundy bat was the height of
25:45
technology. I mean, if you have one of
25:47
those, man, you were. It's like the way people look at
25:50
a ghost today, only that was an $80 bat.
25:53
I got to find one of those 'cause I want to use it as a
25:55
fungo. I have to find one.
25:57
So if anybody has a 90s Louisville TPS in their closet,
26:01
please message me. I will buy that off of you.
26:04
I would love to use that as a fungo.
26:07
So that's that's one the bat. The second thing is I remember
26:12
when I before I was the varsity coach my high school, I was AJV
26:16
coach and I remember the varsity coaches teaching kids not to
26:21
step. Oh really?
26:24
That was the nose stride swing. The real wide nose stride.
26:27
Yeah, yes, get the feet wide and just turn and hit the ball
26:30
because that's a softball swing. Yeah.
26:33
So that's that's one I remember. I I'll never forget that day.
26:38
And I was like what? Like it just didn't make even
26:40
sense to me, right? So anyway that there's that and
26:43
then. There are still people who are
26:46
teaching that. I'd still run into it.
26:49
Well, well aware, well aware. And I'm not, you know it.
26:52
I'm just saying back in the day there was a well, the softball
26:55
swing is different than the baseball swing and that whole
26:58
thing. And I'm like, Oh my goodness,
27:00
right. Like I, you know, there are, you
27:03
know, there's differences there, but it's the swing is still the
27:06
same, right? So it doesn't matter what ball
27:07
you're hitting, the swing is still the same.
27:08
OK, You could throw a beach ball, still be the same, right?
27:11
Doesn't matter. So and then the ball again, I
27:14
remember the core being, was it not?
27:16
So do you remember what the Core started with, Ken?
27:20
Oh, I think the core was actually tighter, was more
27:23
lively, the ball is more lively. I thought like.
27:25
A 400 core versus A375 or something, or maybe 375?
27:30
Yeah, 425 or yes, yes, I actually have in in our high
27:35
school, I found a white one. It's that had the IHSA logo on
27:40
it and the core was I think 425 like you're talking about.
27:43
So I'll have to bring it and show it to you next time I see
27:46
you. But so those those are the 2
27:49
three big ones that I kind of remember as hitting has has
27:52
changed. So I'm going to pass this over
27:54
to you now and you can break it down a little bit more for us.
27:57
OK. And I agree with you on the
27:58
technology on the bats. You know, I'll be what kids are
28:02
swinging today versus what they were swinging back in the day.
28:06
And of course, it probably didn't matter that much that the
28:09
technology wasn't that great because, you know, one of the
28:12
biggest things that I've seen that's a difference is the work
28:15
the hitters are putting in in the offseason now.
28:18
I mean, I far as I know, pitchers always would go and do
28:21
lessons. Pitchers would work hard.
28:23
They'd be doing it every week. Hitters, if you weren't a
28:26
pitcher, you know, you didn't even pick up a bat until spring.
28:30
And, you know, with rare exceptions, I mean, I mean, I
28:33
know that there were kids that were doing lessons, but not very
28:35
much. And it showed.
28:39
So all the advantages were on the pitching side.
28:41
Now, you know, they're kids are out there, they're hitting,
28:45
they're doing lessons, they're going to cages on their own.
28:48
They're doing machines, they're doing front toss, they're doing
28:51
soft toss. They're swinging the bat a whole
28:54
lot more. They're doing T work.
28:56
And it's made a huge difference in what happens.
29:00
It's, you know, made it much more difficult for the for the
29:03
pitchers to get people out. So I'm trying to think if there
29:07
was anything else. Yeah, I mean, definitely in the
29:10
way hitting is taught. I think that, you know, like you
29:13
were saying, there used to be the softball swing, which was
29:16
essentially designed to put the ball in play because pitches
29:19
were so dominant. If you could get a ground ball
29:23
going, you know, with decent speed on it, the fielding just
29:26
wasn't very good. And you can get on base whether
29:29
it got through or whether the kid made an error or threw the
29:32
ball away. Now the fielding's got much
29:35
better. You can't get away with the just
29:38
put it in play mentality anymore.
29:41
You have to be able to bang that ball and, you know, even if
29:44
you're hitting a ground ball, you know.
29:46
Yeah, but the game is not on the ground anymore.
29:49
You know, you don't have as many slappers as you used to.
29:52
And most of us are trying to get our kids to hit line drives or
29:56
even towering fly balls. It's funny, I had a girl that
29:59
was, you know, college player and she used to get dinged in
30:03
their practice sessions. You know, they'd be in the cage.
30:06
And if the ball hit the ceiling or hit the top of the cage,
30:09
which was a pretty high cage, even if it was in the back of
30:12
the cage, you know, they would tell her, no, no, no, you got to
30:14
hit the back. You can't hit the top.
30:16
I'm like, man, you, you look at that trajectory of that ball,
30:19
you know that ball is going out. You shouldn't be hitting the
30:22
back of the cage. You should be trying to hit that
30:24
top of the cage because it only needs to travel on its
30:28
trajectory, only needs to travel about 110 feet.
30:31
And if it does that, if it goes out or up 110, it's going to
30:35
come down in 110. Now you're at 2:20 and in most
30:38
places that's a home run. Yeah, that's a bomb.
30:41
Yeah, she was lucky. Finally, they brought in a a new
30:44
assistant coach who actually understood hitting.
30:46
And they just told her, you know, he told the other coaches,
30:49
just leave her alone, She's fine.
30:51
And she wound up leading her team in home runs her senior
30:53
year. Nice, nice.
30:56
But yeah, I think that, you know, just the the thought of
30:59
what you were trying to do, you know, they back in the 2000s or
31:03
in the 90s, when did you ever heard the hear the term launch
31:05
angle? No, never.
31:07
Never, never. Never.
31:08
No, you know. And now, yeah, now they measure.
31:11
Exit velocity, never heard exit velocity, right?
31:14
Never heard of those two terms, you know, and, and again, I, I
31:18
think both of those are again, analytics that help hitters,
31:22
right? Like, I think understanding
31:24
where, like you talked about line drives and, and, and again,
31:27
how hard you're hitting the ball are, are two important things,
31:30
right? And again, making sure you hit
31:32
the ball too. I think, you know, even now I
31:35
was talking about like with just the other day with somebody, the
31:37
vision training that these kids are doing, it's not just hit
31:41
like hitting, like being able to understand how important your
31:44
vision is, Like can you could swing as hard as you want and
31:47
you can hit the ball as far as you want, but if you if or hit,
31:51
hit it as hard as you can, but if you can't see it, it don't
31:53
matter anyway, right. So I'm seeing these kids doing
31:56
these vision training drills and I think that's just, again, I
32:00
think just the, you know, the expertise and some of these
32:05
things and the, and the the focus on some of these things
32:08
that are training kids visually I think is incredible too.
32:11
And it wouldn't nobody ever back in the day, we didn't have any
32:14
of that stuff. Here's here's the ball.
32:15
Hit it right. Like that's all it was.
32:17
So yeah. I actually did some vision
32:19
training early. I, you know, looked up some of
32:21
those things. I used to do a thing.
32:24
I haven't made them up in a while, but I had, it was like a
32:26
long piece of string that had red, yellow and green beads on
32:30
it. And you would, you know, attach
32:32
one end of the string to a door and you put the other one right
32:36
up on your nose and then spread the beads out across there and
32:40
just shift your eyes, you know, red, yellow, green, you know,
32:43
back and forth all the way coming into like 2 feet in front
32:46
of you just to try to teach yourself how to track it.
32:49
And then Visual Edge came out and that's a computer based
32:53
training thing that was originally designed to help kids
32:55
with dyslexia. And I've had a few kids do that,
32:59
although I don't think they've been as dedicated to it as they
33:01
should be. But you know, that's another
33:04
great way to train your eyes to pick things up and to recognize
33:10
things faster and track them. Yeah, yeah.
33:13
And I guess you never heard about that back in the day.
33:15
Those things were not were not happening.
33:17
So how about let's let's go to the defensive side a little bit
33:21
here. Ken, what what about
33:22
defensively? What do you what do you think
33:24
has changed there over the years?
33:27
Well, I can think of one thing specifically.
33:29
It used to be like for fielding a ground ball, OK, the technique
33:33
that was taught was to reach your hands out, you know, ahead
33:39
of time and then when the ball came in, kind of give with it
33:42
and bring it into you. And now you know what I see a
33:45
lot of being taught and what I teach myself is to we keep the
33:50
hands in and then you reach toward the ball as it comes in
33:53
and it sorry, I keep hitting my mic.
33:56
That's OK, but you getting a little and I'm hitting my mic as
34:00
I'm describing this and only Jay can see it.
34:03
So. You're looking good though.
34:04
It's Yeah, your form looks, your form looks amazing.
34:07
Awesome. But but yeah, you know, just the
34:10
idea of reaching out toward the ball to scoop it that way, I
34:14
think a little more focus on catching that ball on a short
34:17
hop, make sure that it's not going to go off anywhere.
34:21
I think, you know, the other thing and you know, motor
34:24
preferences has brought some of that into play as well, is that
34:28
everybody doesn't have to do it the same way that, you know,
34:32
depending on what your motor profile is, you're maybe going
34:35
to stand a little bit taller. You might get the ball a little
34:38
closer to your feet than someone else who is going to squat down
34:42
more and get the ball more out in front.
34:44
So doing those things, I think maybe teams were doing that, but
34:49
I never saw it as doing dailies where you're just, you know,
34:53
those short hops and just working, working, working on get
34:56
that ball in the glove. How about you, Jay?
34:58
What have you seen? Yeah, well, you know what?
35:01
Something popped into my mind there, and I want to.
35:03
I think we should ask David this the next time we get a chance to
35:07
talk to him. I wonder what his take on the
35:09
Auburn Hop would be. Yeah, yeah.
35:12
Right. Because like, you know, that one
35:15
is so that they're kind of on the balls of their feet, right?
35:17
Which is, you know, are that's great for aerials, but
35:21
terrestrials not so much. So I'd love to get his take on
35:24
that. I don't I don't know if you
35:26
know, I'll see him. You might see him before me or
35:28
whatever, but I'd love to just get his take on it and see.
35:30
See, because didn't they take the Auburn hop from tennis
35:33
players, right? Isn't that what where that came
35:35
from? Ken, do you remember?
35:37
I don't remember where it came from.
35:38
I just remember it was a big thing, you know, thanks to TV,
35:42
it was a big thing there for a little while.
35:43
I don't know that it still is. Yeah, I just, I remember that
35:47
happening. I was just like you know, and
35:50
again after having the motor preference stuff be there or go
35:53
going through that, I'm like, well, you know, that helps some,
35:56
doesn't help everybody. And again, I guess it's maybe
35:58
just getting them momentum or or reaction time to do it.
36:01
I'm not sure, but. Yeah.
36:03
And we, we have a guest coming up too that we can ask about it
36:06
somebody. Yeah.
36:06
You know, that's a yeah, yeah, that's I didn't think about
36:09
that. That's great.
36:10
Yes, they'll be now we'll have to they we got to put that on
36:12
the list to make sure we ask that question.
36:14
So for sure. What I will say, Ken, is, is I
36:17
think that some of the things that I have seen is that
36:21
they're, they're just faster. Like, it's just the kids, the
36:27
players are just faster. Is that the training?
36:29
Is that the, you know, is that just being a better athlete?
36:33
I will say like throwing has changed.
36:36
I will say this a little bit, right?
36:37
Yeah, yeah. Any anybody who has taken the
36:40
time to breakdown throwing and has not looked up Wasserman,
36:45
right? Like some of the stuff and
36:47
drills that he's teaching, like the scarecrow drill, right?
36:49
Like some of those things where you're understanding that you
36:52
don't have to point that ball out towards the outfield.
36:55
And you know, and, and so I think that has changed.
36:59
Yeah, no goal posts. Yeah, right.
37:01
Like I think that that's those are important things that that
37:06
have kind of really helped and he's worked with plenty of
37:09
organizations and teams and kids and so on and so forth.
37:12
And, and, and I think that he's, you know, kind of broken some
37:15
things down. So that's that's how I think
37:17
that's the throwing mechanics has changed a little bit with
37:20
some of these kids. Oh, yeah.
37:22
I think just the fact that somebody's working on throwing,
37:25
you know, I think that a lot of times kids were just kind of
37:29
left to throw on their own. If you could get the ball from
37:31
wherever you were standing to wherever you were trying to get
37:34
it, everybody was happy. You know, nobody worked on it,
37:38
or at least not that many. I did, but you know, but even
37:41
not to the level that you know, you have now.
37:44
I you know, I had adopted a lot of the Wasserman stuff to teach
37:47
throwing because it's just better than what we were
37:51
learning at the time. Yeah, 100%.
37:55
So I think that's that's helped change the game a lot too.
37:58
I think also, and here's my point, can I think, you know,
38:03
I'm, and now this is just from my prior, prior experiences.
38:08
I remember in, back in the day, in those, in those, you know,
38:12
late 90s, early 2000s, you never saw a lot of double plays.
38:16
Yes, yes, yeah. You never saw a lot.
38:19
So let me get to to my point. Like now you see a lot, right?
38:24
So the throwing's better, the feet, the footwork.
38:27
I will say this, I think the footwork at second base coming
38:31
from shortstop and second base has gotten tremendously better.
38:35
I, I remember I was doing this and organizational practice one
38:40
time and, and a coach and I are talking about this and he's
38:43
having all of his players come across that he's having the
38:47
second baseman come across second base to the shortstop and
38:50
then making the throw to 1. And I was like, well, you know,
38:54
it's speed and direction of the ball, right?
38:56
So like if that ball's hit more towards a 5-6 hole towards the
38:59
third base side, sure. I want my second baseman coming
39:02
to get that force out at all costs, right.
39:06
However, if that ball's hit more up the middle, I want my second
39:09
baseman to be on the other side of second base, right?
39:12
So she can pop back and throw. And, you know, he, we, we just
39:16
got in, not, didn't get into it, just had a discussion about it.
39:18
And he's like, oh, and then the next week he's like, really?
39:20
I'm like, yeah. I'm like, that's kind of what
39:22
they're teaching now. The kids are moving faster.
39:24
So the following week is like, you know what he's like, you're
39:26
right. He's like, I talked to my buddy
39:28
who's a college coach and they're teaching.
39:29
I said, yeah, you're starting to see double plays being turned at
39:33
the collegiate level, you know, and that's, you know, that was
39:35
back in the day. I would just, I remember, am I
39:37
right on that, Ken, or wrong? I didn't see a lot of double
39:40
plays turned, you know, like a 463 or, you know, a 643 double
39:44
play. Yeah, no, you're absolutely
39:46
right. In fact, I remember going to
39:49
some of the coaching clinic and the college coach saying,
39:54
coaches don't waste your time on double plays.
39:56
So, you know, everybody wants to do these double plays.
39:58
You're going to practice it. But how many have you ever
40:01
really seen work out? So the kids just can't do that.
40:05
And I watched now and I see these games, and not only is it
40:09
a double play, but it's clearly a double play.
40:12
Oh, yeah. And, you know, I mean, you're
40:13
talking about athletes that can get up the line in three seconds
40:16
or less and that they're being doubled off at first base.
40:21
It's the level of play, the speed of play, the ability to
40:27
transition the ball, the ability to know where you are in space
40:30
to make those plays. It is all improved so much.
40:35
And you know, that was kind of what I was talking about before
40:37
with the old, you know, hit a ground ball, you know, and then
40:39
keep that ball on the ground, keep that ball on the ground.
40:41
You know, it's, it's just not as good a strategy as it used to
40:46
be. We'll take it if it gets
40:48
through, but it's not what I'm going to be working toward.
40:51
So when you think about that then so let's talk about, you
40:55
know, an offensive strategy thing.
40:57
How much in softball do you really see the hit and run
41:00
anymore? I see it occasionally, not not a
41:06
ton. I mean, we will.
41:08
We will do it at Saint Xavier from time to time, just again,
41:11
depending on who's where we're at and what's going on.
41:15
We've got, we've got kids at, at, you know, at Saint Xavier.
41:17
We got a kid stole almost 70 bases last year.
41:20
So, you know, we, we don't really need to hit and run with
41:23
her. We just need to let her do her
41:24
thing and, and then just hit her in with a line drive, you know
41:27
what I mean? So, so yeah, I, I think very
41:31
rare compared to what it used to be.
41:32
I will definitely agree with you on that one.
41:34
I think like, yeah, that's, that's been something where it,
41:36
it's kind of it's kind of gone away.
41:38
Yeah, and you know, I think that the the whole philosophy in
41:42
games has changed as well. You look at the statistically
41:45
what happens and you know, as they've done more and more large
41:49
numbers statistics, they look at it like the sacrifice bunt used
41:53
to be an automatic. Every team get a run around
41:56
first base with nobody out, bun her over to second base and
42:00
then, you know, I have two outs to bring her in.
42:02
Well, they ran the stats on that and they looked at it and they
42:05
said you actually lose 3 percentage points of likelihood
42:10
of getting that runner in from second base with one out versus
42:13
first base with no outs. I think there's just been a
42:16
better understanding of what creates runs and that is, you
42:20
know, you got to preserve those outs.
42:22
Outs are the currency of the game.
42:24
Outs are gold. If you're on offense, you want
42:27
to be really stingy about giving up those outs rather than just,
42:32
you know, Willy nilly saying, well, I'm going to give one up
42:34
to advance a runner to second. Maybe with nobody out.
42:37
You want to advance a runner to 3rd with a sacrifice bunt or
42:41
runners on 1st and 2nd and get them to 2nd and 3rd and try to
42:45
get that, you know, get them in from there.
42:47
But you know, just this whole idea that we're going to, we're
42:51
going to play for one run, I think that's just gone away.
42:56
Yeah, Yeah, I agree with you on that one too.
42:58
I think that situationally I think it and what's what's
43:01
happening in the game will dictate some of those things,
43:04
right, to put the bunt down or not.
43:05
But you know, more times than not, yeah, no, base hit doesn't
43:09
necessarily mean the next person is going to bunt, which, you
43:11
know, again, we're going to let our our hitters hit.
43:14
You know, we want, we want we want to let him eat.
43:16
That's what we say they want to eat.
43:17
We're going to let him eat. So I, I want to go back real
43:20
quick though, Ken, I think one thing, and this is something
43:23
that I've kind of changed over time too, as we're seeing better
43:26
athletes, you know, and I'm not saying at young ages, I'm saying
43:30
a little bit more in the older ages, I see more and more
43:34
instruction with them using one hand instead of two.
43:37
I'm talking about fielding, right?
43:39
Like a pop up or catching the ball.
43:42
It used to be, Hey, get your hands together out here.
43:45
Now we're, you know, we've seen the range of motion with the
43:48
hand. So I talked to my daughter all
43:49
the time about this, like, Hey, we're going to, we're going to
43:52
learn how to catch with one hand, right?
43:54
Because you know, and, and so one thing I'll do, even ground
43:57
balls can, like we have to understand sometimes two hands
44:00
on a ground ball outside of the body's frame is not going to
44:03
work well for your child, right, for your, for your player.
44:06
So I'll do this with my own kid. Like we'll, we'll go to the, to
44:09
the facility and I'll hit her some ground balls inside there
44:12
and I'll take a ball and I'll put it in her throwing hand
44:14
already. And then I'll hit her ground
44:16
ball right now, let her work that range of motion outside of
44:19
her body, like on a forehand to outside the body or a backhand
44:22
that's past it. If we try to work two hands on
44:25
some of those things, those kids never get the, they never get
44:28
the the range of motion they need.
44:30
If the second hand is there on some of those things, that's,
44:32
that's like Ken, that's like a first baseman catching the ball
44:36
at first base with two hands, right?
44:38
We you can't, you're losing range of motion with those
44:40
things and we can't do, we can't do that.
44:43
So, you know, and so for me, I think it's giddy doesn't mean
44:46
that she's going to be great every time I hit her a ball
44:48
with, you know, with a ball in her throwing hand, but it does
44:51
give her the confidence to use one hand outside the body's
44:54
frame to get it. And that's all our time.
44:55
If it's if it's between you, if it's between in your frame,
44:59
you're going to double up, you're going to get those hand,
45:00
that hand close to that, to that MIT and you're going to use two
45:03
hands and you're going to transfer as fast as you can get
45:05
rid of the ball. And so those are just that's
45:08
something I've seen a lot. I see a lot more play with one
45:10
hand instead of two. How about you?
45:12
Yeah, no, I absolutely. And you know, if you think about
45:15
it, for anybody that doesn't believe in that, here's an
45:17
experiment for you to try is go along a wall or a fence or
45:21
something where you can kind of mark a distance and you know,
45:25
have somebody stretch to one side or the other using two
45:28
hands. Then take that that throwing
45:31
hand and put it back behind them.
45:33
So separate it and reach that one out and then see how much
45:37
farther you can reach with the glove because you don't have
45:40
these the throwing hand restricting that range.
45:44
It's just, you know, it makes no sense.
45:46
You know, people were always so adamant about the two handed
45:50
thing. Honestly, when I work with
45:52
catchers, I tell them 99% of the time catcher is A1 handed
45:56
position. You know, in fact, if I'm
45:59
working on blocking with a catcher and I see her trying to
46:01
catch with two hands, I take a Sharpie and I put a mark on the
46:05
back of her hand and just put a line on the back of her throwing
46:08
hand and say, OK, that's a broken bone.
46:10
You know, and every time they do it, they get another one.
46:13
And, you know, it's kind of a fun thing.
46:15
They laugh, you know, they get it.
46:17
But it does make the improvement because that there's so much
46:21
that can happen to a catcher with ball hits the ground, it
46:24
gets deflected on a, you know, on a foul tip.
46:29
You know, there's other things that can go on with it and, and
46:33
you know, having that hand exposed at all is just a huge
46:36
risk. You can break a finger, you can
46:39
break a thumb, you can break the back of the hand.
46:41
You know, those bones in the hand are kind of brittle.
46:44
So you know, catchers for sure. And I and I agree with you 2
46:47
with first base 99% of the time, unless that ball is like right
46:52
in that that cage of your between your shoulders and your
46:55
hips, you know, side to side too.
46:58
You know, if it's not in your body frame one handed.
47:02
Yep. Now, I'm not as big a fan of,
47:05
you know, kind of the one hand, you know, almost looks lazy in
47:09
on an outfield fly If you're there, you know, if you're right
47:13
underneath and you're parked under it.
47:14
I'd see that a lot in Major League Baseball where, you know,
47:17
I think part of the reason is they got a tiny ball they're
47:20
using and they have a giant glove.
47:22
Yeah. But you know, I'd still, I, you
47:25
know, if you're catching a fly ball, I'd still rather they have
47:27
that second hand at least close by in case it bounces off and
47:31
you can grab it with the other hand and maybe suck it into your
47:34
body if if nothing else. But yeah, I agree.
47:38
I think that you know, more use of one hand is becoming more
47:42
common, and for good reason. Yeah.
47:45
So we've, we've talked a lot about a lot of these things
47:47
here. Ken, any anything else that you
47:49
want to you want to talk about in the in the changes?
47:53
All right. Well, I think that one other one
47:56
that, you know, I think it's come along is what happens with
48:00
runners on base and do you steal as much as you used to?
48:04
You know, I mean, there are certain players, yes.
48:07
You know, if you've got blinding speed.
48:09
We were, when we were talking to Joe Kinsella, you know, I
48:11
mentioned Kaya Mismatch, you know, that kid, you know, her
48:14
freshman year set a stolen base record for her school, and then
48:18
she broke at the following year just unbelievably quick.
48:21
And so if you can do that and get away with it, that's great.
48:25
But I think that, you know, as heading has improved, there's
48:28
been less need to have runners stealing bases.
48:33
You know, you can afford to wait at least for a while.
48:36
And so, you know, I think that's, you know, that's gotten
48:39
a little bit better. I think umpires are watching the
48:41
leaving early thing a little more.
48:43
Too. Yeah, definitely that too.
48:44
Yeah. You know, so that's, you know,
48:46
kind of killed that part of it somewhat.
48:48
But yeah, a lot of that's that Moneyball philosophy, you know,
48:50
is don't steal, don't take that chance.
48:53
You know, let's just hit him over.
48:55
Yep, awesome, good stuff. Yeah, I'm trying to remember if
49:00
there was anything else just from a game philosophy or, you
49:04
know, it's, it's such a different game.
49:07
It's such a faster game. It's an exciting game.
49:11
I love it. You know, oh, you know what?
49:13
So this doesn't really affect most kids, but at the collegiate
49:17
level you should know this the the pitch clock.
49:20
Yes, well, let let let me speak on that really quickly.
49:24
So last year the pitch clock thing was a big thing, right?
49:29
Like they were calling it all the time in the fall is driving
49:33
me nuts. There was no clarification on
49:36
things like I I asked the guy when I was there.
49:38
I'm like, so you know, we had a a kid takes your time.
49:41
Most of them are within the 20 seconds, but it they moved it to
49:44
20 seconds at one point, I believe it was 15 seconds, Ken.
49:48
And and that's just ridiculous, right?
49:51
Like it's just like, do they need to take that long?
49:54
No, but is it really slowing the game down if we have a kid that
49:58
goes a little bit longer to throw a pitch?
49:59
I mean, honestly, right, The, the part of the part of that,
50:03
what drove me crazy is the inconsistencies of it, right.
50:07
OK, now let's say OK, officially.
50:10
And they, they've clarified this now, like when does the when
50:14
does the clock start? Yeah, now we have clarification.
50:16
Before it was, hey, as soon as she gets the ball.
50:20
Now it's as soon as she gets the ball and goes to the back of the
50:22
circle. Like those things have changed
50:24
and those things have been, they've been clarified.
50:27
What happens if it's inclement weather?
50:30
Yeah, right, right. All's got you.
50:31
Got to you got to wipe the ball off.
50:33
It's slippery. Or you got to ask for a new one.
50:34
Is the clock still going? When does.
50:36
So now what you see is a lot less of that pitch clock being
50:40
called. And let's be honest here, Ken.
50:42
Right. I get it.
50:43
So we're going to speed the game up by having a pitch clock,
50:46
right. However, I can tell you this
50:48
from experience there. Every inning when you're on
50:52
ESPN, you are waiting for them to come back from a commercial
50:55
break to start. Yeah.
50:57
So really trying to speed the game up, but we're not speeding
51:01
the game up at all. Yeah, yeah.
51:03
Right like we'd wait for 15 seconds, 2030 seconds sometimes
51:08
to wait to come back from a commercial break before the
51:11
umpire would give the point for them to be able to start.
51:13
But yet we're going to speed the game up with a speed make the
51:16
pitcher throw in the batter, get in there earlier.
51:18
I I don't get it. I don't like make that make
51:21
sense. Now I get it, right.
51:22
One's revenue and 1 isn't. So, you know, I think that's a
51:26
part of it like let's this year has been so much better than
51:30
last year. There's clarification, there's a
51:32
little added time to it. There's the clock starts
51:36
correctly. You know, you get a trigger
51:39
finger happy person there, those things.
51:41
And again, it's it's very, at least at our level, it's not
51:45
enforced tremendously because honestly, they're barely
51:48
breaking it if they are. So, OK, so when you said
51:51
inclement weather, that sparked something else that we totally
51:55
missed that I think is having a huge impact on the game and
51:59
that's turf fields. Oh yes, love turf fields.
52:03
Yeah, well, that's great for getting the game in, however.
52:07
All right, so you have, let's say you have a turf infield and
52:11
you have a grass outfield. What shoes?
52:14
What shoes do you wear? Why, why, why do you have a
52:18
grass outfield? Get a turf field all the way.
52:20
Who wanted to save a few extra bucks just to put some put the
52:23
through the whole thing? Yeah, it's crazy.
52:25
No, I agree with you. Well, what what we do, because
52:28
we do play some teams that have turf and grass is we wear
52:31
molded. Yeah, yeah.
52:33
And I think, yeah, that's where it's gone to.
52:34
I've had some kids that, you know, molded cleats are coming
52:37
back just because of that. But you get, you know, some
52:40
places where they have a multi use field, it could be a
52:43
baseball or a softball field. So they throw one of the
52:46
pitching mats down there and now that pitching mat sliding a
52:50
little bit because maybe, you know, there's a little slick
52:52
underneath. And, you know, kids are getting
52:54
off balance. They're having a harder time
52:57
pitching. You know, I'll be following a
52:59
game changer and I'll see some kid who's normally reliable.
53:02
And, you know, this pitcher was normally really sharp.
53:05
And she gave up four or five walks in the game.
53:08
And I'm like, Oh my gosh, what happened?
53:09
And then, you know, we get into a lesson the next week and you
53:12
say, yeah, they had the turf mat and it was sliding and I
53:15
couldn't get my footing. And, you know, or it was, you
53:20
know, they had a turf mat down on a, on a grass field, you
53:25
know, and that's, you know, that's the worst of it because
53:28
they can't wear their, their, you know, regular cleats.
53:31
You know, they got to wear the molded cleats or the turf shoes
53:34
there. But then what are you going to
53:35
do? You're going to change your
53:36
shoes when you go out, you know, go up to hit.
53:39
So, you know, I think, yeah, it's kind of go all turf or
53:43
don't go turf at all. OK, so I got to stop you.
53:47
Here's one for you. We played a Division Two team
53:51
this fall out here by me. All turf infield outfield except
53:58
for the pitcher's mound is dirt, and the bullpen is half turf,
54:02
half dirt. Oh my gosh.
54:04
Explain that to me. Yeah, that makes no sense at
54:07
all. I mean, that that poor pitcher,
54:08
you know, unless you're going to change your shoes, you know, to
54:12
go out and pitch. But then what happens?
54:14
Yeah. What happens if you have to feel
54:16
the ball? It's a beautiful field and I'm
54:18
like, why? Yeah.
54:21
It had to be like a baseball thing.
54:23
I, I don't know, back in the day, baseball thing.
54:25
I, I don't, I don't know, I don't know.
54:27
That is the, it's, it's definitely seen very few of
54:31
those. I think there's only maybe 3 or
54:33
4 in the country that do it like that.
54:35
It's it's strange very. And then, you know, you get all
54:39
the dirt when the pitcher pitches that gets onto the turf
54:41
too. Like that can't be healthy for
54:44
that thing. I I don't know.
54:46
I don't know. It's definitely, it was, it's
54:48
definitely every year. It's an interesting like, man,
54:50
why didn't you just do the whole thing?
54:52
It's right. It's right there.
54:54
It's right there. Finish it, you know, So I don't
54:56
know. Strange.
54:57
Yeah, very strange, you know, and of course the turf fields
55:00
too, I think that they do, you know, for ground balls they do
55:02
play faster. So, you know, hit that quadrant
55:06
and the, you know, you, you don't have as much of A risk of
55:09
the rocks or the, you know, other things on a field that
55:13
might divert the ball. But it still makes it, I think,
55:16
a little bit harder to feel just, you know, the way the ball
55:18
can bounce off of there. Yeah, for sure for.
55:22
Sure. So that, you know, that's I
55:23
think had an impact and is probably going to have even more
55:27
of an impact as we go along as more and more fields go turf.
55:31
Yeah. Oh, and then the last thing on
55:34
my mind, the arm bands. And then, you know, I guess
55:39
extending beyond that, now they're getting, you know, where
55:41
you can do it on the smart watch.
55:44
You know, people. In fact, somebody was just
55:46
telling me that they have a friend who's inventing something
55:50
where, you know, can use with any kind of a smart watch and
55:53
signal things into the pitcher or whoever on there.
55:57
But, you know, back in the day, you know, as a coach, you know,
56:00
we, you know, third base coach trying to give signs, you had to
56:03
have the indicator. You had to be throwing all these
56:06
nonsense signs and doing all these other things so the other
56:08
team didn't pick it up, pick your signs.
56:11
Now, you know, you just hear, OK, so 314 and you know that.
56:17
And then everybody looks at their arm.
56:19
Yeah, look at their forearm. And I get it again in college
56:23
where it's a money type of sport, you know, not really a
56:26
big revenue, but I I get why they would do that and how
56:30
competitive it is. When I see a 10U team or 12U
56:34
team using those, I find it kind of funny.
56:37
You know, it's like, you know, you know, Joe Blow over there on
56:41
the other side. I don't think he's trying to
56:42
pick your signs. He's trying to make sure that
56:44
his kids aren't picking daisies out in the outfield.
56:47
Yeah. True statement.
56:51
But, you know, I, you know, you see it on TV and then people
56:54
think, oh, that's cool. But you know, I, I don't know, I
56:58
just wonder about that, you know, are we, are we dumbing
57:01
down the game a little too much by using some of that stuff?
57:04
100% you know, we are, we'll, we'll get into that too at some
57:07
point along there. Like when we've talked about
57:09
that with several guests before, you know, like it's, it's very
57:13
robotic at times, but well, that's a topic for another day.
57:16
We'll have to get a good guest on for that one.
57:18
Yeah, yeah, for sure. Awesome.
57:21
All right well, anything else we had that was good today, Ken, I
57:23
thought we talked about a lot of good things.
57:24
The game has definitely changed. I definitely feel for the better
57:27
too. It's just, it's so exciting and
57:29
it's just, it's so cool to see these kids just do you know,
57:32
Congrats to all those kids who are who are getting committed
57:35
and going through that recruiting process thing and all
57:38
that hard work's paying off for you guys.
57:39
So Congrats to all of you. If you've signed recently or are
57:42
you know all that good stuff coming up?
57:45
Yeah, although you just brought up one more thing.
57:47
I know you're trying to get out, but I'm going to keep you here a
57:49
little bit longer. It's alright, I'm here all day.
57:52
I don't have to go anywhere. Let's go.
57:54
But just, you know, when you mention recruiting and I, I was
57:57
going to in the beginning, I meant to congratulate everybody
57:59
who's doing it. But you know who got signed, You
58:02
know, fun to see the pictures of signing days and the excitement.
58:06
But at the same time, that's a way the game has changed, too.
58:09
It's become a lot more about getting recruited to play in
58:12
college then it has been about just competing for the joy of
58:17
the game, you know, And I think, you know, there's some positives
58:20
to the, you know, to the emphasis on recruiting and the
58:23
opportunities that these kids are getting.
58:26
But at the same time, there's also some negatives when the
58:28
parents are, they're taking the college fund and they're putting
58:31
it all into travel softball on the hopes of getting a
58:35
scholarship, you know, and then you lose sight of why did I
58:39
start playing the game to begin with?
58:41
Yes, yes, yes, true statement. Yep.
58:44
And again, I think it's every the whole thing has changed,
58:47
right, like, you know, we had Cindy Bristol, they didn't have
58:50
these, you know, VHS tapes and sending them out to people and
58:53
now it's all through X Twitter. That stuff, you know, your your
58:57
field level sports recruits, the videos that you're taking on
59:00
your phones and stuff. It's a lot that that technology
59:03
pieces change the game tremendously.
59:05
The recruiting is recruiting, you know, I still feel is is
59:08
kind of the same. You still have to get out there
59:10
and see these kids and what they can do, right?
59:12
Video just doesn't. Video will give you some great
59:14
information, but you want to go see him compete.
59:16
I think that's the biggest thing.
59:18
But yeah, it's like you said, it's definitely there's that.
59:22
And I think that's the biggest gap between travel ball and
59:25
college balls. Now you have to come where
59:27
travel ball is. You know, you have a practice or
59:30
two a week show up on the weekends.
59:32
You play 4-5 games. College is OK.
59:34
You got a game on Monday and you got, you know, six games this
59:38
week and you got practice every day in between it. 6:00 AM
59:41
waits. It's like, you better love the
59:42
game up there because it's it's a real thing.
59:44
That's that's when the work actually begins.
59:47
People think you do all this work to get there, right, to get
59:50
to college. And then you're like, oh, good,
59:52
I'm done. Yeah, man, I made it.
59:54
And then you get there and you're like, wait, what?
59:56
Yeah, that's when the real work begins is when you're in
59:58
college. Trust me, you're not done
1:00:00
developing. It's when the work starts like
1:00:03
the real work. You know, the 6:00 AM waits, the
1:00:05
practices, the six to eight games a week sometimes depending
1:00:09
on scheduling. So yeah, that's when the work
1:00:12
starts. So you better love the game.
1:00:13
Right. And it's not always the Valhalla
1:00:15
you think it is either. You know, you find out that that
1:00:18
coach who loved you so much during the recruiting process
1:00:21
turns out to not quite be the same person once you get out on
1:00:24
the field. Yes, and that's another topic
1:00:27
that we're definitely going to have to have.
1:00:29
So that's a that's a great thing.
1:00:31
So you're bringing up a lot of great future topics, Ken, and I
1:00:34
think it's awesome. Hopefully our guests are
1:00:35
enjoying those topics and we can dig into that a little bit.
1:00:39
Both of those that you talked about.
1:00:40
So that's great, man. But yeah, I agree with you.
1:00:43
Recruiting has definitely changed what's going on with the
1:00:45
game. Yep.
1:00:47
So all I can say on that aspect of it is don't lose sight of the
1:00:51
fact that there is a reason that you started playing to begin
1:00:54
with. It wasn't so that you could go
1:00:56
to college A or college B. It was because it looked like it
1:00:59
was fun. And as long as people keep the
1:01:01
fun in the game, the rest of it I think can work out.
1:01:05
Yep, I couldn't agree with you more all.
1:01:07
Righty, Jay. Well, I guess that looks like
1:01:10
that's a wrap. So thanks to everybody for
1:01:13
listening and for the kind words you've been sharing with us.
1:01:16
If you like what you're hearing, Please remember to give us a
1:01:18
like, leave a comment and share this podcast on your social
1:01:21
media channels. Make sure you never miss an
1:01:24
episode by following us on your favorite podcast platform.
1:01:28
If you're so inclined, you can also leave us a great review on
1:01:30
Apple Podcasts to help more people find us.
1:01:33
On behalf of the From the Coaches Mouth podcast, have a
1:01:36
great rest of your week and weekend and enjoy the holidays.