Coaching with Flexibility and Communication with James Ramsey  During this episode of Ahead of the Curve, I interviewed James Ramsey, Hitting Coach at Georgia Tech. James Ramsey talks about the importance of clarity, simple wins, communicating with players, measuring players in the off-season, his BP set-up, what a hitting meeting looks like in the fall, and not overthinking things.  Episode Highlights:  How did James Ramsey get involved in baseball and as a coach?   Was coaching something that he had in the back of his mind when he was playing baseball? What are some life lessons that he has learned from other coaches that he will never forget?   What was his transition like into the Georgia Tech program? What did this past off-season look like for him? Are there any set things that he is looking for in players to group them together to address their needs? When new players arrive on the team where does he start with them? What does ‘plan and approach’ mean to James? What kinds of competitions have they used in their training practices that they really like?  What are some different ways that he really likes to train game-like practices, especially on the hitting side? What are some different ways that we can train players to make better decisions?  What is his advice to be a better communicator? What does his BP set-up look like? What is something that James Ramsey is excited about learning and applying? What changes has he been making from last year to this year? What are things his players get excited about doing during practice? Is there anything that he believes that other coaches might disagree with? What is something we would notice at one of James Ramsey’s practices? Are there any resources that James Ramsey would recommend? 3 Key Points: Make sure you are ready for when your opportunities come. Keep the most important things important. Have an accountability partner on the field that can keep the expectations going on and off the field.    Tweetable Quotes: “I love to read and it’s baseball, it’s mental toughness, it’s corporate culture books. I think that baseball has a lot to learn from some other areas.” – James Ramsey (09:18) “Being able to kind of relate off the field too as well. I think telling the players, ‘I don’t know what I don’t know and I’m new to this as well and I’m going to make mistakes. But I’m going to make them aggressively.” – James Ramsey (11:46) “I did 6 BP groups, laminated them, stuck them out there so I didn’t have to take the time on the day-to-day to do it and so, some of them are grouped by ‘rightys’ versus ‘leftys’ as basic as that sounds. Can we throw a different angle on the machine?” – James Ramsey (15:54) “I have clarity. That is one thing I try to search for.” – James Ramsey (18:20) “These guys have grown up in a showcase setting where some of them have never had a first and third plays put on.” – James Ramsey (19:22) “As far as the team is concerned, doing self-evaluations, doing evaluations on the coaching staff, I want to make sure, hey, am I communicating this clearly?” – James Ramsey (22:05) “We can overthink it sometimes too. So it’s, can I just fundamentally get to, where did this kid come from? What is his style of learning? What is his style of coaching? What is his motivation style that he likes?” – James Ramsey (22:58) “Every pitch a pitcher is forced to throw, I believe that there is probably a good correlation to winning a game.” – James Ramsey (40:24) Resources Mentioned: Ahead of the Curve Podcast Twitter: @AOTC_podcast James Ramsey: Twitter Instagram