Word of the week...... Happy Holidays! I have loved the holiday season this year. We had had a ton of fun and many gifts this season were baseball gifts. My oldest son received a Demarini CF7 -5, a baseball necklace, under armor chest protector, and other small baseball gifts. My middle son was more into the baseball theme this year as well receiving a pack of wiffle balls, catcher's glove, Rawlings bounce back/pitching target, and a baseball jacket. Whether it is baseball stuff or other sports stuff we have fun buying these things for our children. What a great season to celebrate baseball with your kids and have fun sharing the love for a great sport. My word of the week comes from a book that I have been reading all year by Brian Cain called The Daily Dominator. Each day he writes a messages that helps inspire coaches and players to dominate their day. On December 26th Mr. Cain discusses failure and how to turn it into a positive feedback situation. Here are 5 ways to choose a positive state of mind over a negative state of mind after you have been a failure situation:
Read of the week… I have been reading Downright Filthy Pitching by Perry Husband that focuses on a concept he calls “Effective Velocity.” This book is a one of a kind because it uses actual scientific data to provide evidence for the theories and principles that are taught. I have especially liked how Mr. Husband breaks down a pitcher's effective velocity index into five “ingredients” that are measurable for effective pitchers. Effective pitchers are great at using timing to their advantage and these 5 standards can be used as tools to increase their chances for success.
Husband, P. (2004). Downright Filthy Pitching. San Bernardino, CA: Guessworks on Smashwords. Drill of the week.....
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Word of the week...... What do you expect from your summer baseball program? When the high school baseball season ends and your team moves on to the long hot days of unmotivated baseball in June and July, what do you expect out of your players and how do you get it out of them? Summer baseball can be a time of growth and foundation building that leads into the next fall and spring seasons. Every summer you start with a new crop of upcoming players and the existing players that now have a full year or more of varsity baseball under their belts. Your players should feel excited about the new opportunities and summer should be a period of getting to know their abilities and competing for roles on the team. After watching many summer baseball games and coaches over my time as an assistant baseball coach here are three ideas that I have collected about getting the most out of your summer programs. 1. Have a weight training program or conditioning program that supports your team mission about commitment and sacrifice to the team. This commitment should reflect 2-3 mornings a week that are early enough to get them out of their comfort zones. Also the workouts should be difficult so that they feel a connection with their teammates that persevered through the tough workouts. Your players need to embrace working out with their teammates, relish the grind of workouts, and experience physical gains toward on the field success. 2. Make summer baseball games more competitive by demanding you players give a great effort. One idea that works is to treat the summer games like a basketball game in the sense of free subs. In summer baseball leagues most opposing coaches are open to the idea of free substitution in and out of the baseball game. Explain to your players that poor at bats and efforts in the fields will result in being substituted out of the game. In addition to this be committed to the players that are committed to you program. Take attendance and play the players most that are going to your strength workouts. 3 Create optional extra work sessions that help you find the committed vs. the uncommitted by who shows up. I think that during summer baseball the routine of organized practice needs to take a step down. Organized practice every few days can lead to monotony and a lack of effort. What I like to see is a series of optional extra works for batting practice, pens, or fielding. In these sessions your players can connect with you better, converse about topics that during the season time does not allow, and get more of a one on one situation. Do things that during your season you could not do. Try video sessions with your players, new drill that you have not tried, or any other creative insights that spark you mind. Article of the week... The article of the week comes from Brian Cain, mental conditioning coach. Brian is a master of the mental game and works with all levels of players in baseball and softball. I like goal setting and he wrote an article on his web page that gave 25 ways to set goals and actually attain them. Here is the list: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "25 GOAL-SMASHING STRATEGIES FROM MONDAY MESSAGE READERS Drill of the week..... The “W”
The “Triangle” Glove no Glove option.
3-Ball
Link: https://docs.google.com/a/tuhsd.k12.az.us/document/d/1mYiaPnqUfD-9uGscNGy-BT3mQAB-33HY4pqJI4xmPg8/edit?usp=docslist_api This weeks post is going to include some great insight on what to be thankful for, some helpful infield and pitching ladder drills, and also some insight into motivation for coaches and players. Words of the week.....
This week I am going to stick to one common theme that Mentality, Attitude, Focus, and Adjustments are the keys to becoming a better for focused athlete, not just baseball player. I feel that we as a society have tried to accomplish many of our personal and professional goals in such a quick amount of time that we lose sight of the process of learning along the way. If we are so focused on the outcome, and not so focused on the process, then the result will be poor and the goal may be attained but not to the level and or dept as if we would have taken our time and done it right. Mentality is something that I use to stay centered on my goals as a teacher, parent, and coach. I am going to keep a personal mentality statement in my head to manipulate my personality, attitude, and mood. The current most up to date mentality statement is that, "I am the most motivated/hard working individual; I am a creative upcoming individual that has a solution based mentality in the face of life." Attitude is linked and connected to mentality. If my personal mentality statement is changing then my personality and attitude will suffer or be inconsistent. The best baseball players are the ones that don't get too high and don't get too low in their mood or personalities on the baseball field. So make your players commit to a mentality statement and they will be more level in their behaviors. Focus relates to the vision or sight of the target and the abilty of an individual to stay centered on their personal or team goals. I am always setting new goals to attain and center my focal point on. Here are three of my most recent that help me with my focus:
Adjustments are going to come through the process of attaining my goals and knowing that they are not hard and fast rules. I can adjust my processes, products, and at times my vision so that I am being realistic in my vision. If I do not have the ability to get tot the video every day or I don't get all the drills accomplished then I know that I will need to adjust things so that I can feel that my goals are realistic. Here I have given some examples of big picture goals, mentality, and focal points. If I am leading a team I can create these for weekly practices, daily practice plans, or long term season goals. I do want my players to create something similar but I doesn't need to be as particular as mine. I think that placing these team individual goals on a chart for each player to read can make all people more accountable and it can help you as a coach realize some of the motivation or internal wants of your players. Article of the Week........ Szymanski, D. J. (2007). Resistance training to develop increased bat velocity. Natl Strength Cond Assoc Perform Train J, 6, 16-20. First, this article supplies information that relates bat velocity to the implementation of a full-body “general” resistance training program for high school or novice baseball players. Next, combined methods of resistance training may provide the greatest training effect. Finally, “specific” overweight and underweight bat swing training protocol will fully transition the program toward increased bat speeds. Advanced players should incorporate all three forms of resistance training into their program. If not using a combined method, the best approach to increase bat velocity seems to be “general” resistance training for high school plarers or “specific” (underweighted and over weighted bats) resistance training for more advanced (collegiate and professional) players. Based on previous research, do not use loads that are any more than 4 oz lighter or heavier that your game bat (i.e., 30 oz for a college player) when implementing “specific” resistance training. Specific” resistance loads progress gradually by 1 oz heavier and light- er every 3 weeks over a 12-week training cycle. One big point that the article makes that intrigued me was that although advanced players are getting stronger, their on-field (bat velocity) performance may not be any better than if they did not resistance train, since their bat swing mechanics are already advanced. Drills of Week...... Link- Front Toss Hitting Drills Closing Comments..... Good week coming up please have a great Thanksgiving, connect with friends and family, and commit to being a better person. Coach Brassfield Motivating your Players Beyond Their Comfort Levels
We have so many responsibilities as coaches but one that is crutial is to push our players beyond even what they feels is possible. There are alot of vairables in motivating your players at any level especially when you are talking about the high school or collegient level player. There are a few that I would expect most coaches to be targeting as a key method for motivation but both fit into two broad categories. First, you can motivate your players intrinsically and next extrinsically. I am going to hit up on 2-3 different research based methods for both. I cannot say that either method is particulary better for any coach research supports intrisic motivation as a better long lasting method to motivating players. Extrinsic Motivators- these are motivational factors that have to do with carrying out a desired action with the midset that it is for someone else and not for yourself (Horn, 2000).
Horn, A. J. A. T. S. (2000). Intrinsic motivation: Relationships with collegiate athletes' gender, scholarship status, and perceptions of their coaches' behavior. Journal of sport & exercise psychology, 22(1-4), 63-84. Drill of the Week Tee Work- Staying Through the Pitch 1. Tee Drill Walk Throughs- player starts back behind the tee a couple of steps and will step behind as they walk foward in the batters box to hit the baseball. The hads will work in rythem with their feet. A right handed hitter starts in an athletic position further back in the batters box, steps behind with their right foot, foward with their left foot, and then starts their hands back to load. As their left foot gets down their hands should be back behind their right shoulder in a loaded hitting postion. Lastly, the player stays through the baseball and hits it in the middle of the net in front of them. 2. High Tee Drill- place the tee on a box or elevate it somehow to their nipple or arm pit level. Place the location of the pitch on the outside third of the plate. The batter will now work on getting ontop of the ball and hitting it with back spin into the 3-4 hole for a righty and the 5-6 hole for a lefty. The key is to let the batter see the ball flight and to look for back spin. 3. Down and In Drill- place the tee at its lowest point and work on the inner third of the plate, postion the tee slightly in front of home. The batter will now work on getting into their legs and hit the ball into the 5-6 hole for righties and the 3-4 hole for lefties. The key is to let the batter see the ball flight and to look for back spin on the ball. Front Toss Work- 1. Long's Split the Plate Drill- place a screen perpendicular down the middle of the plate and have the batter stand in the batters box with a bats length distance from the screen. Next, have the coach through front toss between the screen and the batter. The player is working on staying through middle in pitches and hitting them with back spin. If they over extend their arms or creat an early bat release to hit this pitch then they will hit the net and feel the wrong action. Be mindful that the play may cheat and stride in the bucket to get to the pitch location, make sure that the coach monitors or looks for this mistake. 2. Angled Front Toss- because Long's drill emphasizes staying through the inside pitch the angled front toss drill emphasizes the outter half pitch. Start the front toss set up on the opposite field side of the batter and ask the batter on each pitch to keep their stride toward the pitcher and not at the angled front toss. The batter is going to emphsize a deep contact point and drive baseball back through the front toss net or to the opposite field with back spin. Have a Great Week! Coach Brassfield Blog Post - The Importance of Research and Understanding History of Strength and Conditioning
It has been a couple of weeks since I have done a post but this week I wanted to focus on some research in regard to the origins of strength and conditioning in sports. I have felt that most individuals don’t have a great idea of when and how strength and conditioning has evolved over a relatively short amount of time. In a book that I was reading, Bill Belichick referred to Boyd Epley as one of the first and Nebraska football being a pioneer in starting off-season training in the early 1970’s (Halberstam, 2005). Also in addition to this, more off-season training was occurring at the college level than at the pro level in football. Floyd Reese, an assistant coach in the Detroit Lions organization with Belichick, pioneered the first off-season training program for the Lions in 1975 (Halberstam, 2005). Strength and conditioning was something that started in professional/college football far ahead of baseball. So at this point baseball is far behind other sports like football etc. Here is an interesting article that I read pertaining to Epley and Nebraska Football. “The Strength of Nebraska”:Boyd Epley, Husker Power, and the Formation of the Strength Coaching Profession This article relates to strength and conditioning program development by describing the great strength and conditioning coaches that applied a systematic way of studying the field of strength and conditioning. Boyd Epley was the pioneer in advancing the utilization of strength and conditioning to enhance football performance and injury rehabilitation (Shurley & Todd, 2012). He worked through injury in his life and utilized strength and conditioning to rehab a low back injury. By doing this he initiated a string of events that allowed him to research and catalyzed others to research in the field of strength and conditioning. As a result of his own personal rehabilitation program he felt the effects of strength and conditioning and found benefit in the amount of time for recovery after injury. He also felt as if his body was stronger and more conditioned for physical activity than before the injury. During the late 1960’s and early 1970’s coaches and physicians alike believed that resistance training and strength and conditioning would muscle bound an athlete leading to reduced athletic ability (Shurley & Todd, 2012). Epley changed this perspective through numerous personal case studies on the campus of the Nebraska Cornhuskers. He was hired by Tom Osborn under the head coach football coach and athletic director Bob Devaney (Shurley & Todd, 2012). Nebraska assistant coach (at the time) Tom Osborn had seen him on campus on many occasions working out with football players and aiding in their strength and conditioning. Due to Tom Osborn’s amazing insight he decided to inquire about how Boyd Epley was training his athletes and hire him to be the team’s strength and conditioning coordinator. In his time as the strength and conditioning coordinator Epley started the great Husker Power Club weight-lifting traditions, he coordinated a network of strength coaches through The National Directory of Strength Coaches, and started a national weight lifting epidemic in sport by the late 1970’s (Shurley & Todd, 2012). Through the National Directory of Strength Coaches, he also created the first annual meeting of the National Strength Coaches’ Association (NSCA) on July 29th, 1978 (Shurley & Todd, 2012). He would become the unanimously voted president of this now very prolific association. Boyd Epley and others at this time worked very diligently to systematically research, publish articles, and collaborate to form a united front in reconstructing the strength and conditioning reputation. Without Boyd Epley and his leadership skills the field of strength and conditioning could have seen many more years of unapplied science to sport and competitive exercise events. References: Halberstam, D. (2005). The education of a coach. Hyperion, New York: Hachette Digital, Inc. Shurley, J. P., & Todd, J. S. (2012). "The Strength of Nebraska": Boyd Epley, Husker Power, and the Formation of the Strength Coaching Profession. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research , 26 (12), 3177-3188. I listened to Matt Kata this week on a podcast called the Diamond Dish and found it insightful in terms of hitting and how to teach it. The host is a former professional pitcher by the name Jonah Bayliss from the aitchingacademy.com. Matt Kata was very knowledgable about hitting and he himself has organized a method of teaching hitting that includes three check boxes.
Check Boxes 1. Be on Time 2. Storing Energy Properly 3. Hold Energy Until Contact In this interview I could really agree with Matt's perspectives that there are areas of hitting that you want hitters to be consciously aware of and areas that you don't want to be clouding a hitters mind while at bat or going through their mind during instruction. He calls them "teaches versus non-teaches." A "teach" is a directly instructed concept that will lead to the execution of the "non-teach." So for example, you would instruct a hitter about the action of being on time to hit the ball leading the result of staying closed as the batter hits the baseball. This as opposed to teaching the hitter to stay closed directly, then losing their the timing in the process and further complicating the process of hitting while staying closed. The "teach" is being on time and the "non-teach" is staying closed. Additionally Matt spoke about the difficulties that hitters face when it comes to thinking too much and having too many thoughts in their head about mechanics. In the interview Matt referenced a book written by Jason Selk called 10 Minute Toughness. Kata emphasized that within the concepts of this book an athlete struggles with juggling more than 3 thoughts in their head at one time. So his hitting system is based upon only 3 check boxes of hitting. This is something that I can strongly speak to as a hitter and coach. My players need to react not think, and part of this issue becomes me filling them with too much not needed information. Keeping it to 2-3 teaching points and focusing on them will keep them moving forward. Within the system that Matt Kata has created I have personally created 3 drills for these check boxes below. Any coach that is trying to address these skills should teach them using feel points and drills that emphasizes one of the components at a time. Check Boxes 1. Be on Time LINK 2. Storing Energy Properly LINK 3. Hold Energy Until Contact LINK Coach Brassfield In my experience as a baseball coach I feel that most players struggle with in game catch play and at times lack the feet and instincts to successfully play catch. This starts with their intent in practice and the speed by which coaches allow on the field during practice. I am not saying that players lack work ethic or coaches lack intent to keep practice game speed, but the drills that are selected are too monotonous and robotic to be conducive to game speed reactions. The drills that I have listed here are both team and individual based and will prepare any infielder for all game situations.
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