It’s been awhile since I’ve posted my coaching thoughts on X, formerly known as Twitter. The transition from DIII to DII has added more hours of “work” to my schedule and I love it. Coaching has become a bigger passion of mine than I ever could’ve imagined. As mentioned in many of my previous blogs, my coaching tree has been very broad and given me many different perspectives. This has allowed me to be very comfortable in the decisions that I make in the moment while coaching. Here’s my latest post on X.
I originally started posting on X and writing blogs to engage with other coaches across the country. With the pandemic now in the rear view mirror, many coaches are just as busy as me on the field. This leaves less time to interact online. When I posted this, I didn’t expect much engagement. Then, I got the best question anyone can ask to what I post: why? Well here’s the “why” behind this post.
I mentioned 3 different seasons in the X post, 2019, 2023 and how we are training for the 2024 season. When looking at these seasons I ask myself the most basic and important questions anyone can ask when assessing a situation: Who? What? Where? Why? When answering these questions, you need to think about the past, present and future.
Who?
I am the one full-time hitting coach that is with these teams day in and day out.
2019-2020 Maryville College
2022-2023 Florida Tech
2023-2024 Florida Tech
What?
What can I do with what is available to me?
2019-2020 Maryville College
Area of needed improvement- Slugging
How- fixing team swing planes with focus on Attack angle with Blast Motion.
2022-2023 Florida Tech
Area of needed improvement- Individual plans
How- Using the new tech added to the program and giving players as much data as they need to figure out who they are as a hitter.
2023-2024 Florida Tech
Area of needed improvement- Fine tuning
How- Video to compare to previous swings.
When and Where?
Where is a very interesting question when it comes to the two schools. College coaches that have been involved in multiple programs know this very well. The “where” of Maryville College is very convenient when it comes to the school itself. The locker room, weight room, field and batting cages are all in very convenient places. It made practice planning very easy. The downside was being in DIII. I did not have the amount of time that I would’ve liked with the players due to the rules of DIII. Now, Florida Tech is the exact opposite. I love the amount of time that we have with our players. The toughest part about Florida Tech is the class schedule. Our academic standard is very high and this leads to no exceptions with class schedules. There are many days that we are coaching guys in small groups from sunup to sun down. This is the same for all levels such as high school and professional teams. Each situation has different challenges to find the best practice environments for the current team.
Why?
Why did I focus on attack angle for the 2019-2020 Maryville College Scots?
I was just coming off of my time with the Yankees and wanted to put my knowledge of technology to the test. I bought a hitting sensor and found out that our team needed to work on their attack angle. Over half the team needed to work on their path which made it an easy decision to work on this as a team. Here is a graph that I made at the conclusion of fall 2019.
Why did I focus on individual plans for the 2022-2023 Florida Tech Panthers?
I became part of the program in the middle of fall. I was not going to come in and make crazy changes before I even got to know anyone. The program had just bought a hitting rapsodo and I am well versed in how to use this device. I used this to make individual plans for them at the end of the fall. I did this as well to build trust and show that I care about their development. Here is an example.
Why am I focusing on fine tuning with our current team?
This is a new team we have at Florida Tech. We brought in 16 new faces and 13 of them are transfers. With all of these transfers, they are coming in with deep knowledge of what it takes to be a college baseball player. We have rapsodo and we do not use it as much as we did last year. Why? The reason is kind of silly. The ipad we use for rapsodo is better used for video. The video is helping our players more this fall because they are comparing it to their swings which brought success in the past. Another reason rapsodo is of less importance is because these players already own who they are. The majority of our lineup has a solid foundation of who they are as a hitter. Giving them their exit velocity and launch angle is not high on the list of priority for our guys. This is all in reference to player development. What I am doing to give each player the best possible chance to have the most quality at-bats as possible.
Conclusion
I will never just do things because “that is the way that we do it”. There should always be reflection and thought as to why something is done. Year to year changes are needed but they mean nothing if you are not the same person day to day. If the players do not see your relentless pursuit to be better, it’ll be tough for them to follow your leadership. Be known for the relentless pursuit of excellence, so when you do call an audible, they know there is a well thought out reason behind it.
CONNECTING THE DOTS BASEBALL 
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