Dear Baseball Gods

Does a pitching leg kick increase velocity? Do higher leg kicks = faster fastballs or better mechanics? Dan also talks through the idea that what a pitcher throws 2-2, he should also throw on a 3-2 count. Lastly, the question of the week is about pitching through pain, and when it’s time to pull the plug and come out of the game.

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

EP92 Full Transcript – Does a Pitching Leg Kick Increase Velocity? What to Throw in a 3-2 Count, and How NOT to Pitch Injured

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 wisdom, and overly technical diamondbabble.

Hey, welcome back. This is the Dear Baseball Gods podcast. I’m Dan Blewett. And on today’s episode, we’ve got three great topics. Number one for pitchers does a higher leg kick mean higher velocity. Number two: when we’re talking about 2-2 and 3-2 counts, there’s a common wisdom that says what you throw to two is what you should also throw three, two.

So we’re going to discuss why that is in fact valid. And number three, when should you remove yourself from a game due to injury? So I wrote an article about playing through pain and. The difference between being hurt and being injured, which is a common sentiment. We’ll talk a little bit about when you should alert your coach as to when you’re going to be essentially hurting the team.

Okay. So first topic: pitching leg kicks. So Nolan Ryan is famous for saying that if he could lift his leg higher, he would have thrown harder. And of course that’s just his own anecdote and him sort of knowing his own body, but he also had a super highlight gig. So if you are a younger person and a don’t know what Nolan Ryan’s mechanics look like, he had a really highlight kick and he was, I’d say reasonably explosive.

Um, With that leg kick in general.

In episode 91, Dan discusses what parents should look for in a strength coach via the exercises they prescribe in a training program. In the 90-second mindset, he discusses the FIRST thing every player should do this offseason. The question of the week is about bullpen length for youth pitchers – how many pitches should be in a bullpen?

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

EP91 Full Transcript – EP91 – Safe Strength Exercises & Optimal Bullpen Length for Pitchers

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 wisdom, an overly technical diamondbabble.

Welcome back. I’m Dan Blewett. This is the dear baseball gods podcast in today’s episode. We’ve got three great topics. Number one. We’re gonna talk about the safety of lifting exercises and what the standards should be for you as a parent or coach a number two, we’re going to talk about what should the first focus be when you’re approaching your next off season, which is actually rapidly coming up, even though we’ve had sort of a, a nonexistent in season this year in 2020.

And lastly, my listener question is what should be a proper bullpen length for a 14 year old? And I will cover a couple of other ages as well. Okay. First thing. So if you’ve been on, uh, Twitter recently, and of course this is July 28th ish, 2020. If you’ve been on my Twitter recently, you noticed, I re posted a, one of my videos called our front squats safe for pitchers.

And the front squat is a unique exercise in that there’s three different ways. You can do it as far as your arms go. So the, the way you hold the bar on the front of your shoulders. So if you’re not familiar with the front squat, Um, definitely look it up on, on YouTube, but basically the bar sits on the front of your shoulders and it’s butted up against your throat.

In this episode Dan discusses whether youth pitchers should vary their leg kick timing to disrupt hitters – is it good or harmful for their development? Should college pitchers take a gap year in 2020? And, are sports drinks a good nutritional choice during a game?

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: Dear Baseball Gods EP90 – Should You Take a Baseball Gap Year? Is Gatorade Bad for You and Should Pitchers Vary Leg Kick Timing?

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, guruism, and overly technical diamondbabble.

Hey, welcome back to dear baseball gods. This is Dan Blewett. So today we’re going to cover three pretty interesting topics. Number one, should you take a gap year as a young athlete? Who’s head off to college next season, which is something that we’ve really never talked about before, but it’s a. So the question originally posed to me.

So I want to cover that a little bit today in our 90 second mindset segment, we’re going to cover sports drinks and whether these are actually necessary and healthy things. And then in our final question, we’re going to cover whether changing your timing as a pitcher. So like different speed, delayed kicks, pausing, different stuff like that, which you see a little bit more in majorly baseball today, whether or not that’s a good thing.

So let’s start with taking a gap year. So obviously with coronavirus, this is such a weird unprecedented time and there might not be baseball at a lot of college. I think it’s still up in the air. And I know there’s some colleges that have said, Hey, we’re not doing fall sports, or we’re not doing sports at all in 20, 20, 20 slash 2021 seasons.

So this is obviously really concerning. And it’s an interesting time. Um, I appreciate Jason, you asked me this question. But,

The principle of charity is about giving the benefit of the doubt to someone in an argument or claim. In coaching, often we don’t give coaches the benefit of the doubt, even when their decision may be based on information we don’t have access to. Dan also talks about umpires and the best way to approach the good and bad calls they make. Lastly, does adding body weight mean you’ll throw with greater pitching velocity?

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 – Dear Baseball Gods 89 – Principle of Charity; Approaching Umpires who Make Bad Calls & Does Mass = Gas?

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 wisdom, an overly technical diamond babble.

Hey, welcome back. The dear baseball gods. I’m Dan Blewett in today’s episode, we’ve got three topics. We’re going to cover the first in more detail. That’s going to be today, the principle of charity and how we can apply that to coaching decisions and, uh, kind of reduce some of maybe the animosity and some of the conflicts that we find ourselves in as baseball parents.

Then we’re going to talk a little bit about. Blame and where we attribute good and bad luck and the umpires. And then lastly, we’re going to cover the question of the week, uh, which was sent in, um, by a former student of mine, Nick, who is now a division one baseball player. And he asked a little bit about how weight plays into pitching velocity.

So let’s get started with our main topic here today, the principle of charity. So if you’re not familiar with this, this is a philosophical, um, concept, which is basically just saying that, look, we need to interpret any, um, speakers statements in the most rational. And altruistic way possible. So this is saying like, Hey, if you read an email or you see me do something, not immediately assuming that I did that just to b...

In this episode, we discuss the separation between parents and their players in the dugout. Some coaches recently were arguing on twitter about handing off drinks during a game, so Dan weighs in. Also discuss how much extra work to do following a bad outing, and should 11 year olds learn sliders?

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

EP88 – Parents Giving Their Kid a Gatorade in the Dugout? Is It a Big Deal?

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 wisdom, an overly technical diamond babble.

Hey, welcome back to dear baseball gods. This is Dan Blewett. And in today’s show, we’re gonna start a little bit about parenting and coaching and I guess, general rules as far as, uh, the separation between. Parent and coach goes, so this is spurned by a tweet that I was a little bit tuned in. I resisted the urge to comment.

Um, but it was one that I was actually surprised a bunch of my, either friends or coaches that I know were commenting on this. And so the basic of the tweet was, uh, that a, it was either a tournament company or someone else said, Hey, you know, parents bringing drinks to their kids during the game, you know, handing Gatorades into the dugout out is a bad look and, uh, I generally agree with that now, you know, as Twitter is people just love to get angry about stuff.

And a couple of coaches, again, a couple who I either know very well or just know and respect in general. Also some coaches that I know and don’t respect, but, um, They the comments vary, but they’re all like, yeah. Like imagine us as college coaches not recruiting a kid, who’s really good because his mom handed a Gatorade, you know, into the dugout.

Now that wasn’t certainly what the tweet was about. The tweet was just in general that, Hey, this is something that doesn’t need to happen. You know,

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

Dear Baseball Gods EP87 Full Transcript – Finding the Right Pitch Mix; Being a Good Teammate on the Bench; Why Pitching to the Corners is Bad Strategy

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 wisdom, an overly technical diamond babble.

Welcome back. I’m Dan Blewett and this is the dear baseball gods podcast. And today’s topic. We’re going to talk about how many pitches should a pitcher throw and why? So this is a really important thing to discuss because what I see it’s analogous to having a really, really big family. So if you had say five, six, seven, eight children, Uh, how are you going to spread out your attention as a parent?

Right? You’re just going to have to divide your time in smaller chunks to every kid. Like, they’re just not going to get as much one on one time when you have such a big family, right? Just like anything, the more tasks you have, the more friends you have, the more sports you play, you have to evenly divide your time towards it.

Right. So in pitching. Sometimes people have this mentality that more pitches is better. And in reality, you suffer from the same problems that a big family suffers from that a really big corporation suffers from. And that’s again, dividing all of your time amongst your employees, your relationships, your kids, your activities, your sports, whatever it is.

Right. So. If you look hard at high level college baseball or pro baseball, what you see is the vast majority of those pitchers at that very high level, throw three pitches. They throw three, and this is not like I know when kids list what pitches they throw. They go, Oh, I throw four seam, two seam four seam, two seam.

They’re the same pitch. It’s a fast ball.

Are olympic lifts good for baseball players–are they worth the risks? Should players swing at the first pitch of an at-bat? What does lifting look like after a baseball career comes to an end? These questions and more are answered on Dear Baseball Gods 86.

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

Dear Baseball EP86 Full Transcript – Olympic Lifts for Baseball Players, First Pitch Swinging & Lifting Advice

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 wisdom, an overly technical diamond babble.

Welcome back to dear baseball gods. So today’s topic is, uh, the Olympic lifts for baseball. So if you’re unfamiliar, obviously the, the power clean is well it’s actually not technically technically an Olympic lift. It’s a variation, but the Olympic lifts are the snatch. And the clean and jerk. So those two are the ones you’ll see again in the Olympics.

You know, guys trying to throw and gals, trying to throw hundreds of kilos over their head. And it’s an incredibly impressive, explosive lift. Uh, it’s a fascinating thing. I, I love actually watching slow motion. Um, clean and jerks and snatches, um, on one TV, like the Olympic lifting is it’s incredible how fast and strong and explosive these athletes are, but Olympic lifts get thrown into their own separate category.

Um, and it’s sort of, uh, it’s sort of a misnomer. So a lot of people think that Olympic lifting is this really important thing. And that plyometrics in general. Which Olympic lifts are not plyometrics, but, uh, these explosive type exercises. And that’s, I think what people, most associate, um, power cleans with as being explosive, that they’re essential to being a good athlete.

In reality, uh, these exercises are only essential to Olympic lifters. Now,

Diamondbabble: when baseball coaches describe things in overly complicated ways. Why is the game overflowing with it? In this episode, Dan reads examples of diamondbabble from Twitter and explains the road forward. And, what should a pitcher be thinking on the first pitch of an at-bat? Lastly, should pitchers throw two different breaking balls? Or should they stick to one?

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

EP85 Dear Baseball Gods Transcript: Diamondbabble, First-pitch tactics; Pitchers Throwing Two Breaking Balls

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 wisdom, an overly technical diamond babble.

All right. I’m Dan Blewett. And in today’s talk, we’re going to discuss diamond babble. So this is a, a, a phrase or, or not a phrase is a term that I’ve coined. because they’re becoming increasingly frustrated with the biomechanical junk terminology used to describe baseball actions. That’s really just popularized, by gurus and people who don’t really understand what they’re talking about.

And so they hide behind this fancy language. To describe things that you could, honestly, if you took the time and the care and you understood it well enough, you could describe anything in baseball to a 10 year old. This is really a sticking point for me. And a lot of my peers that I respect because.

When you are a coach, it’s your job not to make yourself look as smart as possible. What it’s your job to help other people learn and grow. And when you’re using terminology that talks above them, it just shows a disrespect, a lack of respect for their intelligence. And it also, I think, exposes what is really just a lack of depth of knowledge on your own part, because if you can’t simplify something, then you don’t understand it well enough.

I recently wrote and shared An Open Letter to Young White Athletes. This was what I’d say to a kid about what’s happening in America right now–the protests against racism and police brutality. A lot of people understood, but I also received a lot of criticism, notably a number of calls to “stick to coaching.” If you’re not aware, the role of “coach” is a profound one. In one of my worst personal moments, who did I call? I called one of my coaches. In this episode, learn the role of coach in a kids life as I see it, along with a 90-second mindset for players on speaking out to teammates, and a Q&A about when the right time is to begin teaching curveballs.

To submit a question for the Q&A segment, make a voice recording and email it 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

Baseball season arrived, then quit on us. But, this is a bigger heartbreak and a more confusing time than some parents may realize. Identity as an athlete is tricky, and in today’s episode we dive into why so many ballplayers are struggling, how identity as athletes comes into play, how to identify work ethic, and what to do going forward.

To submit a question for the Q&A segment, make a voice recording and email it 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: Dear Baseball Gods EP83

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 wisdom, an overly technical diamond babble.

in today’s episode of dear baseball gods, the, uh, first episode back as I revive this podcast, we’re going to talk about why we need baseball. And specifically why athletes need it and how they might be feeling. Cause I know a lot of parents, more so than athletes are gonna be listening to this. And especially if you haven’t played, and especially if you haven’t been injured and especially if you haven’t retired, then you probably don’t have quite that perspective except for the, the obvious fact that your son is maybe a little sad and a little disappointed and a little not sure what he is doing with his time right now.

So I still remember the day when I woke up and I think my first thought was what my teammates were doing, and then I put my feet on the ground and I stopped. And then I walked into my kitchen and I reached up for my big jug of protein and was going to make a protein shake, and then I stopped. And then a few minutes later as I got dressed, I kind of rude around in my underwear drawer for my compression shorts and then I stopped.

And that was the first day of the rest of my life. That was the day after I uttered the words that I was retiring and yeah, it was the first day that I didn’t know what I was doing. I woke up and my routines didn’t make sense....