Baseball Life || Page 5 || Baseball Dudes LLC

Goals

Apr

2014-03-28 22.35.55 I am very fortunate to spend a every day around some of the best players and coaches in the world. Today I got to listen to one of our coaches explain, to one of our top prospects, what goals are, why they are important and how you should set them. Here you go…

Long term goals…This is the big picture. What you would like to happen 2, 3, 5, 10 years from now. Obviously, this players goal is to get to the big leagues. For this to happen, he needs other smaller goals to achieve before he can reach his long term goal of getting to the show.

Intermediate goals…A year from now, where do you want to be. For him, it may be to be in AA. This level is a milestone for players because if you can get there, compete and be a good player, then you know you have a chance. They say if you can compete in AA, you should be able to compete the big leagues.

Short term goals…Now these are the really important ones. It’s ok to have a few of these but they need to be put in order. To achieve one, there is another one you need to accomplish first and before you can get to that one, there may be something else to do. For young players, it’s all the little things like solidifying their routines on and off the field. Learning more about their delivery or swing. Getting stronger, and whatever other little things are on their list.

You can’t get to your long term goal until you achieve your intermediate goals and you won’t get there until you achieve all of your short term goals.

Here’s an example for you. Our long term goal for Baseball Dudes (the website part of our business) is for it to be a household name that people think of when they want free quality and trusted baseball information, instruction and guidance. To get there, our intermediate goals are to form relationships with teams, leagues, organizations and facilities to provide them with the proper information to create smart players and coaches who understand what it takes, mentally and physically, to be successful at this game and the game of life. But, before we can get there, we have a few things to accomplish like adding more writers to the website who are experts from other areas on the field (right now, we are all pitchers), continue to build our creditability by sharing our knowledge via Facebook, twitter and our website, add to our Video Tips library and continue to add documents to our website like practice plans, different drills that are diagramed, team fundamentals and the list goes on.

Bottom line, to make your ultimate goals a reality, you need to think smaller first. One step at a time. Be patient, give it all you’ve got and never lose site of the big picture.

Chris Gissell (172 Posts)

Founder of Baseball Dudes. Blessed with three beautiful children and an amazing wife. Baseball is my life, after my family, and I love sharing what I have learned from it. Thanks for taking the time to view what we offer here at Baseball Dudes.

Categories : Baseball Life, Chris Gissell, Dudes Blog

Sports IQ

Mar

It might be because I’m getting old or perhaps it’s because I didn’t have Lacrosse as an option to play when I was growing up, but one thing I do remember is having a passion for baseball when I was a youngster. I knew the best players in baseball and who my favorite was. My friends and I would pick apart each other’s favorites to defend our picks as being the best. When I ask kids I coach their favorite player or what style of pitcher/hitter they want to emulate I often get a shrug followed by a blank stare.

How is this possible that kids can’t name one player in the sport they are playing? I believe that understanding the sport in all of its capacities is vital to creating a base in which a player respects the game and develops a passion to play it. What were the original four major league teams? Why was Jackie Robinson important? What number did Babe Ruth wear? How many strikeouts did Nolan Ryan have in his career?

To truly understand your sport is to fully appreciate it and love what you’re doing to get better. Family stories about why you have the values you do based on lifetimes before are important in becoming the person you are just as much as a sports history shapes the player you will be.

Part of my lesson routine now is to ask my student about a certain player and what they contributed to the game. Kids are usually dumbfounded that Cal Ripken played every day for 2,632 games in a row. I am too for that matter but please at least know who he is!!! As teachers and coaches, it is our responsibility to teach history of the game just as much the mechanics. Respect and love of the game will not fully be realized without that knowledge.

Chris Gissell (172 Posts)

Categories : Baseball Life, Coaching, Dudes Blog

Think Before You Speak

Feb

This applies to everyone, not just baseball players and coaches. We all have heard at some point that our words can hurt. Not only can our words hurt someone, they can affect how we are perceived by others. Our students who work through our “Life & Leadership” workbooks hear about this often. This also is a topic often spoken about in my own household.

My boys were at the park one day with a couple buddies playing football when my younger one came to me saying one of the boys made a comment about his catching ability. The kid who said it is a very nice kid and my younger boy (8) is still pretty sensitive. When we talked about it later, I tried to get him to understand that the buddy wasn’t trying to be mean, he was just stating what he was seeing. I’m sure how the buddy worded his comment didn’t come across the way an adult would have said it, but that’s to be expected from a 10 year old. The point I was trying to get across was that whenever we are thinking about saying or doing something, we need have better control of ourselves and think about how our words or actions will affect the people around us and how it might make us appear to others. He needed to recognize that his buddy wasn’t being mean, but in the moment, he made the wrong choice in saying the words he did. He obviously didn’t think about how his words would affect my boy.

As an adult, it still amazes me when I come across other adults that still don’t have what I call a “Filter” in their head between their brain and their mouth. This is the place where an idea stops and for a second and your brain decides whether it’s a good idea or bad idea to do or say whatever it just came up with.

I am very fortunate to spend a lot of time around some of the best baseball minds in the world. Guys who had great MLB careers. Unfortunately, with that kind of success, you often find big egos and with that you come across people who love to her themselves speak and feel that everyone wants to hear what they have to say at all times.

The best and most influential people I have been around are the ones who only speak when spoken to and only voice their opinion when it will have an impact on what’s in front of them.

Early in my professional life, I was one of these people with no filter. I would just say or ask whatever came to mind. I look back now and realize how ignorant and immature I was making myself look. My “Filter” was non existent. Fortunately, I have learned from my mistakes and am excited to be able to teach my students from my own experiences. It can be a tough lesson to learn but the sooner in life we learn/teach this life lesson, the easier we can make things for our ourselves, and our Dudes, later in life.

ALWAYS, “Think Before You Speak”

Chris Gissell (172 Posts)

Categories : All Articles, Baseball Life, Chris Gissell, Dudes Blog, Parents

The PROCESS

Oct

NateSS I recently had someone ask me what’s the biggest difference when working with professional pitchers and youth pitchers. As we got further into it, we started discussing the PROCESS that they all go through.

Let’s start with the younger ones. I’m referring to the 8-9-10 year olds. Often when I see kids this age, there is so much to fix that without a philosophy or plan, an instructor would have a hard time getting anywhere.

Parents seek out an instructor for their Dude because they want them to be able to compete as best they can when they are on the field. Too often, when I see a kid for the first time and we play catch, the kid has never really “let it fly” in his whole life. I’m talking about letting their arm be loose and throw the ball as hard as they can. When I come across a kid like this, we will do drills to make sure this kid learns what it feels like to give his best. Sometimes this may take a couple sessions but they usually start feeling it pretty quickly. This arm speed issue is an area of focus because most of these kids have dreams and aspirations to play high school and beyond and if they aren’t able to “let it fly” then there is no way they will reach those goals. A pitcher can have a great delivery and be good at thowing strikes, but the older they get, the bigger and stronger his opponets will get and it will begin to look like he is out there throwong batting paractice.

Next would be learning a proper delivery. This is obviously the most important part when it comes to being able to throw strikes consistently. Every kid is different and will naturally have a different looking delivery but there are a few areas of focus that have to be taught. Balance-Direction-Timing/Rhythm. Without being really good at all three of these in a delivery, it will be hard to compete from pitch to pitch.

Now…If and when we are really good at effort level and have developed a consistent delivery, we can start learning how to PITCH. You start focusing on the command of your pitches. Once a player is 12 or 13 you can start introducing breaking pitches. They should have already been throwing a change up for a couple years now.

When a pitcher has developed control or decent command, we can start working on pitch selection. What are good pitch selections in different counts.

If a pitchers is blessed enough to get to the professional level, this is when they will really learn what it takes to compete at the highest level. Some make it to the big leagues really quick but most live a journey that last years and years before they finally make it IF they make it at all. When a pitcher gets to this level, they all of the sudden find themselves competing against the best in the world. For many, it is a very humbling experience. They find out really quick that what they did in high school and college isn’t as effective at that level. Many have to make adjustments quickly. Learning to pitch at the bottom of the zone is usually the biggest area of adjustment. Unfortunately, many never really get a grasp of this and have their careers end too quickly.

The PROCESS at this level is becoming the best at all the little things that hopefully they were taught at some point when they were younger. I’m talking about becoming the best at PFP, holding runners on base, having good pick off moves, being able to make in game adjustments with this delivery, learning a good routine in between games, learning what it means to be a professional. I could keep going but I think you understand.

The PROCESS is different for everyone. Learn what your PROCESS is or find and instructor that can help your Dude learn what their is.

The PROCESS

Chris Gissell (172 Posts)

Categories : Baseball Life, Chris Gissell, Coaching, Dudes Blog

I Play Clean

Sep

68981_160819980608472_3792825_n For those of you who may not have heard yet, we have partnered up with “I Play Clean”. Their mission is to educate and encourage high school students to make the right choice of playing clean – that is, training hard, eating well and playing with attitude, instead of resorting to illegal and dangerous steroids and performance enhancing products.

They are a Non-Profit organization and the partnership couldn’t be more perfect. This topic is something I feel very strongly about. I was raised in a house where when you had a goal, the way you would reach it would be through hard work and dedication. I take pride in knowing that everything I achieved in my playing days was a direct result of me working my butt off to get everything I could out of my talent.

I played in a generation where the use of performance enhancing drugs was at it’s peak. I sat in locker rooms knowing that the guy next to me was using steroids. It didn’t bother me. I truly believe that it didn’t because of the mindset I was brought up with. I learned through this game that, yes it is a team sport, but for my team to be great, it took each of my teammates to know what it took for them to be good as often as possible. I couldn’t control what they did or didn’t do. Once I realized this in my career, things got better for me. I found a routine that I did daily which helped me to be the best I could be for my team every day my name was called. The best in this game are better more often. To be better more often comes from a mindset and desire to be as consistent as you can be.

These guys I played with and against that used steroids are the type of people who are looking for the easy way. Yes, many of them reached the big leagues only because they used steroids but now these guys will have to live with remorse and hopefully regret knowing that the reason they had the success they did was because they were cheaters. Now I’m not stupid, I have spent my life around guys and have a good feel for how everyone of them has different mindsets, and realize that many will never feel these emotions. Many will sit at home in their huge house and never think twice about how they got it. That’s just the way it is.

The point of all this is, live a life of integrity and honesty. Be a strong enough person to make your own choices. If your buddies are doing something that you don’t think is right, be the bigger person and follow what your heart is telling you. You WILL feel better about yourself, and have more confidence, when you live a life by these standards.

Chris Gissell (172 Posts)

Categories : Baseball Life, Chris Gissell, Coaching, Dudes Blog, Parents

Reputation

Aug

A person or players success in life can be altered by the reputation that they build over time. Every decision someone makes can, and most often, will affect it. In some cases, a good or bad decision might not affect that person for a long period of time, but eventually all of our choices will directly affect us somehow.

One with a good reputation is one who has character, integrity, strong morals and is just a good person. To be a baseball player with a good reputation takes doing the same thing, your habits, day after day. Hitting off the tee everyday to make you a better hitter. Being the best catch player on the field everyday to make you a better pitcher. Being a great teammate in the dugout everyday whether you are having a good or bad day. Always being on time to every practice, class, game or team meeting. These are just a few things that build a good reputation.

Unfortunately a good reputation can be destroyed by one bad choice. Striking out and slamming your bat or helmet to the ground can kill it. Hanging your head after an error can kill it. Sitting on the bench and pouting while your whole team is up on the top rail can kill it. Making a poor decision off the field; skipping class, partying, poor choice of friends, not thinking before you speak can kill it. Doing the wrong things, thinking you might get away with it, will most definitely kill it.

The choice is all on you. Do you want to be known as a great player, great teammate, great student, hard worker, great son or a great father? Every single choice you make in life has consequences. It’s up to you if you want them to be good ones or bad ones.

Be a person of Character, Integrity and Honor and good things will happen to you in life.

Chris Gissell (172 Posts)

Categories : Baseball Life, Chris Gissell, Coaching, Dudes Blog

Take Time Off

Jul

Baseball is a lot of fun. Kids who have the love for the game want to play everyday.

When it comes to hitting, you can do that everyday without putting too much stress on the body. In fact, the best of the best do it almost year round.

Pitching is a different story. This motion is very hard on the body. It is an un-natural motion to throw something over hand. It puts a lot of stress on the body. One of the best way to insure we limit injuries in a pitcher is to give the arm proper rest in the off season. Personally, I was very fortunate that my father learned this early in my childhood and forced me to give it a rest every year. I would always wait until after the new year to pick up a ball. If fall ball ended in October, my arm would get 2-3 months of rest. In my opinion, this is vital especially with our growing children.

I have parents very eager to start right back up working off the mound in the off season and have to remind them of this. My rule of thumb is at least 2 1/2 months of rest, then a couple weeks of catch before we get back up on the mound.

Parents, please educate yourself and understand this part of the game for your young pitcher.

Chris Gissell (172 Posts)

Categories : Baseball Life, Chris Gissell, Coaching, Pitching

Controlling The Adrenaline

Jul

If you are fortunate enough to play this game for a long time, you will have many firsts. The first time you walk into a clubhouse. The first time you meet your teammates. The first time you take a swing in the cage. The first time you throw a pitch off the mound in a bullpen. These are all firsts that will get the butterfly’s going a little.

What really gets the nerves is that first at bat or that first inning of the season. Like I said, hopefully you get to experience a lot of these. The question is, how do you handle these moments? I personally got to experience many and yes the nerves are always there. There was even some nerves pitching in an alumni game that meant nothing!!

The level I am coaching at this year is where a lot of newly drafted players go to get their first taste of pro ball. All of these young men will experience nerves, and pressure, like they have never experienced before. Some thrive in these situations and some allow the nerves to take over and take them off their game. The ability to slow things down at times like this is a learned ability. Experience is the only way to learn how to “Control The Adrenaline” in these moments.

I have written before on “The Weeding Out Process” and this is another layer. I have seen some players who have this elevated level of adrenaline outing after outing and at bat after at bat. They can’t seem to get a grip on how to handle it and end up never reaching their full potential in the game.

Learn how to handle your nerves/adrenaline in this game and watch yourself thrive.

Chris Gissell (172 Posts)

Categories : Baseball Life, Catching, Chris Gissell, Dudes Blog, Hitting, Pitching

It’s Not An Easy Game

Jun

I always tell parents that if they want their kids to learn how to deal with failure, have them play baseball. Like the title says, “It’s Not An Easy Game”. Major league hitters are great players getting only 3 hits in every 10 at bats. Major league pitchers are considered good when they allow 1 run every 2 innings. Think about it, that is your opponent beating you very often!!

Players need to be taught at a young age that failure is a part of life. It’s how they respond to those moments of failure which will make them either a strong or weak person. In baseball, there is always a tomorrow where you can redeem yourself. If you make a bad play, give up a homerun or strike out in a key situation, all you can do is learn from it. If you let that moment get the best of you, it’s going to be a long road (or short one with all the failures that happen in baseball).

As a parent, it’s hard to watch your kids fail out there on the field. Do your best to help them understand that moments like that will happen their whole life and how the right way to handle it is. When they fail, be sure to point out to them all the great hits-plays-pitches they have made in their life. Explain to them that even the guys they watch on TV fail and have bad games. Also help them to understand that this won’t be the last time they will have a bad day and that they need to learn something from every single failure they have in life, on and off the field.

It’s Not An Easy Game and that’s why those guys we watch on TV are so good. They have trained so much that they fail less than others and are great at dealing with the failures that happen every day.

Be great at dealing with failure and you will be a successful person on and off the field. The ones who jump up after falling, are the ones who will have a better chance at being successful at whatever they do.

Chris Gissell (172 Posts)

Categories : Baseball Life, Chris Gissell, Coaching, Dudes Blog

New Faces

Jun

Orem_Owlz_5 The MLB Draft was held last week. The team I will be the pitching coaching for, the Orem Owlz, season will start June 20th. We play in the Pioneer League which is a short season A level. Considered rookie ball.

About half of our team will be compiled of new players from the draft. This will be their introduction into pro ball. These kids have dreamed of this day for as long as they have played this game.

Pro ball can be a tough adjustment for young men. We will play everyday for two and a half months except for 4-5 days off during that span. Three of those days will probably be travel days where we will spend half the day on a bus. This, playing everyday, can be a huge adjustment for these guys. Playing everyday means a lot of throwing. A lot of running. A lot of thinking about their game. When you play everyday, everything is magnified. A two or three week slump in HS or college might consist of 10ish games. Well if your playing everyday, that slump turns into 15-20 games.

Then there’s the off the field stuff. Many of these kids will be on their own for the first time. How they handle this part of life can also be a big adjustment. Too many times I have seen guys make bad decisions that have ruined their careers. Sad, but it happens every year.

Sorry, kind of got off track there. Please let me continue… I am very excited to welcome these young men into pro ball and will do my best to teach them and mentor them on what it takes, and means, to be a professional baseball player.

Orem, here we come!!

Chris Gissell (172 Posts)

Categories : Baseball Life, Chris Gissell, Coaching, Dudes Blog

How Did Your Teammates Do?

Jun

My career unfortunately takes me away during my kids Little League season. My wife is great at sending me videos of their at bats and of them pitching along with inning by inning text updates. It’s not the real thing, in person experience, but it’s what we do.

Both my kids are decent little players and usually have a good game. Zachary, my younger Dude is still shy on the phone and doesn’t really give me much info about his game. When I ask him questions, the answer is almost always, “Good”. Cracks me up every time.

My older Dude, Christopher, has some talent. We talk after every game when he is in the car on their way home. I make it a point to always ask him how his team did. Who had a good game? Who pitched well? Who got the good hits? Who made good plays in the field? Then after that’s all said and done I will let him talk about himself just a little.

My children will be brought up being considerate of others and I believe baseball can be a great way to teach them this lesson. It’s important to me that they naturally recognize others and their efforts. Too often I see, and hear, players who all they seem to want to talk about is themselves. At my level, we call this a “Me Guy”. Trust me, this is a reputation, and label, you don’t want to have. This type of attitude can be traced back to one place, how they were brought up. These kids grow up in a house where all the parents do is tell them how great they are. I understand how as a parent we are proud of them and their accomplishments, but sit back and think about what type of person do you want your Dude to grow up and be.

My Dudes WILL NOT be “Me Guys”.

Chris Gissell (172 Posts)

Categories : Baseball Life, Chris Gissell, Dudes Blog

Youth Pitchers and Pitch Counts

May

AlexMiller-1 I had a parent contact me the other day asking my opinion on how he should handle his 13 year old’s pitching season. His boy is playing on a little league team and a tournament team and is wondering if it could get to the point where he should shut him down as far as pitching goes. This kid is pretty advanced for his age and has a good chance to do something in this game. As we were talking, he brought up the last game he pitched and it came out that he threw 52 pitches in the first inning. I was absolutely floored when I heard this. To be honest, it really upsets me when I think about it. I’m sure it bothers me so much because I have worked with this stud for the last two years and am emotionally attached. But like I said, this kid truly has a chance.

Coaches, lets get something straight here. A child’s well being trumps that win you are hunting. Leaving a kid out there to battle through an inning like that does the team no good, the player no good and puts the player in a situation where he could hurt himself. You are not turning this kid into a man by letting him work through this. If anything you could be crushing his confidence. Fortunately, I know this kid well enough to know that he has been trained to know how to handle games like this. But most have no idea how to deal with that type of adversity. And to be frank here, if you as a coach allow your player to go through something like this, then I’m sure you wouldn’t be the type of coach that would be able to teach a player how to handle adversity.

I’m my opinion, there should be a pitches per inning limit. I’m sure that in some leagues out there, there is something like this in place. If I was a youth the coach, my pitchers would not throw more than 30 pitches an inning. I’m sure that most coaches reading this are thinking, “well I need pitchers for later in the game and for our upcoming games”. Hopefully you have seen my point by now, but if not I will try again. The rest of the game and your upcoming games will work themselves out. The only thing that is important when your pitcher is in the middle of an inning like that is that child. Not the W, not your game tomorrow or the one after that, that child at that point in time, PERIOD!

Youth baseball is about kids learning how to play this great game and the life lessons it teaches. Adversity is a huge part of this game that players who play into their teen years and beyond will have to learn to deal with but this type of adversity is something we wouldn’t even let our pro pitchers go through.

Coaches, the kids are more important than a W!!

Chris Gissell (172 Posts)

Categories : Baseball Life, Chris Gissell, Coaching, Dudes Blog, Pitching

Social Media

May

It’s gotta be around 90% of ball players, HS/College/Pro players that utilize social media on a daily basis. Obviously I am active on both Facebook and Twitter myself. I rarely use my personal accounts, but am active on our Baseball Dudes business page on Facebook and our @BaseballDudes48 Twitter account.

Every year, professional players are given a lecture from the big league media staff about how careful they need to be. Players at this level learn early in their career that not only are the representing themselves, they are also representing Major League Baseball and the organization which they are playing for. These days the media uses social media to learn inside info quickly and learn personal things about specific players.

As for learning inside info quickly, let me explain this. Every year, we hear a story about a player, who was moved up or down, tweet about it before the other player, whoever is being moved from the other team, has been told they are being moved. You wouldn’t think this would be a big deal but often the move isn’t an obvious move and can send a panic through a clubhouse. It can disrupt that team for that nights game.

As for the media using social media to learn more about players, there is a fine line that players have to walk here. Social media is a great way for players to stay connected to their family/friends and even fans. The following that many pro players have on twitter can be very impressive but they have to be careful. As you saw last year with that college football player. That could happen to anybody who uses social media the wrong way. When you get to the college/pro levels of this game, it is crazy how some people out there will try and try to get into your life. More times than not, these are good people but you honestly never know.

Players also need to realize who looks at what they put out there. I’m talking about teammates, coaches, upper management and I’m sure even owners of teams. Just like in life when talking to someone, you should always think twice about what you are about to say. Especially when it’s out there for everyone to see. The simplest comments can ruin a reputation. Be smart boys!

Chris Gissell (172 Posts)

Categories : Baseball Life, Chris Gissell, Dudes Blog

Proper Nutrition Leads to a Strong Player

Apr

3872583153_189428c2c3 As a ball player, you are expected to be at the top of your game everyday. This is an expectation that the people watching the game have. But anybody who has played this game for an extended period of time knows that this just doesn’t happen.

There are many different factors that lead to a ball player not feeling 100% everyday. To name a few: didn’t sleep well, playing with a mild injury, off the field distraction. Keep in mind that none of these are excuses. You will have good days and bad days but don’t be an excuse maker. If you grow up being this type of person, it will make things tough.

I have seen it time and time again. Players out on the field are low in energy. Too often when you get to the bottom of the tiredness it comes out that the players nutrition is not what it needs to be. You are an athlete. Your goal is to be one of the best in the world. If this is the case for you, then your diet needs to be like the best. Fuel your body with what it needs to play at the highest level it can. Poor nutrition will cause your energy to fade quicker in a game than it should.

Educate yourself about what it takes nutritionally to be the best you can be.

Chris Gissell (172 Posts)

Categories : Baseball Life, Chris Gissell, Dudes Blog

Baseball Sayings – Part 1

Apr

We have had a request to explain some popular baseball sayings that you might hear on the filed or on TV. Here you go:

“That was a bullet”
-A hard hit ball, usually a line drive.

“Can of corn”
-A fly ball that is high and right to a fielder.

“Bleeder”
-A short pop up that drops in front of the outfielder and behind the infielder.

“Thumber”
-A pitcher that does not throw hard.

“Swing Man”
-A pitcher that has the ability to do well as a starter and reliever.

“The 26th man”
-In the MLB, teams are only allowed 25 players on their active roster. There is always a guys who is good enough and deserves to be on the team, but there in no room. Thus, he is the 26th man.

“Coming in hot”
-You might hear this in a couple different situations. Maybe when a pitcher is throwing hard and maybe when a hitter makes good contact right at someone, a hard hit ball.

Chris Gissell (172 Posts)

Categories : Baseball Life, Chris Gissell, Dudes Blog

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