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Dive into the mind of Head Coach John Dowling, who recently guided McClain High School (VA) to its first state baseball championship. In this episode, Coach Dowling reflects on the thrilling journey of winning, delving into the mental adjustments necessary to maintain focus and manage increased expectations as reigning champions. He highlights the pivotal role assistant coaches play in the development of players, sharing insights on fostering a competitive spirit while nurturing young talent.
Throughout our discussion, Dowling emphasizes the art of creating competitive environments during practice, ensuring players not only develop technical skills but also the performance mindset crucial for success. He candidly shares advice on structuring a challenging schedule, acknowledging that tough match-ups are vital for genuine growth on the field.
Listeners will also gain invaluable insights into forming meaningful connections within the baseball community, a key ingredient in crafting a vibrant program that is fueled by enthusiasm and ongoing support. As the episode unfolds, Dowling’s vision for nurturing a culture of resilience and adaptability shines through, providing takeaways that apply to coaches, players, and sports enthusiasts alike. Don’t miss this deep dive into winning strategies and pivotal lessons learned in the game. Tune in, subscribe, and let us know your thoughts!
Join the Baseball Coaches Unplugged podcast where an experienced baseball coach delves into the world of high school and travel baseball, offering insights on high school baseball coaching, leadership skills, hitting skills, pitching strategy, defensive skills, and overall baseball strategy, while also covering high school and college baseball, recruiting tips, youth and travel baseball, and fostering a winning mentality and attitude in baseball players through strong baseball leadership and mentality.
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Chapters
02:06 - Celebrating the State Title with Coach John Dowling
09:25 - Maintaining Focus After the Championship
18:10 - The Importance of Assistant Coaches
25:35 - Overcoming Challenges with a Tough Schedule
32:40 - Creating Competitive Game Environments
40:01 - The Balance of Winning and Player Development
Transcript
WEBVTT
00:00:01.661 --> 00:00:18.428
On today's podcast defending Virginia 6A state champion, head baseball coach John Dowling shares what his team does that led to a state title, how he creates competitive game speed environments in practice and trusting your assistant coaches.
00:00:18.428 --> 00:00:21.114
Next on Baseball Coaches Unplugged.
00:00:22.321 --> 00:00:27.013
Welcome to Baseball Coaches Unplugged with Coach Ken Carpenter, presented by Athlete One.
00:00:27.013 --> 00:00:41.231
Baseball Coaches Unplugged is a podcast for baseball coaches, with 27 years of high school baseball coaching under his belt, here to bring you the inside scoop on all things baseball, from game-winning strategies and pitching secrets to hitting drills and defensive drills.
00:00:41.231 --> 00:00:42.405
We're covering it all.
00:00:42.405 --> 00:00:50.887
Whether you're a high school coach, college coach or just a baseball enthusiast, we'll dive into the tactics and techniques that make the difference on and off the field.
00:00:50.887 --> 00:00:53.365
Discover how to build a winning mentality.
00:00:53.365 --> 00:01:04.367
Inspire your players and get them truly bought into your game philosophy Plus, get the latest insights on recruiting, coaching, leadership and crafting a team culture that champions productivity and success.
00:01:04.367 --> 00:01:08.971
Join Coach every week as he breaks down the game and shares incredible behind-the-scenes stories.
00:01:08.971 --> 00:01:14.706
Your competitive edge starts here, so check out the show weekly and hear from the best coaches in the game.
00:01:14.706 --> 00:01:16.611
On Baseball Coaches Unplugged.
00:01:20.260 --> 00:01:23.250
Hello and welcome to another edition of Baseball Coaches Unplugged.
00:01:23.250 --> 00:01:26.849
I'm your host, coach Ken Carpenter, and thanks for joining.
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If you enjoyed today's show, please be sure to hit the subscribe button and share it with a friend.
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It helps us to grow the show.
00:01:33.545 --> 00:01:45.134
Before we get to our episode with Head Coach John Dowling, I've got to give a shout out to our partners, will Miner and his team at the Netting Professionals.
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They also design and install digital graphic wall padding and more.
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Now let's get to Head Coach John Dowling at McLean High School in Virginia.
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Coach, thanks for taking the time to join me on Baseball Football.
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Club.
00:02:47.350 --> 00:02:54.680
Yeah, thanks for having me on, I appreciate it Well first off congratulations.
00:02:54.901 --> 00:02:56.807
Anytime a coach wins a state title, that's great.
00:02:56.807 --> 00:03:02.025
But you know, when you win that state title are you like a lot of coaches?
00:03:02.025 --> 00:03:14.593
When you hear them talk, they say that their thoughts quickly move on to the next season yeah, I mean, I think that we we certainly took some time to uh to enjoy it.
00:03:15.115 --> 00:03:29.466
Um, and you know, I had always heard coaches speak and they say you know, when you, when you win that big thing the conference championship, the state championship you think you can wake up the next day and feel different, and you really don't.
00:03:29.466 --> 00:03:30.945
It's a great achievement.
00:03:30.945 --> 00:03:40.008
I'm so proud of our kids and the way we battled last season and all that stuff, but at the end of the day, I'm the same guy.
00:03:40.008 --> 00:03:45.611
I still show up to work and it didn't have that like life changing moment.
00:03:45.611 --> 00:03:49.808
I don't think it was awesome, but at the end of the day, you know, we start up on Monday.
00:03:49.808 --> 00:03:53.270
So now we got to target on our back and we got to get back to work.
00:03:55.260 --> 00:04:03.069
That kind of leads right into my next question is from what I what I've read it, you've, you've got a pretty strong team coming back.
00:04:03.069 --> 00:04:10.911
So you know, you've got the state title under your belt and the expectations have got to be pretty high.
00:04:10.911 --> 00:04:16.771
Two-part question what steps do you take to keep your guys focused and humbled?
00:04:16.771 --> 00:04:23.687
And your thoughts on having that bullseye on your team's back?
00:04:25.048 --> 00:04:35.971
Yeah, I mean, I think you know, from from day one, we're going to have to be very clear that and I think they already kind of know that we're going to get served some humble pie at some point.
00:04:35.971 --> 00:04:54.790
Like I've, I've put together what is undoubtedly the hardest schedule we've had since I've been a head coach, and so, you know, we're going to try to challenge them and I think, having conversations up front just to say, like guys, just because that ring says 2024, it doesn't say 2025.
00:04:54.790 --> 00:05:14.201
And now you know, we've got the burden of the target on the back and success has a tax, and that tax is that everyone's going to want to beat us and inevitably we are going to lose a game, and to them, you know, to the opponent, that might be their biggest win of the season and they're probably going to act accordingly, and so it does.
00:05:14.201 --> 00:05:23.454
You know, that idea that success has a tax and we're going to have to pay that tax is something that we want to communicate really early on and make sure everyone's on the same page.
00:05:23.841 --> 00:05:26.485
We want to communicate really early on and make sure everyone's on the same page.
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Well, you mentioned that.
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You know you really loaded up your schedule.
00:05:29.632 --> 00:05:34.802
Sometimes teams are focused on.
00:05:34.802 --> 00:05:35.483
Well, they have no choice.
00:05:35.483 --> 00:05:38.812
They have the league schedule that they have because of the league they're in.
00:05:38.812 --> 00:05:41.988
So how many league games do you get?
00:05:41.988 --> 00:05:46.170
And then how many non-league games do you end up having to pick up?
00:05:47.380 --> 00:05:56.567
So we play 12 district games that we don't you know same six opponents twice each, and then we're allowed to play in a tournament over spring break.
00:05:56.567 --> 00:05:58.471
So that's kind of luck of the draw who you get.
00:05:58.471 --> 00:06:00.947
That's four games and then the last five we get 20.
00:06:00.947 --> 00:06:03.528
We used to get 20, this year they upped it to 21.
00:06:03.528 --> 00:06:12.041
So the last five I can schedule basically whoever I want, um, and so I kind of kind of looked around and said you know who did we play last year?
00:06:12.041 --> 00:06:14.853
That was really good and and we're right outside of dc.
00:06:14.853 --> 00:06:28.533
So there's a ton of private schools that are really really good because they're fortunate to get a bunch of them on the on schedule yes, I I seem to agree with most coaches when they load their schedule up like that.
00:06:28.759 --> 00:06:39.690
It's, you know, may not get as many wins as you'd like, but come tournament time, your, your team's, gonna be better prepared, without a doubt yeah, that's, I stole that from my college coach.
00:06:39.891 --> 00:06:49.694
We I went to ifycoc college in state new york and we would go to Los Angeles every year for spring break and just get our bus kicked by teams that were already 12-2.
00:06:49.694 --> 00:06:59.293
We hadn't seen green grass since previous November, and one time I asked them and they said you're going to figure out real quick who can do it and who can't.
00:06:59.480 --> 00:07:14.937
And so I've just kind of always taken that approach and I've joked a couple of times already with staff and a couple of other kids that I hope I didn't bite off more than we can chew this year, but I'm looking forward to it.
00:07:18.019 --> 00:07:23.300
Well, talk about your assistant coaches and how important they are to your team's success.
00:07:23.300 --> 00:07:53.333
No-transcript, they're going to start to tune it out, and so I'm so lucky to have Ryan, who's been with me for 13 years now.
00:07:53.333 --> 00:07:58.370
My pitching coach is the sharpest baseball mind I know.
00:07:58.370 --> 00:08:00.423
Like he 100%.
00:08:00.423 --> 00:08:06.088
His work situation kind of precludes him from being a head coach, but if he was in the opposing dugout I would be concerned.
00:08:06.088 --> 00:08:22.389
And this past season we're able to bring on a younger guy that played at a really high level, was drafted out of high school, started four years at JMU, really good in the technical side of hitting, really good communicator, and so that was huge as well.
00:08:22.389 --> 00:08:34.755
And so I'm just lucky this year we've got one of our alums coming on, and so now that I've been here a while and kind of building that community, I'm hopeful we can get more and more alumni joining us too.
00:08:35.000 --> 00:08:36.240
Well, you mentioned community there.
00:08:36.240 --> 00:08:40.166
How did the community react?
00:08:40.166 --> 00:08:45.753
Because, if my research is correct, that was the first state championship for your school, correct?
00:08:45.753 --> 00:08:46.333
In baseball?
00:08:47.936 --> 00:08:48.596
Yes, it was.
00:08:48.596 --> 00:08:58.032
Yeah, I mean, between that day and the next morning I still had like 200 text messages on my phone that I hadn't gotten to yet.
00:08:58.032 --> 00:09:10.014
And so you know, this will be our 12th season, and so I'm a teacher at the school, so I've really gotten to know a lot of the families and a lot of the folks that even you know.
00:09:10.014 --> 00:09:17.873
After they graduated they come back and watch games, and there was a very overwhelming and humbling response, for sure.
00:09:19.201 --> 00:09:23.610
That's probably the one time you don't mind having to deal with ticks on your phone.
00:09:23.610 --> 00:09:27.567
Yes, well, definitely.
00:09:27.567 --> 00:09:33.692
Well, like you said, in Virginia you're now up to 21 games seasons.
00:09:33.692 --> 00:09:38.289
Up here in Ohio we played 28.
00:09:38.289 --> 00:09:49.633
And if you look at some of these schools around the country, I see them playing 40 games and I always found it challenging to get 28 in with the weather up here.
00:09:49.633 --> 00:10:06.224
I'm looking out right now and there's snow all over the ground, so you know, yeah, so how do you prepare your pitching staff to you know when you go throughout the season?
00:10:06.224 --> 00:10:13.951
You guys, if I am I correct, do you guys have like a one one and done, or is a best two out of three in Virginia?
00:10:15.881 --> 00:10:16.749
For the postseason.
00:10:16.749 --> 00:10:17.091
Yeah, yeah.
00:10:17.091 --> 00:10:31.389
So it's like our district has seven teams and four will qualify for the region, the next level, um, and then out of the regionals, the top two advance to states, and then it's one and done.
00:10:31.389 --> 00:10:34.964
There's three, there's a quarter semi-final state tournament.
00:10:34.964 --> 00:10:42.344
So, okay, um, out of the 13 teams in our region, two will advance to the state tournament makes sense.
00:10:42.384 --> 00:10:46.273
well, in ohio it, in Ohio it's like Hoosiers.
00:10:46.273 --> 00:10:59.606
I mean not like Hoosiers in that sense, but everybody gets in and on occasion you'll have a team that just things go their way and they didn't have a great season but all of a sudden they make a deep, deep run.
00:10:59.606 --> 00:11:16.615
But as far as once you get into the tournament play, you know you can kind of you know most teams probably can get by with, you know, a three-man rotation as far as starting pitchers.
00:11:16.615 --> 00:11:19.769
But when you get into that tournament play it's a little different.
00:11:19.769 --> 00:11:24.471
Do you do anything differently to have your guys ready for tournament play?
00:11:27.159 --> 00:11:28.686
you do anything differently to have your guys ready for for tournament play?
00:11:28.686 --> 00:11:28.986
No, it's funny.
00:11:28.986 --> 00:11:34.726
Actually, in virginia, most of our weeks, like your district, games are always tuesday, friday and then the district in the regional tournament.
00:11:34.726 --> 00:11:35.769
You only play twice a week.
00:11:35.769 --> 00:11:41.831
Um, so, like in 2014, we went to the state tournament and we we've literally used two.
00:11:41.831 --> 00:11:49.590
We had two studs one went to tech, one ended up getting drafted by the Nats a couple years later and, like, we rode these two dudes to the state tournament.
00:11:50.019 --> 00:11:52.892
And now the state tournament is the only.
00:11:52.892 --> 00:12:03.250
It's Tuesday, friday, saturday for the quarter semis finals, and that's the only week of the year where you're going to play three meeting-tall games in one week.
00:12:03.250 --> 00:12:07.006
And so pitching depth is, I mean.
00:12:07.006 --> 00:12:22.552
I think pitching depth is the biggest reason why we were able to win it, because we had starters who could go deep in the games and we had guys coming out of the pen that we trusted, and it's just funny that you know, rain messes that up.
00:12:22.552 --> 00:12:26.932
But your district schedule district tournament, region tournament it's always just two games a week.
00:12:26.932 --> 00:12:29.928
And then you get to States and it's like, oh crap, we need a third starter.
00:12:29.928 --> 00:12:30.451
Yeah.
00:12:31.720 --> 00:12:38.908
Well, you know, I I watched you on a podcast talking about how you.
00:12:38.908 --> 00:12:50.091
You were a pitcher in college and you decided to drop down as a pitcher in college and and it it worked out for you and my son.
00:12:50.091 --> 00:12:58.192
I did that with him when he was a sophomore in high school and because I thought he'd have a better opportunity of getting more outs that way.
00:12:58.192 --> 00:13:08.160
Talk about how that changed and accepting that mindset, and is that something you try to do with anybody on your pitching staffs?
00:13:09.865 --> 00:13:10.625
yeah, um.
00:13:10.625 --> 00:13:18.191
So I was pretty mediocre and you know I was kind of a diamond doesn't writey with a mediocre fastball and it.
00:13:18.191 --> 00:13:23.144
It was enough like to be a pretty good high school pitcher, but it was not enough at the next level.
00:13:23.144 --> 00:13:28.667
So so we were in a fall scrimmage, we were at Rowan and they had a.
00:13:28.667 --> 00:13:29.931
They had a guy come out of the pen.
00:13:29.931 --> 00:13:32.027
It was like submarine, like way down.
00:13:32.427 --> 00:13:33.682
My coach was like what do you think of that?
00:13:33.682 --> 00:13:37.186
I was like dude, he's effective, he's getting a bunch of meat contacts.
00:13:37.186 --> 00:13:38.600
He's like cool, go to the bullpen and do it.
00:13:38.600 --> 00:13:47.648
And so so I went in and I got through the inning and you know I kind of settled.
00:13:48.128 --> 00:13:54.933
I was more of like a really low three quarters sidearm movement and you know that extended my career.
00:13:54.933 --> 00:13:59.037
I was going to get caught that spring and then I ended up being the closer the next two years.
00:13:59.037 --> 00:14:16.419
So that taught me like the importance of adaptability and being willing to try new things and not do what's comfortable, even if you kind of know the writing's on the wall there.
00:14:16.419 --> 00:14:24.374
In terms of our team, we have had a couple guys that have dropped down, not super successful, I can't've.
00:14:24.374 --> 00:14:36.629
We've churned out these sidearm relievers, but it's always kind of in the back pocket as a, as an option, and, and you know I can literally say to him, like I've been in your shoes, I've been told like, hey, your stuff's not good enough from this more traditional slot.
00:14:36.629 --> 00:14:38.187
Let's get weird and see what happens.
00:14:39.299 --> 00:14:56.956
Yeah, and I, you know, I look back on my coaching career and I wish I could have done that with a couple guys, just because I think when a batter comes up to see that you just don't see it very often in high school and when you do, it's, you know, hey, give me three outs.
00:14:56.956 --> 00:15:05.311
Yeah, you know, and sometimes it's all you need out of a relief game, yeah, well, you know, I'm looking here.
00:15:05.311 --> 00:15:10.325
You've played the game, you've coached the game.
00:15:10.325 --> 00:15:21.207
Tell me about a time when you failed and what you took from that and how that turned you into becoming a better coach.
00:15:23.500 --> 00:15:36.461
I mean I think, like most coaches early in my career I was too much piss and vinegar and not enough, like the old show.
00:15:36.461 --> 00:15:41.667
You know you got to show them you care first.
00:15:41.667 --> 00:15:55.245
I am competitive and I let that drive me towards too transactional and just like we need to get better so we can win, and it was always weak.
00:15:55.245 --> 00:16:05.971
But I think my motivations stemmed too much from that on us to win and not I want us to win, comma.
00:16:05.971 --> 00:16:14.000
In an environment where everybody walks away and says you know that being a part of the McLean baseball team was my favorite part of my high school experience.
00:16:14.000 --> 00:16:36.192
Um, and so I've kind of you know you don't want to say like lightened up, like we still have standards and we still demand the best of our guys, but I've just learned to do it in a more beneficial way to the, to the athlete as a whole, as a person, um, and and not that more transactional like what can we do for each other?
00:16:36.192 --> 00:16:37.884
Um, kind of thing.
00:16:39.860 --> 00:16:40.725
Makes total sense.
00:16:40.725 --> 00:16:44.783
I can totally relate with the with what you're saying there.
00:16:44.783 --> 00:16:51.707
I can totally relate with what you're saying there because I, you know, I'm ultra competitive and everything you know.
00:16:51.707 --> 00:16:53.549
It was either win or loss for me.
00:16:53.549 --> 00:16:58.253
You know, and I, now that I look back on it, I wish I could change things early on.
00:16:58.253 --> 00:17:03.736
But you learn as a coach and that's one of those things that you do.
00:17:03.736 --> 00:17:19.875
Yep, well, I noticed you spoke at the ABCA convention and I was looking at your form that you put out there and it talked about how you create a competitive game speed environment in practice.
00:17:19.875 --> 00:17:30.008
Can you talk a little bit about that and maybe throw out a couple examples of what you might do, whether it's inside in a gym or when you?
00:17:30.028 --> 00:17:33.115
finally get outside on the field.
00:17:33.115 --> 00:17:33.496
Yeah, um.
00:17:33.496 --> 00:17:38.608
So you know there's, there's a bunch of science in like the skill acquisition world.
00:17:38.608 --> 00:17:46.979
Now that basically says that like when we do things that are easy, we don't get better like full stop, and I call it 40, 40, 40 bp.
00:17:46.979 --> 00:17:49.984
You got a 40 year old guy throwing 40 miles an hour from 40 feet away.
00:17:49.984 --> 00:17:58.251
Um, and that's a great environment to work on your swing, but we don't play baseball swing, we play baseball.
00:17:58.251 --> 00:18:14.609
And so kind of drawing that line between, like when are we trying to work on technique, mechanics, whatever you want to call it, and doing that in the low stakes environment where it's easier, but then figuring out like how do we blend that to the game?
00:18:14.609 --> 00:18:17.348
Because if it's not going to transfer, it's pointless anyway.
00:18:17.348 --> 00:18:30.326
So we've all had the guy that's got the ugly swing, but man, he's always on time and he always finds barrels and it's like that's the guy that I need come 630 on Friday night and we've all seen the guy with the perfect, beautiful swing.
00:18:30.326 --> 00:18:33.313
It's textbook, it's beautiful.
00:18:33.313 --> 00:18:37.425
And then game day comes and it's another rofer.
00:18:38.247 --> 00:18:55.681
And so early on in my first head coaching job it was not a baseball school we had 12 kids on the varsity baseball team my last year there, um, and so I kind of realized like I can't just do things the way everybody else does.
00:18:55.681 --> 00:19:02.263
The previous three state champions my first year there um, one of the teams in our district won the state championship.
00:19:02.263 --> 00:19:06.384
In the previous two years it was won by a team from this district and we got 12 kids on the team.
00:19:06.384 --> 00:19:22.896
So it's like if I do everything the same way they do, if I roll out the balls, throw bp for half an hour, take I out of the home like we don't stand a chance, um, and so that just kind of forced me to kind of adapt and figure out you know what's the more optimal way for us to train.
00:19:22.896 --> 00:19:37.173
And realistically it comes down to like thinking about things like the spin of the ball and the angle of the ball and speed of the ball and speed of the runner and, whenever possible, putting ourselves in environments that replicate those game speeds.
00:19:38.441 --> 00:19:41.470
Using stopwatch when you're hitting ground balls to the infielders.
00:19:41.470 --> 00:19:44.088
One, we all suck at hitting topspin ground balls.
00:19:44.088 --> 00:19:48.267
It's really really hard to do, so we probably should be using a machine.
00:19:48.267 --> 00:19:53.611
And two, just putting them on a stopwatch so that they understand, like what's a 4-1 runner feel like?
00:19:53.611 --> 00:19:54.613
For me it's shortstop.
00:19:54.613 --> 00:19:57.026
When I got to go to my right on a ball.
00:19:57.026 --> 00:19:59.551
What does a 4-1 runner feel like?
00:19:59.551 --> 00:20:01.563
And do I have time to set my feet?
00:20:01.563 --> 00:20:07.653
Or do I have to pull off the cheater, jump, throw and exposing them to that as often as possible?
00:20:07.653 --> 00:20:17.846
And my kids are in youth baseball space and just from being around the game, I think I'm of the opinion that we spend and I did it too early on.
00:20:17.846 --> 00:20:18.669
I was the same way.
00:20:18.669 --> 00:20:31.507
I'm not casting stones here, but we spend too much time on the technique, mechanics, baseball swing and not enough time putting kids in environments where they have to play baseball at game speed.
00:20:31.507 --> 00:20:34.363
Um, and then the game comes and the game's really hard.
00:20:34.502 --> 00:20:44.278
So my goal is to make practice harder than the game now, when you, when you start making those changes, how will the players I'm assuming the players probably like that?
00:20:44.278 --> 00:20:46.684
I would think well.
00:20:46.865 --> 00:20:47.727
The competitive side.
00:20:47.727 --> 00:20:49.952
Yeah, everybody loves to play games.
00:20:49.952 --> 00:21:06.121
Making it competitive instantly drives up engagement, and the competitive piece gives kids an opportunity to learn to deal with failure in a lower stakes environment than the game and in terms of the challenging them.
00:21:06.121 --> 00:21:13.429
One of the biggest errors I did early on was like say hey, guys, we're going to really challenge you, period.
00:21:13.429 --> 00:21:14.171
End of sentence.
00:21:14.171 --> 00:21:15.685
They go into the cage.
00:21:15.685 --> 00:21:16.000
They don't.
00:21:16.000 --> 00:21:18.769
They barrel up one out of eight and they walk away saying I stink.
00:21:19.540 --> 00:21:26.950
And so when you create an environment like that, the biggest lesson I've learned is to be crystal clear with the expectations.
00:21:26.950 --> 00:21:31.330
And you know, we'll set up the machine and we call it Garrett Cole Fastballs.
00:21:31.330 --> 00:21:32.281
It's like super.
00:21:32.281 --> 00:21:37.688
We'll use the foam balls out of the machine at the top of the zone and it's like find a way to get the barrel on top of this thing.
00:21:37.688 --> 00:21:43.486
We'll tell them, though, say hey, man, if you could barrel up one or two out of these eight, that's a pretty darn good round.
00:21:43.486 --> 00:21:53.023
So now they walk out of their cage saying I'm the man.
00:21:53.044 --> 00:21:53.747
I barreled up three out of me.
00:21:53.747 --> 00:21:55.211
Um, as opposed to it's bp, I should have barreled eight out of me.
00:21:55.211 --> 00:21:55.733
I only barreled three.
00:21:55.733 --> 00:21:56.256
I stick, um and so the one.
00:21:56.256 --> 00:22:01.348
That's definitely a bit of a cautionary tale that I didn't fully realize early on the importance of um.
00:22:01.348 --> 00:22:12.590
You're going to put them in environments that are more game like being crystal clear about what is success and what is failure, because they're going to just think three for eight in a BP setting is failure.
00:22:12.590 --> 00:22:14.928
Meanwhile I'm like the ball is literally rising, guys.
00:22:14.928 --> 00:22:18.391
It's doing things that physics, a human, can't replicate.
00:22:21.363 --> 00:22:37.108
Do you spend much time on the mental side as far as positive talk and getting guys to understand that it's a game of failure, at least when you're swinging the bat and you've got to have a strong mindset.
00:22:38.500 --> 00:22:49.788
Yeah, and I think that what we found to be the most successful is building in a routine and I shared this at my ABCA convention and you put them in these really challenging settings.
00:22:50.480 --> 00:22:54.127
You've got to remind them to use that routine, a physical reset and a big deep breath.
00:22:54.127 --> 00:23:00.270
And I'm like I think I was like every other coach in America 10 years ago when this kind of thing really started to take off.
00:23:00.270 --> 00:23:03.286
And there was this clip of Longoria and he stares at the ball pole.
00:23:03.286 --> 00:23:08.942
Every time he takes a big deep breath and we do this PowerPoint and we have the kids all write down their routine.
00:23:08.942 --> 00:23:17.548
And then I didn't talk about it again, we never brought it up, we didn't follow up on it, we didn't build chances in practice to practice it, so that it's second nature in the game.
00:23:17.548 --> 00:23:20.351
And so now you've got that double wing in practice.
00:23:20.351 --> 00:23:31.357
If you've built that routine in and you see them getting frustrated and engaged, all we have to do is say, hey, physical reset, work your routine, take deep breaths, step out, do your little, stare at your point.
00:23:31.357 --> 00:23:38.144
And now, all of a sudden, that becomes second nature in game.
00:23:38.164 --> 00:23:43.953
Well, my most recent episode I talked about the pros and cons of cutting players.
00:23:43.953 --> 00:23:56.047
Now, you know I don't know much about your experience or if you've had to deal with having to cut a player, but what are your thoughts on that?
00:23:56.047 --> 00:24:03.345
Because there's so many variables, you know like it could be.
00:24:03.345 --> 00:24:06.112
The school only has so many uniforms.
00:24:06.112 --> 00:24:12.291
You know you might have 120 guys come out and you only got three teams.
00:24:12.291 --> 00:24:18.210
And have you ever experienced anything when it happened to make a decision like that?
00:24:19.271 --> 00:24:20.153
Yeah, it's the worst.
00:24:20.153 --> 00:24:23.204
It's the Wednesday.
00:24:23.204 --> 00:24:31.631
You know, our kids get a minimum three-day tryout, and that Wednesday, when we've got to send kids home, it's the absolute worst.
00:24:31.631 --> 00:24:35.990
We're really fortunate that it's a really strong baseball community.
00:24:35.990 --> 00:24:40.949
We've got a really good Little League and so we usually have around 60 kids try out every year.
00:24:40.949 --> 00:24:43.347
The last few years it's been 60 to 70.
00:24:43.820 --> 00:24:45.949
And we're only allowed to have two teams.
00:24:45.949 --> 00:24:47.164
We don't have a freshman team.
00:24:47.164 --> 00:24:55.173
We're not allowed to self-fund a freshman team, um, and so that process is um.
00:24:55.173 --> 00:25:23.484
But we just try to be really yeah, we just try to be really, like, honest with them and give them some feedback on, you know, the guys that we're not able to keep around, you know, give them some feedback on what they need to do and and and I say it every year and it happens every couple of years like we'll cut somebody as a freshman or as a junior, and then they come back the next year and they hit the weight room and all of a sudden you're like yeah, you're great, you did exactly what we said you needed to do and now you're more successful on the field.
00:25:24.306 --> 00:25:38.012
We'd love to have you, but we don't have a roster limit per se, but for me would that practice time be the most important time we have together.
00:25:38.012 --> 00:25:40.749
It's not practical to carry 22 hitters.
00:25:40.749 --> 00:25:48.765
I don't think it's fair to the 19th, 20th, 21st, 22nd hitter to be like you're probably never going to play.
00:25:48.765 --> 00:25:58.207
And I don't think it's fair to the 6th, 7th and 8th hitters to say you're going to get 30% less opportunities in practice because we've got these other guys.
00:25:58.207 --> 00:26:12.788
So it's finding that balance between giving kids an opportunity but at the same time providing the best experience we can for for the rest, so if I could ask, how many do you carry on your varsity and jv?
00:26:13.951 --> 00:26:14.932
uh, it depends.
00:26:14.932 --> 00:26:15.894
I mean, there's not.
00:26:15.894 --> 00:26:22.673
I think last year we had 16 hitters, uh, and a handful of pos.
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