Dear Baseball Gods

Is a knuckle-curveball different than a regular curve? And, what does hiding the ball mean for pitchers? Should they try to do it? Should mechanics be taught so that hiding the ball happens?

The EARLY Work program is almost ready for launch. Sign up for my email list to be notified!

To submit a question for the Q&A segment, email a voice recording to Dan at [email protected]. Want to support the show? Buy a copy of Dear Baseball Gods on Kindle or Paperback, or listen on audiobook. Or, pick up Pitching Isn’t Complicated, his advanced-but-understandable pitching manual. Enroll in one of Coach Dan’s online pitching courses or his mental skills course. Use code BASEBALL GODS to save 20% on any course, just for being a listener. Sign up for Dan’s Email list and get a free pitching checklist, and follow up with him on the interwebs: YouTube Channel | Twitter | Danblewett.com

Transcript: EP102 – What Does Hiding the Ball Mean for Pitchers? And, Is a Knuckle Curve Different?

You’re listening to the Dear Baseball Gods podcast. In this show, I helped parents, players and coaches better navigate their baseball careers.

Hey, welcome back to Dear Baseball Gods. I’m Dan Blewett. And just as a little bit of housekeeping yet, again, be sure to check out the description here. Be sure to check out my email list, which is also there’s links in the descriptions podcast. Releasing a new online strength conditioning program called early work very soon.

And of course, obviously if you’re listening to this video, anytime in the future, it will be already out by time or a year looking for a new strength training program to follow for your son, for your team, for your family. We have different plans in a 14 day free trial, or if anyone wants to check it out, try out the Early Work strength and conditioning program.

This was built by me and a fellow strength coach, a good friend. Mine named coach Andrew Sacks, who is an expert in baseball and softball training. So without further ado, let’s get into today’s episode. So today we have two topics. Number one, what is a knuckle curve? Is it different than a regular curve ball?

And number two also for pitchers, what’s the deal with hiding the baseball? So this is a common term where we say, Oh man, the guy hides the ball really well. But what does this mean? Is it important? Is it something you should try to do? We’re going to kind of demystify that whole bunch. Okay. So let’s talk about the knuckle curve,

Some coaches claim that sleep is critical to recovery. Sure – this is true, and everyone needs sleep. But is it actually relevant and important to be talking about to younger athletes? Second, Dan discusses the new state of MLB baseball – is it capturing the attention of young players? Is it boring? Should young players be playing this swing-and-miss style of baseball?

To submit a question for the Q&A segment, email a voice recording to Dan at [email protected]. Want to support the show? Buy a copy of Dear Baseball Gods on Kindle or Paperback, or listen on audiobook. Or, pick up Pitching Isn’t Complicated, his advanced-but-understandable pitching manual. Enroll in one of Coach Dan’s online pitching courses or his mental skills course. Use code BASEBALL GODS to save 20% on any course, just for being a listener. Sign up for Dan’s Email list and get a free pitching checklist, and follow up with him on the interwebs: YouTube Channel | Twitter | Danblewett.com

Transcript: EP101 – Is Sleep Important For Performance? Plus, Is MLB Baseball Boring Now?

You’re listening to the dear baseball gods podcast. In this show, I helped parents, players and coaches better navigate their baseball careers.

welcome back to the Dear Baseball Gods podcasts. Last week was the episode. The big number 100. So it’s a, it’s like, Oh one Oh one. Okay. We’re so far from any other relevant milestones, so, Oh, how the mighty have fallen, uh, but quick reminder or announcement, depending on, uh, if you’re on my email list or any of that next week, I’m releasing a new strain of conditioning program, a online program, which I’m really excited about.

This is a collaboration between myself and my good friend, fellow strength, coach Andrew Sachs. So look for more details, uh, in the upcoming week, if you’re not on my email list, definitely sign up. There’s links in the show notes, but this is a really good program. We spent the last, well, we started this in March and then covert happened, but.

Um, about a hundred episodes or a hundred exercises filmed, a lot of really good detail. Um, just a lot of moving parts in general to make this successful, but we’re excited that next week it’s finally gonna launch and you’ll be able to get, uh, a free two week trial. So if you want to jump in and try it, you’re more than welcome to.

So just a little bit of housekeeping. Also, you’re gonna notice some new intro music and transition music, which I’m excited about. My old stuff was as grading on me a little bit. And, uh,

In this landmark 100th episode, Dan reflects on some of the important things he’s learned in the 3 years that have passed since the Dear Baseball Gods podcast began back in March of 2017. A LOT has happened…

To submit a question for the Q&A segment, email a voice recording to Dan at [email protected]. Want to support the show? Buy a copy of Dear Baseball Gods on Kindle or Paperback, or listen on audiobook. Or, pick up Pitching Isn’t Complicated, his advanced-but-understandable pitching manual. Enroll in one of Coach Dan’s online pitching courses or his mental skills course. Use code BASEBALL GODS to save 20% on any course, just for being a listener. Sign up for Dan’s Email list and get a free pitching checklist, and follow up with him on the interwebs: YouTube Channel | Twitter | Danblewett.com

Transcript: EP100 – It’s Been One Hundred Episodes – What Have I Learned Since Then?

All right, folks. Welcome back. This is the 100th episode of the deer baseball gods podcast. So if you’re listening to this number one, thank you for being here. Maybe you’re brand new. Maybe you’ve just picked up the show recently, or maybe you’ve been here from the beginning, who knows either way. Thank you for listening to my musings, ramblings, uh, teachings, whatever.

You’d call it over these three and a half years now, actually. So, uh, in today’s episode, I’m going to talk about things I’ve learned over the years, over these past three and a half years, that. I’ve felt I’ve made a positive change in my life that I would like to convey to you. Maybe one of these 10 hits a chord.

Obviously some of these are going to be moderately COVID related. I mean, I think, I think, uh, one of the sentiments about, uh, COVID-19 is that it’s been an accelerant. So, you know, accelerating agent for change. So things that were going to happen maybe in a couple of years have suddenly all, all of a sudden happened in three months or in six months or whatever.

And I’ve found that’s a been the case with some of my, my endeavors and things. Yeah. As well. So without further ado, I’m going to get to 10 things I’ve learned since the deer baseball gods podcast started back in March of 2017. Alright. Number one. If I had to give some advice, it would be, and this is going to be number one.

And number two, it’s both follow your passions and follow your skills. Now I’m 34, so I don’t need to Dole out too much career advice because I’ve only been living in the real world for about a year.

Are short and longterm goals really that important? Is distance running useful for pitchers? Or is it the devil? And, what should we all know about launch angle and its importance in baseball?

To submit a question for the Q&A segment, email a voice recording to Dan at [email protected]. Want to support the show? Buy a copy of Dear Baseball Gods on Kindle or Paperback, or listen on audiobook. Or, pick up Pitching Isn’t Complicated, his advanced-but-understandable pitching manual. Enroll in one of Coach Dan’s online pitching courses or his mental skills course. Use code BASEBALL GODS to save 20% on any course, just for being a listener. Sign up for Dan’s Email list and get a free pitching checklist, and follow up with him on the interwebs: YouTube Channel | Twitter | Danblewett.com

Full Transcript: EP99 – How Important Is Launch Angle? Distance Running & Are Goals Actually Useful?

Welcome back to Dear Baseball Gods. On today’s podcast. We’re going to cover three different topics. Number one, is distance running important? Is it bad? Is it good? We’ll figure it out. Number two, how important is launch angle a? Is this something useful to work into someone’s swing? Is it good, bad, the devil, whatever we’re going to solve that as well.

Lastly, we talked a little bit about longterm goals. How important are they? Are they overrated or are they underrated? Okay. So first is distance running important. Now distance running has been demonized by much of the strength and conditioning community of which I’m a part. The basic tenants here are that distance running use a different energy system than you use when doing an explosive, uh, action.

So swinging a bat is an anaerobic, very explosive exercise. And we obviously all know that you can’t maintain that sort of effort level, that sort of intensity or explosiveness over a long distance or long period of time. Right. So where you’re jogging for 30 minutes or biking for 30 minutes or whatever.

You know, those user aerobic system, it’s a much different type of exercise then, you know, doing something like throwing a medicine ball, throwing a baseball, hitting a baseball, sprinting, jumping things that are anaerobic that are very explosive. So. The big thing here is for years and years and years pitchers just ran polls.

And one of my favorite books, ball four, they talk about how much running is done. And there’s a, an ongoing discussion in that book, even back, which was written in the seventh or the, it was written in 1968, I think, uh, that you know, is running actually beneficial. Like we, we run it every day is pictures, but why,

Should pitchers throw year round in baseball? How should they plan their workload? And, does having small hands prevent a pitcher from learning a changeup? Lastly, coach Dan explains why pick off moves are underrated and under taught, and what pitchers should do about it.

To submit a question for the Q&A segment, email a voice recording to Dan at [email protected]. Want to support the show? Buy a copy of Dear Baseball Gods on Kindle or Paperback, or listen on audiobook. Or, pick up Pitching Isn’t Complicated, his advanced-but-understandable pitching manual. Enroll in one of Coach Dan’s online pitching courses or his mental skills course. Use code BASEBALL GODS to save 20% on any course, just for being a listener. Sign up for Dan’s Email list and get a free pitching checklist, and follow up with him on the interwebs: YouTube Channel | Twitter | Danblewett.com

Transcript: EP98 – Year Round Throwing Do’s and Don’ts; Does Hand Size Matter in Throwing a Changeup? Plus: Pick Offs

You’re listening to the deer baseball gods podcast. I’m Dan Blewett. And on this show, you’ll learn advanced concepts in baseball. Explain simply I’m here to guide you on your baseball journey and help you paddle through. What’s now an ocean of misinformation, guru ism, an overly technical diamond babble.

Welcome back to the dear baseball gods podcast. I’m Dan Blewett. This is episode 98 and today’s episode. We’re gonna cover number one year round throwing. What does that look like? Obviously right now it’s the fall. So hopefully you’re listening to this episode in September, October. Uh, if you’re not, it’ll still be relevant next year, but it’s a great time to talk about what you should be doing in the fall.

And should you be tapering down your throwing? Should you be taking a break? All that sort of stuff. So we’ll cover that today. We’re also going to cover a major change up myth, which is, do you have to have big hands to throw a change up effectively? I just listened to a youth baseball podcast. I heard a pitching guy.

Perpetuating this myth. So we’re going to kind of come back at him here. Uh, and lastly, let’s talk about pick offs. Pick offs are overlooked, underrated, something that needs to be practiced.

Okay. So first thing, if you’re a parent or if you’re an athlete and you are a pitcher or your son is a pitcher, Throwing and your year long throwing regimen is important. It’s important to map out your year and understand when you’re going to take breaks when you’re not what you want to do. And also sort of like,

If a young pitcher has command but is way below average on velocity, is that at least a bit of solace? Is journaling a good, reasonable thing to ask a young player to do? And, what about yoga – is it effective for baseball players?

To submit a question for the Q&A segment, email a voice recording to Dan at [email protected]. Want to support the show? Buy a copy of Dear Baseball Gods on Kindle or Paperback, or listen on audiobook. Or, pick up Pitching Isn’t Complicated, his advanced-but-understandable pitching manual. Enroll in one of Coach Dan’s online pitching courses or his mental skills course. Use code BASEBALL GODS to save 20% on any course, just for being a listener. Sign up for Dan’s Email list and get a free pitching checklist, and follow up with him on the interwebs: YouTube Channel | Twitter | Danblewett.com

EP97 – Velo or Command for Young Players? Journaling & Yoga for Baseball Players

Hey, welcome back to dear baseball gods. I’m Dan Blewett. And on today’s episode, I’m going to cover three topics. And to be perfectly honest, I’m going to kind of do away with a 92nd mindset, which was never really a thing. Um, I’m gonna continue to sort of, uh, answering questions on the third segment. But today we’re basically just going to hit three topics.

Some weeks we’ll hit two. I just want to cover short quality informative and a topical ideas. So number one today, is it better to have Vilo or command at a young age? So this is from a question I got on the web recently. Um, a parent asked me, he said, Hey, my son doesn’t throw real hard. Uh, but you know, parents have kind of remarked that it’s good, that he can throw strikes that that’s probably a better thing to do I have now.

So, you know, we’ll talk about through whether or not that is actually the case. Number two, we’ll talk about journaling and the idea I’ve seen this a kind of, I kind of roll my eyes out. I see it on the web coach is like, Hey, you know, players, if you’re not keeping a journal, then blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Talk about the idea of whether young athletes should be using a journal to track their progress, track their workouts, all that stuff. Or if it’s unrealistic, lastly, we’ll talk about yoga for baseball. Um, this is something I talked about on my softball podcast. Yoga can be really important, but we’ll talk about whether it’s actually good for baseball players or not.

So let’s get started, uh, first here tonight, uh, velocity or command. So if your son is a young pitcher and he’s, you know, 12, 13, 14,

Learn strategies to pitch with runners on 3rd base – the bases loaded, 2nd & 3rd, and runner on 3rd only. Then, Dan covers how to mentally recover from a bad start. Lastly, does throwing a slider put extra stress on a pitchers’ arm? Is a slider more harmful than a curveball or other pitch types?

To submit a question for the Q&A segment, email a voice recording to Dan at [email protected]. Want to support the show? Buy a copy of Dear Baseball Gods on Kindle or Paperback, or listen on audiobook. Or, pick up Pitching Isn’t Complicated, his advanced-but-understandable pitching manual.Enroll in one of Coach Dan’s online pitching courses or his mental skills course. Use code BASEBALL GODS to save 20% on any course, just for being a listener.Sign up for Dan’s Email list and get a free pitching checklist, and follow up with him on the interwebs: YouTube Channel | Twitter | Danblewett.com

Transcript: Dear Baseball Gods Podcast EP96 – How to Pitch with Runners on 3rd; How to Bounce Back After a Bad Start; Is a Slider Bad for Your Arm?

You’re listening to the dear baseball gods podcast. I’m Dan Blewett. And on this show, you’ll learn advanced concepts in baseball. Explain simply I’m here to guide you on your baseball journey and help you paddle through. What’s now an ocean of misinformation, guru ism, an overly technical diamond babble.

Welcome back. This is the dear baseball gods podcast. I’m Dan Blewett on today’s show. We’re going to talk about pitching with runners on third base. So we’ll cover all three situations, a runner on third, no one out second. And third base is loaded. In our second segment, we’ll talk about bouncing back after a bad start.

And lastly, we’ll talk about, is a slider bad for your arm? Cause there’s some weird myth about this. I’m not really sure where it comes from. So first let’s talk about pitching with runners on third base. Cause this is I think tough. It’s something that you learn. There’s different approaches to all three different situations.

First off let’s talk about the base is loaded. Number one, the base load, scary. Obviously this changes with the different outbase or the out situations. So if there’s no one out, one out, two out it’s different, however, I’m just gonna talk genuinely cause generally, because I don’t want to talk about every possible out scenario for each of these three.

It’s just going to get overwhelming. So number one, when you have the bases loaded, the biggest thing you have to do is suck it up and throw a pitch,

What’s the right arm slot for a pitcher, and what should be considered in adjusting arm slot? Plus, is it good to yell instructions? Well, no. It’s not. And, should young pitchers be allowed to throw knuckleballs?

To submit a question for the Q&A segment, email a voice recording to Dan at [email protected].Want to support the show? Buy a copy of Dear Baseball Gods on Kindle or Paperback, or listen on audiobook. Or, pick up Pitching Isn’t Complicated, his advanced-but-understandable pitching manual.Enroll in one of Coach Dan’s online pitching courses or his mental skills course. Use code BASEBALL GODS to save 20% on any course, just for being a listener.Sign up for Dan’s Email list and get a free pitching checklist, and follow up with him on the interwebs: YouTube Channel | Twitter | Danblewett.com

EP95 Transcript – Proper Arm Slot For Pitchers, Yelling Instructions to Players & Can Youth Players Throw a Knuckleball?

You’re listening to the dear baseball gods podcast. I’m Dan Blewett. And on this show, you’ll learn advanced concepts in baseball. Explain simply I’m here to guide you on your baseball journey and help you paddle through. What’s now an ocean of misinformation, guru ism, an overly technical diamond babble.

Hey, welcome back to the dear baseball gods podcast. I’m Dan Blewett. And in today’s episode, we’re going to talk about arm angle and a couple of considerations to think about. Number two, we’ll talk about, uh, yelling to your kid on the field. Is this a good or bad thing to do? And number three, a question I got recently was, um, why do you dislike the knuckle ball as far as being like another pitch that a youth pitcher can throw.

Okay. So number one, arm angle, this is something that even pitcher, even parents who didn’t play, they can kind of pick up when something looks off with their kid’s arm angle. So I used to get parents, bring their kids in for lessons and they’d say, Hey, he kind of like slings the ball. He throws from kind of a weird sidearm angle compared to his teammates.

Can you take a look? And so here are the couple things that remember about arm angle. Number one, I do think everyone has an innate arm angle that is best for them just anatomically. So if you look at the major leagues, I think it represents a bell curve and you know, most things in life do. So if you look at the major leagues most guys, or so here that, let me back up here.

The arm angles, essentially there’s submarine, which is essentially just anything below sidearm. There’s sidearm. Then a little bit higher than that is low three quarters.

Whats the best pitching repertoire for a high-spin fastball pitcher? Should he add a sinker, slider or curveball? What’s best? Dan also discusses the 80% rule of pitch development, and whether or not it’s okay to show emotion on the baseball field, such as watching or pimping a home run.

To submit a question for the Q&A segment, email a voice recording to Dan at [email protected]. Want to support the show? Buy a copy of Dear Baseball Gods on Kindle or Paperback, or listen on audiobook. Or, pick up Pitching Isn’t Complicated, his advanced-but-understandable pitching manual. Enroll in one of Coach Dan’s online pitching courses or his mental skills course. Use code BASEBALLGODS to save 20% on any course, just for being a listener. Sign up for Dan’s Email list and get a free pitching checklist, and follow up with him on the interwebs: YouTube Channel | Twitter | Danblewett.com

Transcript EP94 – Best Pitching Repertoire: Dos and Donts; 80%Rule; Is it Okay to Show Emotion on the Field?

welcome back. This is dear baseball gods episode 94. I’m Dan Blewett. And today we are going to cover whats the best pitching repertoire. So we won’t get into every little thing, but we’re going to get into a couple of different options. I put out a Twitter poll and I thought it was kind of interesting in our 90-second mindset.

We’ll talk about it. 80% rule, which is a rule I made up up for pitch development and then our Q and a portion we’ll talk about, well, is it. The right thing to do to show emotion, or is it okay to show emotion on the field? And that includes stare downs flips, all that sort of stuff. All right. So for pitching repertoire.

So what I asked Twitter, and I did cover this more thoroughly in a YouTube video, cause I’m not going to get into all this stuff. I asked, say you had a high three quarter hard throwing high spin rate, four seamer type of pitcher. So a guy that can really spin a four seam fastball, um, If you had that guy and he needed two other pitches and you could just grab him out of a vending machine.

Would you rather give him a, a in the combination we’re either cutter or sinker plus curve, ball, or slider, all possible combinations of those two pitches. Um, and this is an interesting thing to discuss because when looking for a repertoire, it takes a good amount of time. This is something I didn’t figure out until I was in my mid to late twenties, what you do well and what you don’t do well and how you should shape your repertoire to suit.

And can you shape your repertoire to suit? Like, can you even learn a new pitch? Well, um, everyone should be able to,

How fast do ballplayers develop? Is baseball skill related more to absolute skill? Or size and strength PLUS a requisite amount of skill? Is it better to be small and have great mechanics, or big with lesser mechanics? Plus, Dan discusses what scouts think about wearing a cap backward and whether ballplayers can be big-boned and still perform well.

To submit a question for the Q&A segment, email a voice recording to Dan at [email protected]. Want to support the show? Buy a copy of Dear Baseball Gods on Kindle or Paperback, or listen on audiobook. Or, pick up Pitching Isn’t Complicated, his advanced-but-understandable pitching manual.Enroll in one of Coach Dan’s online pitching courses or his mental skills course. Use code BASEBALL GODS to save 20% on any course, just for being a listener. Sign up for Dan’s Email list and get a free pitching checklist, and follow up with him on the interwebs: YouTube Channel | Twitter | Danblewett.com

Transcript: EP93 – Developmental Age of Ballplayers; Wearing Your Cap Backwards; Can Baseball Players Be…Fat?

Hey, welcome back. This is dear baseball gods. I’m Dan Blewett and this is episode 93. So in today’s episode, we’re going to cover three topics first. How does developmental versus biological age play into your development as a player? Uh, in our 92nd mindset, we’ll talk about wearing your baseball cap and how that is important or not important.

And lastly, we’ll talk about body types and do you have to be really fit to play baseball? Well, So first let’s, uh, be philosophers here a little bit about what does it actually mean to be skilled at baseball or any sport in general? So a really good example here is women’s basketball versus men’s basketball.

So we all know that women have the ability to be as skilled at anything as men, but we know that there’s a difference biologically, and that they’re less. Able to develop the same level of strength. So when we start comparing the NBA to the WWE MBA, we know that the female players and the NBA, or as technically proficient at basketball as any of the men, they can shoot, they can pass, they can, you know, do all the basketball thing.

I’m certainly not a basketball expert. Um, but. Their skills. As far as basketball skills go are absolutely as good or can be as good or better than any comparable man, but given the physicality of the game and how many men or towering over them height-wise are more physical. Basketball is pretty rough at times as is like even non-contact sports like soccer, obviously lacrosse is like a medium contact sport, even though these sports aren’t like football, right.