KPB Podcast

Daily KPB

This is the audio version of our written article, Development: Your Key to Getting Recruited and Saving Money

In this episode, we discuss the "all exposure is good exposure" myth and explain how the false equation of exposure and recruitment is leading families to spend unnecessary money chasing exposure at the wrong times. The goal of this episode is simple. We want to help you understand that development, not exposure, is what will lead to college baseball opportunities and that developing college-level skills must come before any meaningful exposure.

The lessons from this podcast are twofold: 

1) You don't need to break the bank going to every exposure event to get recruited to play college baseball

2) If you do have money to spend on the recruiting process, put it towards your development, develop recruitable skills, and then find ways to get in front of the schools and coaches you want to play for

Listen for more details!

Daily KPB

This episode is the audio version of our written article, Asking Coaches About Training, Development, and Coaching Philosophies During Recruitment. That article links to many other great resources on the questions you should ask coaches during the recruiting process. 

In this episode, we discuss questions you should be asking to find out if the player development and coaching philosophies of a program align with your ideas as a player. Listen in to find out about the importance of asking the following 10 sets of questions to programs that are interested in you!

Daily KPB

You can find the written version of this podcast content here.

 ****

We know better than anyone that the recruiting process can seem like a daunting task. If you don’t know what to do, it can be confusing and frustrating. In a KPB survey of high school baseball players, 59% said a major concern about playing at the next level was not knowing what to do to get recruited. These same sentiments are echoed every time we talk to a group of high school baseball players in person. In the recruiting process, like many other things, knowledge is power. There is no substitute for understanding what it takes to play college baseball and knowing the ins and outs of the recruiting process. That’s what will give you the best chance to find a college baseball fit, and that’s why Keep Playing Baseball exists! We give you the information and resources you need to make it to college baseball and we provide it 100% free. Even with the information we provide, there are no shortcuts. You still have to put in the time and effort to take charge of your recruitment and create a personal plan.

During recruitment, you are likely to have many other people offering advice on what you should do. While many people truly just want to help, you also have to be careful for companies and individuals who say they want to help, but are really just after your money. Unfortunately, there are people who try to cash in on players who don’t know what to do and parents who are willing to do everything they can to provide their kids with the opportunity to reach the next level.

It's important for you to find people who are offering advice for no other reason than to help you find a college baseball fit. Finding people to help you for the right reasons isn’t as difficult as you think.  We’ve come up with 3 ways to ensure people are helping you for the right reasons.  Listen in to find out what they are!

Daily KPB

This podcast covers the content in the written article of the same title that will post to the KPB website on 6/19. In this episode, we explore 7 important questions to ask college coaches during the recruiting process, the appropriate time to ask the questions, and why it's important you get that information. Listen in on why it's important to ask:

1.  Where do I stand among your current recruits and what do you need to see from me to move up on your list? 

2.  How do you see me fitting into your program’s future plans? How do you plan to help develop me into a better player? 

3.  What changes or adjustments would you like to see me make to my game to have success at your level? 

4.  How would you describe your hitting/pitching philosophy? How do you train that on a daily basis? 

5.  How would you describe the relationship you have with the current players on the team? 

6.  What do I have to do academically (grades and test scores) to make sure that I get admitted to school? 

7.  I’ve heard that decommitments happen and I want to make sure that we are on the same page about what this commitment means.  I will obviously stop pursuing other schools, but what does this commitment assure me of from your end and under what circumstances would you pull the offer or commitment? 

Daily KPB for the written article of the same title. Your ability to fulfill your developmental potential this summer and improve as much as possible hinges on having a development plan. A plan that includes summer ball as part of the puzzle is going to be much more effective than a plan where playing summer ball is the development plan. Games can help you improve, but just showing up to games isn't going to allow you to maximize your potential to get better. 

In this podcast, we borrow lessons from collegiate summer baseball and apply them to the high school scene. We discuss why it's important to have an "exit meeting" after the spring season and get honest/objective feedback on where you need to improve. We describe how to tailor you plan so that you are getting stronger and better, rather than wearing yourself down. Ultimately, we lay out a step-by-step process for you to follow to create a development plan that will allow you to improve and maximize your potential. Listen in or read the written article on the same topic for more!

In This Episode:

A year from his first appearance on the #KPBpodcast, we catch back up with one of our most popular guests, Pfeiffer University Head Coach Jordan Stampler. In this episode, we talk about the summer of recruiting ahead, how coaches do their “homework” on players, red flags in recruiting, and much, much more! 

Open and honest about the recruiting process and how he's created a strong winning culture in his program during his 2 years at the helm, you won't want to miss this conversation with Jordan Stampler, one of the college game's great young coaches.

Contact Coach Stampler: 

Twitter: @TheRealJStamp

Email:  [email protected] 

Topics: 

Recruiting, Exposure, Summer Ball, Development, Culture, Parents and Recruiting, Recruiting Red Flags

Daily KPB

In this podcast we discuss 6 tips for improving your baseball skills this summer. Read the article or listen to the podcast find out more about these 6 things:

Daily KPB

This Daily KPB corresponds to our article on pre-enrollment responsibilities of 1st year college baseball players. In the article and this podcast, we explain why completing pre-enrollment responsibilities on-tim and with accuracy is important in setting the tone for your college baseball experience and how it has widespread implications around campus. Here's more: 

 ###

Okay college bound baseball players, listen up.  It may not seem like it right now, but this is incredibly important. Before you hurry off to your new college program at the end of the summer, there is a lot to do. You are no longer in high school, and your pre-enrollment checklist is your first taste of college responsibility. Believe it or not, completing your pre-enrollment responsibilities quickly and accurately will set the tone with your coaches when you get to campus. If you don’t believe me, know that your college coaches are using this as a test to see what type of student-athletes they have coming to campus. 

You see, the pre-enrollment duties are about much more than just completing the pre-enrollment duties. They are a microcosm for attention to detail. The way you complete these duties will have a ripple effect on the the baseball program that extends well beyond what you may think. Here’s what happens: 

When you don’t get the tasks done on-time, the support people and departments responsible for handling those duties on campus (housing, math or language placement, academic adviser, compliance officers, etc.) don’t receive the information they need on time. The direct consequences of your procrastination may be big (not getting the schedule you need) or small (general annoyance), but either way, you would be building the wrong kind of reputation. If your teammates join you in making it harder for staff in other campus departments to do their jobs, your coach is going to hear about it and the baseball program may not get the cooperation that it needs down the line. 

So what does it really mean to get your pre-enrollment responsibilities done accurately and on time? It shows that you have respect for your new baseball program. It shows that you have respect for your coaches, and it lets them to focus their time and energy on things that will improve the team and your experience. It means starting the relationship with your new coaches off on the right foot. And above all else, it means doing the right thing and being a responsible player and person. When players finish pre-enrollment responsibilities on time, it improves the reputation of your baseball program around campus and demonstrates that your program respects the support people and departments that will make your college experience infinitely better. 

There aren’t a lot of guarantees in college baseball, but starting your college baseball experience off on the right foot is a great start. So, when you get a laundry list of seemingly inconvenient and sometimes annoying pre-enrollment duties, do it on-time and thoroughly. The goodwill your effort creates will pay off down the road. 

This Daily KPB episode corresponds to the article on our website with the same title. 

 We’ve written about how in baseball, skill is valued over size. It’s one of the great things about the national pastime—the best players come in all shapes and sizes. Just think back two years to the AL MVP race between Aaron Judge and Jose Altuve. You couldn’t pick two more distinct body types. While the Judge and Altuve comparison is easy to draw upon and helps to show that size doesn’t have to be a limiting factor, it would be foolish not to point out that Altuve is an extraordinary talent. While skill is the driving force for playing opportunities at the college level, size and “physicality” are heavily recruited attributes and do matter. In this episode, we describe the difference between “size” and “physicality”, and explain why college coaches value these two attributes, and why you need to focus on becoming the most physical version of yourself.

For more information, read the article HERE.

On This Episode

On this episode, we talk catching with Founder of the Catching Academy, Brett Thomas. Thomas played his college baseball at UC Berkeley and immediately jumped into the college coaching ranks when his playing career was done. His coaching career has included stops at the D1, JUCO, and high school levels, including time at UC Berkeley and College of San Mateo. 

Thomas has always had a passion for working with catchers and felt the need to develop catchers at a lower level to prepare them for the next step in their playing careers and started the Catching Academy in 2014. Going on nearly 5 years, the Catching Academy works with over 100 catchers a year, helping develop physical skills, but more importantly people and leadership skills. 

On this episode, we pick Thomas' brain about what it takes to be a great catcher, including stance, receiving, throwing, blocking, mentality, staff management, and much more. In addition to our in-depth discussion on catching, we dive into the recruiting process, what catchers need to do to make it to the next level, and the characteristics of a good college catcher. 

Contact Brett Thomas: 

Email: [email protected]

Instagram: @catchingacademy

Twitter: @CatchingAcademy

Website:  http://www.catchingacademy.com/ 

Topics:

Recruiting, Catching, Receiving, Throwing, Blocking, Managing a Pitching Staff, Development,