Happy New Year everyone! I’m going to start this year with how I’m going to track my development as a person and coach. I’ve previously discussed how important data and technology has become in baseball, and it’s here to stay. All of the focus has been on players and how can we make them better through these advancements in technology. However, I believe that staff development is uncharted territory when it comes to using data. I may be biased because of my background in strength and conditioning…but too many coaches don’t take their health seriously enough. At the end of 2019, I became much better using Microsoft Excel and I’ll be using it to track some data points that I think will be important to my health and development. Here is the chart of everything that I will be tracking on a daily basis:
The first piece of technology I’ll be using will be something called the “Whoop band.” I think this is the lowest hanging fruit when it comes to development across the board. Sleep is such a crucial part of life and Whoop does a phenomenal job at grading your quality of your sleep. I’ve always been in the minority of people in baseball that don’t applaud being the first one there and the last one to leave. This may sound like I don’t praise hard work, but that’s far from the truth. I want everyone that I’m working with to optimize their time. If you have been in baseball, then you know the phrase “hurry up and wait” is all too true. I hate this with an absolute passion because wasted time is the absolute enemy. When we are standing around that just takes away from quality sleep which leads to poor recovery.
The other metric that is extremely important to coaches is heart rate. This is purely about quality of life and making sure that we are healthy individuals. Virtually every successful person finds their flow state through exercise. The Whoop band helps keep you accountable for many reasons. Reason #1: There is something on your wrist at all times that is tracking performance constantly. I see it as something similar to getting a tattoo, to always remember that person or point in time. Reason #2: It also grades the strain of the workouts you are performing, giving you something to strive towards. This is something that I have to hold closer to chest because of family health history. My Uncle passed away of a heart attack recently and I know that this piece of technology may have helped him know more about his heart health. If there is something that can help you track your health lifestyle, then why are we not doing it?
The second piece of technology that I’ll be using is the “Push band.” This is a device that measures the speed of a bar during exercise or athletic movement. We will be using it for our team as part of velocity-based training. This makes sure that we are in the sweet spot of weight during specific training cycles. This is where I find it useful for staff development as well. I find it useful to make sure that we are still training to be functional in life. It is very easy to get in love with extremes of training. This is why you have events like the Ironman and then the sport of powerlifting. People love pushing their bodies to the limits to find that flow state. I have a much better understanding of the flow state after reading Stealing Fire by Steven Kolter and Jamie Wheal. The gratification of finishing an ironman and squatting 600 pounds is very high. I feel as if using the Whoop along with the push band, this same gratification can be met. The goal will always be to have a high strain, high recovery and moving heavy weight fast. A combination of all these metrics will lead to higher performance and higher quality of life.
Time will always be the enemy to every person and it’s time to stop accepting work culture for what it is. It’s time to realize that creative minds grow under what they know is right. Getting to work at 6am and not getting home at 10 pm does not make you a better person. Getting your work done in the most effective and efficient manner makes you a better person. I have always been a fan of Mark Wahlberg and he is a great example of creating a daily schedule that works for him.
You have to work in YOUR terms and find someone that will let you do that. I’m a very simple person and there are few things that make me happy. They are my wife, my parents and baseball. Baseball has been there my entire life and now that it’s my full-time job I couldn’t be happier. In saying that, my wife and my parents are way more important. When I lay it out in this manner, I have a solid foundation in a what a daily routine should look like. Finding this routine can be much easier in today’s world with these pieces of technology. Not only will you think you’re heading down the right path, you will have data points that back it up. I will not stay at the field when there is nothing to do, I will go home to be with my wife. If we show that work is more important than family relationships, how are we setting our players up for life? Make 2020 the year where you find your routine and watch your quality of life soar.
Here are the links to what I have mentioned in this blog.
CONNECTING THE DOTS BASEBALL 
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