Archive for Chris Gissell – Page 10
The name of the game is to throw strikes. A pitchers number one goal should be this. If we throw strikes, we will get contact which is what we want. Many young pitchers think they are suppose to strike out all the hitters. Yes it’s fun, but it shouldn’t be the number one thing on a pitchers mind.
Now that we have established that, lets talk about what hitters like to do. For the most part, the hitter is looking for something out and over the plate. They want something they can get extended on. When hitters only see pitches out over the plate, they get very comfortable. If the pitcher has the ability to do what I mentioned above, throw strikes, his next job is to make the hitter uncomfortable.
I have found the best way to do this is by pounding in with fastballs. I have asked more hitters than I can remember what is the toughest pitch to hit. The answer is always, a well located fastball, especially when it is in. Let me explain what “well located’ means. This is a pitch at the knees, not a few inches above, at the KNEES.
I’m down here in Arizona right now and have a few pitchers using an approach of being relentless with pounding their fastball inside. They have all been very pleased with the success they are seeing with it. This is something that is not taught at the amateur level simply because of metal bats. I say forget that, teach these young pitchers how to make the hitters uncomfortable!!
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.
I always noticed it as a player but it is even more apparent now as a coach how different every player is. Don’t get me wrong, there are things every player has to do to be successful. For example, every single hitter has to have good balance, stay square to the ball and make sure the front foot is down and hands are separated from the body to give themselves the best chance to make solid contact.
Now the big thing I have noticed recently is appearance can be very difficult to judge. There can be a clean cut kid, who is built like a brick house with a big fastball and a tight slider. This kid makes it into pro ball just because of his stuff but know one knows what is going on in this kids head. Now this kid is feeling pressure he has never felt before and is so mentally weak he breaks down and never becomes the player he could have been.
Now, let’s take the kid who is not that built and has average stuff with good command. His hair is long, almost looks like he doesn’t know how to take care of himself. You can’t tell from the outside, but this kid is so mentally strong, he doesn’t crack even in the toughest situations.
Moral of the story, be sure coaches, not to judge the book by it’s cover. Give every kid a chance. You are the coach and it’s your job to get the best out of every kid. The best coaches get to know their players and what makes the tick.
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.
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.
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.
I was fortunate enough to watch Yu Darvish pitch from the 5th inning on during his bid for a perfect game on April 2nd. It was awesome. He mixed his pitches perfectly, no pun intended! When I was in Japan during the 2006-07 seasons, he was a rookie over there dominating as a 20 year old.
My favorite part of Yu’s performance was watching him pitch solely from the stretch, even when there was no one on base. This is something I started doing 7 years into my career when I realized that I had more command of my pitches from that position. For me, this one little adjustment changed things for me. I was able to cut my walks more than in half and definitely had better command of the zone, in and out. If you check out my career stats you can see the difference from the first to second half of my career in the walk column.
As for Yu, he pitches from both the windup and stretch, but I can almost guarantee that when he was warming up in the bullpen before the game, he noticed that he was better in the stretch. In this game, especially at the MLB level, there is no time to try to figure things out. You have to be able to make an adjustment from one pitch to the next. Obviously, that was the adjustment Yu made before the game even started.
The point of this post is that as a pitcher, the most important thing is for you to be able to throw strikes. If it means you being a starting pitcher throwing from the stretch, then do it. It is you job to do whatever it takes to throw strikes. Do what it takes and find a way!!
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.
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.
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.
I was talking with a student a couple weeks ago, who is a sophomore in HS, about his season last year. He had a rough time during school ball but had a much better summer. After more talk, it came out that he felt that he deserved more playing time during school ball and didn’t take it well. He then took more of a leadership role during summer ball where he had much better results.
The second you have the attitude or mindset that you deserve this or that, you are done. You HAVE to be able to handle adversity in this game the right way. Whether things are going good or bad, you have to stay positive if you want to produce. Do what you need to do to be the best you can be and let your talent speak for itself.
The moral of the story, the mind is a powerful thing. This kid had the same level of ability during school ball as he did during summer ball, but his mental state took him down. To be one of the best in this game, you HAVE to be mentally tough.
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.
A good coach is a true teacher. Many youth, High School and College coaches will call pitches for the pitchers during a game. Often it is not explained to the pitcher why we called that pitch in that count. What happens is the player becomes a robot and never learns to think for themselves. If a player is talented enough to make it to pro ball, this can be a serious downfall. Pitching is so much more than just throwing pitches. It’s mostly about the mind game. How should I pitch in different game situations? How can I set up the next pitch and the pitches after that? What is my go to pitch to get out of this situation?
Coaches, take the time to do what you are really there to do which is teach. Parents, if your coach is not doing this, take the time to ask your player if they understand why they are throwing certain pitches. If you are in a situation where the coach is not doing their job and you can’t help your player with this either, find a friend, private pitching coach or someone you trust with this and get your kid the instruction they need.
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.
Sports are an amazing thing. They give us plenty of joy, always a good workout and for those that sports are a part of their life, they teach us life lessons. In my opinion baseball is the toughest sport both physically and mentally.
Physically, in baseball there are so many moving parts. No matter what it is you are doing on the field, pitching-hitting-fielding-running-sliding-catching, all the moving parts of your body have to be in the right position at the right time to do it properly. This is something that most people in the world just can’t do. The hand/eye coordination alone is so tough, yet it is just a small piece of what goes into being a solid baseball player. Baseball is also a sport of repetition. It is always a topic of discussion with my students and their parents. If a player wants to be the best they can be, it takes a relentless work ethic. Professional players, and the best amateur players, will work on their game everyday. Out of all the students I have, only a handful are dedicated enough to work on it everyday. And believe me, it shows. With the truly dedicated ones, there is progress made every single session.
Now for the mental aspect of this game. No other sport (again, in my opinion) comes close in comparison. Baseball is a game of failure. Think about it, to be a good hitter, you will fail 7 out of 10 times. To be a good pitcher the big leagues, you can allow 4.5 runs every nine innings and still make millions of dollars. To be the best player on the field, there are life lessons to be learned that unfortunately most people never learn in their life. To name a few; work ethic, dedication, self discipline, leadership, how to deal with adversity, how to deal with success, attitude, durability, accountability, how to be selfless and what it means to be a part of a team. I could go on and on but I think you get my point. So many tangibles go into being a great baseball player and that is why only .003% of little league (those who start in tee ball) baseball players will play in the big leagues someday.
Without baseball, and the lessons it has taught me, I would not be the person-husband-father I am today. The life lessons it has taught me, and still teaching me, are priceless. I live a full and blessed life thanks to baseball and the mental toughness it has given me.
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.
One of the best experiences in my baseball career so far. Japan is a beautiful country and we would love to visit it again someday.
First, let me talk briefly about how I was offered this opportunity. There are many players in the minor leagues who are very good players but just aren’t sticking in the major leagues. Many get chance after chance in the bigs but can’t get the job done. Then there are many, like myself, that have had good minor league careers but just aren’t in the right place at the right time. I was fortunate in 2004 to get my one chance but was not impressive at all.
Japanese teams look for players who are considered 4A players. Great AAA players who can’t seem to stick at the major league level. For those who have been given the chance to play in Japan, including myself, it is a true blessing. I know for me personally, if this didn’t happen to me, it very well might have felt like my playing days were all for nothing. Playing in Japan is a life changing opportunity for every player who gets the chance. If you pay attention to the game over there, you will see some big names pop up every once in a while. For example, Brad Penny, signed to play for the Softbank Hawks a couple years ago.
To go to a foreign country like Japan, you have to be open minded. You have to respect their way of life. If you go over there with the attitude that the way we do things in America is the only way, well then, you might as well turn around and head back home because it will never work. We loved Asian food before we went over there, so the food part was very easy. The accommodations though, was another story. Our apartment had 6′ doorways which took me a whole season to get used to. I had a permanent scab on the crown of my head from hitting it on almost every door jam. We were not provided a car so we had to walk and take the train everywhere. Not a big deal except for that our apartment was a 10-15 minute walk to the station, then I would spend 40-45 minutes on the train where I had to transfer twice and then once I made it to the field, there was another 5-10 minute walk to get to the clubhouse. Now if I had to do this for a little while, it would have been tolerable but doing it almost everyday, rain or shine, hot or cold, it started to ware pretty quickly.
The game of baseball, is baseball where ever you go. Once you step between the white lines, it’s on! Although there are a few differences in the style over there. For example, we call the count balls and then strikes where they call strikes then balls so instead of a full count being, 3-2 it’s 2-3. Took a while to get used to that. They have cheerleaders and would stop the game after the 5th inning for about 10 minutes to fix the whole field, the cheerleaders would put on a show and most of they players would go take a smoke break. I never got used to this and would always start running out onto the field for the 6th but would have to stop and walk back. Talk about a momentum killer!! Very rarely will you see a game over there under 3 hours.
The fans are by far the best fans I have ever been around. In the two years I was there, I NEVER once heard a boo, not once!! Each team also had a cheering section who had a chant/song for every player. When a player hit a homerun, the cheering section would chant their name until they tipped their hat.
Like I said, my family and I are truly blessed to have had this opportunity. We will always have great memories of our time over there and look forward to the time when we can visit there again.
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.
Major League Baseball, it doesn’t get any better. It’s the absolute highest level any one player can play at. It’s where you have to be to become a hall of famer. In our generation, it’s where you have to be if you want to make truck loads of money playing the game of baseball.
Now the thing that isn’t realized by most Americans is what those guys have gone through to get there. Years and years of hard work and dedication. Every person reading this has either a dream of playing in the big leagues or has a child with that dream. Most of us have access to a game on TV every single day of the season. My question is, when a game is on, how do you watch it?
Baseball, in my opinion, is one of the most technical sports out there. You have to have precise body control and great hand eye coordination. With technology today, the slow motion on TV is unreal. You can see so much. See how a players body is positioned at a certain point in their swing or during a pitch. Watch how these men create so much power with their body.
When my oldest was 8, he found himself in a run down. To my amazement, he worked it perfectly, as the runner, and was able to reach the next base. When I asked him where he learned to do that, his response was, “I saw it on TV.”
Watch the big boys and how they go about their business. If the dream is to be one of those guys, why would you NOT WATCH how they do it?
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.
As a parent, I want the best for my children. My youngest is a girl who recently started Ballet. We are very happy to have found someone who has the credentials to make us comfortable that our little girl will get the best ballet instruction she can.
It’s very important for parents to understand that not all instructors are created equal. It’s also important to understand that just because an instructor has played college ball, minor league ball or even played in the big leagues, this by no means, means this person is a solid instructor. I personally had some coaches during my playing career who had great big league careers but were not good instructors.
The best instructors should be honest, honest to a fault, good listeners, knowledgeable and overall just a good person. This person will be a mentor to your child. Do your research and ask around. The best will see their clientele grow and grow because of word of mouth.
Our children are our pride and joy. If you want them to grow up on the field and let this great game teach them all the life lessons it has to offer, start with a qualified instructor that passes in all these areas:
-Reputation? What do other parents have to say?
-Is he honest with students even when it might not be something they want to hear?
-How do they speak?
-Do they do it with confidence?
-Are they qualified?
-Are they a good communicator?
I am a firm believer that when helping a kid, you want to teach them the right way to do something from day one. Too many times I have had a kid come to me after working with someone, who really isn’t qualified, and they are doing things with their body that just don’t make sense. The question always comes up, “Do you see the guys on TV do that?” Many coaches/instructors come up with what I call band-aids. Something that will make them a little better right now but they will have to change it again sometime in the future. This is all too often the case. Many times parents have spent a lot of time and money and find out that what their kid has been taught isn’t what they really need to achieve their dreams.
With all that said, for your kids sake and yours, take the time to find out who you are taking your kid to for instruction.
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.