In part one of this series, we looked at what I learned in the two days we visited University of Minnesota strength coach, Cal Dietz, and how that shifted many of the perceptions I had about training the athlete. Then, in part two, I talked about our time at Westside and what they taught me about creating a culture unlike any other. Here, in part 3, we’re going to take a look into the world of track and field and why/how we should adopt their “style” of training if we truly want to optimize our athletes.
Once again, this story starts before we actually left for our trip. I desperately wanted to talk to SOMEONE from Altis (see what they do here) during our time at EXOS, in Arizona. However, after 5 straight days of calling and leaving a voicemail, plus sending an email, explaining what we were doing and why we wanted to do it, I had heard nothing back. I didn’t completely write it off, but I didn’t think we’d realistically have the opportunity to talk with them. I put my wishful thinking to the back of my mind and focused on the places we WERE able to go and talk to. Until I saw someone wearing an ALTIS shirt…
Nothing Special
I intercepted the guy in the ALTIS shirt, unexpectedly I think, as he was walking towards the office space ALTIS rents out from EXOS.
“Hi, do you guys have any athletes in today”.
“Yeah, we have one”.
“Cool, could I just watch and observe as you guys work with him”?
“Uhhh, I guess. It won’t be anything special, just some PT work”.
“Oh. Okay”.
He continues walking and disappears behind the tinted windows of the ALTIS space. I slowly walk back over to the other side of the gym.
10 minutes later, I see what looks like a pretty good sprinter going through some progressions. I look at Jarod. We head outside to check it out. As soon as we walk out the door we see a different, older coach, wearing an ALTIS shirt, carefully observing the athlete. We walk over. It’s Dan Pfaff.
“Hey, do you mind if we hang out for a little while”?
“No, no problem. She’s getting some work in before heading out tomorrow. She’s #4 in the world”.
Oh.
Jarod and I clumsily pull out training questions as he continues watching his athlete. I don’t want to talk too much as I understand the coach/player relationship is huge, especially with someone at this caliber. At some point during this time, the athlete comments her stride feels a little but off on the left side. She runs another short sprint and walks back over.
“Have you been doing your ankle exercises”?
The athlete shakes her head.
“Okay, your left ankle is inverting a little bit. Remember the exercise we did the other day”?
The athlete nods her head.
“Those are probably having an effect, but you need to do the accessory exercises everyday to keep that joint lubricated”.
The athlete nods her head and walks back to do another sprint.
In case you missed it: The man spotted a couple degrees difference in an ankle from 25 yards away on an athlete running 85% while talking to Jarod and I and related it to an exercise the athlete did and one she probably wasn’t doing all in a matter of seconds. This man was on another level.
A couple minutes later, after he roasted baseball for being in the stone ages and just now starting to use weighted balls, the athlete finishes up and walks over. They’re finished. We thank them as they head back inside.
Why Baseball Needs to Turn Into Track
There were a couple things I took from the brief conversation above that I think apply directly to the state of baseball development (in case you haven’t noticed from part 1 and 2, I like lists, so here we go again):
- Communication between coach and athlete: Coach Pfaff and his athlete were on the same wavelength. He wasn’t just her “technique” coach. He knew everything she was supposed to be doing and how that was going to affect her system. They communicated not as superior and inferior, but as two people working towards the same goal, with some tough love mixed in. One of the things I see often in the baseball world is the coach thinking they need to instill their dominance and control over their players. As if the players don’t actually care and don’t want to win, only them, the coach, does. The thing is most athletes ACTUALLY want to be as good as they can. Crazy right? But here’s the thing: the athletes that question what you do or want to do their own thing, are often the athletes that care the most and are also doing their own research. As a result, they have likely seen something they are interested in and want to try out. We all went through that phase, I might still be there, where you see something new and HAVE to try it. But during this, they have a coach yelling at them to do THEIR program or else. The player fights it and now a bad relationship forms. All that needs to be done in this particular situation, and in most others you’ll encounter, is some simple communication. Why do you want to do this? What benefit do you think it will have? Etc. From that point you can either direct the athlete into a better method of integrating said thing into their routine, or show them how it may not be the best thing to do right now. Either way, it ends up a better situation. And there are many other scenarios that could take place. Player not doing the work, underperforming, etc. It doesn’t matter. Communicate.
- Training Specificity: Track athletes train alone or in small groups. And I get it, track and field is, by nature, an individual sport, so why would they train in a large group? It wouldn’t make sense. But, take a step back and think about baseball. What part of baseball, the stuff you actually do in the game, is individual? Hitting? It’s you against the pitcher, whether your job is to move a runner, or, my personal favorite, score yourself. After you get the sign, no one else is in the equation. Pitching? Same thing. Communication between you and your catcher is vital, but after you’ve gotten the sign? It’s up to you to deliver it. Tracking down a ball at the track? Individual. Fielding a slow roller at third? Individual. Get my point? Baseball is a team sport, sure, but many of the things that take place within the sport are individual. Which means everyone performs these skills at a different level and needs improvement in different areas within those skills. For example: Player A is 10 for his last 20 and Player B is 0 for his last 20. Well guess what, today at practice EVERYBODY is hitting 87 mph sliders from 50 feet off the pitching machine. First of all, neither athlete is likely to do well in this situation. However, Player A will be fine. He’s hitting .500 in his last 20 at bats? His confidence is off the charts, no problem. What happens in practice today isn’t going to affect him. Player B on the other hand? The last thing he wants, or needs, is to fail some more trying to hit 87 mph sliders. He fails even more and falls into a deeper hole. This would be like a track coach saying, “Oh, you have a slight hamstring strain? Good, go do flying 30’s with the rest of the group”. It doesn’t make sense. So stop.
- See enough athletes and your eyes get really good: That’s all I have for this one. Moving on…
Problems That May Arise
Okay Brady, individuality is great. I want to do it but I have 15 guys per coach and 2 hours to work per day. Now what? Glad you asked…
Because of sheer numbers, we’ll likely never be able to get as specific as someone like a track coach who only has 1-3 athletes at a time. But we can do better. It’s harder and requires WAYYY more planning. That’s just the nature of it. Let’s look at a specific example of how we might be able to make training more specific. Let’s use hitting as our example. We have guys that have different needs. Just to mention a few:
Hitters that struggle with:
- velo
- pitch recognition
- batspeed
- movement efficiency (“mechanics”)
- bat control
- barrel awareness
These are just a few. But here is how we could go about individualizing and attacking these different areas:
Start with an eval
This should be the first week of practice. What do your guys do well? What do they struggle with? Test tee exit velo, exit velo against good pitch velo (machine), performance against off speed pitches, different locations, etc. Your options here are pretty limitless, it just depends on what you deem important and what you have access to. The important thing is that your getting real data. Hitter A has an exit velo of 94 but averages 79 against 85mph on the machine? He needs work with velo. Etc.
Evaluate the data
Once you finish the evals… look at them. Categorize. Where are the biggest deficiencies? What are they already pretty good at? What do we specifically need to address?
Design specific practice scenarios
Once you know specifically what your guys need to work on, put them in a situation to work on it. Want an easy way to do it? Make a sheet for each guy. Here’s what we tested, here’s how you performed on all the tests, here is a list of your deficiencies. These are what we’re going to focus on. Here are the drills that are going to be available to you during practice time. This is where you need to spend your time. We will retest in 3 months. Any questions?
Athlete ownership
Once you’ve given the player a list of what he needs to work on, make specific scenarios in practice available where they can work on these things. This might mean you have 5-6 different stations, all addressing something different, and the athlete goes to the one that addresses their specific problem. It’s now up to them. Make sure they understand improvement in said areas is being tracked and is going to play into their performance.
Observe and reevaluate
At this point you’ve assessed the hitters, found the areas they need to grow, designed a way for them to do so, and communicated why it’s important for them to do so and how that will meet their individual interests and the interest of the team. Now’s the time you actually get to coach. The athletes know what they’re doing, why they’re doing it, and have a way to do it. Guide them through the process and adjust as needed.
Conclusion
Is all this harder and more time consuming than telling everybody to hit grounders to second base? Yeah, it definitely is. But that’s the point. Few people are going to do it, which gives those who will the benefit. Nobody said getting better was easy.
This process can be instituted in all aspects of the game. Pitching, fielding, etc. Identify weaknesses, communicate them, and create an environment the athlete can improve in. Will it be perfect? Will it be smooth? Probably not, but nothing is. Work to continually improve this process and good things will happen.
That’s going to wrap up the 13 Facilities in 30 Days series! I enjoyed writing these and hope y’all learned something from them. As always, if you have any questions or comments, shoot me an email at brady@dacbaseball.com.