Ahead Of The Curve with Jonathan Gelnar

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Jozef Frucek- Founder of the Fighting Monkey Baseball Practice Mar 01, 2018

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Quotes

I love baseball but it's something I had never done in my life. That allowed me to look from the outside and get a fresh look on why I think the best players are getting injured so much and what could be improved in their training.

Diversity breeds immunity. Every great system also creates great deficiency.

Most people think strength is always the answer. But we believe there are many things that come before strength. We first work with coordination, then when we get more organized we find a rhythm. Then that rhythm leads us to more kinetic potential and kinetic potential leads to power exploration. Power exploration then leads us to strength training.

We want baseball players bodies to work in one rhythmic unit spending less energy on moving and putting more energy on where to react properly and making the right decisions.

My background is in art, and what is the most important thing in art? Staying creative. We need to always stay creative and find new alterations

We all need to improve our training methods. We're kind of sleeping there because we have good training methods. What blocks us just being good to getting better? We need to be pushed to look past what is obvious.

Resources
Fighting Monkey Baseball
Contact
https://fightingmonkey.net/

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Clay Van Hook- Assistant Baseball Coach, University of Oklahoma Feb 22, 2018

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What typically happens is players get into a game and the game speeds up. So what are we doing as coaches to help them slow the game down. A lot of times we preach that but we don’t teach it. We speed up practice so much that the game slows down.
One thing that Coach Garrido and Coach Graham had in common that really resonated with me was that we got into this business to be teachers. To teach these young men to be better people, ballplayers, brothers, and husbands.
We typically have 3 objectives

First and foremost we’re going to work individually with each player and look at them as individuals
Next we’re going to work collectively (as a team)
Then we’re going to work competitively

We have to be well rounded. There’s so many different ways to win ballgames. We owe it to our players to give them different skills. At the end of the day if we have the chance to go to Omaha and we have to get a bunt down but the player can’t do it, if we haven’t given them the necessary skills to do that, thats on us. Same thing with a runner at third and less than 2 outs.

We’re all in this together. At times, coaches want to build walls to separate themselves. Our goal should be to build relationships for 30 years.
I didn’t get into coaching to win baseball games. In reality are we defined by that? Yes. But I think its important to understand that when we take the result out of the equation, we start to grow as a coach and as a person.
Resources
Telephone (calling other coaches)
Fiction books
Contact
@clayvanhook
cvanhook@ou.edu

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Jono Armold- MiLB Pitching Coach, Spokane Indians Feb 15, 2018

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Quotes
For the most part we understand how to make players better and progressing them on the field, but the next frontier in sports and player development is understanding individual human behavior
Great coaches have great discernment, They know when to push, when to pull, when to backoff, when to jump someone or when to let it simmer.
I can talk mechanics and game strategy all I want, but if the athlete isn’t taking it and owning it, then its just my words. Their not engaged. Coaching is an incredibly dynamic social activity. It varies from situation to situation.
Coaching isn’t just teaching, just psychology or just mentoring. Coaching is all of those.
Its in our nature to try and create friendships and relationships. When kids want to hang out with you or stand by you when you’re hitting fungo and talk to you. Thats a sign of a great relationship. When it becomes an issue is when we can’t hold them accountable. If we can discipline when we need to, then its an issue.
We need to be able to adjust our coaching strategies based on the environment, the athlete and the setting that you’re in
Resources
Slides (tools 1-5)
Conscious Coaching
Team of Teams
What to say when you talk to yourself
Contact Info
@24jono
jarmold@texasrangers.com
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Josh Heenan- President of Advanced Therapy & Performance Integrated Medicine + Strength Coach Feb 08, 2018

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Our guys that are elite, whether thats pro/college, we can give them a 5 oz ball or a 14 oz ball, and they have the same arm mechanics every time. That allows us to see the repeatable mechanics.
I think its important to make this distinction. We are building athletes that happen to play baseball, we’re not building just baseball players
If we view our athlete their own unique being, then I think thats where we get really good results and really quickly.
If you dont have any movement restrictions and you can hit all of the metrics of the 90 MPH formula wit h quality form you are exponentially less likely for injury and exponentially more likely to throw 90
I think as a coach we can all agree that 2 of our goals are, how can we keep everyone healthy and how can we win a ton of games.
As far as in season lifts go, we lift heavy. We do a lot of 3x3. They get volume of work from playing, so we challenge them with power and get them out so they can go home and eat and recover.

Resources
Eric Cressey
Spin Rate Driveline
Local Strength coaches
Contact

@drheenan IG
@josh_heenan
joshheenan.com
www.Advancedtherapyperfromance.com
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Stephen Mackey- CEO and Founder of 2 Words Character Development Program Feb 01, 2018

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Quotes
My coach in middle school said 4 words that changed my life and those 4 words were ‘Get on the line’. In that moment I found out what discipline was. Discipline is doing what we don’t want to do today, to get what we want tomorrow.
I liked to think I was special, but it was our coaching staff that was special. My coaches taught me how to make choices, they taught me responsibility, they taught me that what the statistics said didn’t have to become who I was unless I chose, and that mindset of taking responsiility changed everything for me.”
My life was changed by my high school coaches sand I want to help coaches do that for their athletes.”
There is so much power in giving a kid what they don’t don’t deserve. Give kids a second chance, but teach them what to do with that second chance. Sometimes coaches will give a kid a second chance, but don’t teach them what to do with that second chance. So what happens? The same thing they did the first time because they don’t know any different.”
Are you more about who you are or what you do? If you are so wrapped up in what you do, then what happens if that gets taken away?
Theres a lot of things in life that are optional if you want to be successful. Talent? Optional. The right family? Optional. The right school? Optional. Genetics? Optional. But the one thing that is required to be successful? Sacrifice.
Resources
Tim Ferriss
The Unbeatable Mind- Mark Divine
Dave Campbell Podcast
Coach 360
ABCA Calls from the clubhouse
1% Better- Joe Ferraro
Plus 1 Podcast
Pastor Craig Groeschel Leadership Podcast
Luke Norsworthy
Rick Warren
Contact
@mackeyspeaks
2words.tv
2words.tv/gameplan

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Clay Cox- Head Baseball Coach, Paris Junior College (TX) Jan 25, 2018

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Quotes

We're going to have more husbands and fathers than we are major league baseball players. We're here to build young men, and when they leave this program they're going to be contributing members to society.

We want guys that will fight at the drop of a hat. Guys that are tough, maybe were a little overlooked in HS. Guys that have some grit can play for us.

One thing we teach our guys is manners. They'll be yes ma'am, no ma'am. Yes sir, no sir. They take their hats off when they walk into a building. They look you in the eye when they shake your hand and they say please and thank you. Most of our guys come from great families and we want to be an extension of them.

People want come complain about this generation, but what are you doing about it? Young men want to please, and what you expect out of them is what you're gonna get from them. If you expect it, they'll do it.

(on the green light mentality) We want to put pressure on defenses because catching and throwing is not as easy as it sounds. Pressure bursts pipes.

We love multi-sport athletes. We can take an athlete and build a ball player. You can necessarily make a guy a better athlete but you can make him a better ballplayer.

Resources
Tim Ferris
Autobiographies on coaches
Twitter
#ABCAchats
Contact
@coachcox19
ccox@parisjc.edu
254-855-5453
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Zach Brandon- Mental Conditioning Coach, IMG Academy (FL) Jan 18, 2018

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Quotes

Our approach to teaching a new skill is education, application and support. We start with why its important, then we apply it to practice and then from there we figure out what works and what doesn’t for each kid.
We say the breath is the MVP of the mental game. We spend a lot of time on teaching it.
a concept that Ken Ravizza and Tom Hansen discuss.

Learn it
Do it
Own it
We invest a lot of time learning it, but can we actually practice the skills? We need to create a practice environment that does that.

Theres a difference between a jungle tiger and a zoo tiger. Whats the life of a zoo tiger like? Spoon-fed, easy and comfortable. What’s life like in the jungle? Its stressful and your survival is on the line. Now lets compare it to baseball, which one is practice and which one is the game? We need to be able to create more jungle tigers and put our players in stressful situations.
There’s a lot of time to think in baseball. Your mind can be your best friend of your work enemy. It can be a weapon or a weakness.
In order to get behavior change, we have to get repetition and progression of skills. If I’m a coach and I do session in the classroom once a week, thats better than nothing. In that setting we expect the players to transfer those skills over to the field. If we only do those sessions in the classroom, we’re going to be setup for disappointment.

Resources
Heads up baseball
Harvey Dorfman
Ken Ravizza
Ben Ehrlich
Taylor Stutzman
1% Better Podcast
ABCA Calls from the clubhouse
Contact
@MVP_Mindset
Zachary.Brandon@img.com
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James Vilade- Assistant Baseball Coach, Oklahoma State University Jan 11, 2018

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Quotes
Being a cowboy is being a part of one of the greatest programs in the history of college baseball
We hang our hat on player development. There’s not a team in the big 12 that has had more draft picks than us in the last 5 years
Our demand in practice is energy. You’ve gotta come out prepared to play and practice with an intensity thats going to match game speed.
The guys really embrace the fact that the daily competition is that internal check to task yourself to be at your best and to be at a high level every single practice.
No matter what spreadsheet you get or saber-metrics stats you use, our number one statistic is “who is our there competing for a spot every single day.” Thats how you win and job and impact the game.
Two big things for me as an infield coach are leadership and communication. If we’re constantly communicating were playing the game in a progressive way. If we’re playing the game in a progressive way then we aren’t going to worry about what happened last inning, were going to keep competing.
If the players don’t trust you, they’re not going to care what you tell them. It doesn’t matter if you have the best information in the world if your players not trust you.
Resources
Other Coaches
Contact
@jimmyv29
Keeperofthegame.org
@baseballkeepers
IG @keeperofthegame
Bryan Hoctor
Website and Social Media sites for the show
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Weekly Newsletter
5 Tool Friday Newsletter
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Tom Held- Head Baseball Coach, Defiance HS (OH) Jan 04, 2018

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Quotes

"We've been doing an overload and underload throwing program for 22-23 years. We call it the Nate Smith throwing program. We use a tennis ball, a softball, and a baseball."

We throw more than any program than i've ever run into. But i've always had the belief that we pitch too much and we dont throw enough.

We have a much higher focus on individual player development than team development.

We don't allow headphones in our program.That way they cant just sit there by themselves. They have to communicate and they have to talk to each other.

Everyday after practice we line up and shake hands with a firm handshake and looking each other in the eye. IF we had a bad day at practice or if we got onto a kid, we have a chance to read that kid and leave on a positive note.

Our culture is #1 and our alumni are a close second. I have a text group from every year from 99 on that we reach out to on a consistent basis. We have an alumni fantasy baseball league. We want them to stay involved because they’re the ones that build the program. The players are the reason any coach has success

In our program #1 is velocity, #2 is velocity and #3 is velocity. And the reason is that we've never had a kid that throws 80-82 that got a college scholarship. So that's our philosophy with player developmentt

Resources

CB Drill

Heads up Baseball

Jon Gordon

Inside out coaching

Driveline

Rapsodo

Hit trax

Contact

theld@defcity.org

@defiancebball

@fungo20

@rweaver23

Weekly Newsletter
5 Tool Friday Newsletter
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Kai Correa- Cleveland Indians MiLB Infield Instructor and Founder of #FridayFielders Dec 28, 2017

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Quotes
I want them to be in competition with themselves to be perfect. That's the only way we're going to field at a really high clip and win games.
Some elements that I like to include every single day that I don't think coaches do enough of
1. Stretching and catching regardless of position
2. Stretching and picking regardless of position
3. Catching infield fly balls (GB to FB ratio is 4 to 1 in MLB)
4. Picking and tagging.
5. Redirecting the baseball
I partner the old with the young. Its always an old guy and a young guy. I want to empower my older guys to provide input. Catch play, picks, footwork. Always an old guy with a young guy. I think that builds leadership, but I also think it builds ownership.
On purpose, every single week, I pick a part of practice to watch from the dugout. If ive done my job and we've truly built a unit, the show is going to go on without me.
If you're not willing to have a dialogue with your players about why you're doing something, then you need to take a long look in the mirror to make sure that what you're doing is not just something that your comfortable with and that its the best way to do it.
Resources
Link to ABCA Presentation
Watch Elite fielders
Watch your competition
Watch other sports practices
Contact
@ThatGuy__Kai
http://www.fridayfielderscamps.com/
Website and Social Media sites for the show
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Weekly Newsletter
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