Your players see right through you, so be yourself

You have to care about your players, not how many wins they can get you.

Your swing is not level, it is on plane with the ball

You match the plane of the ball with the plane of the swing (meaning a higher pitch will have a more level swing)

Being organized removes a lot of problems you encounter

The smallest details are important

Buying plane tickets 2 weeks before a spring trip is a bad idea, and will result in half your team riding a bus one way, the other half flying round trip, and everyone will know you are unorganized, lazy, and over your head

Sign all the autographs people ask you to sign, because one day you will want to sign autographs and nobody will be asking

People bought a ticket to watch you play so play hard and play the whole game

Firing your best coach is never a recipe for success

The swing does not go down on the baseball

You do drop your back shoulder, its called Tilt

You do not throw your hands

90 feet isn’t that far to run, so do it

You can win with hustle

You can win with Character

Throwing equipment doesn’t mean you care, it means you are not mature enough to handle failure

If you get hit by a pitch, either charge the mound or go to first, don’t stand there and act tough

You will be faster if you remove a few of your wristbands, necklaces, and other crap

The more you talk, the more I know you either aren’t that good, or only care about yourself

Teams win championships, so you are either all in or all out, but you have to choose

You can do things your own way, but you can’t do things your own way and be part of a team

Swag is insecurity and a waste of money, if you are good, I will see you, and probably still think you are an individual, and if you stink, I will notice more, because you look like should be good. Either way, you lose.

You should catch the ball with two hands

Girls don’t like baseball players, they like good looking baseball players, and it helps if you are actually on the field.

The clubhouse is a great place to hang out…get there early.

Don’t act like your glove will be ruined if someone else puts their hand in it…it’s annoying

You didn’t strike out because a pitcher picked your bat up, and if you think you did, then you are a mental midget (mental small person)

Your last at bat doesn’t matter

1-7 with the game winning RBI is a great day because you won.

Worrying about your average will almost always make it go down.

Coaching can win games, it can also lose them

Coach with your heart, recruit character over talent, and work hard everyday to earn your players respect.

That is a recipe for success.

As a coach, it is great that you played pro ball, or is it? Well that depends on many different factors, but the first factor is, how you handle it.

If you think playing pro ball means everything you say is 100% right, then you are destined to fail. If you think people should just follow you blindly, and then you get upset when they don’t, you have no chance.

Playing pro ball is a small benefit, that gets you a little respect in the beginning, but you have to work your butt off to keep it. Remember, your players do not care what you did, and how well you did it, they care about how much you care about them, their careers, and how much better you can make them.

Never say, I did this when I played. Why? Because chances are the majority of the players cannot do the things you did, due to talent issues, and even if they can, they do not care what you did, and the more you talk about yourself, the less they listen.

So if you played pro ball, let it help your cause of getting started, but do not think it is the end all be all.

At the end of the day you are going to have to coach, and coach well.

These qualities go way beyond a baseball field or athletic venue, and may just help you pick the right people for your business. 

My buddy Mike Spiegel always says “Play your best 9, not your 9 Best” It took me a while to understand that but I get it, Do you?

As a coach my job is to win baseball games, but as a person I feel it is equally, if not more important to win ball games with quality individuals who want to graduate and do something productive with their lives.  All too often academics are sacrificed for the opportunity to get really good players.  When this happens, not only do the baseball program and the athlete suffer when he is ineligible, the school also loses if the kid decides he is not going to graduate.  Lip service is often given to the term student athlete, but it needs to become a priority because it is a complete disservice to the players we coach if we allow them to fail or finish their eligibility and not graduate. 

The only person that benefits from the above situation is the head coach, because he has used this player to get him some wins and help boost his stock as a coach, but he forgot the commitment he made to the player when he offered him the opportunity to further his education while playing baseball.

As a coach I am looking for kids who have character, work ethic, and talent, and I am looking for those attributes in that order.  When you get kids like this, they will give everything they have to the team, and you will not have to worry about them failing classes because they are people who have goals and want to grow up to be something.  These players understand the importance of hard work and education, and will only learn more about their importance over the four year period they will be with my staff and I. 

Championships are won with players like this, and programs are built to last when a team has players that fit this mold.  I will never sacrifice character and work ethic for talent because there is only a small possibility for short term success and strong possibility for short term and long term failure. 

As coaches our job is to get the best information to players and then let them decipher through it and apply to the best of their abilities.  Also, it is important when getting the information out not to be so rigid as to hamper a players development.

Today at practice I was showing the guys a high knee drill.  The purpose of the drill is to get some rhythm in the swing and let everything become one motion from start to finish.

How I showed the drill was to get in my stance and use a big leg kick.  The key for me is to make sure the front knee is going to the back hip and not just up and down, because by getting the knee in the direction of the back hip you are moving the weight to the inside of the back foot.  At the point in time I want the hitter to basically fall to the inside of his front foot and as soon as it hits allow the back hip to get through. 

So I demonstrated the drill and sent the guys on their way.  As I am watching the hitters I see one of the players add two steps to the drill that I did not show and he saw me watching and asked if it was ok. 

I asked the player if it was more comfortable and did it help him created more rhythm (because that was the purpose for today).  He said yeah, it made him feel his body move more.  So I said that is fine.

The Point of the story is the idea of the drill was to get the hitters more rhythm and this kid found a way that was not exactly what I showed but it worked and he felt comfortable.  So coaches I ask you to let your players experiment with what works for them because all of them are different and learn in different ways.  Yes we have to have the core movements but let them figure out their own style.  Allowing your players this freedom makes them feel better because they are coming up with the answers and not being dictated too, and you are still coaching because the work you want to get done is getting done.  I have found this works well for my players and they respond favorably to me not making them do every little drill the exact way I show it because they are not me and what works for me may not work for them.

“Respect needs to be earned and you earn respect by proving yourself as a leader”

Coaches and players need to understand this principle and then put it into action.  I tell my guys all the time, I do not want your respects unless I earn it.  Just because I am a coach does not mean you should respect me, but I am going to work hard and bust my butt to earn your respect.  I am also going to treat you like men.  All I ask is you earn my respect in the exact same fashion I am going to earn yours.

“Coach” is a title, it does not command respect it simply puts you in charge.  Coaches must get their players to play at the highest level all the time and the only way to do that is have their respect.  A player might not like you everyday, just remember they do not like their Mother or Father or best friend everyday either, but if they respect you the same way they respect them then you are doing something right.  Players will get upset when they get disciplined or aggravated when they do not start, but it is how they handle it that matters.  Also, how you handle both of these situations will drastically improve the reaction from the player.  If a coach is up front with a player and handles each matter correctly the player does not have to like the decision.  As a matter of fact I do not want a player to like not starting, but I want my players to understand that every decision that is made is made with the team in mind.  

I let them know from the very start it does not matter if one of you make All-Conference or All-American, all that matters is the success of this team.  Our goals are what matter and winning is our goal, more specifically preparing ourselves to win is really the goal and a win is the result of proper preparation.  If each one of us prepare each day and play the way we can on game day, then we will win and all the other individual rewards will come too, but if each of us focus on individual awards the team goal will not be achieved.  Team above all.

In order to have a great team you must have a team that cares about each other and is accountable to themselves, teammates, and coaches.

Rotational, linear, get your foot down, separate this from that, keep your shoulder closed but rotate.  JUST SHUT UP ALREADY WOULD YA!!!!!!!

I will be the first to admit that sometimes the postings on this site may be awful for actual development.  When I find myself in conversations about how the swing works and what is actually happening I sometimes forget that people may try to put these into practice.

My point being that these in depth conversations are not for teaching but instead for a coach, parent, or instructor to understand the information and take them what works for them as teaching methods.  This way you digest the info instead of the young players.

By no means do I talk to my hitters about all of subtle things that happen but I feel having the knowledge helps me coach, because it allows me to understand why things are happening instead of just making observations on what just happened.

I encourage everyone to find as much information as they can and then decide what you think is the best, not just for you but your players skill set. 

When you read this site some of the stuff may help you and some stuff you may think is absolute garbage.  I am OK with that because we all process and do things differently, all that matters is the kids get the best information possible in order to make them better. 

I would like to thank anyone who reads this blog, and then ask for your participation. 

Please leave comments, questions, concerns, or outright disagreements. 

By doing this, you will only make the site more informational.  I will not block any comment as long as you do not swear.  You should feel free to disagree with me, but please say why, not just “hey Sam, you are stupid and wrong.” 

Other great resources:  Check these guys out.  All make good points, and I have learned a lot from the things they teach.

Batspeed.com

Chrisoleary.com

naturalhitting.com

Jamie Cevallos (youtube, positional hitting)

mikeepsteinhitting.com

Today we are going to talk about communication and proper lingo that will make communication easier.

At a practice this fall one of our third baseman kept saying “Cut Eat”, this is terminology have I have never heard before.  It also was not very effective because the shortstop kept turning and throwing the ball to third thinking he heard cut three.

So I stepped in and made a very easy change from “cut eat” to “cut hold”.  This causes no confusion because everyone on the team knows we yell “Four” when we want the ball to go home, so nobody confuses hold with home.

That is a very easy change to make and will be very helpful when dealing with communication. Give each base a  number 1-4 and use “cut hold” when you do not want a throw and “Cut the number of the base you want it to go to”.

If you have any other changes in communication or other verbal cues you have your players use, please let us know about them in the form of a comment.

Whenever we talk about baseball, we talk about doing the little things right.  We always talk about bunting, hit and run, hitting behind the runner, working ahead in the count, etc…

These are important issues, but I want us to begin to focus on things even smaller than this.

The detail we are going to discuss today is making throws to the catcher for tag plays at home.  We can practice these throws at the end of hitting fungos or even the very last thing we do during infield. 

You know the situation, the infield is in and we are pretending the winning run is on 3rd base, we need to make a good throw, catch the ball, and then put the tag on the runner.

What I want the players throwing the ball to do is concentrate a target, just like any other time we are playing catch, but instead of hitting the catcher in the chest I want the player to focus on the left knee of the catcher.

Why?

If the catcher is set up properly his left knee will in front of the plate, so if you hit his left knee he can catch the ball and place the tag on the runner.

What is the point of hitting his left knee instead of the chest?

This will be the fastest way for the catcher to catch the ball and place the tag on the runner who will sliding in to home.  Also, it will make it harder for a runner to slide under the tag due to the fact the ball is closer to the ground, again allowing the catcher to put the tag down quicker.

This may seem like a minor detail but remember if it saves a player a tenth of a second it is worth it. 

Details Win Championships

Today we are going to talk about things we have been taught or simply heard our entire lives at all levels of baseball, and why we should not listen to them anymore.  You have all heard the parents or the coaches at Little league games yell out random one line coaching techniques that have absolutely no foundation.

Coaching advice: Get your back Elbow up.

Why? what does this help? Do you know the swing? If so, why would you instruct someone to get there back elbow up? Is it going to solve any issue?

Do This Instead:

If you watch any big league hitter or just simply good hitters in general the first thing you will see is that their elbow achieves the “SLOT” position (tucked in to their rib cage) before they begin their forward swing.  So I ask why get their back elbow up and at the same time I ask why not.  I could care less where the elbow starts in the stance but what I want you to understand is it is not important and it does not help the swing, not even a little.  We need to teach things that have value and getting the elbow up has zero value.

Wait until the pitcher is on the rubber before you get your lead:

Again, I ask Why? what is the point? what does this do for a base runner?

Do This Instead:

Let’s think about this one and really dig into it.  When the pitcher gets on the rubber he is under control and in position to pick off at any time.  Therefore if we wait to get our lead when he is in total control of his body and relaxed we are asking to get picked off.  The best time to lead off is when the pitcher has the ball and is walking around the rubber, while he is moving with his back turned to you or when he is turned sideways to you.  If the pitcher has the ball and is walking back to the rubber his body is moving in a direction that makes it hard for him to throw to the base.  In order to do so he will have to stop, turn and then throw, giving a base runner who is paying attention more than enough time to get back. 

In the other case where we let the pitcher get to the rubber get poised and relaxed then get our lead, we have given him an opportunity to pick off when we are most vulnerable.  We are vulnerable because he is set and our momentum is moving away from the base.  Coaches give the signs early and let your runner get off the base.