Rounding third and headed for home…

Posted on by David Navarre

Gene told Fred he was going. Fred told Glenn that Gene was going. I set up outside. It was a perfect pitch – just outside and a bit above the waist. I stepped forward and grabbed it. (They tell me my foot was on the plate and the batter would’ve hit me with a swing.) Solid catch. Smooth transfer. Good throw. Gene’s just too darn fast.

On Wednesday, our nine-inning game was the “wood bat game” of the week. That doesn’t affect me as a hitter because I’m always swinging lumber from Phoenix Bats. It does affect a lot of other players, changing those long drives into shallow fly balls. Having a single game on Wednesday and letting it be a wood game should allow everyone a little recovery time. After all, the average age this week is 66.

Gene Lee is probably the fastest runner down here at Ponce de Leon spring training. He always goes on the first pitch and doesn’t care if everyone knows it because… it’s next to impossible to throw him out with arms that were in their prime 30-40 years ago. Once he’s on second, he’s in scoring position and he’s always going to try to score. Here’s video from his first scoring attempt, which Steve Liddle asked me to share. Joe Bauer behind the dish.

I’m curious about the consensus, since my opinion is biased. He did this again, later in the game, while I was catching (after the steal in the first paragraph) and it was … so cool! I know I didn’t get him, since the throw was just up the line. I don’t know if it hit him or if I reached the glove out to stop it. One conspiracy theory has Gene grabbing my arm to prevent me from catching it, but if he did, I didn’t notice! Sadly, I don’t seem to have that video.

Over the fall, I spread the word in Asheville about this week of spring training. It worked and I got Joel Huggins to sign up. While Joel hasn’t been able to break the logjam at first (what team that’s over 50 doesn’t have 7 first basemen?), he’s done well in the outfield. Unfortunately, during the outfield specialty sessions on Tuesday, Joel had a fly ball hit his throwing hand before hitting his glove. So, he’s got a badly bruised (if not broken) ring finger on his throwing hand. In batting practice, he said that every time he made contact, it stung so much, he saw stars. There was a play in right field in which he charged the shallow fly ball and it worked out for us – while the ball dropped, Fred was able to scoot back from second and get the runner from second at home. That gave us a runner on first with 1 out and we escaped the inning with a well-timed double-play. When I later made a mistake, Joel reminded me how I needed to let it slide and that everything would work out.

Adrian Rosati started the game on the mound for Stu Clyburn’s team and despite rarely topping 37 mph, he really frustrated us. You don’t need to throw hard down here. You just need to throw strikes. He walked me and I got the first of my two steals on the day. (Yes, my legs are reminding me that catchers shouldn’t steal, especially mid-week.) The score teetered back and forth a little, settling to 7-6 in the late innings, when there is no run limit.

Doug Milman has been a godsend for us in the field. He and John Gardner have split innings at shortstop and I believe there might only have been one error there. Their fielding and throwing has been awesome. We don’t always end up with the out at first, but that’s Ponce baseball for ya. One time during this game, Doug was out in centerfield and he looked out of position to me. I waved him in the direction I wanted, but I didn’t need to. Doug coaches baseball and he moves like a gazelle. So, where he lines up in the outfield is guided by experience and understanding of the game, aided by his ability to get to most anything.

With Gene’s speed, we knew we were at risk once he reached base. As noted above, he stole second despite our best efforts. So, when the next batter hit the ball, Gene got on his horse and motored around third.

I lined myself up in front of home plate, giving him a path to the plate and I saw that look in his eye. The ball was coming in and I thought we had him… but the ball was just behind him and he was safe. I tagged him after I picked up the ball, then threw to second to try preventing the extra base. Unfortunately, we didn’t get that out. It was such a thrilling play, I enjoyed it despite the outcome. I love this game!

The score finished at 9-6 because we just couldn’t find a run late in the game.

I think I’m 6 for 16, with a few RBIs and two steals. I’ll have to look at the score sheets today to get a better handle. It doesn’t matter much how I hit if I can be consistent behind the plate. This week has been huge in getting comfortable back there and I know I’ll be able to handle catching regularly now. Also, it doesn’t matter because this is so much fun regardless of the outcome.

Tight games and tense moments

Posted on by David Navarre

On Tuesday, we started the day against JR’s (John Russell) team. His teams are always good teams. I was going to list ways in which they’re usually good, but it’s in almost every aspect. Only a few players are good at most things, but each player he has can boast of one above average skill. That’s true of most of the players down here. One might wonder how someone who’s around 80 can compete with players 20-30 years younger. If you hit the ball hard or throw strikes or can play catcher, you don’t have to move fast or have another skill.

Every year at our spring training, we have a day on which we do “specialties” and the professional coaches do some skill training for the players. Most years, we haven’t had a catching session because the turnout would be pretty low. This year, they had one before the morning game, run by Stan Clyburn. Since I know I’m going to be catching a lot and probably not pitching at all, I had to miss Rick Knapp’s pitching session. One of the best aspects of coming to Ponce Spring Training is that these pro coaches add so much knowledge to the team – they give great instruction and they learn our quirks over the years. It’s what they do when they’re with their minor and major league clubs, so it should be no surprise. I’ve never heard of that kind of skill work when teams go to a tournament – you just play.

In our games, we always have run limits in all the innings except the last one. This avoids destroying the arms of the pitchers. When you have at least 58 innings you need to cover with pitchers and you start the week with only 4 pitchers, having those innings end mercifully is quite important. Each of our four pitchers has to pitch every day in order to cover 14 innings.

The games on Tuesday bounced back and forth. Holding a team scoreless for an inning is probably a bigger deal here than anywhere else. 3-run innings are not rare, but scoreless ones are. The game against JR got rough in Fred Jaffke’s second inning on the mound. His control started to deteriorate and I should have gone out on the mound to give him a chance to reset. Pitching can be a finicky thing and Fred will do fine in his next outing.

Sonny Hill kept racking up the RBIs. The hitters in front of him have done a good job of getting on base and it’s paid off. Not everyone runs fast or throws strikes, but they have a talent. Sonny’s is driving runs in.

We managed to squeeze out the morning win with some shutdown innings from Glenn Strachan. It’s been a delight catching for Glenn as his location is very good and the velocity exceeds the rest of the pitching staff. Sometimes, we get the pitch we watn, where we want it and they still hit it, but more often than not, we’re getting weak contact or swings and misses. Those misses are increasing as the week goes on.

Jerry Spitz started the second game and we weren’t great in the field behind him. The estimates of the number of outs we gave them with errors in the first innings were around 7-8 outs. That makes it hard to win. Jerry did get into an argument with the umpire when an opposing player stepped into the plate to avoid a curveball that hit him… over the plate. Jerry turned in 3 innings with the lead passing back and forth between the teams, with one or the other being one run up.

A late add to our team was Rick Kramer. He’s a little speedster and used to be a “vacuum cleaner” in the outfield. There might be a step lost that prevents him from getting to all the balls he used to, but he does well. His bat speed is exceptional and he’s been scooting around the bases for us, scoring critical runs. When the second game went into extra innings and Rick started the inning on second base, I knew we had that run.

In the extra innings, Glenn felt that his hand was doing well enough (recovering from a line drive off it last week) that he took his turn at bat. Mitch Orcutt was pitching the late innings and kept right on going in extra innings. Mitch sometimes comes inside and, sure enough, he hit Glenn on the first pitch. I went up next and got hit on the hand on the second or third pitch. It’s the hazard of pitching inside and, for me, the hazard of crowding the plate. As a result, we took the lead.

On a bloop that landed at the edge of the grass and bounced to Bill Murray, the opposing team’s runner on 2nd tried to score. Bill made a nice throw, which I caught a few feet up the line to beat the runner by a large margin. Those extra innings are a jumble in my head of what happened when and how.

With the heart of their lineup coming up in the bottom of the 9th, Glenn shut them down and I caught strike three to end the game. Hard-fought and nicely won.

So you want to be a catcher?

Posted on by David Navarre

“All right, so who are my catchers? Joe, I know I’ve got you.”

Silence. No one raises their hand, despite two others having been assigned to the team with the thought that they are catchers.

“I’d like to catch a little.”

So, at the end of the first day, I’ve caught nearly as many innings in one game as I caught last year. I think I caught nine innings last year – never more than three in a day. Today, I caught 8 innings. The last four in both games. It was awesome.

So, I’m down at Ponce de Leon Spring Training, playing at historic Terry Park Sports Complex down here in Fort Myers. At the end of January every year, the Ponce de Leon league from the Washington DC area hosts a balanced tournament and training week. Six professional coaches to coach the 6 teams (including Darrin Garner, who is taking a week away from pre-training with the Arizona Diamondbacks to coach my team). Steve Liddle (former bench coach with the Twins and Tigers) runs the camp for us. They divide all the players into relatively equal teams (with provisions for who wants to play together) and we play 8 games over 5 days (2 Monday, Tuesday and Thursday). There are trainers in the clubhouse to handle preventative care and injuries. Everyone gets a locker and can have the clubbie do their laundry. It’s a far different experience from Roy Hobbs or other tournaments, and also far different from fantasy camps. It’s all about playing baseball – learning a little and playing even games – rather than focusing on retired ballplayers or only on winning.

I thought I was coming in here to be a utility player – catch a few, pitch a few and play everywhere in the field. When it was revealed that two of the guys that the league thinks are catchers only did so because their teams needed it, I was both scared and excited. I’d been doing a hundred or more weighted while walking my dog every morning and trying to find a moment to do additional reps (without weight) all day to get over 200 squats. That preparation has paid off.

I picked up a Catcher’s Notebook from Always Grind to use and evaluate whether I can have my youth catchers use them when I coach. So, once I settled with Joe Bauer that we’d split the innings, I went to each of our 4 pitchers and took notes on their pitching repertoire and preferences. I had thought I’d try something like this when I was going to catch in a tournament for a team last fall (canceled by the hurricane down here) but having the structure of the notebook is much better. I’m still a newby here and wouldn’t have guessed what to be thinking. After a day, I’m pretty sure that it will also be a good thing for 12-year-olds to do. They may not have a grasp of all the nuances, but it gets them thinking critically about how the game went, how they performed well and what they need to work on.

The first game of the day was a little brutal. We ended up giving up 3 runs in four different innings (3 run limit in all but the final inning) but I got to work with three of our four pitchers. Glenn Strachan is a tournament pitcher that was allocated to our roster to give us an ace. He locates his pitches extremely well and gets the hitters to hit it where we want it. Being that we’re all old men, that sometimes still doesn’t result in an out. Bill Murray (no, not that one!) came in and pitched a couple of innings and some of his pitches are honestly unhittable. That should work out well this week as long as he’s around the strike zone. Fellow Michigan State alum and Washington Nationals grounds crew member, Fred Jaffke, finished the game out. With a final score in the morning game of 12-4, we were hanging our heads a little.

In the second game, Jerry Spitz started the game with Joe behind the plate. After 3 innings, Glenn and I cam in as a battery. We all managed to keep the game close and when we held them scoreless in the top of the 7th (we’re playing 7 inning games), we eked out a 1-run victory to set us even at 1-1. There was far more timely hitting in this game and, in particular, Sonny Hill banged a hard line drive up the middle that brought in 3 runs while the centerfielder chased it down

I had a reasonably good day at the plate, going 1 for 2 in the first game with one of the 4 RBIs and 1 for 3 in the second game with one RBI. Behind the dish, my blocking was very good and my receiving was good enough. I did have two runners steal – one when I bobbled the pitch and another when my throw was a little off-line. The hard throws in the warmup when “coming down” should help deter much thievery. I did field a few balls near home that resulted in outs and ran down a runner who tried to steal home on a walk. I’m very happy with how I played behind the dish.

We feel like we escaped by getting a split on Monday, and will come back hard on Tuesday to make our drive for the championship.

If you can hit a chickpea, you can hit anything

Posted on by David Navarre

I’m a sucker for a good story and especially for a good story behind a new business in baseball. Last year, I got to meet Rick Weaver and Justin Kuhn, who started Krato Spoorts (we will have a follow up this weekend!) and this year, I met Felix Fernandez.

Growing up in the Bronx, Felix would hit chickpeas to improve his hitting skills. When he got the chance to create a tool to make that easier for players to try, he started FLE-Innovations. So now we can all try to hit them all!

I was leaning in and Angel Jorge, who’s working for Felix part-time, saw my interest and built on it. The little machine fires bio-degradable balls for you to hit – each the size of a chickpea! You don’t need a partner. You don’t need a field or a net. You could be in a tiny yard just big enough for you to swing in, or next to a chain link fence (hook the machine to the fence!) or just about anywhere. The balls disintegrate on impact and biodegrade over team.

They’re running a $50 off special, so the machine and your first 120 balls are $199.99. You can get another 400 for $25 and 800 balls for $40.

Felix is here in Booth #2812 at ABCA 2023 and there was a swarm around their booth. Get in there!

While you’re there, congratulate Felix on his baby (his wife isn’t here so she can care for their 9-month-old).

Coaching 102: Little League Batting Orders

Posted on by David Navarre

One of the most daunting challenges the first time Little League coach faces is… how do I arrange my batting order to be the most effective and useful to my players?

The Good News: It’s not that important at first

For a team of 8-year-olds, you don’t need to maximize productivity to win. Your two goals are to help your players have fun and help them learn how to play baseball. Winning is incidental. If they have fun playing AND get better, it doesn’t matter what the score is. So, don’t agonize over who your leadoff hitter is and which playing to bat cleanup. Productivity in a coach-pitch game approaches randomness. Any ball that is put in play could result in a run and in some hilarity in the process. Concentrate on two things: having them swing hard and cheering the effort.

Equality of opportunity: The Continuous, Rolling Batting Order

One of the biggest challenges facing the kids who end up at the bottom of the batting order or not in the starting lineup in a 9-player batting order is getting enough plate appearances to get better. A Little League team gets better as a group far faster if the “bottom” players work their way up to being “league average” players than if the four best players improve incrementally.

In a team of 12 players, having all 12 players in the batting order is a “continuous” batting order. Every players bats, regardless of whether they’re in the field or not. This is far less complicated than a 9-player batting order and avoids confusing players and coaches with “substitutions”. I’d suggest that you use a continuous lineup until you reach 12u in Little League if your league allows it.

The odd word in my suggestion is “rolling”. In a rolling batting order, the batter on deck at the end of a game leads off the next game. The order of hitters is always the same, but it simply starts with whoever was on deck last game.

Benefits

There are a few benefits to a rolling lineup:

  • Equal plate appearances: Every batter is going to come to the plate nearly the same number of times over the course of a season. Absences will be the only thing that affects how many times a player comes to the plate.
  • Improvement for all: Since the players who sit at the bottom of a normal order don’t get as many opportunities to bat, they have fewer opportunities to improve. By getting them an equal number of at bats, they should improve far more quickly than if they got one less at bat than the top of the order in every game. The last batter, in particular, is likely to get 20% fewer plate appearances than the first batter. That last batter needs those plate appearances to get better.
  • Reduction in stress for players: A player’s spot in the lineup is going to affect their personal opinion of their play and put stress on them. Those at the top of the lineup might be helped or even hurt by being at the top of the order, especially if the order isn’t the same every week. Getting moved up or down is going to occupy their attention and may cause “concern” in their parents. If the batting order is the same all season (or most of it), no questions arise.
  • Reduction in stress for the coach: One less thing to think about. One less thing for parents to be concerned about. You’ll always know who your leadoff hitter is for the next game.

Drawbacks

What are the drawbacks of using that continuous, rolling lineup?

  • People are going to think you’re crazy. It’s not what they see in the major leagues, college, high school or even most youth leagues. If criticism bothers you, you probably shouldn’t be coaching because not matter what you do, someone will criticize it.
  • It does not maximize run scoring potential in the first inning. If you start with your 8th best hitter and the 12th hitter is the “cleanup” hitter in the first inning, you might not see the results you’d hope for in the first inning. On the other hand, once the game is rolling, you’d have the same randomness about who is leading off each inning anyway.
  • Your best players don’t get more plate appearances than the rest of the team. I think that development of the entire team is going to give everyone more plate appearances and those bottom of the order hitters stop being automatic outs and play “league average”.

How should it be structured?

With the continuous, rolling batting order being established when you play your first game, it’s important to be happy with the order you’ve chosen. Should it be random or skill-oriented?

Random

When coaching at the beginning levels, it’s hard to tell before you’re played any games who is going to hit well other than a few players. You’ll likely have a couple that parents and growth rates have prepared a little better than the others. You’ll likely have players improve at vastly different rates. I’ve used an alphabetic batting order to remove any glory or stigma from where a player hits in the rolling batting order. Probably the biggest drawback is sometimes your best player is preceded or followed by a player that hinders them. A slower runner in front of a player that could hit for extra bases or having the next batter be a player who grounds out or strikes out frequently. You can’t rearrange these orders, so random might be frustrating.

Skill-oriented

By taking player skill and expected performance into account, you can make portions of your batting order more likely to produce runs than the rest. I like to construct it so that there are two parts that are productive, rather than stringing together all of the lesser players. Since you might have any player hitting leadoff, I prefer to avoid more than two players that are more likely outs. As the season goes on, the certainty of unproductive performances by those players is going to go down, which should smooth things out as well.

Phases of the Season

I follow the guidance of the Driveline youth baseball development course and divide my season into three phases: On-boarding, Exploratory and Performance. Each of these phases is normally about a month in our March to May (plus a few days of June) schedule.

In On-Boarding, we’re trying to get everyone acclimating to how we organize practices and games. We also do our “baselining” to determine the skills everyone has started with, so that we can measure and track them over the season. By tracking them, players can see their improvement over the course of the season even if game performance is more random. During On-Boarding, we determine the batting order we’re going to use in a continuous, rolling manner.

In the Exploratory phase, it’s all about trying new things out and helping the players improve. In these first two phases, we really emphasize improving effort and ignore box scores and game results. Winning is nice, but it’s not our focus. We want to get better and have fun doing it.

Depending on the level of play, we might continue to use that continuous, rolling lineup in the Performance Phase. The first few seasons that they play baseball, it’s probably reasonable to simply continue rolling the lineup over from game to game. This past season, with my 11u team, we reset to the top of the order for our playoff games. I kept the order almost the same and it still contained all of the players, but it started at the top. (One player was moved down from 5th to 6th, but moved back the next game as I realized I shouldn’t try to fix something that wasn’t broken.)

Proposal

This has worked for me over a few seasons. I tried it with a 13u team, but it’s hard to tell if it worked or didn’t because we had so many absences that the lineup felt random every game. It was fine for 10u and 11u in Little League. Last year, we went 4-6 in the regular season, 0-3 in pool play (yikes!) but then swept our three playoff games to the championship. The “bottom of the order” was productive in those playoff games. There were no “easy outs” on our team and some “dead” innings by the other team. In the championship game, we knew we just had to survive the top of the order and cruise through. Those three games in the playoffs weren’t very close.

If you’ve got a young team and especially if it’s your first season coaching, I’d love to have you try it and provide feedback.

ABCA 2022 First Day

Posted on by David Navarre

This is my first big baseball conference. I’ve been to IT shows and worked the All Star Game Fan Fest, but NOTHING prepared me for this. As a baseball guy walking the trade show, you could stop at EVERY booth and find something interesting or useful. You’d also get to talk to some great people.

Brilliance in bat design

A number of years ago, I wanted a flared-knob bat. I’d been using my Phoenix Bat regularly, but when I’d do an hour-long batting cage session, I’d develop a line of blisters at the knob. So I asked them to design me a bat with a flared knob. Some major leaguers were using them already and Axe had just come out with it’s first bats (only flared on one side). When I stopped by the booth today, Brad Taylor recognized my name. He was the one who designed my bat back in December of 2015!

Now, Phoenix has a dozen flared-knob bats on the display table. If you’re at the ABCA, go check THOSE bats out if you do nothing else. Tell Brad he’s a genius because… he is.

Weather

Chicago is mighty cold. I asked a bicycle cop if it was better to ride slow to avoid the wind or fast to create body heat. He told me “slow and steady wins the race” because riding hard makes you sweat and that sweat makes you COLD! I took the train in and met up with a few other conference attendees at the Clark/Lake stop. We conferred on which train was the right one and we nailed it. Unfortunately, the walk from the Cermak/McCormick Place station to the convention center was long and COLD. Three guys from Virginia, Texas and Florida might have been a little overmatched, but we survived.

Ground-breaking new tool made in the USA!

I’d let my Little Leaguers use my sleeved weight on their bats when I accidentally had it in the team bag, but it was just too heavy for them to do anything but be funny. I’ve been learning more about overload and underload bats, so wanted to start incorporating them into our practices. That gets a little too pricey for a coach buying gear out of his own pocket.

Rick Weaver (@Rweaver23) was talking to Justin Kuhn, father of one of the players he coaches, about an idea he had for bat weights. Justin had a friend with a machine shop, so the came up with the Krato Bat Weight. By being just above the hands, you get the benefits of the modern overload bats but can use it on any bat, use it in live hitting, against machines or off the tee without worrying about breakage or other nonsense.

They come in a variety of sizes and I went ahead and bought the beginner pack (10-ounce, 15-ounce and 20-ounce) with the heaviest one intended for MY personal use.

They’ve been in business for… 30 DAYS. Check their website and stop in to see them. Booth #671.

Getting 56 on your radar gun?

There’s a fantastic new version of SmartCoach out from Pocker Radar for the iPhone. While that won’t be available on Android for a few months, I did spend some time with one of the hardware engineers, Michael. He did a great job of demonstrating the new software and I’m pretty excited about that new version. Apparently, three new Android guys have joined the team and releases will be much more in sync in the future.

So, the biggest tip I got today was on the phantom 56 and 118 mph readings that randomly appear on my Pocket Radar. Those are from cell phone towers! Or some other electronic interference. Nothing wrong with the equipment, just a known anomaly. The new version makes it easier to set the velocity range for your Pocket Radar. Fortunately, none of my Little Leaguers can throw 56. In my men’s league, I think I’ll take advantage of the fact that I have two radars and put one at 36-55 and the other at 57-75.

Great first day

Despite that fact that I’m an introvert (an OUTGOING introvert), I met a lot of people today and really got into some great conversations. Because I learned a number of years ago that I’m an outgoing introvert instead of just “weird”, I know that I need to find a quiet spot and time to recharge. I’m doing that in my room right now as I write this. I’m recharging the energy used spent talking to people (the introvert part) so that I can get back out and be the dynamic guy I love being. So much to learn, so many people to talk to.

If you’re here, maximize your time. Get the most out of it. If that means spending an hour away recharging, do that. If it means diving into every open session, do that. Whatever you do, go talk to folks on the showcase floor. Even if you don’t think it’s something you’d be able to use, talk to them and find out! You might learn something and make a friend in the process.

Coaching 201: The Captain’s Program

Posted on by David Navarre

Imagine a leadership training program disguised as a baseball team

Gathered in the outfield after the championship game, the Captain stood and pointed to each player, citing their contributions throughout the season. Each player beamed with pride as some highlight of his performance was detailed. The victory had truly been a team victory, with contributions by everyone and the Captain let them know how much that was appreciated.

How old and experienced was that Captain? Was he the aging veteran, with a dozen years of major league experience? No? How about a college or high school senior who’d played for year in the same program, leading drills as a Captain, drawing on the example of the senior Captains from years before? No.

The Captain was 10 years old. He’d never had an example of a Captain to emulate on his prior teams. He did have some coaches who’d done similar citations of performance during the 16-game season. He’d often spoken at the gatherings, identifying some good play or extra effort by his teammates, but this final game was different and the words just flowed.

How did he get there?

The simple answer is that he became a good leader the same way he became a good player. Practice. Repetition. Coaching. The slightly more complicated answer is… through the Captain’s program.

When I started coaching Little League, I’d already had 14 years as a Scoutmaster. I was used to being able to provide direction or guidance to one young man and having him lead all of the others in getting tasks accomplished. In Scouting, everyone expects leadership to be taught and the structure is already designed. It only requires proper implementation. So, in Scouting, we produce lots of good leaders.

Youth baseball doesn’t come with any leadership structure. If there is one, it’s usually an autocracy run by the adult coach. I’ve rarely heard of captains in talking to other baseball coaches and gotten raised eyebrows when I bring one of mine to the home plate meeting with the umpires. The coach who got me involved in Little League had suggested that each team bring a captain to those meetings, so I always did. That lead me to wonder how to make that role more meaningful.

Structure of a season

The first part to understand about how Captains are used in this system is to understand the structure of the season and then how Captains are selected for each part.

During the COVID shutdown, I decided to maximize my unexpected free time. Since I wouldn’t be coaching baseball, I decided to take the Driveline course in Youth Baseball Development. In that course, they recommend breaking the season into three phases, each about a month long: On-Boarding & Baselines, Exploratory and Performance.

In the On-Boarding & Baselines Phase, you spend a month implementing your system and determining the beginning skill level for your players. The On-Boarding within a Little League season is bound to require also training the assistant coaches in your system. So, for the first phase, the head coach selects two Phase Captains and then one Game Captain for each game. The Phase Captains serve in that role for the whole month-long Phase and do so at practices and games. A Game Captain is named by the head coach for each game. This way, more players get to serve as Captain.

In the Exploratory Phase, the assistant coaches select the Phase Captains. They will have a slightly different view of the team than the head coach and have had an opportunity to see several players serving as Game Captains in addition to the original Phase Captains. During this Phase, the Head Coach continues to select Game Captains, to ensure that as many players as possible serve and that likely candidates for Phase Captain in the final Phase serve.

When you reach the final month of the season – the Performance Phase – it’s time to turn over the selections to the players. They’re seen a few serve as Phase Captains, and many as Game Captains, so should have an idea what they’re like as appointed leaders. It’s important to be hands-off in this, so that they can make the choice. Any imposed solution will make the players feel powerless instead of empowered. Sometimes, they choose the most talented, sometimes, the most popular and also sometimes, the ones who help teammates the most.

Roles of the Captains

It’s important that you give the Captains some actual duties, rather than just ceremonial ones. My list started with going to the home plate meeting and calling out the lineup, which led to giving each Captain a pocket-sized copy of the lineup. Then, other things got added. Some in these lists are specific to our style of warmup and the gear we have, others are more universal. How strictly you monitor and pay attention to detail on these tasks is going to depend on their age and maturity, plus your own preferences. I’m easy-going and often busy around game time, so there is a lot of leeway for my 11u teams.

When you arrive (slightly more than 30 minutes prior to game time):

  1. Get your pocket copy of the batting order from the head coach (put it in your pocket)
  2. Ask if the coaches need help with raking, removing tarps, lining the field or getting the chalk roller out of storage
  3. Help get the J-bands set on the fence and the wrist weights and plyos nearby
  4. Make sure a bucket of balls is available for throwing
  5. Help get the team warming up with the bands/weights/plyos
  6. Warm up throwing the ball

Before the game

  • Phase Captain 1 – Lead dynamic warmup with assistant coach
  • Phase Captain 2 – Go to home plate meeting with head coach (one coach and one player only)
  • Game Captain – check with each player whether they warmed up with the bands/weights/plyos, especially anyone who arrives late

During the game

  1. Call out batting order when we come in from the inning and after each batter
  2. Call out fielding lineup for the inning when we head to the field
  3. Make sure the next inning catcher is getting ready while we are at bat
  4. Lead your teammates in cheering the team on
  5. Decide who you think deserves to be named player of the game

After the game

  1. Let the head coach know who you think is player of the game (all Captains)
  2. Make sure tags, counters or indicators (balls/strikes) left in the dugout are placed in the bucket (Phase Captain 1)
  3. Make sure team gear gets picked up (Phase Captain 2)
  4. Help with the raking and tarps, as needed

Communication

I did not email my players directly, which allowed the parents to monitor the communication and to be in the loop on the tasks to be performed. I emailed the task list the day prior to the game, so that parents could print it out for their player.

The use of these task lists be a little tricky, as some parents will be tempted to intervene and handle the tasks FOR the player instead of reminding the player to complete those tasks. Here, you have to make sure that the parents understand how precisely the listed tasks must be performed. The major goal is to have the PLAYER perform it, regardless of the quality of execution. The last thing the rest of the team needs is another adult bossing them around or doing what Captain is failing to do.

Once we got to the Performance Phase, my emails no longer listed the detailed tasks. Each email talked about how I’d like them to motivate specific players. These addressed things that the team needed the player to do (have confidence, hit the ball hard, throw strikes) as well as some methods. One of the most effective ways to express and instill confidence in a player is for the Captain to quietly praise them or say, “we’ve got your back.” The loud cheering helps pump everyone up, but those quiet moments often make a bigger difference. Having those things come from a peer who is a Captain instead of an adult Coach is really powerful.

Does it work?

It worked with Boy Scouts. It worked this season with my 11u team.

The Captain described at the beginning of this post served as a Captain for the entire season – having been selected by the Head Coach, then by the Assistants, and then by the players. He’s a talented player who grew in his understanding of his leadership role as the season went along.

Another player was selected as Phase Captain for the first two, then not voted for the Performance Phase by his teammates. He was a little bummed, but kept contributing as a leader as well as on the field. He liked being a Captain and has a better understanding of leadership.

The player elected in his place for the Performance Phase was not among the couple highest performing players, but is a great communicator. He talks to everyone and shares my generally rosy outlook on life (I don’t have a player on the team, so this isn’t me shining his apple!) They chose him because he was such a good teammate. He also grew in the role.

Additionally, all the players named Game Captain (everyone had it at least once in the 16-game season) took their role as a Captain seriously. They performed the duties with varying level of detail and diligence, but all within the range expected for 10- and 11-year-olds.

I expect this will be a continually developed process. I spent 14 years learning to do it as a Scoutmaster and got better over time. I expect that it’s going to continue to change and improve over multiple years of youth baseball coaching as well.

As always, I invite your thoughts and suggestions. If you want advice in developing something along these lines, my Little League season is over and I have 6 months to prep for the next one (because I don’t coach fall ball, so I can spend that time with my lovely wife). If you have advice on how to improve it or a completely different way of teaching leadership or handling your Captains, we could even go so far as to have a guest post discussing your viewpoint.

Coaching 201: Pitch-tracking sheet

Posted on by David Navarre

With a few years under my belt, I have found that I have a few tools, ideas and methods to share. I’m not sharing the basics of being a Little League coach, but the pieces that have moved me beyond the basics. The first piece I’d like to share is my latest creation: a pitch-tracking sheet.

I decided before our season started that I wanted to track more information about our pitchers. I had been tracking balls and strikes a little bit. I had started differentiating between called strikes and swinging strikes. I’d been tracking velocity in practices, sometimes. I wasn’t tracking where the pitches went.

I’m not real good with remembering specifics and finding patterns in live action. I’d only gotten a sense of how things were going. I’m not like professional coaches – I couldn’t tell you where every pitch in an inning went without writing it down.

So, I wanted to combine all of that and extend it a little, but not overwhelm myself with data-recording responsibilities.

Photo of pitch-tracking sheet with data recorded

The Pitch-Tracking sheet is my first effort at combining all that information and understanding the flow in real time. I opened Microsoft Excel and started creating a table for pitch-tracking. Each column has 10 boxes for pitches, which helps quickly know the pitch count without using a clicker. There are 7 boxes for the data – 3 on each side and a tall one in the middle.

From the catcher’s perspective, I mark where the pitch went. Those stacked boxes to the left and right help me place the inside and outside pitches. I use O, / and X to indicate balls, strikes looking and strikes swinging. Foul balls get an F, while batted balls get the result of the play. Wild pitches (WP), passed balls (PB) and steals (SB) get a notation in the center box (since the pitch could have been anywhere). I mark the velocity from my PocketRadar in the middle box – at the bottom unless it was a low pitch.

It’s been very useful seeing trends and learning how my guys throw. I see trends developing and can also tell when someone’s working the count a lot, rather than just losing them or killing them. I was trying to do something like this in my little pocket diary, but it’s just too much data and gets messy fast.

Things that I haven’t figured out how I’d like to do here: keep track of the opposing batters, identify lefty/righty, and record pitch type. I’m not sure yet whether I need those details.

When I review the data after games, I count up the balls and strikes, tally those and the scorebook data, and then craft a sentence or two about the outing. So far, it’s giving me a far greater understanding of what happens in our games than I was getting just looking at the scorebook or reviewing my chicken scratch in my journal.

I’ll probably start using that journal again – but only to write down noteworthy events during the game. After all, we do name a player of the game and it helps to have something to refer to beyond the most recent memory.

I’d love to hear comments on this – if you use something else instead or if you think this ought to be modified in some way. I’m a data guy and I’ve always been writing stuff down in the dugout when I’m coaching. That might not be your style….

Here it is as a PDF:

pitch-tracking-sheetDownload

Training in the surprise off-season

Posted on by David Navarre

I sent this as an email to our Little League team, in expectation that they need some guidance and that their parents would love for them to have some activity/direction. I need to start taking some of this advice to get myself ready for MY season, assuming it starts at some point!

I’ll admit that I was absolutely gutted when they announced that our season is delayed until at least April 6th. I look forward to every practice and game as much as the players. My normal off-season was spent attempting to improve myself as a coach: pitching conference, USA baseball certifications, intense study, and new gear. So, this has been quite a shock.

That said, there are things that each player can do to prepare for when our season restarts. The two things that I shape our team our around philosophically are: Throw Hard, Run Fast. Neither of those requires a baseball practice to get better at, so you can put your efforts in this surprise “off-season” to good use.

Throw Hard

Of course, one of our main methods is “long toss” or what USA Baseball calls “interval throwing”. For this, it’s best if you have a partner who throws at least as hard as you do. Start at further than “social distancing” apart (6 feet!) and keep moving further apart as long as you can throw it successfully in the air. If one of you can throw further, having the other bouncing it OR in extremes, using two partners to relay the throw back is fine. If you can’t find a partner, make sure you have 5 or 10 baseballs and throw at some kind of target. As you get further apart, the angle of your throws should get higher. Once you’ve reached your limit, work your way back in with each throw, lowering the angle, but keeping the effort the same. This trains your arm to throw hard direct at your target. Hit your partner in the chest (his glove will stop the ball!) with every throw. At 10 years old, you want to be throwing 120 feet at your peak. For those of you who are 11, your goal is 135 feet. Our bases are 60 feet apart, so you want to double that – throwing from behind the plate to 2nd base is only 100 feet (that’s the goal distance for 8-year-olds!)

I talk about the importance of balance and we do some of that in our warmups, but not enough to really work on it. One of the best ways to work on it anywhere is to pick up a ball while standing on one foot. I like to lift my opposite knee up like I’m in my windup, then swing down to pick up the ball. Then, I repeat it, but set the ball down. Doing this ten times with each leg really improves you balance and works your core muscles. Core muscle strength, balance and body control will all help with your ability to Throw Hard.

Since core muscle strength is such a good thing, it also makes sense to do crunches or situps as well as try ‘planking’ for 60 seconds or more. If you set 100 crunches/situps as a goal, plus 60 seconds of planking, you’ll do well. Each day, do those 100 reps and 60 seconds, even if you have to do 10 at time. When we reconvene, we’re going to have a contest for the longest plank as well as the longest throw.

Run Fast

The best way to develop speed is by running. We don’t need you to run a mile. We just need you to be able to run 60, 120, 180 and 240 feet as fast as you can. Jogging 240 feet doesn’t help. One of the good ways my basketball coaches used to work on our speed was by doing shuttle runs. You need three lines or three cones to use as markers. Set them down 30 feet apart, so that it’s a total of 60 feet. Start at the first cone, run to the middle one and then back. Then run to the far one and only back to the middle, returning to the far one to turn around and run back to the start. Do ten or twelve of these a day. If you can have someone time you, that’s best. That way you can keep track of how much you improve.

I used to lament when I’d see players who couldn’t touch their toes, especially if they used to be able to do so. The good news is that I didn’t understand what was happening. In your age range, you’re still growing and sometimes, your bones grow faster than your muscles. When that happens, it the BEST time to train for speed. So, if you suddenly can’t reach your toes, that’s good news for your spring times.

I expect everyone on the team to come back from our off-season faster than when we last met.

Some notes for catchers

Spend time in your gear. I do have a complete set of gear that belongs to the team if there is a catcher with out their own set. (Make sure to disinfect the helmet, just in case!)

If you get in your crouch, you can either have someone toss you a ball to catch bare-handed with your glove hand or bounce it off a wall. You want to have “soft hands” so you catch the ball rather than have it bounce out of your glove. The most improvement comes from holding a ball with your last two fingers while catching the ball with the other three. You might need to use a golf ball or something else small for guys with shorter fingers.

Here’s one of my mentors, Jeff Smith, doing it with major league catchers from the Twins on the first day of spring training in 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Dty9ZLuUqI

Practice chasing a ball that’s gotten past you. This is best done by putting three balls on the ground several feet behind you. Get in your crouch with your glove and have a partner call out “1”, “2” or “3” for you to go grab the ball that’s toward 1st base, in the middle or toward 3rd base. Your partner can cover the plate like the pitcher for you to throw for the tag. One pro tip is that you can slide on your left left leg (if you’re a righty) when you go for the ball. The shin guard protects and allows you to slide easily. If you do a dozen of these a day, it will bring big improvements in our defensive play.

For pitchers

Practice pitching! Have a partner take video of you throwing. The best angles are: facing you from the side and from 3/4ths forward. The angle from behind tends not to be as revealing, but does allow people watching to see the location of the pitch. It’s better if you have a target to throw at and to have someone else tell you whether it’s a ball or a strike, but that’s not required. Every time you throw, write down how many pitches you throw. Treat it like a game and if you throw more than 20 pitches, don’t pitch 2 days in a row. If you throw 36 pitches, take 2 days off. Never throw more than 50 pitches until after we start practicing. If your shoulder or elbow hurt, don’t throw that day or stop throwing when it happens.

If you take video of your pitching, we can figure out how I can help you analyze it to determine what might help you do better.

Batting practice

Some of the indoor cages are open, but even with cleaning at the top of their list, most of them are too tight a space. Since you want to keep 6 feet away from other people, indoor cages might not be feasible.

The batting cages at Simpson, Minnie Howard and Brenman (over at the baseball field) are never locked, so you can either have someone pitch/toss balls to you or take a hitting tee. I like to use the SKLZ impact balls (yellow and black), especially if someone’s going to be doing soft toss near you – less risk of injuring them. I order them off Amazon for $16/dozen. They’re indestructible in comparison to the cheap white ones and they come with a bag. https://amzn.to/3b01yCZ

Keep Training!

Basically, I want everyone to keep training. I don’t know when we’ll be back on the field, but if you spend at least one hour every day, you’ll be ready when we do.

Long toss distances

Posted on by David Navarre

As I try to improve my own velocity for pitching and coach up my players, I continually go back to long toss as one of the great methods for improving arm strength. I always hunt down this tweet for the handy guide to distance for long toss.

On the practice field, I try to visualize this, but am usually wrong. So, I wanted to work out what these distances would be in quick field dimension terms.

We play on 50/70 diamonds, so home to second is just short of 100 feet. That’s how far an EIGHT YEAR OLD should use for long toss (with above average arm strength). So, on my team of 12 and 13 year olds, every player ought to easily throw unencumbered from home to second. The 12 year olds should be able to back off 50 feet into shallow center, which would be the same distance from second as the rubber on the mound is. If you’re using the first or third base line instead, go down the line a little further than the distance from home to the bag. At the end of the spring, my 13 year olds should be able to throw long toss from nearly three times the distance between bases. Throwing from the fence to the infield fringe is around 200 feet, so that will be the goal….

I haven’t paid serious attention to other teams throwing programs before games, but mine sure as heck isn’t throwing this far yet. At least I am starting to understand the scope….