[00:00:04] Speaker A: Welcome to the ABCA's podcast. I'm your host Ryan Brownlee.
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Joining us this week on the ABCA podcast is our ABCA Marines Division 2 Coach of the Year Alex Backhouse. Backhaus finished his seventh season at the University of Central Missouri, leading the mules to a 5210 record and an appearance. Cary, NC at the College World Series, Meals had a potent offense with 662 runs scored, 126 home runs and 197 stolen bases while also taking care of the baseball. With a.982 fielding percentage. Meals were made the NCAA Regionals every year. Backhouse his tenure with three College World Series appearances.
Backhouse played collegiately at William Jewell College and had previous stops at Ottawa, KCKCC and Lindenwood. It's a great episode on recruiting and player development, so get your pad and pen ready. Welcome Alex back out to the podcast.
What Kyle think of last weekend.
[00:02:59] Speaker B: I really enjoyed it.
It was. I mean you just, I think you get stuck in your in your ways of doing a lot of the same over and over again and you hear it's like you see you selling some of the things that the MIZZOU guys were doing, and it's like, it's not groundbreaking at all, but it's just, you know, I think it always reverts back to just doing some basic things again and, you know, getting back to doing that, so. Yeah, no, it was good. It was really good.
[00:03:25] Speaker A: Yeah, it was really good, too, so. Been happy.
[00:03:28] Speaker B: Awesome.
[00:03:28] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:03:29] Speaker B: Good. Good. There was a. A guy from a junior college that showed up because one of our guys played up in Alaska, and he was like, the only reason I'm here is so I can learn how you do base running things. Like, well, good for you. But also just call us, too, because we can tell you whatever. Exactly.
Good for him.
[00:03:47] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah, he was.
It's cool. Like, people that don't know as much about us and then they kind of get that. That interaction. Like, it's cool. I. I take for granted because I've been a member for 28 years, but it's neat when you get some first timers in there.
[00:04:06] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:04:06] Speaker A: Who haven't been around us at all, because I think it opens up their eyes to. To what's available for them.
[00:04:13] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. We started doing kind of taking. Taking your guys idea. We started doing a high school coaches clinic here in the fall, and we've been getting upwards of 70, 75 coaches here, and we just do total team drills and have them here for a Q and A and a little hot stove, feed them lunch, and then we do practice, and it's been really, really good.
[00:04:35] Speaker A: Yeah, we always did that at Iowa. The Iowa High School Coaches association clinic would be Friday and Saturday, and then they would come to our place at Iowa on Sunday and watch us practice. So it was a. It was a good weekend with the Iowa Coaches Association.
[00:04:52] Speaker B: That's awesome.
[00:04:53] Speaker A: I here with Alex Backhouse, ABCA Division 2 assistant coach of the year recruiting coordinator at the University of Central Missouri for the last seven years.
But CWS appearance in 24, had a great record. 50 and 10. And then previous stops at KCK, Lindenwood and Ottawa. I think I got that right, Alex, right? Those are all the previous.
[00:05:13] Speaker B: That's correct. That's correct. Yes, sir.
[00:05:16] Speaker A: Hey, how much do you like the movie Big Lebowski? If you have a dog named after the movie.
[00:05:20] Speaker B: It's my favorite movie, actually.
That's my favorite movie. I. We. My wife and I were Big Office. Our Big Office fans, too, and we were throwing around some ideas of, you know, some office characters, and she's like, you're crazy. That there's. It's. It's right in front of you name him Lebowski. And I still have to give her credit, but. So she. She was the one that named him, but it's. It's been a great. He's the dude. He's the man.
[00:05:43] Speaker A: Yep, yep. And I think they're making a remake. I think they're coming out with the second one.
[00:05:49] Speaker B: Same characters.
[00:05:50] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, it looks like it. It looks like.
[00:05:52] Speaker B: Okay, good. Just don't mess it up.
[00:05:55] Speaker A: I know it's hard. Like, I'm a big movie music person, so I very rarely do. They get it right here on the. On the updates.
[00:06:04] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:06:06] Speaker A: Congrats on the honor, by the way, because I know, you know, I love. I love this part of us. I love that we get to honor assistance. So congrats on the honor.
[00:06:15] Speaker B: Thank you. Thank you. I was just blown away to receive that call and very fortunate to be in a mule's uniform, you know, while being a part of that honor. So really appreciate you guys doing that.
[00:06:26] Speaker A: How'd you get to William Jewell out of high school?
[00:06:30] Speaker B: So my dad, actually, my parents met at Jewel, and my dad played there. He coached there, and we just had a relationship with. With Coach Stockton there at Jewel, and just, you know, he was helping out there at the same time, and. And so I go to practice, I'd hang out and just kind of got immersed in the culture and what it was there and just felt. Felt like at home before, you know, I was even there. So it felt like a place where I could grow and develop and learn about myself, too, at the same time. And, yeah, just. It was kind of easy. I recruited myself there almost, in a sense, and, you know, it all works out.
[00:07:11] Speaker A: Do you feel like that probably helped you the most, stay there and stick it out? It's not always easy at the college level. As a student athlete, do you feel like that helped you stay there the entire time?
[00:07:22] Speaker B: Yeah, and also, too, like, it wasn't easy because I didn't get really what I wanted out of the whole. You know, I didn't get a ton of playing time. I wasn't good enough. But I learned a lot about myself and. And some things that. That are still valuable to me today. And. And Coach Stockton did a phenomenal job of instilling culture, instilling attitude and effort and the hard work and. And putting the focus on others, not yourself, and. And those are still some of the things that, you know, that I value today.
[00:07:52] Speaker A: Do you think we'll ever get back to that point where a majority of kids go to a place and stay there for four years.
[00:08:00] Speaker B: I hope, I hope. I don't know if that's the case. If there's programs that are doing that good for them because they're really doing some good things. And that means the coaches are really valuing the kids and putting everything into them and they're getting the right people to go there too. It's really easy for us as humans to think about like, what can I do to better myself? And maybe the grass is greener or somebody's dangling a carrot over there. It's really easy to oh, hey, what's, that's, what's that shiny new toy? I understand that to an extent by also too, it's, hey, you, you committed to this, you know, let's go stick that out. Even though you may not be getting what you want, stick it out and see what you become because of that.
[00:08:42] Speaker A: How'd you get connected with Ottawa then after school? Was that always the choice for you? Did you know you're going to get into coaching?
[00:08:51] Speaker B: That's all. I've always been around a baseball field since I was growing up. I just, I didn't really know what else I wanted to do other than be at a baseball field. And so my dad coached high school college baseball for 20 plus years and Corey Blaine was the head coach at Ottawa. He'd just taken over the program and he and Coach Stockton at Jewel played together at Ottawa. And so I told Coach Stockton, I was like, hey, I'm, I want to do the baseball thing. Can you help me out? And he called Corey up and he gave him a recommendation and, and so I hopped in and I have to thank Corey for he really, I wasn't, I guess like a typical ga. I wasn't just like, hey, show up, do the laundry and, and go drag and water the field and mow it. And it was. He let me do and he let me coach and he let me learn, he let me fail and he let me kind of have my hands in a lot of different aspects of things. And we took over a program that was in a bad place and we had a lot of young guys and we took our lumps but we went from like 8 wins to 20 wins the next year and kind of set that program in a better direction. And it was fun too because Corey was an alum there, so he really cared about the place. And Ottawa is a good little town and the school really, really loves their baseball program there and just the success that we, they were having and that we were trying to get back to.
[00:10:09] Speaker A: Would that Be a tip for assistants listening in is do as much as you, you can.
[00:10:14] Speaker B: Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. Just because I. So I think just because you're an assistant or a GA or a volunteer, it doesn't mean that you're not there to help and grow. Right. Your title doesn't mean that you can't go grab this fitter and work with him. Doesn't mean that you can't go empty the trash bags because, you know, it's something that needs to be done. So if, if you're not willing to, to grow and learn and do because things need to be done, then I think you're just hiding behind your title or whatever it may be.
[00:10:42] Speaker A: Yeah. Was Matt Goldbeck the head coach at KCK when you got there?
[00:10:47] Speaker B: I was there for Steve Burleson's last year.
[00:10:49] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:10:50] Speaker B: So I got to, I got to spend a year with him. Oh, man, that guy's so sharp. A wonderful baseball mind. A wonderful man. He did a lot of really good things for me and I learned a ton from him just in that one year there too. And so I guess in a sense he was kind of the general manager of the group. And, you know, everybody knew Goldie was the head coach in waiting at the time, so.
But got to learn from those two guys and, and still same thing like, like I was saying with Coach Stockton, a lot of the things that those guys did, you know, I'm still doing today. And you know, in, in Coach Burleson's, you know, sake, you don't win 1300 games by accident there, so. Or whatever it may be, maybe I'm shorting him, so I apologize. But you know, like, he's a phenomenal baseball mind.
[00:11:34] Speaker A: What are some things that you've, you've held onto that you're still doing?
[00:11:39] Speaker B: Oh, from like Coach Burleson or Coach Stockton or just in general?
[00:11:44] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:11:46] Speaker B: So Coach Burleson was attention to detail. It was, it was, you know, your fourth up approach when you go hit. It was the hitting the front part of the bag, looking right, looking left, head forward, hands back, you know, from, from Coach Stockton, it was the, the attitude, the effort. You know, the hard 90s is being where you're supposed to be when, when you're supposed to be there.
Kind of the little things that, that you, you may overlook not, not a ton of the X's and O's when it comes to the baseball side of things. But it was just, you know, how can I help better this group by doing the little things the right way.
[00:12:24] Speaker A: And I call that the cycle of success, like, knowing where all your stuff is when you're. When you're fifth up. Like, I call that the cycle of success. And so are you still implementing that with your guys at Central Missouri in.
[00:12:38] Speaker B: Terms of the getting ready to hit?
Yes. Yes. So we kind of have a. We have a line in the. In the dugout where it's like, hey, you cross this, that's kind of your trigger. It's signifying to everybody because everybody's got different starting points. So. But, like, when you're here, it signifies like, all right, I'm getting ready for my bat, and I think we lead the country. And one guy on deck warnings. I think it's a game that the boys play with the umpires now, but they're there ready to go. And we don't. I guess we don't have the biggest dugout here, but. So guys are always sneaking out of there, getting ready to go. But, yeah, it's. It's knowing where your stuff is and, you know, whatever your trigger is, whether it's you putting your batting gloves on your helmet or grabbing your bat, you're signifying everybody that, hey, I'm. My at bat starts now, and I'm preparing myself, getting ready to go.
[00:13:24] Speaker A: Did you meet Coach Crooks on the road recruiting? Is that how you guys got connected?
[00:13:29] Speaker B: Yeah, actually, to the recruiting coordinator that was here when. So when I was at Lindenwood. His name was Damien Stanberg. Name is Damien Stamberski. He recruited me out of high school when he was at KCK and he was here at Central. And I had been in touch with those guys, you know, quite a bit. Mostly Coach Namberski, because we're playing in the same conference. You know, we're sharing scouting reports and we're talking about things, and. And, you know, all along I was like, hey, I'm looking, you know, for something, if anybody comes available. And. And it did. They had a spot open here. So I came out as a volunteer, and. And then when Damian left, you know, I filled into his spot. So I had known of Coach Crooks, and we've, you know, we competed against each other, seen each other out on the road. Yeah. But we kind of had a connection through. Through a few guys, and he kind of comes full circle.
[00:14:23] Speaker A: A lot of it's luck, isn't it, like, where you end up and jobs that are available, and I think that's a. That's a key for assistance listening in, too, is you have to take the job that's available to you at that point.
[00:14:35] Speaker B: Yeah, I actually left Lindenwood and I had nothing lined up. So, like, I didn't have this job at Central Missouri even. It wasn't signed, sealed, delivered. It was like, well, let's see what we can get. My wife and I were moving back from St. Louis to Kansas City. She was doing a career change and she wanted to become a teacher. And so it was just kind of like we spent a summer in limbo. I went and did some recruiting for Alex Backus University. You know, I went to places that didn't have a logo on and, you know, just trying to keep connecting and utilizing resources and people that we knew. And, you know, ultimately it works out. It's hard in the moment. You know, your, your wife's kind of questioning what the heck you're doing because you're not bringing home a check. And what is this baseball thing that we're dealing with over and over and over again day after day. But yeah, it's luck. It's, it's, you know, it all, it all eventually works itself out.
[00:15:24] Speaker A: That's a great tip, by the way. And that's what I've always told coaches that maybe are in limbo trying to get jobs. I'm like, you need to still stay on the road. Like, people still need to see you because once, once you're gone, you're gone. So you need to stay active on the recruiting. Even though you don't have a school, you need to still out. You need to still go out and stay active.
[00:15:45] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. Because the people you see there, you may not know you're going to run into there and they may know things that you don't and they have some insider info. And sometimes, you know, that's what recruiting is. It's like you may not have a guy you're going to go watch that day. You just need to be out and be seen and they need to see the logo and you need to see some faces and like, hey, what do you guys know? Especially the scouts, it's, they're out all the time. They know everything that's going on. They have all the drama, they have all the gossip. And so if you're getting info from those guys, then you know you're putting yourself in a good place.
[00:16:15] Speaker A: You and Coach Crooks actually tag teamed Barnstormers talk a while ago. It doesn't seem like that long ago, but it was, I think it was four years ago. But you guys came over and did a great job because Kyle was like, I'd like to bring Alex with me. And we really hadn't done a lot of duo stuff and you guys did a great job during that talk.
[00:16:34] Speaker B: Well, thank you. Something that we're very passionate about too. It's the team offense here and how we go about learning how to offense as a mule. Doing some mule ball things. And that was enjoyable. That was really enjoyable. And we still get, honestly still get emails and phone calls about that topic discussion and people want to. Want us to break it down a little bit more for him. So that was a really good.
[00:16:59] Speaker A: Yeah. For anybody that hasn't watched that, go watch it. The content is great. But also, you guys did a very good job of working off each other during that talk, which is not the easiest thing in the world to do it with two guys up there. You guys did a great job working off each other.
[00:17:13] Speaker B: Well, good. He, I'll give him all the credit. He's, he lets me do and you know, he, he's a big, big part of the reason as to, you know, why we're doing what we're doing here.
[00:17:25] Speaker A: He did a great job last weekend. That, that, that video on the base running won't come out till the spring, but he did a great job. Just go in depth on that. How much time you guys spend on base running?
[00:17:36] Speaker B: Every single day. Every single day we do something based, running wise. So I feel like we have to do more now because people know what we do. It's no secret. They can go and look up stats and see that we're going to run. So we feel like we have to stay ahead of what we know they're trying to stop us from doing. So it's something every single day. And it's, you know, whether it's getting reads at first, it's ball and dirts, it's looking for a vault at second base. Whether it's live reads off the bat, whether it's us hitting balls off the tee or it's libraries during bp, it's something every single day that we're, we're trying to get better at as baserunners and trying to force the other team to play high level of catch. It's throughout the fall. It's, you have to, you have to go. You're not going to, you're not going to hear us yelling at you. If you're getting thrown out, you're going to hear us yelling at you if you're not running, if you're not going. And everybody's got the green light here and we want you to learn how to go, we want you to get comfortable Getting thrown out. Like yesterday we were working on getting out as far as you can in a lead and a traditional or non traditional lead at first base. And I'm trying to pick you off. And if you get picked off, that's fine, but then you kind of know what your limit is. So you can feel confident in a game that when I'm on the mound with my really bad move and I'm throwing the ball over there at 50 miles an hour, that you're getting back and, you know, you feel comfortable about going into a game that, okay, I can be at this point, this is my mark, and now I'm ready to go. I'm stuck on green.
[00:19:12] Speaker A: How long have you guys implemented the bangin the bats together? Because honestly, I'd never seen it. And it makes a lot of sense where he's banging the bats, where the runner knows that's contact. I love that idea.
[00:19:23] Speaker B: Yeah, it was just trying to get everybody in rhythm with a secondary. So it's secondary, secondary, shuffle. And then he raises the bats over said and bangs them together. So we'll preset like it's a line drive in the right center field gap, secondary, secondary. Everybody knows where the ball is being hit, what they should be doing, where they should be going. Because it, it just kind of was all disjointed in terms of it's. We're trying to work everybody together at the same time. It's like, all right, how can we get to where it's everybody moving at the same time? Here we go. And it was just kind of like a trigger, you know, to get everybody started.
[00:19:58] Speaker A: That and the, the numbers too, where guys are whipping their head around in the middle of the field. I thought it was a great idea also.
[00:20:04] Speaker B: Yeah, so you're talking about, you know, we talk about straight line, base running. So we want the fastest way to between two points is a straight line. So the faster you are as a baserunner, the bigger your round is going to be. You're moving a little bit quicker. The slower you are, the straighter that line is going to be. But the only time, you know, we put our, we put our head down is when we, when we touch the base and we have our guys whip their head to the inside part of the field towards the mound. So we have somebody at the mound standing there with their hands up and switching out numbers. So when you're hitting the bag, you're turning your head to the inside part of the field and you're yelling out those numbers. So your, your head, sorry, your Body's going to follow your head in hopes that you're running a little bit of a straighter line there. So in order to know if these guys are doing it, it's, you hear the numbers being called out.
[00:20:53] Speaker A: He brought up a great point. He was like the years we've stolen the most bases, our slugging percentage and home runs have also been high.
[00:21:01] Speaker B: I don't know why.
[00:21:03] Speaker A: Well, he made a good point on this and I feel the same way. If you have a really good dynamic base running offense, your hitters are going to get better pitches to hit.
[00:21:15] Speaker B: That's true. I think you may, you may be more leery to throw another breaking ball because it may be in the dirt, you know, and, or, or they don't want to get behind the hitter. So it's, we're going to get ahead with this and I give the hitters credit too. It's, they've, we've had some, some pretty good ones come through with that, have just really good plans and approaches that, that, that know what they're going to do in the box and you know how they're going to go about it. But, but yeah, I think you're right. It's, it's, you know, there's, there's the multiple threats, like there's a guy on, on base where so maybe the pitcher's attention is a little bit divided there.
[00:21:51] Speaker A: And great defensive numbers too. I mean 982 when you look at that. So what do you attribute to that? Is that recruiting? Is that development? A little bit of both?
[00:22:01] Speaker B: I think all the above there. So we hang our hat on pitching and defense and we tell guys that when they're here on a visit it's, you know, we're going to build ourselves up the middle and it starts behind the plate, it starts on the mound. You know, it goes without being said that you have to have pitching to win baseball games. But you know, when we're recruiting position players it's, you have to have a good catcher and we've had some really, really good ones over the years. You know, with Chasey, Scott Wolverton, you know, Isaiah Pony, Zach Wolverton and then, you know, your shortstops, Max Holy with us most recently Brennan Van Bruce again in the outfield and center. So if you're, if you're good up the middle of the field and you can play catch at a high level, you're going to do a lot of good things. So yeah, we recruit defensively, we make lineup decisions defensively too. Who's going to give us the best opportunity to defend the baseball and play catch at a high level. It's a lot of what we do at practice.
We do a ton of catch play type things and it's not just, hey, we're going to get on the line and we're going to play catch to 200ft for 10 minutes or whatever. Yeah, we'll do that from time to time. But we make a move, we make them be athletic and we put a huge emphasis on playing catch. And I have to give credit to Coach Crooks and coach Coach Turner Bush is our infield guru. He coach played here and he's probably gonna correct me here, but I think it was in the late 80s. Both of his sons played here, both of them played shortstop for us here. So this place means something to him. And he's a phenomenal infield mind, does stuff with the Royal scout team and he's just a wealth of knowledge when it comes to infield play. And he's here every day with the boys and helping them out and, and so big, big credit to those guys for, for doing what they do. It's, you'll hear it from the dugout, stop hitting it to that guy because you're going to be out.
[00:23:51] Speaker A: So what are some other catch play games that you guys do that maybe aren't traditional?
[00:23:58] Speaker B: You know, I don't know. For this one I got from, from Coach Burleson, it's called flank throwing. So you split the outfielders up in left field and in right field and we'll alternate fungos to those sides. So it's a runner at second bait for sure. Single to the outfield and then you just work on a relay, relay to the plate. And so you know, you do your communication with a catcher in terms of if it's offline or dying, does it need to be cut or not. Then the catcher will catch that tag, he'll glove side turn, throw the ball to second base. So let's say this ball said on the left field side, the ball thrown to second base from the catcher, the shortstop will catch, tag, glove side turn, throws the ball to third, third baseman, catch, tag, glove side turn, back to the dish. Catcher finishes with a tag as well. Then we'll do the exact same thing on the right field side of the field. So you're working on cuts, you're working on relays, you're working on communication. And also you can add pitchers to this drill and they can work on backing up the dish on either side of the field too.
There's another one called bullet ricochet.
You're alternating between. It's a double cut with nobody on, and you set to third or runner at first, and you set the ball to the dish and you're just working on. On playing catch. You know, there's a star drill where you'll stand on the mound, throw the ball to the catcher. The catcher throws, makes. So everybody makes the long throw, throws it to second, the second baseman or shortstop throws it to first, across the field to third, back to the catcher, back to the guy on the mound. So we'll compete with that. Some days it'll be like, hey, every throw has to be a long hop.
Every throw has to be in the air in a glove side turn. We'll just create different variations of that. But. And also too, we always tell the guys, we don't need your best bullet. Just move your feet. Turn a bad throw into a good one by moving your feet. And don't kill the drill by making a bad throw. Don't kill the drill by dropping the baseball when the ball. When you know the ball is being thrown to you. So not nothing. That's like groundbreaking. Reinventing the wheel. It's just play catch, play catch, play catch, play catch. And. And a lot of what the infielders do, it's throwing the targets, it's throwing to the cut dummies, it's throwing to the nine pockets. So you're really having to refine. You don't get bailed out by a guy on first base who's 6 foot 4 with. With a big reach, you know, although it's nice to have at times. But, you know, let's kind of aim small, miss small, and let's throw to a target and let's keep track of how many times you hit the target, how many times you didn't, and how many times the ball went in your glove and how many times it didn't. So it's, again, it's not anything groundbreaking. It's just, let's be athletic and let's play catch, and let's do it at a highly successful rate.
[00:26:35] Speaker A: What are you using for terminologies for the relay guy? Okay, as far as letting it go, cutting it, what are you guys using for terminology?
[00:26:43] Speaker B: If it's a good throw, it's go, go, go.
Just seems over the years we've seen that when there's a lack of communication because some team wrong will say nothing on a good throw. And I think that leaves some doubt in the low receiver's mind in terms of does it need to be cut or not. So it's a catcher or it's a third baseman being assertive. Go, go, go. That's a good throw. Let it go.
And if it's offline, if it's dying, it needs to be relayed. So we'll say relay. Or if there's not going to be a play at the plate or third base that needs to be cut or cut to a different base.
[00:27:24] Speaker A: You know, you had a great year, and I asked all the assistants this. Obviously you're having a lot of success, so that helps. But does it make it harder recruiting wise because you're playing longer?
[00:27:37] Speaker B: Yeah.
Yes and no. I guess I've never really thought about it. Maybe I have in the moment, but, you know, when you. When you see, like, state tournaments and whatnot going on, I guess there's both sides. I've been at state tournaments, and I'm like, I know people are still playing, and it drives me insane that we're not still playing.
But they're also. You're, you know, you get to go to Cary, North Carolina, which is, you know, the best place in the world, and you're missing those state tournaments. So you're like, okay, I'm glad we're here. I want to be where my feet are here. But also, too, I know people are playing there. I want to see those guys because you kind of get the edge to go watch, you know, some summer baseball and go see the. The new group of kids and, and whatnot, because you, you know, you get out in the spring as much as you can, but obviously you, you know, your schedule is gonna, you know, dominate a lot of your time. But, yeah, I guess there's a give and take there. It's. It's.
You feel good about where you're at because you're still playing, but also, too, you feel like you're.
[00:28:33] Speaker A: It's FOMO, I guess it's around 40, right. On your roster. Is that pretty standard for y'all? 40, 45.
[00:28:41] Speaker B: Our sweets. Yeah, our sweet spot's about 45. You know, we'll. We'll vary between that 45 and 50 window. We. We have. We carry more pitchers than a lot of programs do.
You know, we try not to abuse our arms. We. In the eight years I've been here, I can count six times that our pitchers have thrown 100 pitches or more in a game. And I think four or five of those times have been in the World Series. So it's. That's our bet. That's our best arm. He's not coming out of the game. And, and also, too, we, we trust and know that that guy's done the work to take care of himself physically to where he's not putting himself in a position to hurt himself. And, you know, we're going to build our guys up throughout the year to where, you know, February, you know, we don't need you to go, you know, 80, 90, 100 pitches in, in February. We need you to go 80, 900 pitches in May and June when, when it means the most in some playoff baseball. And also, too, we're going to feel good about, you know, we, we've thrown 70 pitches and, you know, we're going to go third time through the lineup and we feel good about handing it off to the guy, the pen, who's just as good, if not better than the starter.
[00:29:43] Speaker A: We're on that coach. Connect call. With D2, which something interesting is coming out this year in the postseason, you can reset your roster after every game.
[00:29:52] Speaker B: That's awesome.
[00:29:53] Speaker A: Yeah, I heard, like, I never even thought about that. And I love the idea.
[00:29:58] Speaker B: Yeah, we had a, we had an outfielder who was injured last year in the regional, and it wasn't getting better going into our super regional. And, you know, we were talking with our NCAA rep, we're like, hey, you know, how do we deal with this guy? And, and, you know, if he can go, if he can't. And it was, you have to predetermine what it was. So that affected that, you know, that roster that we turned into the NCAA in terms of who could play, who couldn't, and we didn't feel good about it. You know, we kept them on there, but it was like, man, if, if, if he can't do it, then that's one less pitcher that we carry on our roster. And do we carry that extra position player?
Just knowing that you can, like, that guy got hurt now we can, you know, put somebody else on there. That's, that's a big deal. That's a big deal.
[00:30:43] Speaker A: With Division 1 maybe setting the roster around mid 30, do you feel like that's going to help Division 2 baseball?
[00:30:51] Speaker B: I would like to think yes.
You know, I think that when, when a lot of those guys, the rosters go down to, you know, that 34 window, whatever it may be, there's going to be some talented players looking for a new home. And so, yeah, it should. And theoretically, you know, it absolutely should. It's going to create a real domino effect of recruiting and roster changes and additions, and it's going to be interesting to see. I think everybody's just kind of in a holding pattern, just waiting to figure out when that effect is going to be taken into place and going from there.
[00:31:27] Speaker A: I feel like you and Coach Crooks do a good job of adding stuff as you go and changing with the times. How do you guys know when you're going to add something new in with the team? Like it might be a drill, might be an offensive defensive scheme. When do you know, okay, we're going to actually add this and implement it?
[00:31:45] Speaker B: Good question. You know, I think that sometimes it's like, you know, like, for example, we, from this past weekend, you know, the guys at Mizzou were doing the elongated soft toss. And so he, you know, he brought that back and we were like, well, we soft toss from a short distance because you want to try to simulate the timing. Like, you know, everybody's all about velo, right? So you want the hitters to make quick decisions. Well, yeah, in, in theory you want to do that, but also to have you watched 18 to 22 year olds try to front toss from, you know, 10ft, it's not so good. And half the time you're watching him, you're like, dude, you need to get your arm back behind the screen because you're, you're going to break your hand if you don't get it back behind.
But then, you know, the, the, the concept behind the elongates the front toss was you have to get gathered and load in into a good position to hit and there's still timing involved with that. So it's like, so he, we brought that back and you know, on Monday with our hit groups, it was like, hey, you know, we're doing this in this cage, in this cage here, we're going to elongate soft toss. And, and it was interesting to see how for some guys, the timing aspect really messed with them. And then, you know, diving forward to go make contact with the ball rather than, you know, gathering in their back leg and, and being grounded and letting the ball travel to drive the ball. So that one was like, yeah, that makes sense. Like, why, why would we not do this? And I think we, we're very routine oriented around here. So if something works, we're going to keep doing it. Now if we can create different stimuli around it, awesome. We'll absolutely do it. We want to change it up. We don't want it to be, we don't want the voice to feel like we're going through the motions again because we're doing meal BP again, and it's the same variation over and over again. But if we see something or hear something and it's like, why would we not do that? That's going to make us better. We're going to do it.
But I think a lot of what we do is just credit, trying to create different variations of what we already do based off of the group. So last year's group, you know, they had a lot of college baseball under their belt, so maybe it was just challenging them a little bit more with what we were doing. You know, this year's group, especially on the position player side, they're a little younger, so we may have to take a step back. And this group isn't a season when it comes to college baseball at the level, at the pace that we're. We're accustomed to. So we have to make adjustments, you know, so it's year to year. But I. I think if we see something, whether it's we go to a convention or we see something on social media, or we call somebody and they're like, hey, I saw this. It's like, well, why? That's. Does it make us better? Yeah, well, let's go. Let's do it. You know, it. I don't think there's really ever much debate. It's just, yeah, let's. Let's go. It's going to make us better. So, you know, we're willing to, to make adjustments, and we don't want to continue to do the same over and over again if it's just to do the same over and over again. So we want to find ways to help make these guys better.
[00:34:49] Speaker A: Hey, with your, with your new guys, how much are you relaying them before they get on campus? I mean, you talked about mule, bp, any like, pace. Pace is way different at the next level.
[00:35:02] Speaker B: Unreal.
[00:35:03] Speaker A: How much are you relaying that to your new guys before they get there?
[00:35:07] Speaker B: I don't know if I wish I had a better way to do it, to be honest with you. I've said it a lot this fall. It's just, I wish we could have these kids for the month of July or something to where they're in the weight room in the mornings and then we go hit. And then they just hear our verbiage and our lingo and they get a better sense of what it is because we hit the ground running come fall and right away we get going right away with team practice. And for some of those guys, like you said, the pace, it's really hard. They have, they have no idea how fast college baseball is compared, because for some, in some cases, a lot of these kids are the best players on their team. So things came easy, easy to them, and now they're not. And then it becomes very challenging. And it's like, hey, don't forget that it's still 90ft, still the same baseball. Nothing changed other than your environment and the things, the people that you're surrounded by and the new verbiage and the new way to go about things. So I need to. I know I need to do a better job of relaying that, but I don't know if just relaying that information prepares them, like, hey, you need to be in good shape when you get here, so go run sprints. Well, there's, you know, you can go run sprints and feel good and take all the time you need in between, you know, those, those reps, right?
There's nobody pressuring you to do those things.
So there. You're really never physically ready to go. And then, like you said, the pace and then your body's hurts, your. Your mind is swimming because there's so many new things being thrown at you. I don't know how really prepared you can put yourself right.
So I don't know. I don't know. I, I actually that's. That's been a topic of discussion is how can we better prepare these guys when they get here.
I don't know. We're kind of going back to the drawing board with a lot of those things.
[00:36:55] Speaker A: So how'd you lay out this fall? Was this fall different then with some newer guys as opposed to an older team? How was that when you guys first started the fall?
[00:37:05] Speaker B: The models stayed the same in terms of how we do it. We do what we call productive discomfort the first couple weeks. So we do a lot of hard things in the mornings together. We push some slides, we do some races.
We challenge them. We challenge them physically. We break the groups up into packs. So we have eight packs. And have you heard of, like, the boat crew system?
So it's that. But we have pack leaders, so we. We'll assign the groups and. And we'll do some things in the mornings together. And, and really the older guys have asked us in exit meetings over the years, like, hey, we need to do conditioning on the front end because two things. It's, you get better baseball, so you give them a couple weeks to get kind of into shape and. But also, too, you learn who is on your team. And so you're. You're pairing these new guys. With these returners. And they know who's willing to. To go push a sled when the sled needs to be pushed. They know who's willing to hold their teammate up when the guy's tired and he. He can feel like he can't stand up anymore. And you. You look, but you learn good. Two good things, like, good things and bad things at the same time. Like, hey, that guy might not be tough enough to do it here, so we're going to have to, you know, bring him along. And then, too, the new guys have somebody to go to.
The first couple weeks, it's all right. This guy's in charge of my pack.
The questions that I have, the needs that I have, you know, I need somebody to go to, you know, answer these questions or to get help, because I think at times, they don't necessarily want to go to the coaching staff for those things, and we ask them not to. Like, hey, we've been your point of contact in the whole recruiting process now. These guys are your teammates. Go talk to them and, you know, learn. Learn what it is from those guys first. And then if you still have questions, come ask us. So we start those first couple weeks with that, and then we go right into team practice. And this fall, it was a little bit different. And, you know, I just. I think it was because there were some baseball things that I don't want to paint a bad light on, like high school baseball or the travel youth baseball scene, but because I think because they're doing a lot of the showcase things, they're not actually learning the baseball side of things. So we had to be like, hey, no, when. When a runner at second base and the balls hit to left field, or, sorry, right field, second baseman, you go cover the back kind of thing, like, kind of some rudimentary things where we had to kind of take a step back and change it up in terms of, like, okay, we're going to set some situations that we're going to kind of walk through these situations in a machine scrimmage setting where we haven't had to do that in the past. It was like, hey, second baseman, you're supposed to go there. Oh, okay, got it. I won't not be there again this year. It's been a little bit different. Like, oh, he's telling me the same thing over and over and over again. I have to make some adjustments. So we had to make adjustments, too, and they were appreciative of that. It was like, okay, got it now. Because we go very fast and, like, you said the pace is what it is. They were just struggling to acclimate to the pace and having the understanding of there's where I'm supposed to be.
[00:40:12] Speaker A: For somebody that hasn't heard boat crew. Can you go over that? For somebody that maybe hasn't heard boat crew, that, that system.
[00:40:20] Speaker B: Yeah, so derived from the, the Navy seals, then they're, they're broken up into boat grew boat crews during their BUDS training. And so basically they're just like small little groups and teams of that go and do things together and go compete and there's a point of contact and I don't know if they assign leaders to those boat crews or not, or they're just hoping that somebody will just take it and lead and go. But we assign leaders to ours. And yeah, it's. So it's like mini packs. It's decentralized command. So it's, you know, you've got the Navy brass and, you know, I don't know the rank, so I don't want to misspeak here, but they say, hey, you know, they'll go communicate to the boat crews. The boat crews communicate to everybody else in that group and, you know, they decipher the information from there. So we kind of took that same model and just kind of. So we talk about our offense being the pack offense. So we, we just flip the name a little bit to the pack.
[00:41:21] Speaker A: How do you sign? How do you sign your leaders?
[00:41:27] Speaker B: Usually returners will put one position player and one pitcher in each group.
[00:41:32] Speaker A: Love it, Love it.
Do you feel like general conditioning for getting after them early helps stay away from some injuries once you get started?
[00:41:43] Speaker B: Yeah, I think so. And I think it just provides a better, better practice, a better, a better baseball early. So you're not trying to learn how we do things while getting in shape at the same time. And so, yeah, I remember just a lot of inch, a lot of hamstrings because again, they're not as much as they did over break. They're still not in good enough shape to do it when they get on campus. So that kind of gives you a two, three week buffer window of helping them get into shape to where one, they can stay healthy and two, just a better baseball product because they've gotten into shape for the last couple weeks. And at the same time, you know, we're kind of working through like, here's what we do, here's how we go about our, you know, our daily hit groups. Here's how we go about our dfds. Here's what we're going to do at team practice. Here's how to turn your laundry in. All those little things that we can teach over those first couple of weeks that when we officially start team practice, it's okay. We've talked about all this, you know, early hitters at 1 o'clock. Here we go.
[00:42:43] Speaker A: I still feel like that's why we have the amount of injuries we have, because general fitness level is not where it was. I think the athleticism is at an all time high, but I think general conditioning and general fitness is not as.
[00:42:55] Speaker B: Good as it was for sure. And I'll give all of our strength guys, like total credit for all this too. They do a really good job of not.
It's so like, how do you get strong? You move heavy weight, right? Um, I think, and I'm not speaking, I'm not saying I know everything about the strength, strength and conditioning side of things, but I think we've got too individualized at times with the baseball lifting and gotten away from like, how do we get strong, how do we get fast? And our strength guys are really, really good at doing those things and it's putting them in a position to get stronger, move faster and stay healthy while, you know, excelling on the baseball field at the same time.
[00:43:38] Speaker A: What are some of the best routines you've seen out of your players?
Could be offensively, defensively.
[00:43:47] Speaker B: So this is recency bias. Our shortstop last year, Max. Holy. You know, we talk about having a trigger and, you know, so it's, you know, you go across the foul line to go play defense. You're a defender now, you know, leave her at bat behind you or whatever. Maybe you're in the dugout being a good teammate, you know, that's done. Now your job is to go play shorter or play center, you know, and, you know, we have our pre at bat routines, our pre pitch routines. You'll see it, you'll hear, you'll hear it from our dugout.
We do a lot of mental game stuff here. And, and you'll hear, you know, get back to your green light, take your deep, take a deep breath. You know, go to your focal. A lot of those. Well, a lot of those things. But last year, you know, you. I'm in charge of the positioning. You know, I work, I sit next to our pitching coach, Eli McFadden. I sit next to him in the dugout. And so we kind of work hand in hand about where we're positioning our guys, how we're going to attack hitters and whatnot. And, you know, I'm kind of doing my scan and I look over and Max always at short doing this. He's like, hit me the ball. Hit me the ball. Hit me the ball. And we're like, hey, baseball gods, hit that guy the ball. Like, just reward him, please, because, you know, he wants it. And it wasn't an always. He didn't do that all the time, but he was just in a position to where I know he's going through his routine and he's so confident and locked in about what's going on. He wants the baseball. And that's what you want to see from the. From guys, you know, a big disciple of the mental game. We had a catcher a few years ago named Isaiah Pawnee, and the mental game was a really big thing for him. He was a. He really lacked some confidence, and the game was really hard for him. But he really. He really grew physically and he was.
He dove into the mental game. And you could see him. He'd go out to catch and if something didn't go his way and, you know, or if, you know, he's teetering in a yellow or red light, he'd take his glove and he'd swipe the ground and in front of him and it was like, man, it's good. That's. That's what you want to see. You see guys aware of where they're at. You see them intentionally going to their routines. Does. It doesn't mean he's going to have success if you know the next ball thrown in the dirt, that he's going to block it. Or does it mean that Max is going to field the ball short? No, no. But you feel confident those guys are in a position to go have that success. If a pitcher, you know, throws what he knows is a strike and the umpire balls it and Connor Wolf hops off the mountain and turns around and takes his hat off to go through his yellow red light routine. It's a good, good. That's what you want. Because he is checked in with himself that he knows I'm getting outside of myself here. I need to take a deep breath on my focal point. I need to say my key word or my key phrase, and I'm going to go back and compete. I'm moving on from what just happened, and I'm going to go give all my compete for this next pitch, and that's it, and I'm going to do it again. So when you say routines like it's. We have a. We have a sign. We do. We all. We do all the dugout signs. We have a sign in our locker room and it's Clark Kent changing into Superman. It's. There's. So we kind of set their first routine for them. Okay, you were a student, you were, you know, a boyfriend. You were, you know, a dorm a roommate. You were a son or whatever, whatever you were doing before you got here. Well, now it's time to be a Mills baseball player. So there's your trigger, there's your switch. Okay, I put my uniform. And we asked them, they'll have a. Have a switch. Whether it's you put your hat on, whether it's. Whether it's you. You tie your shoelaces on your cleats. Now, I'm here, I'm present. I'm going to be a Mules baseball player for the next three hours, and I'm going to put all my focus, all my attention into, you know, getting better doing, doing the things that are asked and being a good teammate. And so there's your first one there. We kind of set that routine for him. But, you know, we do the fourth up approach. We do the red light, green light routines. And, you know, we. And we kind of individualize it from there. Our center fielder last year, Brendan Van Bruce, again, he carried a sign with him. So he struggled not taking it bats into the outfield, or he struggled, you know, not being able to move on from one thing to the next. And he made a dugout sign for himself. It was check in, get back to your process. So he put it in the same spot when we, when we were here at home. And then he take it with him on the road. Wherever we were at, he'd find a spot in the dugout, and that's where he put his hat and his glove. And the rest of the outfielders put their stuff there too, with them. And he'd come off the field and he'd look at it and he'd take his hat off, he'd take his deep breath. Okay, I am releasing me being a defender now. I'm getting ready to go hit or I'm releasing whatever just happened, good or bad, from that last at bat. I'm taking my deep breath and I'm putting my hat on, and I'm going to go be a center fielder. I'm going to go play defense now. So routines are a really big thing for us here, and we believe it's going to put our guys in the best position to compete just one pitch at a time. Does it guarantee the success? No. But the guys that are More routine oriented over and over and over again are the guys that are going to have the most continued success because it's just going to lead to more confidence.
[00:48:36] Speaker A: Did you use much of that as a player?
[00:48:40] Speaker B: You know, Coach Stockton talked a lot about it and that's kind of where I was introduced to it. I remember my dad giving me, I still have his copy of the Mental Game of Baseball and I would, I didn't do enough. I didn't because I can vividly remember being in the box and telling myself to not chase another changeup that I knew was coming or like I, you know, behind the plate, I missed a pitch or I bobbed the ball out of the zone, whatever it may be. I remember all the self doubt creeping into my mind and I didn't have a release that allowed me to get away from it. I did at times but you know, my career did this because my mind did that too. So I think that's partly why we're so passionate about the mental game here. It's because we needed it. And how can we help these guys? They're talented, they're good players, but the game's hard and the game doesn't care so the other team gets a vote. So how are we going to combat the ups and downs that this game will provide you and in terms of what can we provide you to where. Oh, I needed that for my routine. I needed that for my self talk, I needed that for my breathing routines to where, you know, they could take it and run with it. So I mean, yeah, I was around it as a player but you know, until like I could take a step back from my playing, my playing days and I could be like, you're, you were talented. I mean you hustled, you gave good effort, your attitude was right but you were still missing the mental game and it would have really helped you. Until I could take a step back and detach from that. That was when I was like, oh well, I think some of these guys are in the same boat. I can. You, you are doing exactly what I was doing but now I see it from a different perspective now. So let me help you with this. So if you can take this and add this to what you're doing, I hope, I hope it helps you. I promise you it will if you just, if you stay consistent with it.
[00:50:31] Speaker A: How much of a benefit is for you all? You play a ton of home games.
[00:50:35] Speaker B: We love playing at home. We love playing at home. Yeah, we love sleeping in our own beds.
I feel like we have a real Home field advantage here. Our yard plays big and we, we play a really obnoxious song when we score runs.
[00:50:51] Speaker A: What's the song?
[00:50:53] Speaker B: It's the Vanguard Bus. It's by the Banga Boys. Yeah, just.
I know people don't like it, but it's, it's great. But. So, like, the cool thing about this place is there's some traditions that have been going on for the last 20 plus years, so. And I know that's one of them, so.
But yeah, we play, we play a lot of home games. We love sleeping on our own beds. We love being here at home.
Our locker room is connected to our dugout, so you can. On cold days in February and March, if you need to get out of the elements, you can go sitting in the heat. And so there's a real home field advantage there.
Our opposing team's dugout is always in the shade. Ours is always in the sun. The field plays big. There's a lot of teams in our conference that, you know, play at some, some yards that the wind typically blows out. Ours typically the wind blows in.
So it just, yeah, it, There's a lot of foul territory. There's a big outfield. Again, pitching and defense is what we pride ourselves on. So, yeah, we've. We've got a pretty good record here at home. And we, we, again, just, we love being here. It's cringe. It's. I don't know if you've ever been to Crane Stadium. It's. It's the best place in the world. So, you know, we want, we want, we want to be here.
[00:52:09] Speaker A: Do you stay with early morning workouts throughout the whole year with your guys? I know everybody does a little bit different. That's why I'm asking, because everybody does a little bit.
[00:52:16] Speaker B: Yeah, we do. The only time we vary is when I guess you kind of hit the dog day, so to speak. So. I know, I know Our March schedule this year is. We're on the road three out of the four weekends, so we'll definitely vary that. You're. You're not sleeping in your own bed. You're eating. Your sleeping schedules are going to be a little bit different. So, you know, typically in the springtime, we'll lift Tuesday, Thursday, and game day lift Saturdays.
You know, let's say we play a Wednesday, midweek game, you know, Thursday, it's coming, and lift on your own based off your class schedule. So it won't be, hey, get up at Inlet 6. Again, it'll be, you know, varied based off of class schedules. Those Kinds of things or, or Tuesday, whatever it may be. So, so yeah, we, we vary. And then Saturday mornings it'll be pre r bp.
[00:53:04] Speaker A: We're pushing to get you guys more games, by the way.
[00:53:07] Speaker B: It's awesome. Yes. We love it. We love it.
[00:53:10] Speaker A: You know, for people that don't know the process and this has been a Division one thing with us for a long time. So, you know, we're in the process of trying to get more games for Division 2 and more practice hours.
But, but really the landscape of college athletics now is you have to get the athletes input on, on any of that stuff. So it looks like the athletes are in favor of it too, which I think will be helpful for you all to be able to go to your ads and presidents and be like, hey, the athletes want this as well.
[00:53:37] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. In and, you know, Division 2, I.
[00:53:41] Speaker A: Guess it makes sense though. You have a 14 week schedule, 52 games make sense. Because that way.
[00:53:47] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, you.
[00:53:48] Speaker A: It makes sense.
[00:53:50] Speaker B: Yeah. And the more you play, the better it's going to be. So, you know, we always look back and at the end of the year it's like, oh, I wish so and so could have got mornings on the mound or I wish so and so could have got more abs. And if you're, you know, again, if you're putting more practice hours in place and if you're adding more games, you know, even, even more outside dates where you can play in the early spring or fall against other teams. Just, just those days help you out significantly.
[00:54:18] Speaker A: Do you have a fail forward moment? Do you have something you thought was going to set you back but looking back now helped you move forward?
[00:54:25] Speaker B: You know, I think it was, you know, my first thought is leaving Lindenwood with not having something there. It was just the unknown of, you know, what are we going to do? Am I going to be able to stick around in college baseball? Is something going to, you know, work out for me there? And so it's just the, you know, the two, three months of just, you know, not knowing what again, like we, you know, when we started the conversation, it was just, I've. I've always been on a baseball field. It's just what I've known. It's like, well, I, it's what I do, right? So I'm not going to do anything else because I don't have anything else, I guess, you know, so it was, there was that limbo of time where I just.
Not that I failed, but it was just, okay, I'm learning a lot about myself and I have to take a step back and, okay, is this really what I want to continue doing? And, and if so, you know, I need to be all in on it and I need to get my wife all in on it at the same time. And still while accounting for her and her needs and our family's needs. And, you know, how do I make this work? How do I prove that, you know, I can still do this at a high level? How do I prove that I can still provide for our family at the same time?
So not necessarily a failing moment, but a looking back and introspectively, okay, if we're going to do this, I'm going to be all in.
And, you know, we're going to, we're going to do it together and we're going to find a way to make it work.
[00:55:55] Speaker A: There's always those crossroads. And that's why I said, you know, there's a lot of luck to it too, but there's always those crossroads. When you first get into it, it's like, okay, I really love doing this, but I also do have to provide for my family as well. And I always think about what I would have done if I didn't get the next job. I don't know. And maybe go back to bartending.
[00:56:15] Speaker B: Honestly, I don't know. Yeah, I'd probably be mowing yards or on a golf course, you know, mowing greens or something like that. But yeah, I'm so thankful to Coach Crooks for giving me the opportunity and sticking with me too, and, you know, allowing me to do what we do here on a daily basis.
[00:56:34] Speaker A: Do you have any personal habits or routines that you feel like help you? You're in great shape. So do you have any personal habits or routines you feel like help you?
[00:56:42] Speaker B: Well, daily routines. You know, we're going to work out as a staff every single day. We have a weight room here at our facility in our, in our indoor. So the dungeon and discipline up there. So we, we go up there and we'll either do a strength day or a CrossFit workout, but we're going to do something up there every day. I, you know, I'll be completely honest.
I was so routine oriented and regimented and then I had kids and I've really gotten away from a lot of those things. So I'm a morning person. So I would get up early before my wife and, you know, I love coffee. I drink it all day long and I'd get my coffee and I'd read and I'd read a book a month and sometimes more. And, you know, so I would do a lot of those things. And now my mornings dictated about getting both kids up and fed and dressed and to school in the morning. So that's changed. So I have to make. I have to be more intentional about time where I'm reading. I have to be more intentional about time where I'm listening to podcast or, you know, connecting with people and, you know, friends or people in the industry and doing those things. So.
But the one thing for sure here on a daily basis, it's, we're going to work out. You know, we're going to, we're going to stay physically active and can do those things. So I know I'm. I'm getting closer to the time where I get to, you know, my son's getting. Always going to be four in February to where we can start doing some of those things together. You know, kind of get me back on track here.
[00:58:12] Speaker A: What do you guys do CrossFit wise?
[00:58:16] Speaker B: Have you ever heard of the app SugarWad?
[00:58:18] Speaker A: I have not.
[00:58:19] Speaker B: Okay, I'll text it to you here. It's a free app and there's, there's just a bunch of.
Can.
[00:58:26] Speaker A: Spell that for me. For people listening and spell that for me.
[00:58:30] Speaker B: Sugar. S U G A R W O D. It's a, it's a blue logo with a dumbbell going diagonally across it.
So you can, you can subscribe to whatever gym you want to on there. So the nice thing about it is there's zero thought process behind it. It's just, here's what today's workout. So they lay out the warmup, they lay out the strength portion, they lay out the actual wad and then, you know, any extra work behind it. So like, sometimes it's just like we're limited with time. You know, guys come in, they want extra work or you have a recruit on campus or you just have a, you just have a full day and you can get your ass kicked in 10 minutes. And, and, you know, like, I don't want to ever hear people like, I don't have time to work out. Like, I can do something.
[00:59:14] Speaker A: I have a Tabata workout, so. God, I can't. Hannah Eden. That's the. She's a CrossFit. She's an influencer. But I found her in like 2017.
[00:59:26] Speaker B: Anna.
[00:59:27] Speaker A: Yeah. And.
Yep. H A N N A H E D E N. She has a good backstory because she's a drug addict and lived in London and got herself cleaned up. And if you see her, she's a Beast. But Tabata is some of the stuff. It's a lot of kettlebell stuff. But that literally is a 10 minute exercise. 10 minute deal. It's, it's basically eight exercises that you're going on and off for 20 seconds on, 10 seconds off, you will be done and you're done in 10 minutes. You're done. Like for anybody that I get the, I get to get on a treadmill and check out for a while. But I'm like, you're wasting all kinds of time because this heart rate variability stuff will kick your butt in 10 minutes and that's all you need.
[01:00:07] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And like kids, you're absolutely right. There's. I can't do the treadmill thing. I did the, I did the long distance running things and I was like, I need to retire from that. So, you know, got into the CrossFit thing when we got here and you know, we vary from time to time. Like we have a peloton at home, so that's a good change of pace. But there are, there are days, I'm gonna be honest with you, I'll look at the workout and it's like, I don't, I, I did burpees as punishment when I was playing. I don't want to do more burpees today. So, you know, we'll, we'll get under the bar and bench and squat a little bit too. So we change it up. But yeah, it's good. Like when, you know, I got 20 minutes and you can get a quick warmup in and you can be laying on the ground dead tired when you're done and you feel so much better about what you did after you did.
[01:00:50] Speaker A: It, even if you just did a dynamic warmup, honestly, for a lot of people, even if you just did the warm up and you could be plenty good if you just did the warmup every day, you're probably gonna be fine if you just did it every day.
[01:01:00] Speaker B: Yep, yep. I just, I have a hard time asking, demanding, telling the boys to do hard things, especially that first couple weeks when we get back, if we're not to be completely frank, we, we take some CrossFit type things either. The CrossFit games are right before we get back from summer break. We'll take some of those workouts and we'll, we'll create them for our boys and crooks and I will, will do them with our strength staff to make sure that one, they're doable. That the, you know, the time parameters that we put behind those things are doable so if we're going to ask them to do hard things that we need to do it, too. Like, we can't say, hey, eat this. Look like that if you're not going to do the same thing. So again, my opinion, I would jump.
[01:01:45] Speaker A: In with our guys in the Friday morning stuff, too.
[01:01:48] Speaker B: It's awesome. Just.
[01:01:50] Speaker A: Just to show like, hey, this is doable. Like, I know you think it's. It's not doable, but this is doable. And if somebody that's 40 or 50 years old is doing this with you, you should be able to do it.
[01:02:02] Speaker B: Yep, yep. Absolutely. Absolutely. And then, too, if you, you know, when you walk in the weight room and you see not enough weight on the bar, you. You can let them know that they can add a little bit more.
[01:02:12] Speaker A: What are some final thoughts before I let you go?
[01:02:17] Speaker B: Final thoughts. Oh, goodness, man, I don't know. Just. Just a lot of gratitude. I'm so thankful to be a part of a baseball community and to, you know, to get to do things like the, you know, the ABCA podcast and to go to the convention and to, you know, just have a relationship with a lot of different people all around the country and to, you know, help be a part of such a good game and, you know, thankful for. Again, for Coach Crooks, for allowing me to have this opportunity to be here and to work and to grow. And that goes all the way back to Corey Blaine in my days at Ottawa. It goes back to, you know, Coach Stockton, you know, helping instill some things to me while I was a player. Jewel. And to my dad for, you know, I. I always. I'll always remember this because I feel like I'm gonna have to tell my son the same thing. You'll never be the biggest, you'll never be the fastest, you'll never be the strongest, but you can outwork everybody and. And you can do that. And there's a lot of different ways to do that. So thankful to. To all those men in my life that allowed me to, or I guess influenced me to, you know, to where I am today and then helped guide me along to the. Because I'm not perfect and I failed and I'm learning, but they've allowed me to do those things in the environments that they provided for me. So just a lot of gratitude and thankful for. You just get to be surrounded by a lot of really good people. You get the opportunity to. You're outside every day. You get to do baseball every day. I mean, what better opportunity to impact people than through this great game. So just very thankful, very humbled and just appreciative of all the good that has been coming our way.
[01:04:03] Speaker A: Thanks for your time, Alex, man. I appreciate it. It's awesome.
[01:04:05] Speaker B: I really, I really appreciate you having me on. This was enjoyable.
[01:04:10] Speaker A: Alex is one of the bright stars in the coaching profession. He and Coach Crooks have built the Mules into a perennial College World Series team. They both have a growth mindset and continue to evolve with the time.
Congrats to them and the Mules on another College World Series appearance.
Thanks again to John Litchfield, Zach Hale, Matt west and Antonio Walker in the ABC Office for all the help on the podcast. Feel free to reach out to me via email r brownleebca.org Twitter, Instagram and TikTok coachbeabca or direct message me via the MyBCA app. This is Ryan Brownlee signing off for the American Baseball Coaches Association. Thanks and leave it better for those behind you.
[01:05:04] Speaker B: Wait for another will always eternal and your love was never for your name and you know that way.
[01:05:24] Speaker A: Wait for another.
[01:05:29] Speaker B: Day.
