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Your Sports Are What You Do – Don’t Let Them Define Who You Are

3/1/2026

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In 2010, Alysa Liu was 5 ½ years old when her father hired her first figure skating coach. She won the gold medal for the Women’s Singles Figure Skating competition in the 2026 Winter Olympics at age 20.  In an interview after the Olympics, she told a reporter that she took two years away from the sport after the Winter Olympics in 2022 “so I could discover who I am. Up to that point in my life, my dedication to my sport kept me from doing that.” 

Alysa is not the exception to the path of most youth today seeking to excel as an athlete in our sports-obsessed society.  Most sports have Academy, Club, AAU, Select, Premier, Tournament and/or Travel Teams starting as early as age seven.

Mental health professionals now even have behavioral health categories to describe the fallout from focusing on excelling at sports to the exclusion of a balanced life and an exploration of other interests in a person’s life:
  • Identity Foreclosure: The psychological state where an athlete commits to the role of "athlete" without exploring other potential careers or personal paths.
  • "Quarter Life Crisis": A term used by researchers to describe the profound struggle of college athletes forced to leave their sport, often experiencing a lack of confidence and sense of self.
  • The "Hidden" Self: Many athletes report using their sport to hide or avoid dealing with other parts of their lives, leading to a delayed, sometimes painful discovery of their identity.

​In high school, most elite athletes never receive proper counseling and never pursue opportunities to discover and develop their interests and skills outside of sports.  Ask most elite athletes and they will tell you they had very few, if any, job shadows, internship or work experience during high school to learn about the working world and their prospective place in it. Sadly, their coaches and personal trainers never encouraged and supported this balanced life either.
 
In fact, they do just the opposite.
 
It is very common, if not the rule, today that elite athletes are influenced by most adults in their life to play multiple sports so they can be called “multi-sport athletes”.  However, unlike generations of the past, they cannot limit their participation in multiple sports to the season of that one sport.  If they want to play on the best teams, with the best players and the best coaches they will be required to play, practice and train for that sport during the seasons of other sports, i.e. year around.

The athletes will also attend sports camps and showcases with the hope of having a college offer them scholarship/NIL money with little regard for what college is best for their education to support a career outside of sports even though fewer than 2% of college athletes will play their sport professionally.  The prioritization of NIL opportunities not only dictates what college the athlete will attend initially, but how long they will stay there before pursuing more money at a different college.

Unquestionably, playing sports has benefits, physically, mentally and emotionally, that extend far beyond the playing field or court and throughout a person’s life.  However, the pursuit of sports excellence year around while in school to the exclusion of similar commitments and dedication to opportunities outside of sports can be equally detrimental to a person’s personal and professional well-being.

A person should carefully plan their involvement in sports, or they risk losing their identity to them.  A person should make their sports what they do; they should not let a full-time year around obsession with them define who they are. 
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training athleticism at practice

2/1/2026

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The best athletes have the most potential to be the best players.  If coaches are going to progress athletes in multiple sports, they must train them as athletes during their participation in each sport.  A player does not optimize their athleticism by merely participating in a sport.  For example, a personal trainer who is an experienced and qualified movement specialist may incorporate elements of the player’s sport into the training, but they certainly would not limit the drills and exercises to the sport skill drills.

Here are the components to a comprehensive athleticism training program at practice:

General Principles
  • Athleticism training should have its own separate dedicated phase(s) to every practice.
  • The word coach is a verb, an action word.  At least one coach on every staff should be qualified and present every day to properly teach and demonstrate every drill and exercise being taught to the players. If such a coach does not currently exist, a qualified personal trainer experienced in that sport should be hired by the league to design the programs for each level and should teach the coaches how to properly perform the skills.
  • The players should be assessed every day in their ability to perform the skills and what is being taught should be progressed and regressed to be sure the entire player ability spectrum is being taught.
  • Leagues and their coaches must be as committed to progressing the players’ athleticism during the season and season-to-season as they are committed to progressing the sport skills of the players.
  • Coaches must have the ability to mentally, and sometimes literally, take the sport implements out of their players’ hands and analyze the athlete’s movements from the ground up when performing the sport skill.  Many times, the solutions to sport skill flaws are in physiology and athleticism and not in doing more sport skill drills.
  • Train the mental as well as the physical when training athleticism by asking them sport IQ questions or life skill quotes to interpret while they are moving.
  • Train reaction, as well as action, during the training using auditory, (“Go!”) or visual (point) commands or by using kinesthetic cues such as incorporating ball tosses or placing discs on their heads during the drills.
  • Athletes need to be continually educated about the importance of proper nutrition, particularly the need to consume enough healthy calories every day, hydration, rest, and quality sleep to support their athletic training. Athletes who want to be elite and optimize their development should keep daily nutrition and sleep journals.

Dynamic Movement
  • The exercises and drills must be done in all planes of motion – sagittal (forward, backward, up and down), frontal (side-to-side) and transverse (rotational) and they must work on change of direction, too.
  • Develop proprioceptive skills by being sure that the players are using their arms and legs in a coordinated, synchronized and appropriate (contralateral or ipsilateral) manner for every exercise and drill and do not look at the ground or their feet during the drills.
  • Specifically, players should be taught to crawl, walk (yes, walk – there are very few players on any team that can walk using their arms properly in a coordinated, contralateral manner because they spend most of the time outside of their sport holding a phone or a device when they are walking), march, skip, bound, run, sprint, shuffle, hip turn, backpedal, jump and hop.
  • Every footwork pattern a player will be asked to perform when doing position fundamentals later in practice and in games should be taught and trained here first, e.g. chatter steps, power steps, drop back steps, foot replacement, and box shuffle drills.
  • Every exercise and skill should begin with teaching the players how to properly breathe while performing the drill.
  • Train the players symmetrically by having them do things leading with both legs, e.g., leading with right leg and then left leg when starting the speed ladder and by moving in both directions – forward/backward and laterally, e.g., when skipping, shuffling and bounding.
  • Incorporate dynamic stretches into the movements to work on mobility (e.g., increasing range of motion in the shoulder, torso, and thoracic spine), flexibility, elasticity, stability and balance.
  • Use discs, cones, hexagons, hurdles, and speed ladders for drills and shuttle runs to train agility and quickness.  This is a great opportunity to have the players compete by establishing individual personal records and team records and to compete against their teammates individually or in teams.
  • Train sprinting techniques and skills at the beginning of practice as a basis for baserunning and chasing balls in the air and at the end of practice for building endurance.

Strength Training
  • This should be trained at the end of practice when the sport skills are done.
  • All schools and leagues should be sure every team, at minimum, has access to kettle bells, med balls, sleds, bands for the legs and bands for the shoulders to use as equipment for strength training.
  • The basic movements of push, pull, squat, hinge and carry should be individually assessed, taught and progressed.
  • Technique should always be prioritized over maximum strength goals.
  • Design a careful progression of absolute strength with reasonable limits as a foundation for power development and ultimately functional strength relating to sport skills.
  • Core development is an essential part of strength training and should be taught holistically involving all the joints and muscles of the torso and hips, not just the abdominal muscles.  The progression of absolute strength, power, and functional strength are also essential components of core development training.
  • At the high school level, partners can be used for arm/shoulder manual manipulation and resistance.
  • Beginning at the middle school level, coaches should work with qualified trainers to design a year around strength and conditioning periodization program to be integrated with the sports the athlete plays and during off-season periods.

Resources for Content and Training
  • Chris Barnard - Overtimeathletes.com and on YouTube
  • Shea Pierre - Pierreseliteperformance.com and on YouTube
  • Eric Cressey - Ericccressey.com and The Elite Baseball Development Podcast
  • Mike Boyle – BodybyBoyle.com
  • Nolan Grinstain, Hyperthrive Athletics,
    How Movement Frameworks & Foundational Patterns Shape On-Field Success
           ABCA Barnstormer Clinic, 11-08-25
  • Miranda Esmonde-White – essentricstv.com
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how to conduct a youth baseball tryout

1/1/2026

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The fate of a defendant at trial may be determined before the actual trial even starts.  Most experienced trial attorneys will tell you that if you select the wrong jurors it may not matter what you say or do during the trial itself.  The same can be said of your baseball team.  Choose the wrong team members and it may not matter what you say or do during the season.  Your team may never reach its full potential.

Of all of the things youth coaches do during a season, how they conduct a tryout may be the one thing they copy most from what they have seen other coaches and leagues do and what they experienced when they were a player.  Many times there is very little thought, creativity, and planning that goes into the process. Sadly, many times team members are pre-determined for political reasons or are validated as a rite of passage from being a team member the previous season.

Start with Why

I think every team selection should start with a careful consideration of why the team, division, and league exist in the first place.  Is this primarily a recreational team, a developmental team or a team expected to compete against teams of experienced and highly talented players?  Are the goals of the league, coaches, parents and team members compatible with one another?
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Obviously, if the goals of everyone involved are not aligned, conflict in cooperation and deflation in enthusiasm are inevitable.  This may lead to not only disappointing results for the current season, but may lead to dissension and disassociation for team members, parents and coaches in the future.  The viability of the league may ultimately be in jeopardy.

Select the Persons, Athletes, and Players Most Compatible with Your Goals

Persons- No matter the purpose of the team, recreational, developmental or competitive, what coaches want most are team members with a teachable spirit, i.e., they want to learn and get better every day, and a growth mindset, i.e., they are willing to be challenged to achieve what they initially thought may not be possible and are willing to accept failure as a necessary part of learning and improvement.  Yet, during tryouts, I rarely see coaching done throughout the evaluation process so coaches can determine whether the candidates have these qualities or not.
 
Coaches also must have players who will not miss practices or games and will give their best effort during their time with the team.  Coaches should ask players during tryouts such things as what their favorite sport is and what other sports they participate in.  This may give coaches an indication of the competitive tenacity of the player, as well as, their availability if participation in those other sports is done concurrently with the baseball season.  Parents should be asked about personal appointments and family obligations that may conflict with the baseball practice and game schedule.

Leadership is one of the most prized traits in a player, and yet, rarely are opportunities given for players to lead during tryouts. Coaches should ask for volunteers to lead parts of the tryouts such as the dynamic movement and stretching phase.  Throughout the tryout, coaches should demonstrate how a drill should be done and then should ask for volunteers to demonstrate it to the group.  Competitive games should be played during the tryout and coaches should ask the players to choose captains so the coaches can see who the players think are the best leaders.

Athlete – The best athletes have the most potential to be the best players.  Even recreational and developmental teams should have a daily athletic training component so those players may have the opportunity in the future to play on elite teams in that sport and/or other sports.  Leagues should have a system to progress players within a season and from year-to-year as athletes, not just players.  Qualified strength, conditioning, and athleticism coaches should be utilized to assess, teach, and write programs for coaches and leagues to accomplish this purpose.

During tryouts, it is common to have players timed in a sprint, but not often enough are players asked to do speed ladder drills, shuttle runs, and competitive games of chase and tag.  All types of plyometric skills such as skips, bounds, shuffles, backpedal, jumps and hops in all planes of motion should be assessed.  Components of reaction as well as action should also be included in the drills.

Player – The most common deficiency I see at tryouts are too few qualified coaches and evaluators involved in the process.  During the season, a ratio of one qualified coach per three players is the goal. During tryouts, evaluators can be used who will ultimately not coach during the season, but have valuable knowledge and experience to contribute. Experienced coaches at higher levels, e.g., high school coaches for whom this league is a feeder program, are excellent candidates for this purpose.

Leagues are many times dependent on parents to coach youth teams and are very grateful for their commitment and hard work.  However, these traits and former playing experience, do not guarantee quality coaching.  Leagues must provide sufficient equipment, facilities, and training so coaches have the ability to teach the fundamental skills of the game, not just how to play the game itself.  Again high school coaches are an excellent resource for these purposes.

One additional point of cautionary advice - do not cut a player with a passion and commitment to your team and sport.  Find a supporting role, e.g., at practice, in technology, in administration, etc. for them.  The may be your biggest booster now and in the future.  They may also turn out to be a “late bloomer” contributor as a player in your program.

Use Your Practice Format for Your Tryout Template

One of the best formats for a tryout is to have it simulate a practice the players will participate in once the season begins.  Phase 1 – Dynamic movement, stretching and athleticism training; Phase 2 – Baserunning;  Phase 3 – Throwing and Receiving Progression; Phase 4 – Position Fundamentals; Phase 5 - Hitting Fundamentals; Phase 6 – Game Simulation.  And just like during the season, coaches should demonstrate and teach during each phase and players should be asked to compete individually and in teams during each phase.

As in any practice environment, all players should be active all of the time, getting as many repetitions as possible, and competing in game-like drills to keep it fun.  Multiple stations being run simultaneously and assisted by as many qualified people as possible are the keys.  If you have a line of players waiting their turn, you have a design flaw in your tryout/practice plan. 

Of course, having adequate time, i.e., days, administrative help, and pre-tryout planning meetings are essential for a successful tryout too. 

Parents, players, coaches and leagues should align their goals and should plan with an open mind the content and format for tryouts.  Failure to do so may sabotage the season before it even begins. 
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developing a throwing and receiving progression with purpose and focus

12/1/2025

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In the bottom of the 10th inning with two outs of Game 3 of the 2025 World Series, the Toronto Blue Jays’ Nathan Lukes doubled down the right-field line.  The Dodgers’ Teoscar Hernandez fielded the ball barehanded and with no steps threw to Tommy Edman who used precise relay mechanics to throw a strike to Will Smith at home plate who used sound fundamentals to receive and tag out Davis Schneider trying to score the winning run.

With bases loaded and one out in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 7 of that World Series, the Jays’ Daulton Varsho hit a tough high hopping ground ball to the backhand of the Dodgers’ Miguel Rojas at second base. Rojas used no steps and efficient transfer mechanics to throw a laser to Will Smith at home plate who used perfect force play mechanics to prevent the World Championship run from scoring.

These plays do not happen by luck or pure exceptional talent.  They happen as a result of many years of taking the throwing and receiving progression part of practice very seriously on a daily basis.

Most experienced and successful coaches agree that developing elite receiving, transferring and throwing skills are essential to winning championships.  Many coaches would say it is the most important part of practice.  All coaches would agree that to do it well, all repetitions must be done with a specific purpose and focus.

Coaching Principles and Guidelines

1) It’s Not “Catch Play”
In my opinion, calling it Catch Play is a gross misnomer. Catch play is what you do with someone at a park or in the backyard for fun.  Developing receiving, transferring and throwing skills should be done in a very deliberate manner involving many details far more particular than simply playing catch.

2) Use the Person-Athlete-Player Philosophy

Person - As with every part of practice design, coaches should use the person - athlete - player philosophy.  For example, every person on the team has a specific learning style that is best facilitated by using one or more of the three learning modalities - auditory, visual and kinesthetic. For most young athletes, telling is not teaching, so auditory cues should primarily be used as a reminder of those things taught visually or kinesthetically.  Training aids such as flat gloves, flat-sided balls, and striped balls can be used during drills as visual and kinesthetic implements.

Athlete - Every time a ball is thrown, received and transferred, a coach should not simply look at the result of the throw, but should mentally take the glove and ball out of the equation and should analyze the player as an athlete from the ground up.  Specifically, the coach should analyze posture, balance, footwork, angles (in the athlete’s body and while moving), rhythm and timing. 

All of the proprioceptive skills required to field, receive, transfer, and throw a ball well must be trained daily in the athleticism phase of practice that precedes the throwing and receiving progression phase.  Dynamic movement and stretching routines and other exercises should be taught and progressed to train an athlete how to use their arms, legs and feet in a coordinated and synchronized manner, as well as, to condition their bodies to be mobile, flexible, elastic, and stable and to prime their minds to be ready to compete.

If a coach will ask players to replace their feet while preparing to make a throw after fielding a ground ball, they need to be trained to do foot replacement drills in the athleticism phase of practice.  Drills such as box shuffle drills can be used to teach athletes how to use their hips to realign their bodies to their target.  All types of skips, shuffles, jumps, hops and bounds should be taught so athletes know how to apply and transfer force quickly and efficiently, i.e., powerfully. 

In short, you can’t just tell a player to load their back leg for power on every throw. They need to be trained to do it instinctively.  As Hall of Fame Shortstop Ozzie Smith said, “There are no bad hops, only bad footwork.”  That process starts every day long before a player holds a ball or wears a glove.

Player - When coaching the player, consideration should be given daily to how to progress a particular player at their primary position, but accommodations should also be made for training them to be versatile.  This will give the team depth when injuries occur and will make the players more valuable to future teams.  Coaches should also remember that every throw in every part of a practice or game, takes a toll on the arm and body of the player, not just when they are pitching.  A player’s health and special considerations for pitchers may dictate fewer throws on a given day in the throwing and receiving part of practice and otherwise.
 
 3) Teach the Details

Most importantly, coaches should teach the details of the throwing and receiving progression with the same level of scrutiny and accountability as they do hitting, pitching and position fundamentals.  Players need to make huge improvements in the way they receive, transfer and throw a ball from the beginning of the season to the end for them and the team to have success in the future.  

4) Hold Players Accountable
Players should understand and be held accountable that every drill and every throw has a specific purpose and must be executed with the intent to get better with every repetition.  It needs to matter that every ball is received and transferred in a precise manner and that every throw hits a precise target.

5) Train Every Throw on Every Practice Day

Every throw a player will be asked to make later in practice and in games should be taught and trained every day in the T & R progression.  This is an illustration of the coaching axiom 20 x 5 > 100 x 1.  The discipline to train every throw every day is why USC Hall of Fame and College Coach of the 20th Century Rod Dedeaux said, “A throwing error is a mental mistake.”   

Every day in the T & R progression, coaches should teach and train all of these throws: glove flips, underhands, backhands, dart throws (incorporated into rundowns/ “hot boxes”), clock throws, long hop throws, relays, and “do or die” throws.   Pitchers are paired with outfielders and they throw balls in the sun and balls at the warning track and wall to them. Pitchers throw 3-5 reps of every type of pitch in their arsenal at the pitching distance every day (except after game day) to the outfielders.  Pitching starts with purposeful flat ground throwing. Catchers are paired with infielders and do 4-Corners Drills to work on force play mechanics, tag mechanics, and footwork and throws to bases.  It is important to include short hop and long hop “digs” during these drills.

6) Train Reaction as Well as Action
The best throwing and receiving mechanics in the world are of no use if the player cannot get to the ball and cannot adjust to random variables that often occur during play.  Therefore, reaction, as well as action, should be trained often every day.  A good idea is to start every T & R progression with a reaction drill.  There are wall ball reaction drills to do with tennis balls when teams are indoors or are undercover in bad weather outdoors.  Ball drop drills, ball handling drills, juggling drills, and glove flip drills can be very effective, as well.  As I mentioned above, during T & R, incorporating “digs” as a part of the throwing sequence is a great way to train randomization and reaction. 

7) Compete-Compete-Compete
Finally, to win championships, players must learn to be comfortable being uncomfortable.  Competitions, both individually and in teams, should be held during the reaction drills at the beginning of the T & R progression and throughout the progression.  This will keep it fun and remind the players of the purpose and focus needed to be successful in competition.  Just be sure to reward the process more than the result.

Throwing and Receiving Progression Template

1) Extension Phase

On most days, a long toss progression should be done to a distance at least twice that of the base path of the field on which the players play their games. From 15’ to 90’ in the extension phase (on the way out), drills are used to teach, improve and reinforce throwing mechanics. During this time, both regular and flat-sided balls and training gloves can be used to work on grip, spin, receiving and transfer skills.  This is the time teams can work on glove flips, underhands, backhands, dart and clock throws. 

From 90’ to 180’+, throws are made with a long, relaxed arm and a 35 degree arc on the ball to lengthen and strengthen the arm.  During this time, regular gloves and balls with a stripe down the middle are used to reinforce the same skills as in the shorter distance throws.  Teams can work on fly ball mechanics and footwork during this time, including long hop throws and tags, balls in the sun and balls at the wall.

2) Pull Down Phase

During the pull down phase (on the way in), the arc of the throws is gradually reduced until the players are throwing line drives to each other.  Teams can work on relay mechanics during this time.  As mentioned above, pitchers can throw 3-5 pitches of every pitch in their arsenal to their outfielder partners when they reach 60’.  Infielders and catchers do the 4-Corners Drills described above when they reach the base path distance again.
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Players do not play to the level of their talent.  They play to the level of their training.  There is no better way to prepare players to play their best than to train them daily with a throwing and receiving program with purpose and focus.
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The Ten Most Important Things a Coach Should Do in the Off-Season

11/1/2025

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Even if the last game of the season ends in a victory, the off-season begins for me after the last out of that game.  Next season, I know I must be better and my team must be better.  I begin to immediately analyze the ways we met and did not meet our goals for our team becoming better people, athletes, and players.  Here are the things I think all coaches should do during the off-season to maximize their chances of having the best possible outcome for the next season.  You will note that everything I advise my players to do, I require first from myself.

1. Ensure there is balance in your life. One of my favorite quotes about coaching is, “Your family loves you not your job.  Be sure they are getting the best of you, not the rest of you.”  The personal lives of many coaches suffer because during the season and in the off-season, the coach does not devote the same amount of time, energy, and effort toward the success and happiness of their family as they do to their team and sport.

2. Recruit more qualified assistant coaches and get to know them on a personal level.  If the head coach is going to maintain a balanced life, they need to be able to delegate coaching responsibilities to other coaches they trust to have the same coaching ability and philosophy as their own.  A head coach must not only get to know what and how their assistant coaches teach, but they must also know generally about their family life and their personality so they can effectively collaborate and communicate with them during the season.

3. Make yourself a better athlete and a better player.  In amateur athletics, telling is not teaching.  If your players are going to learn and improve, you and your assistant coaches must be able to demonstrate what you expect them to do.  And this includes the athletic skills, e.g., dynamic movement and stretching, running, Plyometrics, etc., as well as, all of the sports skills.  In baseball, for example, if you’re asking your players to be better at throwing, fielding and hitting a baseball, you should require the same of yourself.  All ground balls have five characteristics: speed, spin, distance, direction and height.  If your players are going to be able to handle all of these variations in a game, the coaches must be proficient at hitting them in practice.

4. Go watch other elite coaches in your sport and in other sports coach at practice and in games.  When you study other successful coaches, you will see that while their personalities may differ, their methodology in establishing a winning culture and in teaching will have many similarities.  You will be able to borrow and adapt what makes them successful to help you be more successful.  Ask yourself; in what ways do they work to make the members of their team better people, athletes, and players?  Do not watch the game as much as watch them coach.  Do not watch the ball and the result of the play as much as what happens off the ball and the process of achieving the result.
 
5. Get better resources to improve your coaching methodology.  Every day, read books and articles, watch videos, and listen to podcasts produced by the most respected people in coaching and in leadership generally. Do not simply do what every other coach does.  Be better and be better for good reasons, your reasons.  However, always remember, “Master teaching what you know before expanding what you teach.”

6. Get more proficient at technology.  In most sports, technology can provide valuable coaching tools to improve your team members as athletes and players.  Technology may be the best way to connect and communicate with your players because they have been proficient with technology before they even began school. There are many technology programs and devices used in almost every sport.  Coaches need to learn which ones are the best for their players and team. The head coach and/or the assistant coaches must be proficient at using them.  Just be sure not to overuse technology to the point it replaces your eyes and what your coaching experience and your relationship with your players tells you.  Technology can also be overused to the point where players cannot think or feel for themselves during competition.

7.  Get to know your players on a personal level.  It is essential that if you are going to train your team members to be better athletes and develop them as players, you must connect, validate, and support them as people so you earn their trust to coach them during vulnerable and difficult experiences.  Meet with returning players socially outside sporting venues to get to know them.  For new players, talk with their prior coaches about the personalities, the learning styles, and the personal challenges of those players.

8. Train your players to be better athletes and develop their individual sports skills.  One of the primary goals of every athlete during the off-season should be to get bigger, stronger, faster, quicker and more agile.  This will take months of work in a gym and at home (e.g., nutrition, hydration, rest, quality sleep, etc.) tailored to the individual’s needs and not just from a white board in a P.E. class.  The off-season will afford you much more time to develop the sport skills of the player than during the season. 

9. Set SMART goals for the upcoming season for each member of the team and for the team itself.  SMART = Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Trackable through Time goals.  It is essential that these goals include all three of the Champions for Life categories: better people, better athletes, and better players.  Better People = Better Athletes = Better players/Teammates = Champions for Life.  
 
10.  Prepare practice plan templates for the upcoming season. Do not wait until the week before the season begins to develop your practice plan templates.  You and your assistant coaches should prepare, analyze, and revise them many times before the season starts.  Of course, the templates will need to be adapted and revised as you get to know your team and how the season is progressing, but you need to have concrete plans for how you will make them better people, better athletes, and better players.

Remember always, “We coach people not sports – it is the quality of the person, not the player that is the most significant outcome.”  Use quotes, acronyms, role plays, and guest speakers in your practice plans to be sure you are connecting the sport experiences and lessons to the other areas of your players’ lives now and in the future. “We coach life lessons proactively within the game for beyond the game.” 
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fall ball - productive or counter-productive?

10/1/2025

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Whether to play baseball in the fall is one of those subjects that it seems people are either adamantly for or adamantly against.  And yet, as with most subjects, the truth is that for some people it can be the right thing to do and for some they could better invest their time doing something else.

As with all subjects about coaching, I analyze it from a person-athlete-player perspective.

The most important thing a student-athlete must do is to achieve and keep balance in their life.  If playing baseball out-of-season is going to keep a person immersed in sports to the exclusion of discovering and developing themselves in areas outside of athletics, it is always the wrong thing to do. 

If a person is to discern what will be the best career path for them, they must invest the same amount of energy, dedication, and perseverance as they invest in sports in experiencing whether they have talents and interests in music, art, technology, science, etc. beyond just taking a class or two in those subjects in school.  They should participate in school clubs and extracurricular activities in those other areas.  If they discover they have talents and interests in one or more of them, ever year they should do informational interviews about them and get job shadows, internships, and jobs in them.

If a student-athlete has balance in their life and if their goal is to have as much fun as possible while in school whether or not they optimally develop as an athlete, then playing Fall Ball can be a great choice.  If a baseball player is elite, and has already determined the best colleges for them based on their career aspirations, and those colleges are holding baseball prospect camps or their recruiting coaches are attending showcases in the fall, then training beyond the summer season may be necessary to prepare the athlete to be at their best at that time.

However, as a practical matter, in almost every other circumstance, playing fall baseball is not the best choice for a player’s time.

As an athlete, it is a much better for a baseball player to choose to train in the fall to be bigger, stronger, faster and more agile.  The best athletes have the most potential to be the best players.  Optimum athletic development is a year around process requiring a periodization program of strength and conditioning both in-season and out of season.  Of course, it also requires an equal amount of dedication and consistency to nutrition, hydration, rest, and quality sleep.

The maximum athletic and strength gain part of the process takes a minimum of 4-5 months every year for 4-5 years, is very intense, and is physically and mentally demanding.  Therefore, except for the most elite and gifted athletes, this 4-5 months should not coincide with playing another organized sport full-time, particularly if balance is going to be maintained in their life. For the same reasons, playing one organized sport year around is also a bad choice.  Participating in multiple school sports at other times of the year can be very advantageous if there is an athletic development component to the coaching of the sport beyond just playing to win games.  However, in my experience, this is the exception, not the rule. 

If a person chooses to play fall baseball, not all choices are good ones.  Fall baseball can get very casual about protecting the health of the athletes.  The extra demands on time can cause deficiencies in nutrition, rest, sleep and academic study. Many times, the same care and attention to detail regarding dynamic movement, stretching, and arm care routines, and pitch counts are not done as well in the fall as they are during the regular season.  All of these things can lead to illness and injury. 

The quality of fall baseball coaching may not be high and may be self-serving.  It may simply prioritize winning games and not athletic and player development.  The individual skills of the players may not improve and the players may be pigeon-holed into specific positions and not be given an opportunity to expand their versatility.

​For a limited few, playing baseball in the fall can be a wise use of time.  For most student-athletes, however, better choices can be made for their development as people, athletes and players.
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the decisive intangible for all college athlete recruits

9/1/2025

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Most college coaches have similar goals, philosophies, and priorities when recruiting athletes for their program. In short, they want people, athletes, and players who tangibly have sports skills to improve their team and intangibles that fit the culture of their program.  Whether on video or in person, they want to see someone who is or has the potential to be better as a player than what they currently have on their team while at the same time has the character traits to persevere through any adversity on or off the field/court and to synergize the team to be better than it thought it could be. 

In the past, this process could be summarized as coaches seeking people who fit who we are and who we want to be and players who feel the same about them and their program.  Unfortunately, today, this is not enough.  Once coaches successfully recruit players to their program, they must re-recruit them to stay with the program.

Why? The players are allowed to be paid to play.  And the services of the players are available to the highest bidder.  Players who are not starters will transfer without losing eligibility to a college where they will play more even if they are not paid more or at all.  Many players who are starters will transfer simply to get paid more at a program of similar quality. 

This monetizing mindset of players begins in their youth.  From a very early age, many players obsessively train for and play sports year around chasing trophies and championships to the exclusion of a balanced life.  The priority of athletic skill development supersedes the development in every other part of their life. 

Most elite athletes today spend many, many more hours training to be better players in multiple sports than they do studying to be better students in multiple academic and non-athletic disciplines.  Most will never hold a regular job nor do charity work on a regular basis.  They will certainly pull few, if any, weeds.

When it comes time to choose a college, they will simply participate in tournaments or talent showcases to see what colleges will pay the most to have them play for their program.  The amount of money they are willing to offer and the quality of the athletic program are, by far, the most important factors to players when choosing a college.  Any consideration of the quality and fit of the academic side of the school are a far distant second, assuming the player has discerned what career they may want to pursue and that they and their parents even know how to properly evaluate a school in this regard.

To be fair, college coaches and private trainers feed this misguided approach by constantly advocating for multi-sport athletes while ignoring the reality that simply participating in multiple sports will not develop most players to be elite.  To achieve elite status, most players will need to train regularly as players and as athletes for many hours outside of the sport.  Furthermore, most sports programs will require that to be on the best teams a player must participate in the sport in months outside the regular season. 

There are only so many hours in a day.  But is there a better approach? 

What if every year in high school, a student-athlete who wanted to play a sport at the highest level in college trained for and participated in that sport for four months, held a job (3 days) and trained as an athlete (3 days) for four months, and spent an equivalent amount of time in the remaining four months of the year mastering skills in and outside of school in technical areas and the fine arts and doing charity work?

Arguably, if the same dedication, work ethic, and discipline were applied by the player to this approach, they would have both the athletic and sport skills, as well as, the intangibles the recruiting coaches would be looking for.  More importantly, the player would choose a college with the proper priority of academic excellence and fit to provide education and job opportunities toward a career of self-actualization and life-long happiness.

The player would also have the most persuasive intangible a recruiting coach could possibly ask for, i.e., no need to re-recruit them.  They could honestly tell the coach that whether they start or play at all, they are not leaving the school because they chose the school first as a student. 

Coaches talk all the time that they have many choices of players with relatively equal tangible skills, but the deciding factors are the intangibles.  Is there a more powerful and potentially decisive recruiting factor than for a player to tell a coach they are not going to transfer no matter what happens in the sport? 
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PRE-GAME WARM-UP FOR OUTFIELDERS

8/1/2025

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I am not sure what happened to the time-honored tradition of taking “infield” before high school and youth games, but what I commonly see now for warm-ups are coaches hitting balls to lines of infielders and outfielders.
Hitting fly balls to a line of outfielders and watching to see if the player being hit to catches the ball is okay for 8 year-olds.  If the players are older than that, it is not.  If “infield” is not taken before a game, here is the way outfielders should be warmed-up for optimum game preparation.

First, particularly at away games, every field condition, weather condition (sun and wind), and local ground rules, e.g., balls stuck under, in or through the fence, that could impact the game needs to be discussed.  The players must know the amount of foul territory, the type of fence, and the type and size of the warning track (counting their steps at full speed from the time they reach the warning track until they reach the wall).  On natural surface fields, the team should walk the entire outfield to spot impediments, e.g., holes, muddy areas, sprinkler heads, etc. that could impact their fielding a ball on defense or that could be taken advantage of as a baserunner on offense.

Second, every footwork pattern, e.g. chatter steps, lateral steps, drop steps, “wrong way” turns (both lateral and drop step – yes, there is a different way to do a “wrong way” turn for each of them) etc. in all directions must be trained in the dynamic movement/athletic preparation phase of the pre-game warm-up.  The drills used for this purpose must condition reaction as well as action and include both verbal and non-verbal cues.  

Third, every type of throw, e.g., “do or die” fly balls and ground balls, balls at fence, balls in sun, etc. and every footwork pattern for every direction a ball is caught, e.g., charge, lateral, angle, overhead and relays, the outfielder will be required to make in the game must first be practiced perfectly in the throwing and receiving phase of warm-ups.

The most common mistake made by teams during high school and youth games is not what they do during a play; it is what they fail to do before the play begins – they fail to communicate.  Communication is the life blood of team defense.  It must occur before every hitter and after every time a runner advances or scores.  Outfielders must have a system of communicating non-verbally about what they are doing if the ball is hit in the air and on the ground, at them, or in a gap.  Each of those things may require a throw to a different base and/or relay person.  Of course, the game situation may dictate different actions too, e.g., “do or die” throws and balls not to be caught hit deep in foul territory with less than two out and the winning run on 3rd base in the last inning, etc.
This non-verbal system of communication must be practiced in warm-ups. A game situation should be called out to the outfielders before every ball is hit to them so they give each other the appropriate signs where the ball should be thrown.

Once the players are ready to have fly balls hit to them, if you have a line of players watching one player being hit to, you have a design flaw in your system. (Ditto for infielders.)  Once the ball is hit, the players not involved in catching the ball or shadowing the player catching the ball should execute the prep step and initial reaction steps to the ball being hit and then should yell where the ball should be thrown. There is no line standing only line doing.

When hitting balls to outfielders, just like in the game, two players at a time should be spaced 70’ – 100’ apart.  Each pair of players should have three turns at fielding a ball or shadowing a player catching the ball before a new pair has their turn.  One ball is hit to each player and then a ball is hit between the players so they must communicate who is going to catch it and who will shadow.  The balls must be hit in all directions, in the sun, and at the wall. 

As Hall of Fame coach Ed Cheff taught me many years ago, if coaches expect their players to be able to field balls with all types of speed, spin, distance, direction and height, coaches should be proficient at hitting all of them.  The mantra of “Get Better Every Day” begins with the coaches.  If a coach is not proficient yet at doing this, a machine should be used.  Accuracy is critical for proficiency.

All balls caught by an outfielder must be thrown to an infielder as a relay player rotating out of a station in the infield warm-up.  The infielder is moved into a straight line from the outfielder to a catcher after the ball is hit to the outfielder by verbal commands from the catcher. The infielder must be coached to perform perfect relay mechanics on every throw.  It may be the difference between out or safe at a base or in winning or losing a game. The relay is then thrown to the catcher who is coached on tag mechanics at home plate.  After the tag is made, the catcher immediately throws to one of two infielders randomly called out by a coach who are stationed at throw down bases at angles in the outfield to simulate a “look in” play during the game to second or third base. Those infielders are also coached to do perfect tag mechanics at their base.

Outfielder warm-ups begin long before a ball is hit to them and once it is finally hit to them, outfielders, infielders and catchers are involved and are coached in the process to simulate all game conditions.  Anything less and the team is failing to prepare so they are preparing to fail.  Or the team could just warm-up by taking “infield”. 
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The Diffusion of Talent and the Illusion of Success

7/1/2025

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The Red Falls Red Sox finished the season 24-2 and won the League Championship.  They thought they were a good team.  They were not.  The league thought the team had a successful season.  From a player and team development perspective, they did not.  The team batting average for the season was .323 and the team’s pitching ERA for the season was 3.89.  The team’s players thought they were good hitters and good pitchers.  They were not. 

In the State where Red Falls plays its games, youth and high school players can choose to play baseball in the school leagues, Little League Baseball, Junior Baseball, Cal Ripken Baseball, American Legion Baseball, Babe Ruth Baseball and numerous Club Ball teams that play an independent tournament schedule.  As a result, the talent in any one league is typically average at best.  A league champion wins a lot of games because they play very average teams with very average talent. 

Coaches on most teams coach their team how to play the game to win games against the teams in their league.  The only standard of execution and  development they measure themselves against are the teams and players in their league and in the tournaments they play.  The coaches and the league are satisfied if the team simply wins games. 

The coaches don’t know how to, or spend an insufficient amount of time attempting to, effectively develop the individual skills of the players.  The league does not provide the coaches with enough equipment and training to coach the individual skills of the players to superior levels.  There is no system to progressively develop the players as athletes and players year-to-year.  The league simply chooses coaches who are Dads of the players and/or who are the most politically powerful. 

Consequently, rarely do the players’ ability to throw, field, and hit a baseball significantly improve during the season except by them receiving coaching outside of the team and the league. The majority of players in most leagues cannot afford such private coaching.  If a player improves year-to-year without private coaching, it is usually as a result of genetic gifts and puberty.

Athletically gifted players may be deluded into believing they are exceptional because they are the best players on their Select Team or in their league.  The truth is good is never good enough.
 
A very common scenario is that most of the players on a winning team play together for several years and dominate the competition they are accustomed to playing.  Even Club Ball teams thrive year-to-year and build their reputations on winning games and tournaments and not by any objective measure of building the individual skills of their players.

Formerly successful players and teams don’t get an objective dose of reality until they play teams on a state, regional or national level or at least until they are evaluated by an experienced and knowledgeable coach at the next level not associated with their current coaches, team, and league. 

The cold reality for a hitter may not arrive until he is required to hit elite pitching with a wood bat.

Most balls that are caught and thrown accurately and hit hard by youth and high school players are not caught, thrown, and hit properly.  The uneducated eye only sees the result.  The educated and experienced eye sees the process from the ground up the kinetic chain that led to the result.  This is most significantly true in pitching.  For example, the horizontal wrist snap curve may be very successful as a 12-year old, but may ultimately lead to surgery as a 17 year old.

A few years ago, I remember sitting with five college coaches from all levels of college baseball, community college to D1, watching two Club Ball high school baseball teams play. The parents probably thought their children were elite players because they had paid thousands of dollars every year to play in the Club Ball circuit. And yet, after the game was done, the coaches unanimously agreed that of the 22 players who played in the game, only two had the tangibles and intangibles to play college baseball.  The game was played at the beginning of the Summer, but when I asked the coaches if they would come back at the end of the Summer to watch the teams play again, they all agreed they would not.  “Why?”, I inquired.  “Because none of the players will work daily with a knowledgeable coach to improve their skills; they will simply be satisfied with winning games.”
​
True talent is not defined during the journey; it is defined by the legacy.  In the meantime, one needs to persistently work hard every day to become a better person, athlete, and player so the diffusion of talent against whom they are measured will not give them the illusion of success. 
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Tips and Recipes to Help You Achieve Your Nutritional Goals

6/1/2025

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If you ask any college or professional player what one thing they wish they would have known more about and taken more seriously when they were in high school they will say nutrition.  However, even when high school athletes make that their mission, it is very difficult to do it because the lives of their families are very busy. 

​Here are some tips to help meeting their nutritional goals much easier.
  • Learn how to prepare your own meals or parts of meals, e.g., side dishes – take accountability for your future!
  • Prepare meals in quantities that can be warmed up for leftovers.
  • Prepare and pack your meals for the next day the night before.
  • Make two sandwiches at a time – one for lunch and one for a snack
  • Begin dinner preparation in the morning in a slow cooker/crock pot
  • Keep food on hand – e.g., cases of water or quality drink in the trunk of your car; high quality granola bars in the car and your school bag.
  • Prepare grab ‘n go food – e.g., pasta salads, fresh fruit, bran muffins, trail mix, fruit smoothies with packaged vegetables and/or whey protein

Here are two super healthy meals that any athlete can learn to make for lunch or dinner:

            Loaded Baked Potato:
  • Wash a medium potato and slice the ends off of it.  Poke 5-6 knife holes into both sides of it
  • Microwave the potato on high for 5-6 minutes
  • Slice open and mash the potato with a fork
  • Cover potato with thin layer of cheddar cheese
  • While potato is cooking in microwave, warm a can of Amy’s Organic Chili in small pot on low heat until hot
  • Cook a cup of microwave brown rice in microwave on high for 1 minute and mix in with chili (the meal can be prepared without the rice or with rice and without the baked potato too).
  • Pour ½ of chili/rice mix on top of cheese on potato – save the other half of the mix for another meal
  • Add ketchup and/or sour cream on top of rice/chili mix
  • Top with a small handful of packed mini tortilla strips
  • Top with shaved carrots, chopped lettuce, and cherry tomatoes chopped in half
  
            Chicken – Vegetable - Rice – Pineapple/Mandarin Oranges with Sweet & Sour Sauce:
  • Warm-up or grill pre-cooked packaged chicken (season with Mrs. Dash or other seasoning) or BBQ chicken and slice it into bite-sized pieces
  • Cook microwavable cup of brown rice for 1 minute
  • Drain packaged cup of chopped pineapple and/or mandarin oranges
  • Chop ½ cup of cauliflower or other vegetable of choice into bites sizes, season with margarine and salt.  Microwave with 2 tablespoons of water on 60% for 1 ½ - 2 minutes.
  • Mix chicken, rice, cauliflower and pineapple/mandarin oranges
  • Add 1/3 cup of sweet & sour sauce & stir so everything is coated with sauce

​Follow these tips and recipes and you will have a much easier time achieving your nutritional goals!
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    Adam Sarancik is the owner of Elevate Sports Academy which mentors student-athletes in physical conditioning, nutrition, career and college counseling, and sport skills.  He has spent most of his adult life coaching youth ages 8-22 in baseball, soccer, and basketball.  He is a favorite speaker at and director of coaches' and players' clinics. 

    In baseball, Adam’s teams have consistently won championships at every youth league and high school level.  In administration, he has served as league founder, board member and coaches’ and players’ clinic director many times in his 40+ year coaching career.
    ​
    Adam is a frequently published contributor to the ABCA publication Inside Pitch, Collegiate Baseball News, and the Coaches Insider, Coach Deck and Sports Engine websites.  He is also a favorite guest on national podcasts for coaching sports. 
    ​
    Adam is known for his comprehensive and innovative practice plans and for consistently developing championship teams and players who excel at the next level. 

    He earned his Bachelor of Science degree from San Diego State University, his J.D. degree from the University of San Diego School of Law and his Masters of Arts in Teaching from Western Oregon University.

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