KPB Podcast

Daily KPB Episode

Social media is one of the most accessible ways that college coaches can get a preliminary character check on a recruit who interest them. The bottom line is that college coaches are checking your social media and using it to get valuable intel about your character and who you are as a person. What they see on your social media accounts is impacting their interest in you and you should be very smart about your social media use and keeping your profiles clear of anything that could give interested coaches the wrong idea. 

In this podcast episode, we discuss a real life situation of how one of these social media checks resulted in a player getting crossed off a college coach's list, despite showing everything the coach wanted to see on the field. This Daily KPB episode corresponds to THIS written article, which is full of additional links and information on social media use. Check it out for more information!

Additional Articles/Resources:

 Being Smart About Social Media 

Even Little Things Matter To Recruiters 

Recruiters Want Players Who Stay Focused 

Recruiters Want Players With Tools: Always Run a Hard 90 

Recruiters Want Players Who Can Handle Failure 

Your Appearance Matters to Recruiters 

Your Transcript Tells Coaches More Than You Think 

Emotional Versus Rational Decision-Making in the Recruiting Process 

Recruiters Want Players Who Respect Others 

Daily KPB

This episode mirrors our written article with the same title. You can read that article here. Here's what we discuss:

 At some point during your college baseball recruitment, an interested college coach is going to turn to your high school or travel coach and ask some variation of the same questions: are you a good teammate? 

If you want to play college baseball, the answer to that question better be a resounding yes. If it isn't, you've got work to do. In this podcast episode, we talk about why that questions always comes up, why it's so important, and why if you want to get the most you can out of baseball and go as far as you can, being a great teammate is priority #1. 

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Are you a good teammate?”

Stop right now and consider that question for yourself. How do you grade out as a teammate? What kind of teammate are you? How would your coach describe you to an interested recruiter? If the answer is anything less than rave reviews, you have work to do. Being a good teammate is rule number one, and if your coach lets on that you are anything less than a good teammate, your recruitment will likely end right there on the spot. There are many boxes a recruit must check off to be seriously considered by a program, but there are only a few question marks that will make a coach red line (cross off) a recruit on the spot. The previously mentioned social media and academics are among these important questions, but even those provide more wiggle room than the teammate question.

In a sport where team culture is talked about almost as much as launch angle, there simply is no room for guys who are going to give anything less than 100% support for the guys next to them on the bench and in the field. Do bad teammates slip through the cracks and end up on college rosters? Sure. Do they get as much out of the college baseball experience? Definitely not. Baseball is a team game, and there is nothing more detrimental to the success of the team than an “I” guy. Coaches seek out energy giving players and there is a place on every college baseball roster for a player whose skills may be a tick below par, but who is a phenomenal team guy, brings positive energy and work ethic every day, and is loved by his teammates. You also won’t have to look far to find examples of college baseball teams performing beyond their capabilities because they love being around each other, pick each other up, and simply don’t want the season and experience to end. A tweet by former William Jessup Head Coach, Jake McKinley captures this idea to perfection after leading their team to the best season in program history. 

He posted a team picture and said, " Teamwork driven by love creates unique momentum that can’t be quantified. Truly an honor to be a part of @Jessup_BASE and @JessupAthletics."

When the wins and losses are tallied up at the end of the season, all you are left with are the relationships that you created and the lessons learned.  College baseball is about creating this unquantifiable synergy with teammates. If you aren’t being the best teammate you can be, the time to change that is now. Not just because it will help you get recruited or help your team win, but because on the most important level, it’s what will give you the most out of this great game and allow you to create meaningful relationships and memories that last a lifetime. 

On this episode... 

"I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times." -Bruce Lee 

In this episode, we take a deep dive into the mental game, mindset, and preparation of successful baseball players with former Big League pitcher Virgil Vasquez.  Our first conversation with a Big Leaguer on the KPB podcast will not disappoint, as we pick the brain of someone who has had success at the highest level of the game. Someone who is passionate about helping people and improving the game, Vasquez is passing his experiences on to his players as a minor league pitching coach and now you get the same advice and insight! Vasquez is entering his 5 season as a pitching coach in the Minnesota Twins organization. For the 2019 season, Vasquez will be the pitching coach for the Class A affiliate, Cedar Rapids Kernels. A graduate of Santa Barbara High School, Vasquez was drafted in the 7th round as a high schooler. He decided to play in college at UC Santa Barbara and was drafted again in the 7th round as a junior. After signing, Vasquez pitched for over a decade in professional baseball, including two Big League seasons, one each with the Tigers and Pirates. His journey in baseball has included stops at every single level from Little League to the Big Leagues and legendary status in the Australian Baseball League. On this episode, we pick his brain about the draft process for high school players, his baseball career, coaching, the mental game, and much, much more.  Don't miss this opportunity to learn from one of the game's great minds!

Virgil Vasquez Bio 

Contact Virgil Vasquez 

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @itsmevirgilv 

Website: www.revolutionthrowing.com (coming soon)

Topics... 

Mindset, Mental Game, Meditation, Process, Draft, Agent, Advisor, Throwing, Arm Path, Mechanics, Training, Pitching, MLB, College, D1

 Thursday, May 2nd is Big Day of Giving (BDOG) and we are asking all of our friends who can afford it to make a donation to support our work helping youth baseball players and families through the college search and recruiting process free of charge! You can make your donation HERE. Read below to find out more about what Big Day of Giving is and why your support is so important!

What is Big Day of Giving?

Big Day of Giving is the Sacramento Regional Community Foundation capacity building program that helps local nonprofits like KPB hone their skills in marketing, social media, and board and donor engagement. The program culminates on Thursday, May 2nd with the 24-hour fundraiser and provides an opportunity for KPB users and supporters all over the country step up to the plate to support our organization with a donation .

Why is it important I give on Big Day of Giving?

 Our goal for our first year of participation in BDOG is to get as many unique donations of any amount as possible, and here’s why: Each donation  that we receive on May 2ndenters KPB into the running for “prize money boosts”. These boosts can mean as much as $1,000 added on to your donation, thanks to Western Health Advantage and the Sacramento Regional Community Fund. That means for one day and one day only, your $15 donation could turn into a $1,015 donation! Visit our BDOG profile HERE to make a donation. 

What will my donation support?

Keep Playing Baseball doesn’t believe in passing the cost of its resources on to players or families. We never want money to dictate who has access to necessary information and resources that they need to make educated and informed decisions in the college search and recruiting process. We want all players to have what they need to play college baseball and earn a college degree. That’s why we aren’t setting up a pay wall to block information to hard working players just because they can’t afford it. We are only asking you to donate if you can and to only donate what you can. To give you an idea of just how much you can make a difference, if each person who used our website during the month of May donated just $10, it would fund our resources for an entire year.

Hopefully you are beginning to see why your donation makes a huge difference in allowing us to improve our free resources and reach more players and families in need of affordable help. Learn about our work and the educational programming that your donation will support in this short video!

How can I make a donation for Big Day of Giving?

Online: To make an online donation to Keep Playing Baseball Click HERE. Prior to May 2nd, donations can be scheduled. On May 2nd, donations can be made in real time!

In-Person:  Come visit our table at Sudwerk Brewery in Davis, CA between 6-9 pm on Big Day of Giving (Thursday, May 2nd) to make your donation in person! We will accept credit cards, checks, and cash at the Big Day at the Dock event and look forward to seeing you there! 

Anytime:  You can make a donation to KPB through our website any day or any time of the year. Just click HERE. 

Daily KPB Episode

 What does it take to play college baseball? That’s a question we get asked a lot. We get asked because unless you are familiar with the various levels of college baseball, the answer is not very clear. Unlike a multiple-choice test where you know the exact grade you will receive according to how many questions you get right, projecting a high school baseball player’s success at the next level is far more subjective. The thing that most high school players want to do to show they belong at the next level is line up a list of accomplishments, dust off the old stats, and tell college coaches everything about themselves and what they can do. While this approach may seem logical, college coaches simply do not have the time to sort through mass amounts of information to find what they are looking for. Any additional time they have to spend searching (the more you waste their time), the less likely it is that they will follow up and actively recruit you.

By now you may be starting to figure out what we are hinting at. The recruiting process is not about what you want to show college coaches, it’s about what they want to see. What we are talking about is reverse engineering the recruiting process. That means the best way to get interest from college coaches is to work backwards and think about what makes college coaches interested in a player. From there, you can go about showing them that you fit that mold. If you need hints about what they are looking for, we asked a few dozen college coaches that very question and wrote about it in What Qualities College Coaches Look for in Recruits Part 1 and Part 2. Be sure to check those out, then keep listening for a more comprehensive overview of how to reverse engineer the recruiting process using the following 3 steps:

Step 1: Start General and Work Towards the Specific

While every college coach has slightly different preferences and each level of college baseball has a different standard of play, there are common characteristics that all coaches value. Start by demonstrating that you are a strong candidate in these 4 core areas:

Coaches will also value your ability to show intangible traits like honesty, trustworthiness, the ability to communicate clearly, and attention to detail, among others.

Step 2: Break down what it means to be good in each core area

There’s a lot that goes into being a college player and each of the 4 core areas listed above have many components. Breaking such big parts of your game down into more manageable chunks is important. The following articles break each core area into 4 actionable steps:

Baseball Tools and Physical Skills

The Mental Game

Strong Grades and Quality Character

Positive Attitude and Great Effort

Step 3: Make it Specific to Each Level, Conference, and School

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Want more of this written article?  Click HERE.

*Daily KPB Pilot Episode*

 This is the audio version of the the article Learn How to Study Before You Get to College. Academics should be a focus of the serious recruit at all times and will help ease the transition to college. Here's more:

In college, you’ll be expected to do a lot of studying and homework, and you will have no one to hold you responsible for it except for yourself. If you don’t turn in assignments, the professors won’t get mad at you; they’ll just fail you. It’s tough going from a high school system where you always have someone badgering you to do your work to a college system in which the responsibility is only yours. But without good study skills, you won’t pass your classes, and you definitely won’t be eligible to play ball.

The biggest thing to learn now is how to prioritize. Start learning time management skills in high school so that by the time college rolls around, it’s second nature. Keep track of which assignments are due the soonest, which ones are going to be the hardest, and which are going to take the most time. Don’t be ashamed or afraid to start on things early. It’s a great feeling having a paper ready a few days before it’s even due. A lot of teachers will tell you that it is a good idea to take enough time to revise your work. You always want to turn in a polished product in college (rough drafts won’t cut it), but if you’re comfortable with what you’ve got, even if you have a few days left, just leave it be and move on. What you don’t want is to be rushing an important assignment at the last minute and turning something in that you know is not your best work.

Start working your study schedule around your baseball schedule. If you know that you’re going to have games all day over the weekend, don’t leave your homework for Sunday night. You’ll be exhausted by the time you get to it. It will not be your best work, and it will only drain you more. Figure out your baseball schedule for the week, and be smart about when you’ll have opportunities to study.

If you are someone who procrastinates, work to break that habit now. It seems tough to get motivated to start things early, but the more time management skills you have by the time you get to college, the better off you’ll be.

If nothing else, just remember, the most valuable asset you have in college is your time. You can choose to spend it in whatever way you want. Start learning how to manage your study time in high school. You’ll be able to use those skills in college to become a successful student and athlete.

" You’ll do better in school by not procrastinating. I had a big problem with that in high school. Stay on top of your work. School work has to come first. We don’t have mandatory study hall but our coach pays attention to grades. Keep in contact with your professors. You are usually not going to be the first athlete in class. Staying on top of your work will give you time for other things too. There is a lot of work in DI baseball and a lot of expectations. It’s a pretty heavy workload. – Active D1 Pitcher, PA "

*Daily KPB Pilot Episode*

This is the audio version for our website article, Multiple Sports or Single-Sport Specialization? You Decide! Here's what it's all about:

In this podcast and the corresponding article, we try to present a responsible view of the specialization versus multi-sport participation decision as it may actually unfold for a high school baseball player. Doing so requires looking at both options adequately, and that is what we will try to do. 

We look at the opinions of some of the top D1 coaches in college baseball as well as weigh some of the bias that exists when this debate isn't contextualized. The truth is, there is no sweeping answer for all high school players and individual factors and circumstances should be carefully weighed.  

When it comes to deciding between playing multiple sports or single sport specialization in high school, our advice is to make a personal decision based on the following:  

Much more in this podcast episode to consider so give it a listen!

*Daily KPB Pilot Episode*

This is the audio version for our website article of the same title. Here's what it is all about!

Back in college, my coach gave our team some great advice. If someone is talking to you, shut up, listen to what they say, evaluate the feedback, and decide what to do based on the quality of the advice, not who is giving it. Regardless of who is giving and receiving suggestions, Coach Rushing’s policy is sound advice that allows an individual to learn from even the least assuming of sources. It’s also a key to maintaining a growth mindset, becoming a lifelong learner, and being a better teammate. If a freshman is sharing sound advice with a senior captain, the senior should listen and respond accordingly. End of story. 

This open feedback policy helps to create a more cohesive team with less hierarchy and cliques. Oh yeah, and it’s backed by research. Here’s why you should drop the ‘know it all’ tag: 

In the first episode of Hidden Brain podcast, host Shankar Vedantam discusses a study by Vanderbilt University researcher, Max Gunther and his colleagues. In the study, Gunther and his colleagues analyze the brains of men when receiving advice. When the advice was on a subject where the men receiving the suggestion felt they were an expert, it activated a part of the brain used when we try to guess what other people are thinking. Gunther’s team suggests this means when receiving advice in an area we feel we already have expertise, our first reaction is to question the motives of the advice rather than evaluating it for what it’s worth. In other words, we immediately start thinking of reasons why the advice would be wrong. 

Based on the study’s conclusions, we can agree there are two main ways we react to advice. We can either question the motives behind it, or as Vedantam says, “evaluate the advice on its own terms.” Being aware of these two reactions and what they mean for your baseball career is important. Think about receiving baseball related advice or feedback on something you believe strongly from a coach or teammate, maybe your approach to hitting or pitching. What does it mean for your relationship with the advice-giver and your development as a player when you immediately question the motive or validity behind the advice? Learning to deal with constructive criticism and feedback is essential to success at the college level. By knowing the way your brain is conditioned to think in these situations, you can work to be more open and become an even better player and teammate. 

Evaluating the feedback you receive on the basis of its merit will benefit you in several ways. By fully processing and evaluating the information, you will either strengthen the conviction you have in your current beliefs (thanks for the advice, but it doesn’t work for me), or it will cause you to change your opinion based on the new evidence. It will also give you the opportunity to learn from people you otherwise might ignore, and improve your coachability and critical thinking skills. Now that you are aware of the way your brain works to protect your existing beliefs, you can get to work shedding the ‘know it all’ attitude and improve your growth mindset! 

Article Link: https://keepplayingbaseball.org/dont-be-a-know-it-all-2019/

 *Pilot Episode: The Daily KPB

This podcast is the audio version of our blog article, Understanding Student Loans and College Debt During Recruitment.

The uncertainty and excitement of the recruiting process can lead parents and recruits to make some short-sighted decisions. College coaches are often eager to close the deal and get a player committed once they make an offer. As a parent or recruit, it’s easy to get carried away by the excitement of the moment and make a hasty or poorly thought-out decision. When the recruiting process starts to pick up steam, that’s when you must slow it down and make sure you are thinking things through. While it may seem like many stages of the recruiting process require an immediate answer, there are few decisions that must be made right away. Be comfortable taking time to think things over appropriately. Remember, your son’s college decision is about much more than what baseball team he will play with for the next 4 years. The long-term financial ramifications of college student loan debt can burden graduated players for years after they graduate. Coming up with a practical financial plan is an incredibly important part of the recruiting process. In this podcast, we will discuss how to do a basic budget exercise on the costs of attending college so that your son can chase his baseball dreams, get a college education, and graduate with a manageable amount of student loan debt. 

Step 1: Understanding Your Budget

If you are familiar with our website, you already know that college baseball is not a full-ride sport. That means even if your son is lucky enough to earn a baseball scholarship, it’s likely to only cover a portion of his total costs to attend college. The first thing you need to do is sit down and figure out how much money your family can afford to pay out of pocket each year for your son’s college expenses. For this example, we'll say your family can afford to pay $5,000 out of pocket each year towards your son’s college costs.

Step 2: Understand the Cost of Attendance for Each School of Interest

The total cost of attendance is the amount of money it will cost for your son to attend a college or university for 1 academic year and it includes tuition, room and board, books, and some other student fees. For example, Big Time University ("BTU") may have a cost of attendance totaling $20,000 per academic year.

Step 3: Understanding Out of Pocket Costs

Out of pocket costs are the amount of money you will be expected to pay once academic and baseball scholarships and grant money are taken into account. Out of pocket costs are the amount of money you will have to come up with on your own for your son to attend a college for a year. For example, if BTU offers your son a $5,000 yearly baseball scholarship, a $2,000 academic scholarship on top of that, and you qualify for a $5,000 in federal grant money based on your FAFSA submission, out of pocket costs would be $8,000, which you would reach by subtracting your scholarship and grant money from the total cost of attendance ($20,000—$12,000= $8,000).

Step 4: Determining Amount of Borrowed Money

The amount of money your son would need to borrow or take out in loans would be the Out of Pocket Costs—Your Annual Budget. In the case of the BTU example, if your son wanted to attend BTU, he would need to take out loans totaling at least $3,000/year after subtracting the amount your family can afford to pay ($5,000) from the out of pocket costs ($8,000). If your son is able to maintain his scholarship and grant money each year and graduate in 4 years, he will need to borrow a minimum of $12,000 in student loans. 

In This Episode

We are taking the podcast international, connecting with Singapore-based baseball coach Owen Reid of Reid Baseball.  Reid is an international baseball consultant originally from Missouri. The founder of Reid Baseball, Owen has more than 15 years of experience as a player and coach. He played Division I baseball at Baylor University and Winthrop University, and upon graduating took his game overseas and hasn't looked back. He played 2 professional seasons in Europe, a season in New Zealand, and 3 seasons in Australia. In his post-playing career, Reid has spent time as a strength and conditioning coach for the Baltimore Orioles, the director of The Hit Factory in Singapore, and taken on numerous other coaching opportunities. He currently serves as a coach on the Austrian National Team where he has helped the country move up to the European A Division, in addition to doing baseball coaching and consulting work in multiple countries and continents.

Over the last decade, Reid's baseball expertise has taken him to more than 50 countries on five continents. Through Reid Baseball, Owen maintains a baseball coaching presence throughout Asia, Australia, Europe and the Middle East, working with players and coaches from beginner to elite athletes and Senior National Team players. 

In our conversation, we discuss Reid's college and professional baseball experiences, as well as break down his work as a baseball coach and consultant. We dive into Reid's coaching philosophy and core values, two discussions that we are sure will bring a ton of value to players striving to play college baseball, and coaches looking to help players get there. Reid's discipline and consistency has helped him build a program with values that would help any player prepare for college baseball. Don't miss on the opportunity to apply them to your game!

Where to Connect with Owen

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/thereidbaseball 

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/thereidbaseball/ 

Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/thereidbaseball/ 

Website:  https://reidbaseball.com/ 

Topics

D1, Transferring, Recruiting Process, Confidence, Coaching, Mental Game, Control the Controllables, Effort, Consistency, Competing, International Baseball, MLB