Chris Sheehan - 2026 ABCA/Soldier Sports High School Div. III Assistant Coach of the Year

[00:00:04] Speaker A: Welcome to the abca's podcast. I'm your host ryan brownlee. This episode is brought to you by Rapsodo Baseball. Great coaching starts with knowing what to work on next. Rapsodo gives coaches the objective data, video and instant feedback they need to make every rep more purposeful with 20 plus hitting and pitching data points, live on live capabilities, seam orientation, scripted sessions and more. Rapsodo's Pro 2.0 and Pro 3.0 units help coaches dial in on player development for their athletes with pro level data and ball tracking technology. From establishing baselines to validating adjustments and tracking progress, Rapsoda takes the guesswork out of development. Measure what matters, train with purpose. Learn more by emailing salespsodo.com or visit their website rapsodo.com baseball this episode is sponsored by Netting Pros. Netting Professionals are improving programs one facility at a time. Netting Professionals specializes in the design, fabrication and installation of custom netting for backstops, batting cages, dugouts, BP screens and ball carts. They also design and install digital graphic wall padding, windscreen turf, turf protectors, dugout benches, dugout cubbies and more. Netting Professionals is an official partner of the ABCA and continues to provide quality products and services to many high school, college and professional fields, facilities and stadiums throughout the country. Netting Professionals are improving programs one facility at a time. Contact them today at 844-620-2707 or infoottingpros.com, visit them online at www.nettingpros.com or check out Netting Pros on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn for all their latest products and projects. Make sure to let CEO Will Minor know that the ABCA sent you. Now onto the podcast. Christiana is the 2026 ABCA Soldier Sports High School Division 3 assistant coach of the Year and a longtime member of the Bishop Hendrick High School baseball program in Rhode Island. In 2026, the Hawks won their third straight state championship and 25th overall for the program. A Warwick native and Bishop Hendrick graduate, Sheehan was a standout pitcher for the Hawks before continuing his playing career at the University of Rhode Island. Fortunately, his shoulder injury brought his playing days to an early end, but that setback ultimately helped shape the path he would take as a coach and educator, Kinesiology major at URI and a certified strength and conditioning specialist, Sheehan has developed a player development philosophy that goes beyond simply throwing more strikes or adding velocity. Sheehan focuses on helping pitchers understand how to prepare their bodies for optimal performance, durability and the demands of the base baseball season. Sheena spent the last decade coaching varsity baseball while also taking on significant leadership roles within Bishop Hendrick as dean of strategic leadership in grade eight, athletic director and now assistant principal. Today we're going to dive into pitching development, movement prep, strength and conditioning, and tips on keeping athletes healthy. Let's welcome Chris Shien to the podcast. [00:03:35] Speaker B: Before we start, so my son can go to bed, he says he wants to make an appearance on the camera. [00:03:42] Speaker A: What's up? What's your name? [00:03:44] Speaker B: Pretty good. All set? All right. [00:03:46] Speaker A: What's his name? [00:03:47] Speaker B: This is CJ. [00:03:48] Speaker A: What's up, cj? You doing all right? Yeah. Yeah. You want. You want me to put this. Put this on the podcast? [00:03:55] Speaker B: Yeah. You'll be famous. [00:04:01] Speaker A: That's awesome. [00:04:02] Speaker B: Lefty hitter, lefty thrower. [00:04:04] Speaker A: Perfect. Here with Chron ABCA, Division 3 High School Assistant coach of the year. Bishop Hendrickin, also assistant principal, but this was Hendrickin's third state championship in a row and then 25th overall. So congrats and thanks for jumping on with me. [00:04:19] Speaker B: Thank you. Really appreciate it. Been a huge fan of this podcast for a long time. So to have the opportunity to be on is. [00:04:25] Speaker A: Is awesome was your goal after college? Always go back to Hendrickin. [00:04:31] Speaker B: Honestly, when I was at Hendrickin, if you told me I was gonna end up back there, I would have said you're crazy. Not, you know, anything negative with the school. Just, you know, didn't really see that in the future, but, you know, one thing leads to another. I had an injury when I was in college that kind of really got me into, like, learning more about the body and understanding mechanics and all those different things and really started to develop a passion for coaching. So I started coaching some Legion ball while I was in college in the summers. And then as soon as I got done with college, you know, I reached out to Coach Holloway and, you know, was fortunate enough that he gave me an opportunity and. And, you know, been there ever since, and ultimately started teaching there and then bec, assistant athletic director, then became a dean, and now I, you know, I'm the assistant principal in my third year doing that. So, yeah, it's, you know, it's a great place to be. You know, I have a lot of passion for the place, and you get to work with a great group of kids that, you know, really want to get better. [00:05:29] Speaker A: Have you balanced your other responsibilities with coaching? Because not everybody can do that. I give you a lot of credit because those. Those other jobs are like big time jobs. [00:05:36] Speaker B: Yeah, it's. It definitely can be a lot. I'M fortunate that, you know, being a private school, we are able to have some flexibility. And, you know, I work with a great administrative team that we're able to share responsibilities in many different ways and help to balance each other out. So, you know, in the spring, it definitely gets pretty hectic between my, you know, daily responsibilities as an assistant principal and then also, you know, heading out to practice or games right after school, and then, you know, you're getting home late. And obviously, I have to give a lot of credit to my wife. You know, she deserves it, because during the spring, taking care of three little kids, she definitely carries a heavy load. So, yeah, but it's good. I think that's the beauty of being an assistant principal and an assistant coach, but having a big role in both the institution and the school is you're able to do both and be able to balance it somewhat. If there's a situation where I'm stuck in school dealing with something that's going on, at least I know there are other very capable coaches out there getting practice started. [00:06:39] Speaker A: How different have those jobs been, though? Principal, dean, athletic director. How different are those jobs? [00:06:45] Speaker B: They're different in many ways, but also same in many ways. You know, I think all of those opportunities have given me a great opportunity to develop my leadership abilities and problem solving abilities and ability to communicate. And, you know, I think all that transfers into coaching as well. So, yeah, I learned a lot, certainly in each role that I've been in and I think have helped prepare me for the role that I'm currently in. And, you know, obviously you continue to learn, continue to gain experience and, you know, see what the next step leads to. [00:07:15] Speaker A: How special has this run been for you guys? Three in a row. I mean, how many times Has Henderkin done? 3. 0, if ever. [00:07:22] Speaker B: So when I first started coaching, we won five in a row. And I was kind of like, geez, this is easy. And then. Then you go through a couple of. And certainly they weren't all easy wins, but then you go through a couple of tough years and not tough years, but, you know, pretty much with the standard that we have. If you don't win a championship, like, that's a tough year. So we went. I think it was 2017. We didn't. We made the Final Four. We didn't win 2018. We probably had the best team, and we came up short in the game to get to the final 2019. We won. We had a great team, went undefeated. Then 2020 Covid hits 2021 shortened season. We lose we get upset in the playoffs. 2022, we make the state championship. We lose one nothing and then an extra innings. 2023, we have this really good team. You know, we had a stud pitcher that got drafted really high. He's in the minors now. So all signs pointed towards that being the year we get beat in the semis, heartbreaking fashion. So now you come up with this team in 2024. You have a great senior class that had been through, you know, a tough three years, you know, having not won a championship, some really losses. And that team was just unbelievable, like the leadership, the chemistry that obviously the talent. So we won 2024. 2025 was one of those years where you weren't really sure what, you know, what was going to happen. And some guys really stepped up. We were able to go back to back. And then last year, we actually lost our best pitcher early in the season and kind of thought we were in trouble a little bit, but we had some. Some other arms step up big time, some position guys step up and, you know, really, we played our best baseball at the best time. I think our run differential in the final series was like 27 to 2 or something like that. So, yeah, it's been. It's been a great run and, you know, really excited for the returning group of guys that we have this coming year. You know, pretty, pretty strong leadership at the top. So I think we'll have a good opportunity this year as well. [00:09:28] Speaker A: How do you handle that every year with your guys without them getting complacent? You know, obviously the standards set with that, but sometimes teams might back off where they just expect that it's going to happen every year. [00:09:37] Speaker B: Yeah, I think a lot of it is you do always have, like, some new guys that now have their opportunity, you know, and they. They really. It becomes their year. We've used things, and this is nothing that we created ourselves. Honestly, this is probably something I picked up on this podcast, but we've. We've labeled teams, like, by the number, like Team 63 in Hendrick in history. So, like, that's their identity and how do they want to be remembered? And, you know, that is something that kids really, like, take to heart. And especially their senior year, they want to be part of a championship team. They don't want to go out, you know, the wrong way. So it's. I would say, yes, it can be challenging, but at the same time, we deal with kids that are pretty hungry and they know what the expectation is, which is a fine line because sometimes I remember when we lost in 2023. Talking to, like, some of our. Our nucleus and saying, like, do you guys feel like there's too much pressure? And they said there's definitely, like, a pressure to win, but it's not from the coaches. It's more just like that's the expectation, that's the standard. So, you know, I think that that benefits us as much as it can hurt us, but that it is what it is. [00:10:41] Speaker A: Did you win it as a player when you were there? [00:10:43] Speaker B: We won my junior and senior year. [00:10:46] Speaker A: So you went back to back? [00:10:47] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. And, you know, I think back to those teams and like, the same thing. You know, you have kids that were really hungry, but a lot of the kids that I played with, a lot of them didn't really play until their junior or senior year. And, you know, we just. There were just guys in front of them, you know, and that's a hard thing in this day and age. You know, you're dealing with a generation of kids that really want instant gratification. And, you know, there's so many travel ball teams and, and, you know, rankings and all this stuff, and sometimes that can lead to false expectations and. And, you know, it's hard to get a kid to truly understand, like, yes, you are an important part of the future. You just need to, like, play. So maybe you need to go to jv, you know, and again, that's very challenging, and hopefully you're able to communicate to the kids and get them to understand. But it's. That's definitely a challenge you face in this day and age. And also being at a private school where, you know, I think there is a level of expectation when they come there. [00:11:45] Speaker A: Well, it looks like a feeder program's good too, right? Dyer, eighth grade. Did they win a championship too? [00:11:50] Speaker B: Yeah. So about maybe four or five years ago, it was when I was. I was a dean. I was. One of my responsibilities was the 8th grade and just getting to know the kids. I started. There was no 8th grade baseball team at that time. So I started to recognize, like, geez, there's eight or nine kids here that are, like, pretty serious about baseball. We would talk about baseball, and, you know, I was like, you know what? Maybe we should put a team together. And you ended up. I think we ended up getting like 13 or 14 kids that year, and they made the final Four and they did, like, pretty well. And then the next year they won a championship. And then I think they've won each year since. So it's been a really good run, you know, Definitely some, some great players have come out of it. You know, one of our, our best players that I mentioned earlier had gotten hurt last year. He was, you know, part of a championship team as an eighth grader. Our first basement was part of a championship team as an eighth grader. So you know, there's, there's many of them, but those are just some examples. [00:12:45] Speaker A: And it's amazing thing like you teach kids how to win and what it takes, like that's going to carry over into their next thing and their next thing, like they're getting a taste of that earlier. But how you actually win a championship, no doubt. [00:12:54] Speaker B: And I, you know, I think you hit the nail on the head when you said you're teaching kids how to win because that is something that you need to learn. I mean, I would say that is something we've definitely done well and benefited from that. There is something to be said about just knowing how to win. There have been years where we're not the best team, but kids develop that ability to learn how to win. And that is definitely a thing in my opinion. [00:13:19] Speaker A: Do you guys work on anything in practice specifically competitive wise? [00:13:23] Speaker B: We try to put competition into like every practice that we can. You know, I'll give an example. I, I, I guess I'll say I developed it, but it's nothing like it's not any rocket science or anything. So I have a point system that I use with the pitchers where basically every opportunity they appear in an inter squad, a scrimmage, a non league game or a league game, they have the opportunity to gain or lose points. Things like, you know, you throw 70 first pitch strikes for your outing, you get two points, you retire the lead off, man, you get a, you get a point. 15 pitches or less in the innings, a point. In addition to that though, what we've done is, is every time we do something in practice, they throw a bullpen. You know, we set a goal. If they achieve the goal, they get points towards that total end of the year. The winner of that point system gets a gift card. But it just creates a sense of competition. And then you know, we do like a lot of like pressure stuff. We'll put something on the line and have some form of competition. We do, we do ground balls as we prepare for the. Maybe I shouldn't, this is nothing again, I probably stole this from this podcast or something. But we do ground balls and we'll blare crowd noise over the speakers just to get guys ready for that chaos. We do chaos. Bullpens leading into the playoffs to try to get kids to be in as pressure packed and chaotic situation as possible so that what they do encounter in maybe a state championship game is really nothing that they haven't experienced before. For I got, I got guys standing in the bullpen heckling, you know, whoever's throwing. I got guys making noises. I got, I pull up YouTube sometimes and just search like most annoying noise and play that you try to distract them. So, you know, we do a lot of different stuff like that. [00:15:07] Speaker A: What do you subtract points for? [00:15:09] Speaker B: All right, so lead off walk is minus one. Two outs, nobody on is minus one. And then like any mental mistake, like you forget to back up a base, you forget to cover first base, Those are minus two. So yeah, those would be the subtractions. [00:15:26] Speaker A: You know how much of your coaching pitchers stems back to you getting injured as a, as a pitcher yourself? [00:15:32] Speaker B: Yeah, honestly, a lot of it. I always like joke with kids that if I knew then what I know now, I would have been a lot better, you know, but like I got hurt and again, it just kind of spurred this passion for me to start researching mechanics and strength and conditioning and arm care and how the body works, works and all this stuff. I, I really dove deep into Eric Cressy like he was, his work was definitely a big influence for me early on. And you know, I'm just a huge fan of him and what he's done. And then, you know, over time I, I got into a driveline and I got a couple of their certifications. I, you know, tread athletics puts out a lot of really good information. You just start reading and researching and doing all this stuff. And over time you go to clinics, you listen to stuff, you know, over time you develop all these different things. And I would say early on in my coaching I was very much about mechanics and like arm care routines and that type of stuff. But I've developed a lot in the sense of like sometimes with high school pitchers, the best thing you can do is teach them how to like pitch and set hitters up and manage a game. Because a lot of times that's the stuff they struggle with. They like, there's, there's a guy that a lot of our kids go to in the off season that I think does a really good job around here and actually helps me a lot because the kids come into the high school season having a clue, you know, you start talking about and they've heard it before. So that helps me a lot. So I've actually learned that like when you, when you get Them in a high school season, if you start going heavy on mechanics, you might do more harm than good because ultimately they still have to go out and compete and get guys out. So you know, I honestly a lot of some kids might make the varsity team the first time and they might throw their first bullpen and expect me to give them like this like golden nugget of information that's going to make them jump five miles an hour. And that doesn't happen. And I hope they're not disappointed. But a lot of times I let, I like to just see them and you know, see what they're, what they're doing, how they move. I've seen them before but like this is my first time where they're right. They're in our practice and with them every single day. But a lot of it you just start, you know, you, you start coaching them on like how to pitch and how to manage the game and if you start doing mechanics, you might change something. But then that they got to go out and pitch three days from then and they're going to revert back to what they feel comfortable doing. So any mechanical change that I do chase, unless it's like a small, small tweak in season, I try to do in our like prep work through patterning drills or, or any sort of like drill work, lead up type thing. That's where I think you can make some changes in season. You know, some kids have never done like good movement in preparation for throwing before. So just that it's like a low hanging fruit. You can, you can accomplish a lot. [00:18:32] Speaker A: What are your go to movement prep exercises? Are you switching up for different guys? [00:18:38] Speaker B: I try to do it for different guys based on the way they move the best I can. I do have like an assessment that I like to put guys through and that gives me a lot of information. You know, again, some of my background, I was a kinesiology major. I have a cscs. Like some of that helps me with that stuff. But in terms of like prep, like pre, I'll usually, I'll call it a pre throwing circuit. And I love med ball work. I think that's a great way to work on pretty much as close to a pitching delivery as you can possibly get without actually putting a ton of stress on the arm. Then I'm that out of the stretch [00:19:13] Speaker A: with, with that, with a med ball toss. [00:19:15] Speaker B: Different stuff. You know, in I, I actually like indoor practices. We have a pretty good setup in our gym. We have two cages, we have I think four indoor mounds that we Ultimately we never use four at one time, but we do have four available to us. So there's a lot of wall space to throw med balls into and stuff. But yeah, I mean, it's all different. I like a step back to get a guy to learn how to use their back hip. Sometimes I put guys on like a slant board where you're, you're feeding the quad, so you're feeding the mistake if they're very quad dominant and have them go from there into like a shot put. You know, sometimes it's a step behind for you trying to get guys to like control like forward momentum outside. One of my favorite things that I do is I take a 2 pound med ball or you can even use a basketball. And I just have guys get in, like, just go through a delivery and throw the ball. Like, you know, kind of like a soccer throw in almost, but just not completely overhead. And basically the only goal is throw it as straight and as far as possible. And what you see is like, kids learn how to tap into a little bit more intent. They learn to organize their body better. So that's like a really simple one that I like to use. I, I'm a big fan of the core velocity belt. I've used that a lot. And you know, just, I think that helps guys to become a little bit more aware of like the middle of their body and how to move and how to load their hip, how to, how to corkscrew their hips. So we do a good amount of that stuff. Some like some PVC drills just to get guys to feel like ability to rotate into their front hip. I have gotten into a big fan of 108 performance in California. They do some really good stuff and they kind of got me into. And I, I like Florida Baseball Ranch or the Armory I think it's called now. They do some really good stuff. So I got into water bags and water balls. [00:21:06] Speaker A: I was gonna ask you if you're using the water bags. [00:21:08] Speaker B: Yeah, I think, you know, again, I took a course from 108 and learned about like the law of reciprocal motion and all that. Made a lot of sense. And so started using a lot more of that stuff. The kids respond really well to it. Last year we got one of the things that like Paul skins, whereas the backpack that holds it. Like the kids really like that to use before they throw. So what I used to like be very particular about, I would script everything out. Now I kind of try to show kids a bunch of stuff and then let them pick and choose what they like. To do. And the analogy being like, like, you give them the playground, and what equipment they choose to use on the playground is up to them. [00:21:48] Speaker A: You have any time in. In the fall or the winter with them. [00:21:51] Speaker B: So our league rule permits you can work with three guys at a time for no more than three hours a week. Strength and conditioning is a little bit different. So there are times where we'll do some of that stuff. But nowadays, too, you do deal. Like, every kid kind of has their. Their. Their place they go in the off season. And the nice thing about Rhode island with it being small and, you know, I've been around, gotten to know people, you know, you. You know, who does a good job and who doesn't, and you're almost, like, fine with them going to who they trust and who you trust. And, you know, I think it kind of benefits everybody. So we do do some stuff in the fall, small group stuff, and then in the winter, some strength, conditioning stuff. But then. Then you. You get them the second Monday of March, and that's kind of when you get going for real. [00:22:39] Speaker A: You have any communication with their facilities people as far as maybe, like. Because, I mean, you hit the nail on the head. Like, the closer you get to competition, like, you need to figure out how to pitch and get guys out, but the further away they might be in a facility, do you communicate with the facility providers? Like, hey, here might be some things mechanically they might need to work on before they get to us? [00:22:57] Speaker B: Yeah, and I. I think it works both ways. You certainly try to have that communication with them leading into an off season, but you hope that they have that same communication with you going into a season. Hey, here's. Here are our goals. Keep an eye on this. So I think the relationship component of that. I know we're in a day and age where between a lot of high school coaches and, like, facility insurance, I'm [00:23:21] Speaker A: trying to help it go away. Like, I'm trying to help. [00:23:23] Speaker B: There's a lot of flashing, and I can understand that, but I don't think that really helps anybody. So having that relationship, being able to communicate honestly, I would love to do it more and, you know, you know, go over the facility and pick their brains and whatnot. But, you know, life gets busy. [00:23:40] Speaker A: So from a player's perspective, how do coaches need to handle injured players? You went through it. This is something I've tried to stress to coaches and not leaving guys on an island, you know, From a player's perspective, how do coaches need to handle injured players? [00:23:57] Speaker B: So I've had A few examples of kids where they miss a whole season. They have a season that they have an injury that takes them out for a lot of the season. So. And that's hard for a kid. You know, you. These kids love baseball. They dedicate so much time, money, all that stuff. So to miss a large chunk of a season, which is essentially what they prepare for all year, that's hard for them. So there's definitely, like, the mental component. I would say, in a lot of ways, me being in the school helps me as a coach. You know, I would like to say helps the players as well. You definitely build relationships with them. You know what they're doing in the building, and, you know, you can also use it as an opportunity. Like, there's times at lunch where I'll just be in the lunchroom talking, like, pitching mechanics with a table of kids, which is awesome. But in terms of the injury component, you also get a chance to tip off their guidance counselor of what's going on and, you know, really, like, check in on them, pull them in your office, you know, how's it going? So there's definitely that component, and then there's the physical component of, you know, making sure the kid is not rushing back, making sure the kid is not pushing it, you know, monitoring, like, what are they doing too much. Some kids think, like, you know, if I do all this arm care and, you know, go. Go lift after practice and. And do all this different dry needle and all that, like, it's going to help me, and all that stuff is good, but there is too much, you know, and then the rushing back thing, as I mentioned, I think that's a big thing. Kids are eager to get back. It's a long road back, especially from, like, a significant injury. So, you know, that's something definitely to keep an eye on. Because, you know, as much as winning is important, you want to win. Any competitor does. You also got to understand, you know, they got their future in front of them, too. Pretty much every kid that we coach has a desire to go play college baseball. So there is a step after Hendrick and sometimes multiple steps. [00:26:03] Speaker A: And I was going to ask you about trust and tips for trust in the timeline, because it takes what it. Especially from a significant injury, it takes what it takes to get back. And there is a timeline to getting back and getting back healthy. [00:26:14] Speaker B: I was at. I was like, a prime example of. And I tell that to kids. I. I was in a situation where ultimately, like, I had tried to not have surgery and whatnot. Ultimately, when I had My surgery, it was November of my sophomore year. I basically was in a situation where I needed to be back in September to show that I, I could, I could handle that level and, and compete at that level still. And I tried to do like a 12 month recovery in 10 months and came back and like, I didn't throw as hard. I, you know, I didn't feel as good, any of that stuff. So it's definitely important to give it the time that it needs. [00:26:51] Speaker A: Are you doing the strength and conditioning then too? Are you developing programs or do you have somebody that's, that's doing the strength and conditioning programs? [00:26:56] Speaker B: Yeah, no, I've, I've written them for years. Again, you know, I would say I'm totally fine. Like, like there's a guy that owns a strength and conditioning facility that I know very well. He and I used to work together. A lot of the kids go there. Like if he writes a program, I'm totally fine with the kid using that program. You know, they feel comfortable with it. I know the guy, I know he does a good job, so I'm good with that. But yeah, I write a lot of the programs. I enjoy doing that stuff. [00:27:27] Speaker A: What should be in there for high school coaches? Maybe trying to dabble a little bit. What's in a weekly program and obviously depending on the time of the year. [00:27:36] Speaker B: Yeah, time of year, sometimes the way guys move, you know, you're trying to lean into one thing, you know, versus another. But I would say like standard stuff that pretty much every high school baseball player could benefit from. Mastering good movement patterns. There was a book that came out years ago, I'm sure it's been mentioned many times, but Movement Over Maxes. Zach tcu, a really good book for just mastering the basics and understanding the importance of those things. So once you do that, then you can do a lot of different stuff. But I would say, like, if I had to name specific movements, reverse lunge or some kind of split squat, I think is really important. Develop single leg strength, like a one legged rdl I think is really important, especially for pitchers. You know, I think for the younger kids, I think just like training to get stronger and put on side, put on weight, I think is big. And then as they, you know, they get to a point where they're all right, they're strong enough now, you're trying to, you know, make that strength play a little bit more and you know, different rotational movements and you know, I think a lot of it has changed over the years, even from when I like first got into this stuff, it's changed a lot in terms of, you know, you're always finding ways to make [00:28:53] Speaker A: kids better and high school kids are way more physical now. [00:28:58] Speaker B: Oh, no doubt. [00:28:58] Speaker A: Way more physical. [00:29:00] Speaker B: No doubt. I mean, yeah, you look at some of the kids around, they're pretty put together and you see it. I mean, I would say in general, kids throw harder now. I'm not saying it's just for that reason. I think people's understanding of mechanics and everything is better now. With that, you do see more injuries. You know, I think sometimes the VLO that is produced is chased the wrong way. It's more of like a, a short term effect versus a long term effect. But yeah, I think you see kids throwing hard. You see kids, I would say hitting the ball harder, more consistently, you know, like, like you used to have, you know, maybe one or two kids that could really like hit the ball out on a team. Now you got five, six kids, you know, so yeah, I think it's good, It's a good thing for the game. [00:29:49] Speaker A: What do you feel like is the biggest difference now is strength training now than when you first started? [00:29:53] Speaker B: I would say, you know, just the evolution of, we were talking about water bags and that type of stuff, but also just like a lot of the rotational movements, a lot of like velocity based testing. Not even like if you don't, even if you don't have the, the technology to measure that stuff. Just emphasizing move the bar fast, you know, like I used to try to. Within the last year I've tried to structure off seasons where you're focusing more on like a, you know, strength based approach early on in the off season and gradually transitioning into more like explosive movements and training that speed and ability to produce force, I think is a really big thing. But again, early on in the kid's career, high school career, basic movements, just [00:30:40] Speaker A: get them in there doing something, eat [00:30:42] Speaker B: calories, you know, move well, build a strong core. Like all that stuff I think is, is good. [00:30:48] Speaker A: What have you picked up with the driveline certification? [00:30:52] Speaker B: So I would say like the foundations of pitching one was really good. You know, I, I definitely like from a mechanical standpoint, developing routines, that type of stuff. That was, that was good. The one I felt like I really learned a lot from because this was an area that I felt like I didn't know a ton about at the time was the pitch design one. Yeah, I got a lot out of that and helped and it helped me understand that was like kind of when it was first all starting to become popular and that definitely helped me to gain an understanding of that stuff a little bit more. Honestly, that's an area where I think it's moving so quickly, and there's more and more information coming out. Like, it feels like every day, you know, you got to really work to keep up with that stuff. [00:31:37] Speaker A: How much of that you have to tweak with your new pitchers as far as pitch design, like matching their breaking ball with their. With their fastball? [00:31:43] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I would say, like, there's definitely pros and cons to guys throwing on Trackman or Rapsodo, like, consistently, but that is becoming more prevalent with a lot more facilities having that technology and stuff, which is great in many ways because some of the stuff gets taken care of, or at least they develop an understanding of it. The thing that I don't necessarily love is, like, every pitch they throw, they're turning to see a screen to almost validate whether or not it was a good pitch, when in reality, like, you know, if that was a good pitch, you know, if you executed what you were trying to do, you know how it felt out of the hand, you know, how if a hitter was there, how that hitter reacted to it. But, you know, I, I, for the most part, I think that stuff is great. You know, when. When guys get into the season, I do try to get them on Rapsodo or trackman early on. So it gives me, like, I got these baseline numbers to operate off of, and I think it just helps you to educate pitchers on who they are. You know, if they're like, I. I don't want to say fight the battle because it's not like a. An argumentative thing, but it's hard sometimes to get kids to understand that they're not going to be successful pitching up in the zone. You know, they. They watch the big leagues and they see guys having a lot of success pitching up in the zone. But what they fail to recognize is Those guys throw like 95 plus with really high spin. They throw like 83 with. With average spin. You know, it's a different thing. So you get kids to try to understand, like, you're going to be successful pitching down in the zone. But for some kids, the thing that makes them like that validates, that is if you can show them Trackman or Repsodo and say, look, this is your spin. Like, this is where you'll be successful. Conversely, you know, it does help you identify kids that, you know, high spin, you can kind of see the life. But once you see a true number on it and you know that those are kids that you might coach to pitch up in the zone and explore that area. So yeah, I would say that's definitely one of the benefits. The other thing is, I talked about instant feedback before. Like when you're on one of those devices, a kid can, you know, rip off a slider if he's trying a new grip or something and throw one and you know, 2300 spin and the next one tries a different grip and it's 2500. Immediately you kind of know, all right, I'm gonna, I'm gonna go after that grip. [00:34:10] Speaker A: How are you handling pitch counts early in the year? [00:34:14] Speaker B: We're pretty conservative. Part of that is we, we do have really good pitching depth typically year to year. So there's a need to get guys in and, and get them work and, and so it gives us the opportunity to bring guys along slow. You know the downside to that, and I wouldn't say it's a downside, it's just something you got to really pay attention to is you don't ever want to get in a situation where you're taking a guy along slow. And then all of a sudden the playoffs are creeping up and you got to make them jump quick from like a four inning guy to a seven inning guy. So we, you know, I've gotten pretty good at that and making sure that we avoid that. But yeah, early on we're, I typically like, like the first outing of the year essentially for them would be like tryouts. I haven't faced like three, four hitters so that they're getting on a mound, they're seeing hitters quick work, get out, it's very controlled. If their pitch count climbs too high, you know, if they're struggling or whatever, we just take them out. Next outing for them would be like a scrimmage. So pretty, pretty low pressure, just get out there, face hitters, be part of a game and you know, usually I shoot for like one inning, sometimes two. For a guy, depending how built up he is, that is one downside not to get off track, but that is one downside that I see in facilitate both facilities. I would also say travel ball. I don't like the mindset of kids are only going to throw two innings at a time. That actually it drives me crazy because I understand it from a business standpoint and I understand it from like a showcasing standpoint. But what it's not doing is not teaching a kid how to truly pitch and pitch deep into games where they might experience some fatigue that they need to work through and operate without their best stuff, but also navigate a lineup multiple times and have to turn a lineup over. They don't really learn how to do that. Then you transfer it to the off season. And the way a lot of facilities work and lessons and whatnot is you're throwing 25, 30 pitch bullpens. And that's pretty consistent due to time constraints for this instructor throughout the off season. Now certainly some do better job than others. They recognize the need to build kids up. I usually tell kids I want them throwing 60 pitches by the time pitchers and catchers rolls around, which is that second Monday in March. But you know, to go back to the original question about, about pitch counts early, like we do a good job building guys up. And the other thing to recognize that I think often is forgotten is you have to factor in warm up pitches, their pregame bullpen, all that stuff factors into that. So if a kid is only throwing 30 pitches coming into his first outing, he, he pretty much uses that all up between his pregame bullpen and his, his warm up pitches before the first inning. So pushing that kid to go three innings at that point, that's a big jump in number of throws. [00:37:13] Speaker A: When does that build up, start to get those 60s pitches before you see him? [00:37:17] Speaker B: I think it's different for everybody. I've changed my philosophy a lot over the years about like shutdown periods and stuff. I used to encourage kids to shut down for if providing they, you know, they threw like a good amount of innings between the spring, the summer and even the fall. But I used to encourage kids to shut down for like eight weeks. Now I've, I, over the years I've changed my philosophy a little bit that it might not be such a bad thing to keep your arm moving at a very low intensity. You maintain like feel for the ball, you maintain some of that range of motion. That's a fine line because you do need to give like the anterior capsule a chance to kind of recover from, from all the stress that was placed on it throughout the competitive season. [00:37:59] Speaker A: The two innings at a time though, in a tournament setting or facility like the restaurant recovery piece is different too. Especially getting in a tournament setting where they're throwing two innings. Two innings. Two innings, yeah. I think that's worse. I think that's more taxing on a kid than a kid that throws six innings and then he gets four or five days off before his next start. [00:38:18] Speaker B: I agree from multiple perspectives because what you're, what a lot of times is not accounted for is exactly what we just talked about the, the bullpen to get ready to pitch the, the warm ups for each inning. Then what you also lose is an opportunity to have like a true routine between your outings where you're getting in good strength and conditioning, you're getting in good recovery, you're getting in good, you know, maybe aerobic, anaerobic conditioning type stuff. So you're missing out on that opportunity. [00:38:50] Speaker A: How many two way guys do you have? Any two. How many pitcher positions? [00:38:53] Speaker B: You know, it's actually like this misconception that's out there and we get this question a lot when parents come to Open house and stuff that if you come to Hendrick and you get turned into a po. But the reality is some of the best players that we've had have been two way players. You know, I'm talking like Mike King, who is a pitcher for the Padres now. Like he was a phenomenal position player when he was in high school. Tom Pinone, who just threw a perfect game for the Nashville Sounds aaa. He was, he got drafted out of high school as a hitter. You know, Griffin Crane graduated a few years ago. He's playing at Louisville, like he's an outfielder there, but he was an awesome pitcher for us. The kid that I mentioned earlier, his name, Dylan Pulaski, he's going to Northeastern, but he was our best pitcher as a sophomore, you know, one of the top two last year. He gets hurt, but still was our everyday dh, you know, really hit the ball. So we've done. [00:39:47] Speaker A: By the way, if you're competitive at all and, and you're a good high school pitcher, you should be able to go play position. [00:39:53] Speaker B: Most of them. [00:39:54] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:39:54] Speaker B: I mean, don't get me wrong, we've had, we've had some. [00:39:56] Speaker A: And you're athletic. [00:39:57] Speaker B: Pos. And yeah, some kids actually make the decision, you know, at a certain point, like I'm just gonna focus on pitching. We had the kid Alex Clemmie that like as a junior, he was our, our starting DH in the state championship. So he was like a good bat for us as a senior, you know, there was an enormous amount of attention. He was, you know, one of the top pitchers in the country. And it was kind of a mutual decision. Just focus on pitching, you know, don't, don't risk the injury, run the bases or anything like that. And it worked out pretty well for him. [00:40:33] Speaker A: You scripting out bullpens then with them too or how are you handling bullpens? [00:40:36] Speaker B: I do do a lot of that. You know, usually what I like to do is I'll, I'll script it out and I'll have like check boxes next to the, to the script, so, and I'll partner them up. I love doing partner bullpens. Two guys to a bullpen. I can elaborate on that a little bit more, but I basically one guy will chart like, and I break it up into sets. So like a set is typically anywhere from like 13 to 18 pitches. And you know, I try to, I try to work towards their arsenal or how they're going to attack hitters. Now, going back to the partner bullpen thing, there's so many benefits to it. One, some of them like you, they, they like feedback from each other most of the time. So like, sometimes it might, they might respond to something better coming from a kid than they do from a coach. There's definitely a competitive drive where they start to compete with one another and you can set that up. Like a lot of times when they're charting, basically, whoever ends up with the better percent percentage might get points. But the, the guy that doesn't has to do some kind of consequence, you know, running burpees, whatever. What I love to do is play horse. So like, if you and I are throwing bullpens, I can get up, call pretty much anything, anything that I would throw in a game. So like, if I don't throw a knuckleball, I can't call knuckleball, but you can call wind up glove side fastball. If you execute it, next guy's got to do, if you don't, he gets to pick his own thing. If you want a shorter bullpen, I, I like to play w I n win and, and for horse, we do hawks because that's what we are. But I love it because it creates this sense of competition. It mimics the tempo of a game in the sense that like you're throwing the pitch, getting it back, the other guy's getting up, throwing a pitch. It's not like a typical bullpen where it's just boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. So there's, there's that and then it's mimicking a game in the sense that you're not throwing like, all right, three fastballs, three change ups, three fat. It's, it's might be fat. Golf side fastball, two strike, breaking ball, you know, whatever. So I really like doing that and kids like it too. [00:42:58] Speaker A: How much time you spend with your freshman on just fastball grips? [00:43:03] Speaker B: Honestly, I think spending time with the freshman is something I would like to do more. And you know, I do try to Go over there when I can. But once you get going, pretty much like there's very few days where they aren't playing and we aren't playing, you [00:43:19] Speaker A: know, just with the way you guys practice at the same time ever sometimes. [00:43:22] Speaker B: Yeah, that's something we've started doing more and more where like if there's a game going on on the main field, like let's say freshman's playing over on, on A field, we have two fields so we'll be on B field and you know, we'll, we'll like grab the JV team or the JV infielders and put them with our guys and it's a great opportunity for them to see a little bit higher level of talent and see what they're working towards. But you know, it's also a great opportunity for us to really get more eyes on those younger kids and evaluate and work with them and all that stuff. So we've definitely done more and more of that. When it comes to like the pitching side of things, it is hard. You know, either we're playing a game or I'm coaching our pitchers. I mean we typically have like double digit number of pitchers just on the varsity team. So one of the things I do do is at the beginning of every practice, basically after the team warms up, the pitchers know, report to me and you know, my other coaches will bust my chops and say like I take too long or whatever but that's my opportunity to coach them. So basically every day I have a topic that we talk about and it could be all different stuff. Pitch design, it could be mechanics, it could be game management, it could be routine, anything. And I try to make it like relative to what I think they need to hear. You know, going into the playoffs I'll talk a lot about like managing pressure and responding to adversity and all that breathing and all that stuff. Also that's an opportunity where I'll like break down maybe the game before and what we did well, what we didn't, that type of stuff. So during that time I've started to invite the JV pitchers or the freshman pitchers into that a little bit more and seen pretty good results that the other component to it is given the, the conflict in schedule. Sometimes I think you got to do a good job of like communicating with your JV and freshmen and even 8th grade coaches about like this is kind of what you want. And they, I have to say over the years they've been really good like in receptive. They, they want to do what I'm doing, basically. So they'll come to pitchers and catchers week and see what I'm doing with the pitchers, and then they'll take that and try to do it with their respective teams. [00:45:45] Speaker A: And I was going to ask you, like, the movement prep that, that varsity is doing that stuff, is that filtering down to JV and freshman too, with. With some of the pitchers? [00:45:52] Speaker B: Yeah, probably not as like, in depth, but some of the more basic stuff, for sure, definitely. [00:46:00] Speaker A: And. [00:46:01] Speaker B: And it's good too, because when kids do get to varsity, they have a little bit more of an understanding of things. But again, you know, kids. Kids are so much more knowledgeable now, for better or worse, to be honest, but for. It's better, obviously, for the most part. But they are more knowledgeable because of social media, because of the Internet, because of, you know, there's better instructors out there now. So that I, I think it's a great thing because kids, things that I talk about now that 10 years ago, kids had no clue what I was talking about. They. They've heard of it before. They know what. They know what it is. [00:46:37] Speaker A: You have any team building stuff you guys do with your team? [00:46:41] Speaker B: Yeah, we do. We do. I would say we do a lot of different stuff. In the off season. We definitely encourage, like, you know, captains to try to get the team together. Nothing. Even baseball, really. Just go out to dinner, go play paintball, whatever, have a movie night or watch a game at somebody's house. And then in season, like, we've done all different stuff. We've had different people come and speak to us. This, this past. [00:47:05] Speaker A: I was gonna ask you if you had alums come back and, and speak especially about the tradition of the school. [00:47:11] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, the. One of the best times of the year is like, late May, early June, when we're kind of like either starting the playoff hunter in the playoff hunt and the college kids, the seasons are ending and the alum come back and like, I mean, we had this one game last year, we had this unbelievable win in the playoffs. And. And after the game, you didn't even know they were there, but they all came out on the field and there was like 10 of them and all kids that you look around you like, our kid plays at Brown, he plays at URI, he's at Louisville, he's at UConn. You know, it's like, wow, this is. This is good. So don't mind my dog. [00:47:46] Speaker A: That's good. I got two of them. That's why I'm in my office right now. People listening in. It's 8 o' clock at night. That's okay. [00:47:52] Speaker B: I can't do it. [00:47:54] Speaker A: My dogs are habitual barkers. Yeah, you know about it. That's good. [00:47:59] Speaker B: But yeah, no, the, the team building. So another great thing that I've done with not just baseball, we've done it with a leadership group within the school as well, is there's a National Guard base near us that you can take teams to. And they do an awesome job with team building. So even, like, stuff I've learned there, we've done with the team. And yeah, I think that's a really important component. I always say to win, you obviously need talent, but you need, you know, strong leadership and you need strong chemistry. [00:48:26] Speaker A: How are you helping them with the recruiting process? You get, you have a lot of guys go play at the next level, but as far as, like, trying to find the right fit. [00:48:33] Speaker B: Yeah, it's, you know, I would say we try to early on identify like, what level they're going to be at. And that's a hard, hard thing because. And I know, like, I, when I was a, you know, sophomore in high school, I can remember having my coach fill out a questionnaire for me to Arizona State. And in reflection of it, looking back, I had zero chance of pitching at Arizona State. But I, like, I almost feel bad for putting my coach in that situation. But, but, you know, so like, obviously when they're younger, they all think they're going to go play at, you know, a Power 4 school. And the reality is that's not going to happen. Certainly we've had guys do that. But you try to educate kids on like, first of all, how good all levels of college baseball are. Secondly, how much the landscape has changed in the sense of the transfer portal and roster cuts and, you know, all different stuff that has transpired over the years. So that that's changed the recruiting process a lot. So you definitely try to educate on that. And then, you know, you work, you know, you talk to people, you try to talk to the kid. Like, I'll meet with kids and try to say, like, what schools are you interested in? And sometimes they tell you and you got to say, like, listen, you know, maybe you could go play there. But the reality is if you do go there, you're not playing until you're a junior, you know, and with the transfer portal, that may never even become a reality. So, like, if you truly are a player at that level, go to a lower level school, play right away, show that you can, you can play at that level. And then, you know, I, I'm not a big like, I would never love to like, like to encourage a kid to go into the transfer portal and whatnot. I don't love that mentality. However, it obviously does benefit kids in some ways. Not everybody, but the right situation. [00:50:23] Speaker A: So I'm just like part of the culture. It's like it is. And I'm a throwback guy as much, but it's just like part of the culture. Culture now. They're handling it now too, where it's same thing. It's like, hey, it is what it is. [00:50:37] Speaker B: Yeah, it absolutely is what it is. You know, I just think it's a slippery slope because if a kid has one eye on the next step, he's only got one eye where he is, you know, and you gotta like be, be great where your feet are, you know, is the saying. And I think if you are doing that, the right opportunities will fall into place for you. So yeah, I mean the recruiting process is tough. Especially like this particular senior class is a, a big and talented senior class. So you try to help them, but you know, there's varying levels of where they're going to end up. And some really are prioritizing academics, some really are prioritizing baseball, some are really prioritizing a certain geographic location. So I would say like between the work that we do as well as, you know, a lot of the kids play on pretty good travel ball organizations that are also assisting in that process. So it's definitely like a team effort. [00:51:35] Speaker A: Plus plenty of great options in your area, like at every level, at every level of college baseball in your area, you have plenty of great options. Like you don't have to go that far from home for you guys. [00:51:47] Speaker B: No. And that's something that sometimes the kids don't understand. And I always tell kids like, go watch a game. There's some really good division three programs [00:51:55] Speaker A: just within you got to 30 mile radius. Yeah, go watch. Really good competitive division three. [00:52:00] Speaker B: Go watch again. Go watch Brian. Go watch Brown. Like there, there is. There are really good players playing it. Yeah, lots. And so, you know, I think a lot of it is just getting out there and kids understanding like that's where I need to be. And then what that also does is and having the alum come back and talk and that type of stuff too. What that also does is it helps kids understand like, oh, I do actually need to be good at baserun when I get to college or I do actually have to be able to throw strikes when I get to college. Because those kids are coming back, talking about it, you know, or they go watch these games and they see, like, you know, what these kids have to do. [00:52:42] Speaker A: So knowing what you know now about everything, and you could coach yourself before you got injured, what would you be, what would you switch now? [00:52:53] Speaker B: Honestly, like, at that time, I knew nothing about taking care of myself. So, like, I definitely would have had a better routine in preparation to pitch. Better routine. Like, I did what I knew. I, you know, I. Yeah, you know what, you know, like after games, because, you know, I thought that was what I needed to do. I'd ice my arm, all that stuff, like. But yeah, that would probably be the biggest thing. And then I would just also just have a way better understanding of mechanics and my delivery and, and all that stuff. [00:53:25] Speaker A: What would you tweak with your delivery? If you had to go back and, and coach yourself, what would you have tweaked with your delivery? [00:53:31] Speaker B: So I look back at, there's not a lot of video even. I'm not that old. But you know, whenever I do look at like you see video of when I pitched, I did my lower half was not very good. Like, I didn't load my back hip very well. I would say, like, I didn't even really brace my. With my front leg very well. You know, one thing I will say that I, I wish I had when I played was I wish I had Trackman or Rapsodo, because I actually think again, I don't have the numbers to prove this, but I got a lot of swing and misses on my fastball, more so than I should have gotten for the velocity that I threw. So I'm guessing that I had good spin. I also had like a. What would be considered a big curveball, but it was tight. And I think, like, I remember when I went to college, they, they, they didn't really want me to throw the curveball that was kind of like it was too big. They wanted me to throw a slider. But I think if I had Trackman or Rapsodo, it would have helped to validate those pitches. [00:54:33] Speaker A: Yeah. High spin fastball with a good break with good curveball. [00:54:35] Speaker B: Yeah. And listen, I'm not saying I had like this unbelievable stuff. [00:54:38] Speaker A: No. But you know what you're getting swinging misses off. Like every pitcher that's ever played pitch knows what they were getting swings and misses off of. [00:54:46] Speaker B: Right, Right. [00:54:48] Speaker A: I'm glad you mentioned core velocity belt, because I, that's one thing I didn't have as a player that I wish we would have had. [00:54:54] Speaker B: Yeah. I really like it. And honestly, I, you know, God rest his soul. [00:54:59] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that changed me as a coach. Going to pitch palooza and doing the core velocity belt training the first night there, going to that. That like, that changed a lot of our, our pre movement stuff. [00:55:12] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:55:13] Speaker A: Going around and doing that. [00:55:14] Speaker B: I think he would put on Twitter. Yeah. Presentations that he gave. I went to a thing that he, he did in Massachusetts years back and he was awesome. He, you know, he put out really good information. He was a pretty straight shooter, getting [00:55:29] Speaker A: guys to do it with their shoes off, which I loved. [00:55:32] Speaker B: Yep. [00:55:33] Speaker A: Barefoot. Loved it. [00:55:34] Speaker B: Yeah, we do a lot of that. [00:55:35] Speaker A: Do you? [00:55:36] Speaker B: Yeah, a lot of that. Especially in the gym, we'll do stuff like, like kind of mound awareness type stuff. Some of the med ball stuff we'll do. Barefooted, some balance stuff we'll do. Yeah, we again try to expose them to a bunch of different stuff. [00:55:54] Speaker A: All right, everybody, give me your fail forward moment. Something you thought was going to set you back, but looking back now, it helped you move forward. Could be personal or professionally. I mean, your arm injury is probably a fail forward moment a little bit. [00:56:07] Speaker B: I do always look at that as a blessing in disguise because ultimately the reality is like I was not, you know, gonna, gonna make a living playing baseball. So it definitely got me in to coaching and you know, I think ultimately made me a better coach. So there's that I would also say, so there's a. What's the name of the song? Thomas Rhett. Almost. Thank God for the almost. And I think about that sometimes because there's been a few opportunities that I, I like in my professional career that I applied for that I didn't get for. For different reasons. One of them, like I, I knew I wasn't getting it going into it, but I threw my hat in the ring to try to gain experience and whatnot. And I, you know, it ended up being real close. But all those opportunities that I didn't get ultimately have shaped me into what I am, who I am now and the roles that I'm in now too. So I think each opportunity is as much as it can sting in the moment. Any, you know, loss, any job you don't get, opportunity you wanted that you didn't get, whatever it may be, you can turn into a positive. [00:57:19] Speaker A: And for someone who's been on both sides of winning and losing, I would stay with the winning program if you can. Yeah, I mean, I've had the guy that was with winning programs, took some reclamation projects. They're gratifying there a lot of work, but winning is a lot more fun than losing. [00:57:34] Speaker B: No doubt. [00:57:36] Speaker A: I don't care what anybody says. Winning is a lot more fun than losing. Now you learn a lot from losing. You do. And you make adjustments, especially as a coach. Like, it forces you to make adjustments with how you're doing things. But winning is way more fun than losing. [00:57:49] Speaker B: No doubt. And, you know, Hendrick is a great place to be. And, you know, I've had some opportunities to go to, you know, college programs or the private sector, and it's tough. You know, a lot of it is like, my family too. I got three little kids. I want to be around for them. I really explored the college baseball route, but that, that life is tough, you know, your way. [00:58:15] Speaker A: And I say it a lot too, like, your family situation is really what dictates where you end up. It really is. [00:58:22] Speaker B: I, I mean, there's. [00:58:23] Speaker A: By the way, you're going to see them more doing that. Like, and I loved coaching in college. But, you know, I also understand that I was not around my kids very much. [00:58:32] Speaker B: Right. [00:58:32] Speaker A: For a lot of their, for a lot of their formative years, I was not around my, my kids very much. [00:58:36] Speaker B: There's definitely opportunities that I've had that if I was, you know, 22 and single, that I absolutely would have taken, but the stage of my life that I was at, when I got these opportunities, I just, you know, it wasn't the right move for me. And, you know, there's not a decision that I've made that I regret in regard to the opportunities I've had. If you want to get a laugh, you know, being talk about family. My son is getting into baseball now. He's five and a half. So I, I also, I own a side business running baseball camps. So I do camps in the summer and stuff. But I started like a, a 4 to 7 year old. I call it little sluggers. This is a whole new challenge. Like, yes, it is. You know, the other day I put the kids out on. I had 10 cones set up. I said, all right, we're gonna do animal walks for a warm up. They were all at the cones in their lines. They said, all right, bear crawl to me. Now when I say that to my players or at my camps, they just go in their lines like, and stop when they get near me. These kids literally came to me, you know, the blob, you know, so I've learned quickly. You're just trying to get them to like, run to me to first base, not third base. But it's fun. It's good. And I got, you know, some good coaches helping me. [00:59:48] Speaker A: So are you able to work out at all? You have any set of routines? You got three young kids. Probably not. Not right. [00:59:54] Speaker B: I mean, definitely not as much as I should. I would say my physical activity. [00:59:59] Speaker A: No, whatever you're doing is good. Like running two jobs and then. Yeah, like, if you're doing anything at all, that's good. [01:00:06] Speaker B: Yeah, I like to stay busy, but it's tough to find the time. [01:00:11] Speaker A: I was like, asking the high school guys this, how are you handling social media and phones with your guys? [01:00:17] Speaker B: I think somebody, you know, a guy that I really respect, I used to work with, used to say this. He's like, any tool can be a weapon if used a certain way. And. And a cell phone is a great tool if used the correct way, but can be a weapon if used incorrectly. Obviously. You know, I used to teach health, so one of my lessons that I would teach and I still talk about as a coach is like, digital citizenship, being smart. What you're putting on social media because, you know that can impact you in the recruiting process. And, you know, a lot of times it's for people that don't know you. That's how they're gauging your character. However, I think social media, cell phones, texting, video have talk about kids knowing more than ever. That's one of the biggest reasons. There's a lot of excellent information on social media that we can get as coaches. But a lot of times the players are getting the same information themselves, which helps because when you go talk about something, the kid will be like, oh, yeah, I actually saw that. So it validates like, oh, if so and so on Instagram was saying this and coach she and saying it too. It must be something I should do, you know, so there's that component you I. I always like at the beginning. I'll develop like a pitchers group chat and I'll just pump information to them. Like, if I ever find an article that I. I like, I'll send it to them. A video, a drill, anything. Like concept of something. Sometimes, like pitching ninja puts out some cool stuff. [01:01:46] Speaker A: I'll. [01:01:46] Speaker B: I'll send that stuff to them. So it's a great mode of communication. Like, I'll send quotes. They probably think I'm crazy, but I'll send quotes. [01:01:56] Speaker A: Do you have any favorite quotes? [01:01:58] Speaker B: Oh, you just opened a kid. My. If any of my players are listening to this. [01:02:02] Speaker A: Oh, I use the quote of the day for the practice plans. Yeah. You know, yeah, give me Give me my favorite top two or three. [01:02:10] Speaker B: I'll give you, I'll give you a few. I'll go all night if you want. But the more you sweat in training, the less you bleed in war. That's my favorite quote. I'm huge on preparation. I, I, I'm huge on making your training hard. See, I, I rather, I was just talking about this with our principal yesterday about some of my favorite quotes. So I, I gave him one yesterday to use. If you want to go fast, go alone, but if you want to go far, go together. And it was relative to what we were talking about. But that's, I, I like that one a lot. I could go on and on. Like, I love quotes and I love stories. I like to tell stories. So I talk about all different stories. But last year, my big thing that I tried to instill in the pictures was I compared them to police and military canines. And what I was talking about, I was saying, like, if I was a college coach and I was recruiting pitchers, I would recruit them the same way that the police in the military choose their K9. So they, they want to get a confident alpha male strong dog that is, is capable of handling the most chaotic of situations. Like if you watch videos, and I would send them videos of like canines being trained when they're puppies, how they, there's banging and noise making and they want to see who can react to that and who can't. And it's kind of the same thing when you, when you're getting, when you're trying to develop pictures. Like you want those, those alpha male want the ball. Confident kids that, and you know, those are always the kids that end up being the best. [01:03:53] Speaker A: You gonna be able to make Chicago? [01:03:56] Speaker B: That's my plan. [01:03:57] Speaker A: I didn't know with being with your other job. No, that's what you can get there. Because it is such a good now for the assistance to be able to stand up and get on that stage and be in front of everybody is. Yeah, I mean, it's one of the best things that we do. Like, if you can get there, I would highly recommend, recommend doing it because it is, I just, especially for the families too. Like, you know, I know it's tough for, for everybody to travel, but, you know, a lot of your family, they don't know what you do half the time. And like, for your families to be a part of that, to be able to see your assistant coaches get up there and get their war, like it's a, it's a big deal. [01:04:30] Speaker B: Yeah. No, I mean, when I got word that, you know, I was receiving that award, it was obviously a tremendous honor. Something I was not expecting. I do want to give a shout out to coach Holloway, who's our head coach, who, you know, I played for. Like I mentioned earlier, he gave me an opportunity to get into coaching and he's been awesome to me in my development. He's given me a ton of autonomy over the years, you know, developed a lot of trust in me and, you know, very thankful for him and I know he played a role in, and he had to have in nominating me. So, you know, I just shout out to him and very thankful for that. So, yes, my plan is to try to go to Chicago. I will admit that when I found out I was getting the award, the first thing I did was look up where the convention was and I was really rooting for Nashville. But I've never been. [01:05:26] Speaker A: Chicago is one of my favorite cities. It really is. It's a magical time. It's magical. You know, no matter what time of the year you're in Chicago, it's magical time. It's awesome. Well, any other shout outs you want to give? [01:05:37] Speaker B: I do plan to get out there. [01:05:38] Speaker A: Any other shout outs you want to give our final thoughts? [01:05:43] Speaker B: Yeah, I do know again, I mentioned my wife earlier, obviously. [01:05:47] Speaker A: Yeah, you better. [01:05:47] Speaker B: Again, extremely. You should probably never listen to this. [01:05:50] Speaker A: Realistically, you'd be surprised. [01:05:54] Speaker B: No, you know, she really does a great job with our three kids. Especially, like I mentioned during the spring. Know, if I didn't, if I wasn't able to just like, trust that she is doing what she's doing, I definitely wouldn't be able to have all my focus on the team when I need to. So. Definitely appreciative to her, appreciative to my parents. You know, they've always been great supporters of me. You know, all the way through growing up, my playing days. My dad still comes to every game and, you know, I always joke with the players that he doesn't know any of their names, but he knows them by their number. So he calls me after games at the eye. I like that number seven kid. He's a player and I like 18, you know, I like his bat. So I, you know, I, I, I definitely enjoy that. And then not to go all night, but my uncle Kevin was, he played professionally coached at the collegiate level. He's in the Providence College hall of Fame. He, I would say, like, taught me how to pitch when I was a kid and, you know, ended up, he was a really Good coach himself. And he and I have had a lot of conversations over the years about baseball and he's definitely been a good influence for me. He was also a principal too, so, you know, he's definitely a wealth of knowledge for me on, on both ends. [01:07:12] Speaker A: Would he instill at you and you at an early age with pitching? [01:07:16] Speaker B: Honestly, I would credit he and his twin brother, who's my other uncle for, and my dad for teaching me competitiveness. Like I grew up in a family where you, you were taught to win. You know, my dad is famous. My sister was a really high level figure skater and she always tells the story that right before one of her like biggest competitions she was all like getting ready to take the ice. And before she stepped on the ice, my dad said, remember, no one remembers a silver medalist. And you know, that was kind of instilled in me, you know, so definitely being competitive. My uncle specifically with pitching, like, he, he pretty much taught me like my mechanics as a kid and you know, just like. Yeah, I mean he was big on long toss, so I, you know, I always, I always had like a pretty good arm when I was a kid in comparison. [01:08:11] Speaker A: Funny how that works. If you long toss at a young age, you're going to have a decent arm. [01:08:15] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. [01:08:16] Speaker A: Still works. [01:08:17] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:08:19] Speaker A: Chris, thanks so much for time. Appreciate you. Especially with your schedule right now. I know it's nuts, but thanks for making time for me. Appreciate it. [01:08:25] Speaker B: Yeah, no, I really appreciate it. As I mentioned before, this was a tremendous honor for me and really appreciate you having me on. Where did you coach? [01:08:33] Speaker A: I played at Evansville, actually. Played for my dad and brother in college and then coached there for two years. I was at James Madison for, for four, University of Iowa for nine and then Western Illinois for seven. So spring in 19 was my last spring coach and I was a head coach at Western. [01:08:48] Speaker B: Okay. So Iowa. Yeah. [01:08:51] Speaker A: 03 to 12. [01:08:53] Speaker B: There was a presentation years ago at the ABCA and it was like an offensive presentation from Iowa's. One of the. I don't know if it was. [01:09:03] Speaker A: It was that the ABCA convention? [01:09:05] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:09:05] Speaker A: It would have probably been Coach Heller. [01:09:07] Speaker B: Yes, that's who it was. [01:09:08] Speaker A: Who's still the head coach. He was at Northern. He was the head coach at Northern Iowa when I was at Iowa. And then they dropped the baseball program in Northern Iowa. But he went to stuff. Yeah, he went to Indiana State for a little bit and then went to. He's an Iowa guy originally. [01:09:23] Speaker B: Okay. [01:09:23] Speaker A: He coached it up for Iowa for a long time. Yeah. Very sharp offensive mind he did a [01:09:28] Speaker B: lot of vision training ones to do vision training. [01:09:30] Speaker A: Yeah. And still, like, you go in their indoor hitting facility, they've got a lot of the vision training, training stuff up on their. On their wall still. He's. He'd been doing vision training stuff before anybody was really doing vision training stuff. [01:09:42] Speaker B: A drill I stole from that presentation. We did it last year leading into a playoff game. The kids, like, they thought. They thought it was like the most genius drill ever. We set up our machine. This was like on the side we were taking on field bp. This was on the side we set up one of our machines, High V Low. Had the, like a screen in front of the hitter and put a line across, like a piece of string where basically, like. And we had a T set up. [01:10:09] Speaker A: They're called oculation drills. [01:10:10] Speaker B: So anything that was above the line, they were taking. [01:10:13] Speaker A: Yeah. I don't know if you ever saw the Game Sense app. Hey. But go. You can see some of those. There's some other drills. Go back. I think it's 2016. Dylan Lawson, who was a hidden guy with the Yankees forever, but Dr. Fatty, who developed that app, the Game Sense app shows some more of those oculation drills with the line above the screen. We use those a lot, especially for schools that are stuck inside. [01:10:39] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:10:39] Speaker A: Like when you can't get outside. They're great because it makes it hitting off the tee a lot more realistic. [01:10:44] Speaker B: It's a lot more game 100 and a lot more realistic. And just a vision training component like we were. [01:10:48] Speaker A: Yes. [01:10:48] Speaker B: The reason we did it was we had faced a pitcher early in the year that he, He. He was up in the zone a lot, and our guys were chasing it and he, he, you know, had pretty decent success off of us. We were going to see him again in the playoffs. So we trained to lay off that high pitch. [01:11:06] Speaker A: Love it. [01:11:07] Speaker B: And yeah, we. We did all right. [01:11:09] Speaker A: Yeah. We would do in and out stuff with it and then like fastball below, breaking ball above a line like there. There's some other cool stuff, even if you're just hitting off the tee because it makes it way more realistic. [01:11:24] Speaker B: Right, right. Yeah. [01:11:25] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:11:25] Speaker B: I always remember that. Iowa. [01:11:27] Speaker A: Yep, yep. Yes, sir. Now, mine was 2012. I did on our time management planner and the 10 rules recovery that we were doing with our guys at Iowa. So. Anaheim. Yeah, yep. Anaheim 2012. [01:11:40] Speaker B: So must have been quite the thrill. [01:11:42] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Coach Corbin was doing the speakers that year. Who I'd known I had coached Khalil Green up in the Cape. [01:11:49] Speaker B: Okay. [01:11:49] Speaker A: Who had played at Clemson. My new corpse from there. But it went good. It was nerd. It sucked though. You know Sunday, Sunday is fine, but like you're, you're basically sweating it out the entire convention until you have to go speak. And I think I spoke last, but the room was still packed. But it's like I could. You couldn't really enjoy the convention at all because. Because you're just thinking about just Sunday and getting up there now. It's gratifying. And I love like the state association clinics. I love still getting up and speaking. [01:12:21] Speaker B: But yeah, that's a different. Different. [01:12:23] Speaker A: You're eating it all the whole convention because people know you're speaking. So like every other person you talk to is asking like, are you ready? Are you ready? I'm like, yeah, it's, it's fine. [01:12:31] Speaker B: Like. [01:12:33] Speaker A: But our setup now is way different than back then. Like it's. I, I'm proud of like our whole setup and how we do things because it's very professional. Our AV company, we uses our pros. Like it's just top notch. And I do go to the other conventions. It's like ours is like not different in a good way. Like it's so different because it is buttoned up and it's, it's a huge production that we pull off every year. [01:12:58] Speaker B: Yeah, no, I mean I've been, I've watched the videos for years now. But. Yeah, no, I mean I, I feel you on the. Waiting it out. My brother in law got married in Rome and I officiated the wedding. Oh, wow. So the whole trip. The wedding was the last day of the trip. [01:13:17] Speaker A: Wow. [01:13:17] Speaker B: The whole trip. Like it was a good trip and everything. But mind you, I'm trying to manage three kids, my mother in law. Y And I gotta think about this wedding the whole time. But everything went fine and. But I, I presented at the National High School convention a few years ago down in Fort Myers and it was the same thing. You're like waiting it out. [01:13:41] Speaker A: It's practice, practice, practice, practice. Because I run the youth stage at the convention so I deal with it every year with 13 speakers of trying to get them through the finish line. [01:13:51] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:13:52] Speaker A: Talked about breathing. Like I'll send them audios, like breathing techniques. A lot of stuff I used as a coach. [01:13:57] Speaker B: Do a lot of guys get nervous? [01:14:00] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean I, I think the butter. I think same thing with like teaching coaching players. Like the butterflies are a good thing. Like you need those to perform. Like your performance is going to be flat. You know, whether it's Getting on stage or going to pitch or hit or whatever. Like you need those butterflies but you got to be able to center them in because if not then it gets debilitating for people like that. You know, they think that excite. I. I reframe it with players and individual players as excitement. It like any, anybody. I'm like anytime somebody says anxiety, I'm like, no, that's excitement. That's your body's preparation to go out and compete. [01:14:36] Speaker B: Like that's a good thing. [01:14:37] Speaker A: You need all that. But you have to learn how to control it. Because I've dealt with players who've had the yips. You know, you go through it and that's, that's where that anxiety that, that excitement goes to a bad place and then the brain gets, and gets crossways and so yeah, tapping. I'm into like emotional freedom techniques, tapping some of that stuff to. [01:14:56] Speaker B: I'm very familiar with all that. [01:14:58] Speaker A: I sent, I sent something out. I don't, I didn't even know like I filmed it. One of my, one of my friends. I've had friends kill themselves so like I can kind of tell when they're not in a good head space. So one of my friends had really was. So I filmed. I do it every morning. I do emotional freedom techniques. I do breathing. I do some Kundalini yoga stuff too. I work out, I try to work out just about every morning nutrients on meditation in the morning too. So like that's my non negotiable is I do transcendental meditation, the first thing when I get up. [01:15:25] Speaker B: But then you found good success with all that stuff. [01:15:29] Speaker A: Yeah, I learned, I learned TM from a former player. I had been doing breath work. You know, I did autogenic relaxation techniques as a player but had audio that I would give our players. I did my undergrad research and my master's research on this audio that showed positive effects on their self image but also their performance on the floor field was better. So I just kept that with me. We always did some sort of breath work, meditation. But then when I was coaching at Western Illinois, pitcher of mine who had gotten the yips that I helped get out of the yips went to Harvard for his masters and learned Transcendental meditation. So he was working in an inner city school in Chicago and he called me out of the blue, he goes, coach, I want to come down, get on the train and take your guys through transcendental meditation. I'm like, yep, let's do it. So got on the train from Chicago to Macomb Illinois and took our guys through TM after practice, and it, like, changed some of our guys. And I had never. I had never added the mantra in, like, that's the difference with TM is there's a mantra that. That once you get through, like, I probably should film that too. Just how I get in and out of it. Because it's focused on the five senses. Blend all the five senses together, and then it's basically sharing. Sharing. That's where ohm comes from. So, like, if you. If the word ohm is a Sanskrit word for throat chakra. So, like, literally, that's what ohm means. It means your throat. So, like, if you hear people chant or use. Oh. Because there's some. You know, it's the. The vagus nerve basically connects your brain through your. Through your internal organs. And that's where that anxiety comes from. Because your vagus nerve gets activated. Activated. [01:17:11] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:17:12] Speaker A: So any sort of chanting or humming gets that vagus nerve under control. But then I picked up some emo. Some of the emotional, like tapping, like, because you can't think your way out of anxiety. This is the way I try to explain it when I speak on peak performances. You can't talk your way out of Fight Flight or Freeze or Fawn. Like you can. There has to be some sort of breath and physical touch. [01:17:33] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:17:34] Speaker A: To send a signal to your brain that you're safe. Because. Because when. When people get the yips, your brain is telling you you're not safe. [01:17:41] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:17:41] Speaker A: You know, it might be through an injury or. Or whatever. Your brain is basically telling your body that you're. You're about to be harmed. So, like, there has to be some sort of touch and breath work to get that back centered in. Because if not, like, they're gonna stay in Fight Flight, Freezer, Fawn, and the only way they get out of it is get away from the activity. [01:18:01] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:18:02] Speaker A: Like, that's the only way you can reset if you don't do that. Scott Fox. Write this down. Scott Fox has spoke at our Barnstormers and then on our youth stage in dc. He shows some of the emotional freedom techniques and tapping. And he was on the podcast with me a long time ago. Scott Fox. It's really good. Call it not. He calls it. We're not trying to fill cavities, like, mix in some sort of daily practice with this stuff. Because it's like going to the dentist and you have a cavity. It's the same thing with. When guys get yippee. Once they start to get yippee, like It's. It's gonna be real hard to get them back. So you're trying to. Trying to develop a daily maintenance maintenance program to stay away. Because really you're making sure your neural pathways are running correct. [01:18:44] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:18:45] Speaker A: Because when the yips take in the other side of your brain, the analytic side starts to take over. And that's why their arm action looks funky. [01:18:51] Speaker B: Yep. [01:18:52] Speaker A: Because they're developing neural pathways that shouldn't be there. They're trying to develop neural pathways on the wrong side of their brain. So, like, it. It's fat. We're still learning a lot, but it is fascinating. But yes, some sort of daily maintenance EFT stuff would keep kids away from getting the yips. [01:19:08] Speaker B: We had a. I started to talk about it, actually, when we were talking about speakers this past year. We brought in. He's an alum. He used to play, but he's a. A mental health specialist now. He came in, he's. And he does mental performance coaching on the side. And he worked with our team and they loved it. And he was. [01:19:27] Speaker A: Love it. [01:19:27] Speaker B: He was great. [01:19:28] Speaker A: That's awesome. [01:19:28] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. [01:19:29] Speaker A: And I think you gotta have. [01:19:31] Speaker B: You're talking about. [01:19:32] Speaker A: You gotta have some outside voices, I think, for some of that stuff. And you also have to. Kids aren't always going to open up to their coaches about some of the stuff that they're dealing with. I used to have our mental health people at Western would come talk to our guys and then we would walk to the mental health office on campus. So they at least knew because it was like those last couple years, I was walking when school had started. I was taking guys that I was worried about to the mental health counseling center because I was like, they may end up killing themselves. Like, if they don't take. You just never know. [01:20:05] Speaker B: I know it's fine. I mean, the caseload of our social worker dealing with kids with depression and anxiety is like, crazy. [01:20:13] Speaker A: But it's also having to reframe some things too, with adversity. And, you know, I think the. The narrative now for kids is like, any sort of anxiety, like, something's wrong and you have. You have to get back to, like, there is some resiliency to this. And yes, there are some debilitating things out there, but if you give kids the. The skills to be able to handle and get their emotions and their anxiety under control and centered in, then you figure out, like, hey, it's not as big a deal, but if you don't, then it. Yes, it becomes debilitating and ruminating thoughts for kids. Is a bad deal. It's awful. [01:20:47] Speaker B: But some of the anxiety comes from never learning to deal with adversity in the first. [01:20:51] Speaker A: Yes. They think everything's supposed to be rosy, like, all day. That's not a thing. Like, not every moment. You're not gonna be comfortable every moment of every day. It's. [01:21:01] Speaker B: It's not parents, you know. I know. Yeah. [01:21:04] Speaker A: But any sort of anything that's great is built through adversity. Like, anything you have accomplished great in your life has been built through adversity. University. [01:21:13] Speaker B: Absolutely. [01:21:13] Speaker A: And having to work through stuff. It's awesome that Coach Sheen's been able to make such an impact at his alma mater. Bishop Henderkin has built a strong tradition of winning baseball up in the Northeast. Congrats again. Him and the entire Hawks baseball program. Thanks again to John Litchfield, Zach Hale, Matt Weston, ABC office For all help on the podcast, feel free to reach out to me via email our brownleebca.org Twitter, Instagram or TikTok. Coach be owner scrap shave Direct Message me via the Myvis app. Ryan Brownlee signing off for the American Baseball Coaches Association. Thanks and leave it better for those behind you. And you know that way Yep Wait for another day and the world will always return as your life Never for your name and you know that way Wait for another day [01:22:29] Speaker B: SA.