Cornerstone Coaching Academy Podcast

Our first Q & A Podcast!!!!!!!

In this episode, we answer two questions by loyal Cornerstone Podcast listeners.

Question #1 - Tom from Washington asks - How much of a rest from baseball should we give my 13U player?

Question #2 - Matt from Arizona asks - My son can't hit slower pitching, how can I help him?

Resources mentioned in the show 

Check out our podcast on preventing pitching injuries

The article on Jordan Spieth playing multiple sports as a youth (ok... so he's kind of still a youth)

Check out our three plate hitting drill here

 

Submit your question to the Cornerstone Coaching Academy Podcast here:

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Our first Q & A Podcast!!!!!!! In this episode, we answer two questions by loyal Cornerstone Podcast listeners. Question #1 - Tom from Washington asks - How much of a rest from baseball should we give my 13U player? Question #2 - Matt from Arizona asks - My son can't hit slower pitching, how can I […]

I know that I promised that the next podcast would be a Q & A podcast, and it will be... after we address this.

 

I wanted to post a timely response to James Harrison making his kids give back their participation trophy while it was still in the news and still relevant.   In case you missed it, you can check out the article on it:

 

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/13447657/james-harrison-pittsburgh-steelers-takes-away-kids-participation-trophies-says-awards-earned

 

After James Harrison posted his opinion on participation trophies on Istagram, there was a lot of response, mostly in support of Harrison and his position.  I agree with a certain amount of this sentiment, and do believe we have a entitlement problem with players and parents in our sports system.  

 

I disagree with him that the "participation trophy" is the reason why.

 

1.) Kids know the difference.

He's not giving the kids the enough credit.  They know the difference between a participation trophy (or medal, or certificate) and the trophy for winning the "championship."   We act as though they are somehow tricked into thinking they "won" by giving them a trophy at the end of the season.

 

2.) Winning at age 6 and 8 is for adults, not kids.  

Did your team with the championship in the 8 year old coach pitch league?  Don't remember do you?  Neither do I.

 

But I do remember getting to the field early with my dad and taking groundballs, flyballs, and playing catch. I remember learning the rules, and learning how to hit a pitched ball.  I remember learning that striking out or making an error wasn't the end of the world.  I couldn't tell you if we won every single game, or lost every single game.  And it doesn't matter.

 

The research is very clear, kids under 12 don't participate in sports for wins and losses.  Wins and losses at the youth level are for the parents.  The kids want to have fun, learn about the game, compete (win or lose), and spend time with their friends.

 

If they accomplish these goals, the winning and losing will take care of itself as they mature.

 

Check out our "End of season, success checklist," to ensure your players get the most out of every season. 

 

 

3.) Winning gives talented youth athletes (and parents) a false sense of accomplishment

Imagine you have a very talented young athlete (maybe you do!) and the only way they are validated is by winning.  If they won, they were good enough, if they lost, they weren't. The reality is, they will probably have little trouble winning, because they are more talented than almost all other players.

 

In fact, they can probably not play very well and still win.  Maybe they can even not try very hard and still win.  They may be able to go several years, and don't get much better, but still win.

 

As long as "winning" is what validates them and their parents, their lack of effort and lack of improvement can go unnoticed because they are still bringing home the 1st place trophy.

 

THIS is a great source of entitlement in youth sports.  They begin to believe they deserve to win because they always have.  Then when the less talented players, or the players who matured later, begin to catch them, they have trouble dealing with it because they have never had to work hard to win, or compete for playing time.

 

In fact, I would argue that an overemphasis on winning makes players fearful of competition.  If the only validation you get from competition is winning, why would you put yourself in a a challenging situation where you might not win?

I know that I promised that the next podcast would be a Q & A podcast, and it will be... after we address this.   I wanted to post a timely response to James Harrison making his kids give back their participation trophy while it was still in the news and still relevant.   In […]

In this episode we will discuss how to help players adjust to college baseball their freshmen year:

Making sure you're at the right school to begin with

Unusual demands on your time

The blessing and curse of great freedom

Conquering the freshmen dorms

Oh no! My velocity is dipping!

Everyone was all conference/area/state

Staying on top of your academics during the most demanding schedule in college athletics

Resources:

iTunes - Leave us a review on iTunes and have it be read on the air.

Part 1 of playing college baseball... warning! This was my first attempt at a podcast, it probably isn't very good!

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In this episode we will discuss how to help players adjust to college baseball their freshmen year: Making sure you're at the right school to begin with Unusual demands on your time The blessing and curse of great freedom Conquering the freshmen dorms Oh no! My velocity is dipping! Everyone was all conference/area/state Staying on […]

 

Every program has (or should have) their points of emphasis for each position.  We have had a significant paradigm shift over the past few seasons which has lead to our 7 points of emphasis for pitchers for 2015 and beyond.

In this episode, you will learn:

What we are doing to increase our pitcher's velocity

Why we are shifting our emphasis away from JUST throwing strikes on 0-0 and 1-1 counts

How we take the advantage back in hitter's counts

Our plan for 0-2 counts

Why our pitcher's are responsible for being strong and healthy at the end of the season

How pitchers can help themselves after the ball is thrown

Why that 3 mile run pitchers want to do is a waste of time.

 

 

 

 

Resources for the show

Throwing a change up tutorial - How to throw three different types of change ups, when to throw change ups, and how to make it a devastating pitch.

 

10 Things Pitchers Must Do To Be Successful - This FREE eBook adds some additional points of emphasis you may want to consider for your pitchers, and goes into more depth on several of the points discussed in this podcast.

 

 

Every program has (or should have) their points of emphasis for each position.  We have had a significant paradigm shift over the past few seasons which has lead to our 7 points of emphasis for pitchers for 2015 and beyond. In this episode, you will learn: What we are doing to increase our […]

This is combination podcast/blog post, so you get choose your medium for consumption!  As you will see in this episode/post, we are all about choices!!!

 

 

 

We've seen it in every aspect of the game, your players dominate practice!

 

They are great mechanically. They can field forehands, backhands, make routine plays, make double plays, field slow rollers, and their arm looks great.

 

Then game time comes.  Their "mechanics" still look good, but they make errors. Lots of errors. They seem unsure and hesitant. They don't know where the ball needs to go.  They seem surprised the ball is hit to them.

 

Then they look like they don't want the ball hit to them.

 

What's going on?

 

Let's look at the top 4 reasons infielders don't translate practice performance into games.

1.) A lack of understanding of what a "good fielder" at your level is - Here's the bottom line, we aren't dealing with professional infielders.  I went back and looked at how our shortstops have fielded since 2011.

 

In that group, we had a Division 3 player, two Division 1 players (including one playing for a top 10 team), one professional player, and an NCAA Gold Glove winner for the best shortstop in the country his senior year in college.   Their fielding percentages at the high school level were ALL between .890 and .931.

 

Again, these are not professionals. We play on some questionable fields, that give them some questionable hops.  That means good high school shortstop will probably make 1-2 errors every 20 chances or so.  Making errors is not unusual, and should not be treated as the plague.

 

It is reasonable to believe that fielding percentages will be even lower at the younger levels, so don't think your infielders are the only ones making errors.  They aren't.

 

We just need to know how to minimize them.

 

Check out our Developing Athletic, Consistent, Extraordinary (A.C.E.) Infielders online course and start developing game-ready infielders.

 

2.) An overemphasis on mechanics - When infielders make errors, many of them, and their coaches, want to immediately turn to mechanics.  If they aren't having success there must be something mechanically wrong.

 

The reality is, the mechanics of fielding a ground ball are not too difficult.  Once a player's mechanics are reasonably good, they probably aren't making errors because of mechanics.

 

Our baseball society is turing into a "fix me coach" society.  When a player doesn't have success, they turn to a coach to tell them what they are doing wrong.  I challenge you to not always look for a mechanical fix to every problem.

 

3.) They are picking the wrong hops - Bad infielders "get" hops.  Good infielders "pick" their hops.  Imagine how easy fielding would be if your infielders always got that long hop or "Sunday hop."

 

Pretty easy right?  That .920 fielding % would look at more like .950 wouldn't it?

 

Good infielders get more of those long hops and fewer of the dreaded "up hops" by moving their feet in good tempo and rhythm and learning the path of the ball on the ground.

 

It is easy for a coach to tell an infielder to charge the ball to get better hops.  This is what the player wants to hear, a quick easy fix that will make everything better.  What they don't want to hear is that THEY need to learn when to charge the ball to get the correct hop.

 

If you're looking for a great fielding game to help develop thi...

This is combination podcast/blog post, so you get choose your medium for consumption!  As you will see in this episode/post, we are all about choices!!!       We've seen it in every aspect of the game, your players dominate practice!   They are great mechanically. They can field forehands, backhands, make routine plays, […]