Welcome to the Complete Game Podcast, where we're all about baseball with Ethan Dungan, owner of glovehound Baseball glove repair shop, Rick Finley, founder of MDNI Baseball Academy, and the creator of George Foster Baseball, the MVP himself, Reds hall of Famer George Foster.

I'm your host, Greg Dungan.

Now let's talk baseball.

All right, welcome to episode five.

The topic today is practice, practice, practice.

Talk about practice.

Not the game, but practice.

Yes, Mr.

Iverson, we are talking about practice.

We're going to start out with name five, and we're going to start off with name five elements that should be part of every practice, every effective baseball practice.

So, Ethan, why don't you kick us off with your first one?

So my first thing that needs to be part of every practice is dynamic warmup, because too often I see just static warmup.

And you're just going to stand there and.

And kind of, you know, touch your toes, you know, reach across a little bit and then start throwing.

And that doesn't get your whole body warmed up.

It doesn't help you with your agility or your footwork at all.

And so I think it can lead itself to more injuries because your whole body's not ready to participate in the practice.

Cool.

George, what'd you have on your.

That's good.

Getting the body warmed up for the activity.

But I stress.

People say, why are you stressing running?

You know, stressing it.

Why don't you talk about hitting or things as such?

But running is the integral part of the game.

You gotta run when you're on defense and offense.

So teaching these kids how to run, not just go out there and knowing that you're going from one spot to another, but teach them how to get there, synchronize their legs with their arms when they're running and being able to run in a straight line.

A lot of these guys are.

They're not able to run in a straight line.

They're going zigzag.

And you can advance a base.

Learning how to run, like running the bases, you want to tag the inside part of base and have those knees waist, waist high because you're going to have a longer stride.

But we do a lot of the running, although the kids complain about it, but that's part of my practice.

And I.

But also I let them know why.

Yes.

A lot of times they're complaining and they.

Because they don't know why.

So.

But the one thing I would say, if you want to be a team player, I stress it.

Be a team player.

You need to Run because you're being able to advance to that next base.

So that's one thing that a lot of coaches may not stress during, during practice or before practice running.

I run before and then do sprints afterwards.

You run the bases afterwards and.

Cause you're getting accustomed, acclimated to what you're going to do during the game.

Well, that makes it so much more fun to know why you're running.

Because if you're just lined up running from point A to point B with no mind towards how it translates to the game, then it becomes a chore.

That's the key.

But if you know why you're doing it, then you're leveling up and you're getting better as a player and that's way more fun.

And also too, with running, you can play multiple positions too.

So our outfielders could play infield.

Okay.

Play angles and be athletic and be agile enough to be able to get play angles, you know, so running is great, man.

Well, the other along the lines of what George was saying, talk about being a good teammate.

Like you can't, you can't get there to help your teammates if you can't run and get there efficiently.

Like, right.

If you, if you are in a specific situation like you're in play in the outfield and you got to cover ground to get to a ball because.

Or you got to back up the guy who's.

Who's next to you, you can't get there and efficiently do your job and back him up and help him out if you can't get there efficiently.

So you know to be that support for your other teammates, you got to be able to move and move quickly and efficiently.

That's a good point.

Exactly.

Go ahead, Rick.

Okay, a third one.

Since we've, we've got proper dynamic warmups, we've got doing base running and sprint work now since the body is warmed up now, we can long toss throwing and work on throwing catch mechanics.

And that's real important.

A lot of kids don't know, especially if you're playing infield, they don't know how to develop.

They, they throwing catch mechanics very well.

They'll open up this side instead of always say, have your chest and shoulders towards, you know, who you throwing with and.

Or the cans drill keep their feet completely still.

Like you got to move your feet.

Yes.

You gotta move towards the ball.

Right, Exactly.

And so a lot of kids, and a lot of kids don't know how to deflect either.

I work on that a lot either.

With the, with the short gloves.

And I, I see myself doing that a lot.

So I show them how to deflect.

I use a pad at times and say, man, how you able to do that?

Man, hey, I work on it.

But I think that's important because I was a part of a lot of practices where we would go and do some sort of little warm up and then immediately just grab a partner and throw for a period of time and then move on to the rest of practice.

And there was no thought towards why we were doing it.

The different aspects of throwing and catch, like you're talking about listening to your body, trying to feel, feel out how your arm feels.

You know, if you're in a mid season practice, you know, you played, you know, three or four games in the week, the weekend before, you're gonna play three or four more, you know, listen to your body.

Don't just go out there and wear your arm out for no reason.

Do it with a purpose.

Exactly.

But three things I stress in throwing is, number one, move your feet.

Yes.

And then throwing.

You playing catch, throw a four seamer, it's not a two seamer.

And the other one is, I see a lot, but they feel that it's not, not a big deal if they catch the ball on the glove side or the throwing side.

I want them to catch the ball on the throwing side.

And I tell them why, because you can get rid of their balls quicker.

And I was asking one kid, I said, one year this kid led the league in assist and the next year he didn't.

What happened?

Well, the answer is the fact that they stopped running on him because he's able to get the ball back to the infield quicker.

But before, when I, when I played, or seeing outfielders catch the ball on their glove side, I know during a game they catch a fly ball.

I'm in a situation to advance to the next base.

I'm going because I know they're not going to get the throw off as soon as quickly.

Yeah, but that's the kind of thing that you, you build that foundation in practice and it translates.

It's automatic second nature instinct.

Well, and what you guys are all bringing up is the idea that there are a lot of different skills and specific things that you can practice just while you're throwing.

So while you're throwing and warming up, you can practice transfers, you can practice which side, you can track this footwork, you can practice, you know, you know, lots of things that you can build into that time rather than say, all right, everybody go out There, get a partner and just throw for 10 minutes.

Right.

You know, while I get, you know, sit here and make notes and talk to the people.

It's like danger, danger.

Because the balls are going all over the place.

Yeah.

You know, so.

So actually give some structure to that time.

You know, we're gonna.

We're gonna throw.

And here's what I want.

I want you to work on this for so many minutes.

I want you to work on this, you know, and structure that time so that we're not just flinging balls all over the place and the guys are getting bored and throwing knuckleballs at each other and all kind of crazy.

There's a purpose.

Yes.

Throwing catch mechanics.

So you have a long arm from the outfield.

Okay.

And you got a short arm mechanics from the infield.

Okay.

And also with your catcher.

So understanding and teaching those throwing mechanics to different positions is very important.

And I hone on that because kids need to know, you know, especially at the younger.

It got a long arm, especially in the infield, and a lot of guys just don't know how to just separate here at midline, especially in the infield, so.

And also while you're throwing, you got all different types of.

You got the do or die play, you got the sidearm, then you got the over the top throws.

So you got to practice all of those mechanics, man, because it comes, like George was saying, it comes second nature, you know, if you charge and ban you off here, boom, you know, so those are, I think, throws that kids need to work on continuously.

Yeah.

My encouragement to coaches would be, you know, as.

As a dad who's watched I don't know how many practices in my lifetime try and build some.

Some know how and some reasoning and some structure into every bit of the time you have.

You've only got a couple hours.

Yeah.

So that quality in there.

Yeah, get that.

Try not to have time where you're like, okay, everybody just go do this thing, right?

Without knowing why or.

Or without instruction in the process, parents are looking to you to develop their child.

They're looking to see their child learn new skills.

They want to get in the car afterwards and say, what did you learn today?

Right?

And have the kids say, oh, we worked on this, we worked on this.

They don't want the kid to get in the car and say, ah, well, we ran for a while.

Yeah, same thing we did last time, you know, whatever.

So just keep that in mind because, you know, the parents are looking for development.

You guys are looking, you know, coaches are Looking for lots of different things.

They want to develop players, they want to win ball games.

They want to do a lot of different things.

Parents really only care about whether you're developing their kids.

That's what they want.

And so, you know, to keep that in mind and have.

It's important for the coaches to learn as much as possible so they can impart it to the kids.

And.

And not just being out there labeled as a coach and say, here's the ball and bat.

You guys entertain yourselves.

You're not the babysitter.

Right, right, exactly.

Yeah.

So that leads me to my first thing, which is baseball iq.

Building baseball IQ into everything that you do.

You know, being able to say, okay, here's the situation.

Stop, freeze.

What happens next?

You got the ball?

Where are you going with that ball?

What are you going to do here?

You know, okay, if he's going to do this, what does that make you do?

If he does this, what are you doing?

You know, the idea that anytime somebody is doing something on the field, everybody else should be doing something in response or in preparation for what's about to happen or what just did happen.

And so there should all.

Everybody should be able to give an answer.

Even if you're standing out in right field and the ball is at third base, what are you thinking?

What are you doing?

What?

How does that work?

So, you know, are you coming into back up first base?

Are you doing what?

What are you doing?

And that is when you make that.

When you engage the brain in every aspect of what you're doing, it quits being work and it starts to be fun and you start to see the point in what you're doing.

And when they get back in the car and the parent says, what did you talk about?

You say, well, I learned something today.

I learned that if I'm here and this happens, I need to be thinking about doing this thing.

And that happens.

Now, wouldn't it be great if all teenagers actually talk that much to their parents?

But they could.

I'm hungry, Mom.

Yes.

All right, Ethan, what do you got?

My next one is drills that facilitate communication.

Because that is something that lacks seemingly every level.

Facilitate.

Yeah, right, that down.

But trying to find a way to build that.

That communication practice into the drill.

So, you know, you have your fly balls and you're.

You have your outfielders talking.

You got your Bermuda Triangles, you got those three guys talking.

You're doing relays.

And from the outfield in your.

Or.

Well, from outfield to third base to home and, you know, catcher trying to direct the third baseman, or you, Gus, double cutoffs, all that kind of stuff that requires communication.

And I think if you spend a little bit of time practicing that, that will.

That's number one on my list.

You have to practice that.

You do.

And then in order for it to translate into the game.

Yeah.

The number of times I've heard coaches, you know, laying into the kids, I don't hear any chatter out there.

Nobody's talking out there.

Nobody's talking.

Why would they?

Because you haven't told them what to say.

You haven't told her why you haven't told them, you know?

Yes.

So here's the thing.

If you're a player, okay, and you're in the field, there are a few things that you can yell out at any time, you know, and no one's going to wonder if you have Tourette's.

Okay.

You can just yell them out.

You can say how many outs there are.

You can say what the pitch count is.

You can say how many runners there are, you know, at any given time.

Yeah, should be.

You can, you can call out what the batter did last time.

If you can remember it, you'd be the hero.

If you can remember that kind of stuff, you know, what did.

Where'd that batter hit that ball last time?

Last time went to left field.

Everybody slide over.

You know what?

I talk to a teammate, say, I got, I got you.

You got me.

I'm going to go.

Here you go.

Here.

That's the baseball.

I got you, babe.

Yeah.

Every, every, everything hinges on being able to talk to one another.

And I'll tell you what, it would be downright intimidating if your team talks constantly on the field, that when they're playing another team that doesn't talk, like most teams don't talk.

They'll be like, whoa.

These guys talk all the time.

It's intimidating.

It is.

And that's what I stress.

I stress it.

I played like that.

So, yeah, I, I, I play, I play like.

I coach, you know, but as I.

Tell the kids, it's not a library.

You're allowed to talk.

Yes.

Where are we?

Did we.

It's George's turn.

George, my turn.

I'm batting third.

No, batting fourth.

So situational play.

I love doing situational play, especially what, not only infield, outfield, but knowing where to throw the ball, how many outs, you know, what's the situation?

You're on first base as on defense, and the guy's on first base, and the ground balls hit.

What's your first move?

What are you thinking about you're not going to just hold the ball and you got, you know, it's one out, you're going to throw to second base.

So you got to practice those things in practice, so to speak.

So that in the game situation, you don't hesitate once you start hesitating.

Now you're giving that other team more than three outs per inning.

And the other one is that it stands out that who's going to be the cutoff man.

Each team has a different aspect.

I want, say, a ball coming from left field.

The third base is going to be the cutoff man.

Ball come from center or right.

The first base is first quarter.

But you have.

Sometimes you have that third first base and run way over to third base to cut off.

I said, that's too far to go.

And I was going to.

I was on the brink of teaching softball.

But they wanted the pitcher to be the cutoff, but I want the pitcher to be backing up.

So like we said earlier before, there's a place that you need to be, but you don't know until somebody tells you where to go.

And I said right away, I said, well, this is the way we're doing it.

Cause they're going to say, well, my coach, my dad or I saw somebody on the major league level.

I said, okay, this is what we're going to do here.

And it's fun, though, when you're.

When I played, I knew there was someplace I needed to be and it was exciting.

It's on.

The race is on.

But I'm playing left field.

Ball hit down the right field line.

Where should I be?

Should I be over there signing autographs or making friends with someone who's with Chick Fil A or things and such.

So.

But I'm backing up third base, but the third base coach doesn't know I'm there.

And the ball get past third, even though it does not happen, you know you need to be there and.

But that's come back to running.

You got to have the legs ready.

And that's exciting for me because before a game, before a game, I always run my four sprint foul pole to foul pole.

People are like, oh, it's, it's too hot.

But you got to get your mind, your body ready for the game.

But situational play can win or lose a ball game for you.

But I want to, I want to build off of that.

When you said, well, this is how we do it, right?

Every team is going to be different.

You're going to have a different amount of Plays that you run for different scenarios you're going to have just different ways you like to do things.

So maybe on a bunk coverage, maybe you like to run a wheel, maybe you don't run a wheel.

Maybe first and third, you like to try to do the thing where you cut it off short and get the guy at third.

Everybody's going to do it differently.

But it's important in practice to have those, form those plans in practice.

And then when you get to the game, say, hey, we went over this.

We're going to pick this option that we, that we created in practice and use it in the game.

If you're a parent, realize that you need to give room for that, that not every coach is going to do it the same way.

And it doesn't mean that the last coach didn't know what he was talking about or this coach doesn't know what he's talking about.

It just means different philosophy.

People are doing things differently, learn lots of different ways to do it.

And then, you know, down the road when your kid coaches something, then they can decide, you know, I liked it when we did it this way rather than that way.

But there's room for that.

Different, different, different teams have different strengths.

So, you know, if you have, if you have a catcher and really good middle infielders and you can get the guy at second on a first and third, you know, then go for it.

But maybe you don't have that and you can't risk the run at third.

So you, you can't fit the same defensive plays to every team.

And that's why you have to figure that out, see what you have with your team and practice and fit, figure it out in practice so that you're ready for the game.

Yes, I agree.

A good example with the Reds.

Cincinnati Reds, usually if a ball's down the right field line, the second basin is going out to be the cutoff.

But with our team, Joe Morgan didn't have a strongest arm as Davey Dave Conception.

So Davey would go out and be the cutoff and Joe would stay at second.

But it comes from communication from practice and doing it so that you're knowing that it's going to be a strength for you.

Yes.

To add to that, George.

And then coming back down on the youth level, youth level from 13, 14 to high school, a lot of guys don't know how to double cut, how to run a double cut or what a double cut is, you know, on that elf, and you got to continue working with them on that.

And one of the Things that all of you guys will talk about is baseball iq.

The boringest things are the things you continue working on which, which is going to help you win games or lose games, you know, if you don't work on them enough.

When you talk about boring things, everybody just want to go out there and swing the bat and see how far they can hit the ball.

But like I say, the small things make a big difference.

And like I said, a cutoff situation because you don't want that guy to advance to another base.

And double cut.

But like I say, you gotta practice at it in, in practice and we have line drills so that when you're throwing the ball to the cutoff, the cutoff men have to know the footwork too.

Yeah.

So as they don't want.

Back to what Ethan has said.

It's static.

You don't want to just stand there and catch.

You want to be moving towards the target.

Yes.

And then now communication.

A third base and say third base or someone.

Yeah, right.

But, but you gotta also back to that when you're saying 3, 3, 3, 3.

Sometimes you gotta know what.

Because each team may say something different.

Yes.

And they may say, you say I got it, I got it, I got it three times.

Yes.

Or things as such.

But you gotta be able to know that.

And that prevents a lot of injuries.

And also like I say, it helps you to knowing that you're gonna catch the ball or someone else is gonna catch the ball.

But always being able to back somebody up and talk, communicate, letting know what the situation is.

You may end up being wrong, but you be, you're corrected.

Now everybody's on the same page.

Rick, what's the next thing on your list?

Buddy, for me, catchers, they see everything out in front, right.

You got to have a leader man who can talk and he's got to think like the manager, head coach as far as calling pitches and everything.

Being able to be a communicator, Tell them to cut and hold, they see everything.

Okay, so communication again, that's what we talking about.

And one of the, the main things I do a lot of, I work with my catchers more than anything might come in early, work on receiving, dropping blocks, signals and signs, how to work certain pictures.

Just knowing the game and that for me, that's fun.

Yeah, that's fun.

Because you know, they control everything.

And then as they get to high school, of course most coaches like to call the game for them, but at least you giving them a foundation of understanding the game.

So once you get.

Once they get to high school, coaches will start.

Wow, man, this kid understands the game pretty well.

He's not afraid of being late.

He's not afraid, Afraid we might give him some little time to.

And then he'll say, well, the, the, the catcher is almost like the psychiatrist for the, for the pitcher.

Right.

You know, like, hey, man, your two same man.

Wait, let's try something else.

And I always tell pitchers is, hey, you got more tools in your toolbox, man.

Work on those.

Use another tool.

So as a catcher, it's very important to have a good catcher and having fun, man.

Give them the autonomy to call a game, man, you know?

Well, and if you want them to lead in game, you have to give them opportunities to lead in practice.

Yes, absolutely.

Exactly.

You are a manager.

You are in a management position.

Your job is to manage them to efficiency.

Not to, not to, to get in there with them and do it for them.

Because you really love it.

I'm great.

I'm glad you really love it.

We all really love it.

That's why we do it.

But at the same time, your job is to not invest yourself into the game, but to divest yourself into other people so that they can be the ones who play the game.

That's the point.

You're training other people to do it.

And like I said, I like the word managing.

Not just being a manager, having that label, but managing being active.

It's active.

Make them make decisions.

Make the kids make decisions.

If you're going to, you know, let's say, let's say we're going to have somebody running bases, we got somebody running bases.

Put two guys on base, put three guys on base.

Yeah.

Make them have to make a choice when they take that ground ball.

Right.

You know, put a guy on third, put a guy on, on.

On second or just put a guy on third.

Let the kids run to first.

Now that guy hit the ball to third base, he's got to decide whether he's going to try and keep the guy from going home or he's going to go to first, you know.

Oh, yeah, make them make decisions.

Okay.

Make them make decisions.

Because the more they do that, the more they understand the why every kid's got a modicum of skill or they wouldn't be on your team.

Again with, yes, we need to talk mechanics.

Yes, we need to talk skill, but we need to make them make decisions and then give them room to make bad ones.

Yeah.

Make mistakes.

Yeah.

And it's okay.

That's what practice is for.

Right.

If nothing else, it's a safe place to make mistakes.

Yes.

So that you make smart decisions.

That's a perfect segue into my last one, which is going over and correcting in game mistakes.

So preseason, maybe you don't have that as much if, you know, if it's the same team, maybe you can go over what you struggle with last year.

But if it's an in practice, if it's an in season practice, you know, you just played a whole bunch of games, you know, you should have notes about what went well, what didn't, and use that practice time to go over what didn't go well so you can correct it going forward.

Yes, I agree with you.

You point I have.

That's learning.

That's learning, exactly.

And I have like index cards.

So every time I'm coaching, I'm writing notes down on all my players situations.

So when we go back to practice, I know what we're going to.

I know how to structure my practice.

Okay.

On the things that we need to work over.

So I'm kind of a perfectionist, but I want, I'm developing.

Right.

Okay.

So like on these index cards years ago, I'll go over a lot of stuff with the guys and there's certain things that we need to go or an individual we need to work with on that, on that point.

That's part of development.

And that's what, going back to what you guys were saying, that's what parents want to see.

Well, that's an excellent point, Rick.

And that every practice isn't going to be exactly the same.

You have a base going to other things you want to add too.

But the one thing that I found with kids is I tell them that I don't know is not acceptable as an answer.

Because you would ask a kid, why did you do this or do that?

I don't know.

I said, I don't know.

It's not acceptable.

So I want, even if the answer is not correct, I want, I want to know what you're thinking.

Yes, that's, that's the key right there.

But that give them a chance.

You talk about making decisions.

Yes.

So they got to decide and in their situation, like, oh, say a man on third base.

And so now you have the say the infield's in, so balls hit the first base.

I said, what I tell the first base and what are you going to do?

And more times than done, they said, I'm going to go and tag first base.

I said, in the meantime, you're losing sight of the guy at third.

So this is the key play.

I said, get the ball and run at the batter, batter runner, so that now you can tag him out and keep the guy at third base.

But I've seen that on the major league level, they go and tag first base and the guy from third ends up scoring.

Scoring, yes.

But with the kids, you know, you have to go over it and let them know and not during the game.

Why did you do this punk fake, right?

Oh, yeah, I like that one.

But small things like that make a big difference in a game situation.

Well, we run long on our segment here, but do we have any more that we need to get in?

Guys are really important signs and signals, and I have a lot of them, too, man.

That over the years since I've been involved with a lot of different teams through travel, baseball, certain.

Certain guys, signs and signals are long.

Certain was okay.

And I kind of integrated some of them I had to dumbed down because each team that I was a part of, you kind of find out how kids learn, you know what I'm saying?

You know, if they can retain a lot of stuff with signs and signals, you got to go over that a lot.

It's also learning your team and how they process.

Yes.

And how they process to the team.

I was in a situation, I just yell out, go ahead.

Still, I've done that before.

I like everybody in the ballpark, know who fast.

Because I think one dad came, was my brother.

His son was playing for the team.

So the dad's asking the other kids, what are the signs?

And we don't have any signs.

He just said, go.

Because I wanted.

It was part of the psychological part is that I'm telling, I'm daring that catcher.

I said, go.

He can't throw you out.

Go, go.

And now the catcher, like, okay, I'll show you.

And he throws the ball out in center field or with the.

But the one that I was going to talk about is, I don't know if you finished, but bunning.

It's not just Bunny, but work to bunt the ball.

Yes.

So in batting practice, I tell them, okay, we're going to go, but we're going to bunt first.

Yes.

I want you to bunt the first one to bunt the third.

Yes.

And then I say, okay, man on first.

Sometimes I tell them where they need to bump, but this time I said, man on first.

Where are you going to bunt?

They bunt the ball third base.

I said, why'd you bunt the ball at third base?

I don't know.

That's not acceptable.

Yes.

So they learned that there's a place to bunt the ball.

Yes, exactly.

And the third, say bunting the first.

Bunting the third.

But I said, on a squeeze play, this is a delicate one because you don't.

Yeah, you want to make sure you get a good pitch to bunt.

But where do you bunt third first?

I said, no.

Okay, where do you bunt so that you have more room for error?

Okay.

Bump right back to the pitcher.

So if it doesn't go to the pitch, you're going to go down third or first.

But you're not going to get another chance in that squeeze play situation.

So make it count.

But the other one is that hit and run.

And kids don't understand that.

I said, it doesn't have to be a good pitch.

Swing the bat.

If the catcher can catch the ball, swing the bat.

Then, then it's like I kind of, I take a deep breath when they say, my bad.

I said, you're bad.

We just lost that, lost that situation.

I remember we're in a championship game and the guy who's up, he, my catcher was, was on first.

He didn't have good speed.

So it's going to be more like a surprise situation.

But this guy can hit the ball the right field well.

So even if he hits the ground ball to second, basically a hole, we're hitting run and moving.

So what happened?

The guy, I, I brought him together.

I said, this is what we're going to need to do.

And you guys get it.

Yeah.

So what happens is that now the guy took the fastball right down the middle.

And I said, that was the game right there.

Because we could have maybe had first and third or even have it a guy at second.

So my catcher get thrown out of second.

But the parent was upset.

Why.

Why are you running?

I said, okay, it's on me, but it's not really on me.

It's on him, Ben.

And then the mom had said, don't blame it on my son.

I said, no, we're just being able to execute.

Go just do what I asked you to do.

My, my last one would be.

It's kind of a, kind of a two part, but it's pitcher cover.

Oh, we got a Rick.

A two part.

It's.

It's picture covers plays.

Yeah, that's first.

Picture covers home.

Yes.

Yes.

Make sure that you with your pitchers.

Got the World Series with the Yankees.

Yeah.

And Gary Cole said, you got, you got it.

You got to be so.

Well, that's the thing with the, the.

The.

Your pitcher's got so much going on in his head.

What am I throwing?

Is my curveball working?

Is that.

You know, he's got so much going on in his head all game long that that pitcher covers play has to be second nature.

Pfp.

It has to be something he does without even thinking.

Without even thinking.

And that is.

I see more errors, more costly plays on Metro.

That's a metal error.

Yes.

Yeah.

So picture covers.

And then with.

With an extra little side note of.

Eliminate wasted movement.

What.

What are you doing with your body to eliminate the wasted movement?

And that way time, you know.

Yeah.

It makes you more efficient catchers.

Are you doing.

Don't do the.

God, don't do the pump fake.

Don't do the pump fake.

Okay.

If you really are worried about that guy at third base, if that guy at third base is so in your head.

Oh, my God.

If that kid at third base is so in your head that you can't live, you can't handle it, then you take the next pitch and without any warning whatsoever, you fire it to third base.

Okay.

Fire it to third base.

And then if that kid knows that you are not going to hesitate to fire that ball at third base, now make sure you can do it without overthrowing him.

But you know, then.

Okay, now it's in his head that.

Okay, that kid's not going to hesitate.

He's going to.

He's going to let loose.

Right.

All right, so.

But pump faking, it just wastes time.

It was.

It's wasted movement, wasted energy.

Yeah.

It just doesn't.

It doesn't make anything any better.

So.

But backing up back and backing up home play is very important.

Third I or third base.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, you know that there's a chance that the guy's going to get a triple.

Should be over there.

And once again.

And it's same thing with the left field.

They got to be over there.

Yeah, but you have to have.

You don't want to be right behind third base.

Have a distance there.

Yeah.

And backing up.

I've seen pitchers almost collide with the runner because they're late backing up home plate and so back.

It makes a big difference.

Even if you don't get the guy at the plate, you may have a chance to get someone who's going to.

The batter hitter is going to advance.

Right.

So like we said before, there's a place you need to be.

And this is another.

Another excellent reason why it's good to go watch baseball in person.

Yeah.

Because you can watch, you know, you don't always get to see.

You get to see the camera angle.

When you watch on television, you don't always get to see what everybody else is doing.

So if you are a left fielder or a right fielder, you know, or whatever, go watch it in person and stick on your guy.

Watch what he does, watch where he goes, watch why he goes there, watch what he's doing.

Whether he's running up the line to back up this person or he's over backing up that person, or he's the cutoff man or he's the cutoff man or what's going on.

Go see it in person and.

Because when you see it in person, you can see it all.

And you'll learn so much more about baseball than watching it just on television.

I'm gonna add something to that.

And I think that kids 13 and 14, they need to go and watch games in their community, their community high school, their varsity or JV team.

So when we moved to Westchester and we were playing for a Westchester team, anyway, I would take Ricky to.

He is in eighth grade, I would take him to Lakota west, the varsity of jv, to see, you know, since he plays center, like, hey, you gonna take his job next year?

You know, but to get him the process.

Look how they practice and things like that.

That'll kind of build that.

Because I think more kids need to see how the older players play the game and how they, you know, take care how they walk the walk and stuff.

Man, you know, if they don't know it, then, you know, they're just walking in.

I think more parents need to understand that, you know.

Yeah, you playing select or travel baseball, but you need to see what the high school team is doing.

So you'll be prepared as a freshman.

Coming in, seeing what's at the next level.

You got to see what's next.

But I find that no matter what you do is trying to get an edge.

Yes.

And so I go, go and watch someone who plays the same position I play and say, okay, what are they doing differently?

Yeah.

And then, then as a, as a base run, I want to see what is that outfielder doing that's going to give me an edge, is how he's going to feel the ball.

Say a left fielder, a ball is down the line, how does he feel that ball?

And.

But it's back to time wasted motion.

So there's a lot of wasted motion there.

So I have a chance from the batter's box.

I'm thinking going to second base because he may get to throw off but it's not going to be accurate or with much velocity.

So that now is a situation that I got an edge, I get a chance to advance.

Say no, I also am at second base.

There are many ways that you're able to advance to third, but if you're just standing at first base, oh, I should have gone.

You got to know from home plate what you're going to do.

And something that a lot of parents might not know is that you can go watch these upper level teams play.

And a lot of times it's free.

Like if you live here in Greater Cincinnati, you can go to Miami and you can watch Miami's baseball, baseball games for free, right?

You can watch college level playing for free.

You can go to if you, if there's a semi pro team in your area or like a, like a Florence Yalls or know an independent league or a minor league.

It's even probably not that expensive to go to a minor league game.

You can go watch the high school A lot of times it's little to no money to go do it right.

And you can learn so much about doing that.

So you finished the season last year exhausted from all the travel and the tournaments and you tossed your gear in a bag where it's been sitting all winter.

Now you're ready for another year.

But your favorite glove that fits just right is an error waiting to happen.

The leather is dry, the laces are brittle, and this year you're on a new team with new colors.

And it sure would be cool if it matched well.

Wouldn't it be great if you had a glove guy who could help you out with that?

You do.

His name is Ethan and he owns Glovehound baseball glove repair shop in Fairfield, Ohio.

Just contact him@glovehound.com and upload pictures of your glove.

He'll give you a call back to talk it over and then you can send it in for a repair, relays, recondition, whatever you need.

If you're in the area, you can even just stop by the shop.

That way you don't have to bother with shipping.

And a lot of times he can even fix it while you wait.

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And he's helped players at all levels, from beginners to pros.

Last year he worked on a glove that Jose Trevino used in the World Series.

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You can find Glovehound on Google, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and on the web.

@glovehound.com you're only going to get busier.

So reach out today and give your glove the love it deserves.

At Glove Hound, we're going to move on a little behind today.

We're going to move on into our main thing.

Okay, Ethan's fault.

We got a little wasted motion going on.

It's not wasted that way.

Hopefully we're.

Yeah, hopefully we're, we're bringing out a lot of good gems here.

So what I asked the guys to do this week was to come up with a structure for a two hour practice.

And I gave him some parameters.

I said, okay, you've got a two hour practice for 12 to 16 select level players of junior high or high school age and you got three coaches, including yourself.

So in a moment we're going to find out how they did that.

But first, what I want to start with is what are the keys to a successful practice?

In other words, how would you answer this practice will be successful?

If I just.

I have a pretty simple one and I would say the practice is successful if you are more confident heading into the game.

Because that, that is the whole point is to, you should, you should leave practice feeling more confident, more prepared for that game coming up.

And you know, regardless if you feel that you got, you know, a ton better at hitting or a ton better pitching, just that you're more ready to attack that game the next one that comes up.

Cool.

How would you answer that question, George?

This practice will be successful if it's organized.

There you go.

You have to have good organization.

Once again you're managing and so you know the time aspect that you want to utilize, but it has to be organized.

Yes.

You can have kids over there talking about what they're going to do later, but everybody's doing something.

And that's the worst thing is having kids standing around wasting time.

Yes.

So being able to be organized, you can utilize.

It could be a become quality.

Yes.

Or standing in line waiting to do something.

Oh man, I see that so much.

I'm a big one for if, if they are.

If you are going to have a line, it shouldn't be any longer than three people.

Right, right.

And you know, break them up in groups.

Yes.

But that's also to add to George is being organized.

But that is making sure you got the right assistant coaches and understanding their skill sets to be able to break up in a group so you don't have to micromanage.

And I think that is key right there to a successful practice.

Also going over the weakness or whoever needs to work on something, being able to take the time to work with them on that.

I think that'll be a successful practice for that kid because maybe he's like, man, man, I made that error or I didn't, wasn't in the right spot.

Taking them practice to go through that, that makes them feel a little bit more confident now.

Sure.

And if you don't have enough assistant coaches, maybe you didn't have enough people volunteer for your, for your youth league or you know, there's not budget to hire enough guys in your.

Whatever situation you're in, you know, then you got to use what you have.

You have to use players.

You have to, you know, player can handle, player can hit a fun go bat, probably hit it better than you can.

You know, a player can, can throw fly balls.

A player can do a lot of things.

You're not asking that player to give instruction necessarily, but they are the one facilitating the drill and you can do that with players if you need to.

Front toss or whatever, whatever you need to do.

So Rick, this practice will be successful if.

What, how would you answer that question?

I guess for, for me just making sure that we go over the situational stuff that we probably struggle with.

Yeah.

And that's that.

Because going over that, that's going to help you win games or be in games.

So I would say that would be a successful practice for us.

Cool.

Yeah.

Well, I'm going to start, I'm going to start with you on the.

Walk us through your structure of a two hour practice for 12 to 16 players, junior high or high school age, using three coaches including yourself.

Okay.

So one would be like dynamic, warm up and toss.

And this is with catchers.

Okay.

They work on receiving drills, bare hand with mid rapid fire blocking drills, transfer and throw drills, fielding bunts, angle drills, inside outside pitch setup and then we'll be hitting.

And so each practice would be a little bit different because one practice, if we're working two days a week, one practice might just be all defense or pitching, the other must be offense and other things.

So.

But it will have everything in there.

So as you see here, I have a lot of practice.

Some might be tagging up, start at first base, start at second base or third base, bunning and tee work.

We work middle away pitchers during hit.

They might work on PFPs, working on backing up bases, bullpen.

And one of the things that I do with our pitchers, and I've been doing this for years, that after I throw a bullpen they do sprint work either five sets of 20 to 30 yards and a lot of people don't know that, you know, you can do long distance but sprint work, man, it's about explosiveness.

Fast twitch muscles.

Yes, fast twitch.

Also you got to feel bunched too.

You got to get off right to feel bunch.

So outfielders, when they'll come up throwing or just field the ball and get it in, tracking the ball off the bat, a lot of communication cutoffs, you know.

So I, I might have new players that we have to spend more time with versus kids that's been on the team long.

So you have to know how to split your practices up to make sure they get bring them up the speed to how your philosophy is and how you teach the game.

You know a lot of stuff of base running.

And so I have a lot of different things how I do practice with of two hours.

So again, it does vary.

So you, are you communicating with your coaches once everybody arrives at practice, just before practice, are you distributed before we send it email.

We'll send that.

I'll send out an email and you know, we'll go over.

We might call each other up and you know, if they got any questions, they'll let me know.

But it's pretty straightforward.

The first meeting we'll talk about philosophy.

Okay.

A lot of the guys, I kind of knew who they were.

Some, you know, I asked them, okay, what's your strengths and what's your weaknesses?

You know, what you, what do you like to work on?

And then you kind of form that bond.

And then as practice goes, you know, when you break up your team, then, you know, okay, this, this, this hitting wise.

The funny thing about it, this one time I had three coaches plus myself.

The good thing about it, I have two lefties and two righties.

Yeah, that's good.

That works a lot.

Man.

I was like, man, I had two lefty dads that could throw BP man in real righty.

So what it does is it made kids make adjustments as they move on.

Of course I threw harder than everyone, but.

But it allowed kids to make those.

No brag, but fact.

Yeah, yeah.

So.

And we would.

There.

There's so much man pitching drills.

We'll go over slow motion drill, flat ground drills.

You know, depending on.

We might only throw 20 to 25, you know, depending on where we at in the season, especially indoor.

And then build up and then I would break down how many guys I would pitch that day.

Those guys that didn't pitch that day, will they.

They'll pitch the next time or practice so you kind of spritz, split the pitching up a little bit.

How do you keep everybody doing something in.

You got two hours to fill, you got 12 to 16 kids to work with.

How do you keep them all doing something?

Setting a culture, setting a philosophy.

So when our guys came into practice, they knew to do band work, they knew to do foam rolling, they knew how to stretch their hips and everything.

So then when everybody came, it was like that.

I never had to play.

No, it wasn't.

It was focused, man.

That was focus.

And that's, you know, when people look at that like, man, you guys look like you're in college or high school now.

Well, it's a difference between just coaching a team, you know, as a dad, because your son's on the team, versus building a program with a mind towards the future and the mind towards development.

And I think that's because that circling back around, being around mentors, okay.

Or guys that we coach to get against each other and watching them.

But being a mentor, I think Marco Staggy was a great mentor for me.

My son played for, for about eight years.

Even though I played, Mark played at Xavier and you know, all the things I understood and he was just like me, very organized man.

So it worked hand in hand how we develop players and stuff and our players move on and by the time they're freshmen, 9th or 10th grade, they're already playing varsity because of the structure that we had.

And so having coaches that understand structure was very, what, what makes your program look good to do.

And the thing I like about, about your rundown there is you just gave so many different options that you could plug into a practice because you're not going to have the same practice every week.

No.

And I, most of the teams I played for practice and I played for a different team every year.

Select ball, which was unfortunate, but it was what it was.

But more often than not practice was get there, do a little warm up, throw, and then everybody go to their position and we rotate one guy in to hit while the coach does batting practice.

And you just rotate in until everybody gets done.

And if the guy at the plate isn't up, he's not doing well, you know, he's not split spraying the ball over the field.

You're just standing there hoping he hits the ball to you.

It was horribly inefficient, but that was the most common practice that I participated in.

And it happened all the way up till I was 17 playing in a pretty well known program here in Cincinnati.

And we were still Doing the same stuff that I was doing when I was 12.

Well, the coaches need to be more accountable and understand that there's a responsibility, ability of being a coach, and you're out there to help grow the kid, help develop the kid, and just standing around and not doing anything, it's not helping.

And they're not really learning anything.

So it's like, what did.

What can you teach them that particular day to help them get better, not only in the game, but life itself?

Because I always stress learning life skills through.

Through baseball, through sports.

So if you're not out there trying to challenge that kid, because I tell players today, challenge yourself.

Yes, sir.

When you go up to the plate, challenge yourself.

They.

They got.

The guy got two hits that day.

He was 2 for 4.

He had a home run, then hit one off the wall.

I said, that's good.

Now better your best or challenge yourself for the.

For the next game.

But like I said, with the coaches, they just feel that, well, I'm a coach of this certain team, but right away you take on certain responsibilities and being accountable for what you do.

Yes.

So walk us through your practice, George.

What do you got?

I try to keep it simple, but Rick's very sophisticated.

But I like.

No, but I like what he had because once again, he's very organized and he knows what he wants to do.

And with me, the one thing I really stress is being positive.

Telling the coaches, be positive when you're talking to the kids, being positive.

I don't want any negative vibes going here.

And using.

I mean, you try to be funny, but making sure that it's not tearing the kid down.

Yes.

It's just finding a situation that he's going to be successful.

So having coaches, if it.

Knowing this guy's gonna throw batting practice or doing the running, running drills.

And so I.

If the coach is not doing exactly what I want him to do, I don't call him out.

No, that's not what he worked on.

Yeah.

So I would just.

I go and talk to him and say, no, let's.

Let's change this.

So I don't want to embarrass him in front of everybody else.

So we're all on the same page.

So it's back to.

In the beginning, we want to run.

So from home plate to.

Or maybe sometimes run all the way around the field and get your legs loose.

And then I want you to stretch.

A lot of times they're not loose.

So.

So I select maybe three or four guys to do different exercise.

So everybody's going to participate.

So I have a good stretch things as such.

And then we're going to throw and make sure we throw long and then start using the correct fundamentals or mechanics.

Then we will take infield practice.

So now during that period of time we're doing situational play and, and then after the outfielders throw then I have them being the baserunners.

So that now you're knowing, okay.

Now you actually have a game, simulated game situation.

So now the infield is knowing, okay.

I would say one out and I, and I hit a ground ball, one out, a man on second and I hit a ground ball the third.

So it's like seeing what he's going to do.

He's going to look the guy back to second or he's just going to just throw the third throw to first base and the guy advances.

So being able to do that and get the infield practice and everything done.

Then now we go into stations.

So we have station doing soft toss, doing bunning and, and so that now we break that all up.

So each coach will say maybe doing the bunning and a coach going to do the soft toss.

But with the soft toss I have two players at or maybe a player at third player first at home.

And the coaches are soft toss.

So they head into the outfield.

So now they get a chance to be active and playing in a planned situation.

So they're catching fly balls, ground balls.

And, and we do that.

So rotate in that aspect and we do it like I said, the bonding to the side, making sure that they're not just going through the motion.

As far as bonding, there's a purpose you have a quality as for what you want to do.

And last but not least, we have running.

So you can, you know, run from first two to two from first to home, two from first to second, third.

And then I said okay, now here it is, the final finality.

So you're going to run from, you're going all the way around.

Yeah.

So I, I remember back in, I was teaching or coaching Babe Ruth 16, 18 and it was an extra inning game and the guy hit a ball that he should have got inside the park homer but he ends up he stopped himself at third because he didn't have the stamina to go home.

So with my guys said we, we're practicing what may happen in a game.

I want you to be able to go out, I don't want you to, to get tired or fatigued at third base that you carry that piano from second, third.

So I Want you to be ready to go.

So that was the outstanding part.

They realized that running coach, you know, I'm you.

I said, you got good speed.

Utilize that speed.

And I'm not telling you to do something I didn't do when I was almost playing in the game.

Right.

So that's basically what I would do in, in a practice.

And after practicing as a team, I would have maybe one or two guys come by themselves.

So we're going to work more on, on the hitting aspect or throwing aspect, but being able to take each individual and make sure that they're doing what they need to do.

And then now we bring it together.

And I like what you, what you said there at the beginning, and in the idea that you're adding runners.

Again, we're talking 12 to 16 players.

You only need nine on the field at any given time.

So when you add runners, you make them make decisions.

Right?

They have to make decisions if there's a runner involved.

If there's not a runner involved, then it's just field it, throw it.

Right.

There's no urgency.

Well, there's no variation.

There's no.

If I, if I pick it up and throw it.

Oh, wait.

Something could happen.

Maybe I need to walk this guy.

Identifying the runner.

If it's your catcher, you got more time.

If it's your center fielder, you know, he's pretty quick.

You got to, it's one thing to.

Feel that ball and throw it to your, to your, to your first baseman who can freely come off the bag.

And if he's holding somebody on now he's got a stretch for it.

Now you got to really be all right, on with your throw about it.

One of the things our, our goal was to tell the players, we practice like it's a game.

Yeah.

Simple as that.

That's how I learn.

Yes.

Practice like it's a game.

Well, the other thing is there's, you know, there's no set of cookie cutter things.

You'll find yourself as a coach, you will have to develop, create drills.

Yeah, I mean, like I watched a drill on YouTube the other day.

It was rather ingenious.

This is a guy at the college level, and they were trying to cover all of the funky, extra, extra plays in one shot.

So the, he had.

The pitching machine would throw one in the dirt and they would, the catcher would block it forward, pick it up, throw it to first.

As soon as the first person the first baseman caught, he'd throw it on the ground.

Coach would hit a fun, go to first base.

He'd pick it up, throw it to second base, to the shortstop, who'd throw it back to the pitcher who was covering first, who then at that point in time, goes back and the pitcher immediately throws one to the side to simulate wild pitch.

Catcher goes after it, pitcher comes home.

And this, this was all one giant drill.

Whoa.

And I'm like, I mean, you talk about a lot of moving parts, but it all happened at one time.

We talked about this, what he had to do for his team.

There's.

Well, there's a fine line between being ultra efficient and being a little bit ridiculous.

Right, Right.

To have one guy waiting and observing the drill.

There's.

I think there is value in that.

You know, it's not necessarily detrimental if he's observing because he can pick something up from watching somebody else do it.

So don't be afraid of it, but also have a mind towards it.

So, I mean, you may have to define, develop some drills and, you know.

You gotta slow it down, slow it down so they can, they can see, absorb it.

And you may try drills and they just don't work.

And that's okay.

So you go, all right, guys, that didn't work.

It was better in my head than it was on this, you know, but that's okay.

Be honest as a coach.

Thank you.

Tell them.

I think that's.

I think that's the key thing.

Because I laugh.

I like, nah, that ain't gonna work.

Don't, don't force it.

Yeah, you can't force it off.

Some things look great on paper, but when you involve 12 year olds, then.

But one thing I want to, I want to touch on that.

Both of you, both of you mentioned in different ways, you had mentioned the culture and you had mentioned the attitude.

When you have a good attitude and good vibes in the practice, you're going to get better quality reps because the kid wants to participate.

If they don't want to do it, then they're not going to give it their all.

So that attitude and paying attention to the overall vibe and the culture of how you practice, how you play games, it's important because it's going to dictate the quality of your practice.

Sure.

When I sign playing pro ball, you're thinking that everybody know what they need to do, but you find out they don't.

But I wasn't trying to impress the coaches, but I was trying to get myself ready for a game situation.

So during batting practice, I'm playing batting practice like it's a game situation.

So then later on the, the walls were paper thin and at the hotels where we stayed, so the guys were talking about that George Foster, you know, he's everywhere, you know, but they're just there, you know, if the ball came to him, they may catch it.

But I'm playing the game, playing practice like it's a game, because now it gets me ready.

So I'm getting a good jump on the ball and knowing, okay, now I will in my mind say, okay, man on second base.

What are you going to do with a fly ball?

Is going to hit to you?

So now when a game does start, it's automatic, it's an instinct.

But other guys just standing around, they're not really practicing or honing their skills, trying to get better if the ball came to it, that maybe they'll catch if it's right to them.

But I always had done that.

Well, you had, you had an interesting situation, too, in your career, because, you know, you'd played, you came up with, with the Giants, and you had kind of taken your lumps and earning your spot and kind of working yourself in there.

You came to Cincinnati, you got, you got your shot to play every day.

And then that started.

You know, you're part of a team that.

Just one of, just a legendary team group of guys who are all great team players and wanting to, to, you know, support each other and be a great team.

And you won two World Series doing it.

And then you go to the Mets where you're the first brick in building a new team.

Greg, why'd you bring that up?

Well, no, I brought that up for a purpose.

In that we talked about this.

In that you're there now and you're bringing this work ethic from this great team that you were part of, and you're showing up and all of a sudden you're finding out we're building a new one and you're the first brick.

So then, now what do you do?

Well, the thing is striving to get myself together, and then there are other guys that I, I work with that say the team would go on the road and they would stay back.

So I worked with the guy, and the guy went 5 for 5 that game.

And I forgot to tell him, don't say that we work together.

Because once, once, once he said that.

Now the, the batting coach said, well, Foster should spend more time getting himself ready.

But I just felt that they, they didn't really know what they wanted to do.

And so I'm coming from a winning attitude or atmosphere to a team that's trying to put it together.

But I'm thinking that everybody want to win.

They're going to do things to.

To help enhance that chance.

But with the guys, the teams that are on the bottom, you know why they're on the bottom?

Because you're not working on the quality things.

And with the Mets, we go out there and have a great practice.

Say we were two and a half hours, and the next day, maybe it's an hour.

Well, the manager said, you guys did a good job the other day.

So we're going to.

We're going to award you.

You don't have to do it as much.

But for me, I love taking batting practice.

So after a game or after practice, I want to take extra batting practice.

But the coach said, no, you come in tomorrow.

And because they had a tee time, they don't want to miss their tee time.

So you didn't have that same dedication.

And I said, this is really different.

And people would ask, if you had to do it all over again, would you do it?

I said, yeah.

But I would try to encourage Ken Griffey Sr.

To come with the Met.

Getting somebody who knows how to win, it's a challenge playing with someone who do not know how to win.

When the general manager said, well, we're going to start making trades or moves on this team, we want to bring in guys who want to win.

And I said, isn't it saying to myself, wouldn't it be easier to teach the guys who are here?

But no, it's just that attitude.

You want to get a guy who had that attitude and that want to win and knowing the things that they need to do, the commitment they need to make.

And I remember Jesse Orozco, this guy pitched forever.

Yes.

And this happened to me.

I was in minor league and I didn't.

I will always go out and do my run and get loose and do the things to prepare myself for the game.

Then one day I said, nobody else is doing it.

And a couple of days I went out there, my legs were sore, my back was sore.

I said, what?

What I'm not doing.

And I said, you gotta get back to doing those fundamentals, get yourself prepared.

And that, in a sense, that saved my career.

Cause you can easily pull a muscle and in the mileage, you know, it's a next next.

Cause you're not.

It's not for sure a guarantee you're gonna be there, right?

So I told Jesse was watching these other guys, he said, they're not running.

I said, you gotta be accountable for Yourself.

And I don't know that because what I said helped him.

But I knowing that.

Okay, what can I say to this guy that's that I feel is going to help him.

But those leg.

I said not just for.

Not everybody.

I mean, not just for you, but everybody legs are important.

But especially for a pitcher, you throw with your legs, not your arm.

And I say he had a great long career.

Well, that was an interesting thing because during that period of time, both you and Griff are in New York, right?

He's with the Yankees and you're with the Mets.

And was he experiencing some of the same things that you were, just on a different team?

Well, in his case, he had more backup, I guess.

You know, he had a Don Baylor of Dave Winfield.

So you had other Mattingly.

So you had.

Had guys who were.

Had a lot of skills.

And in my case, guys were just starting.

Starting to like John John Stearns.

He was there catcher, wasn't he?

Catcher?

And Huey Brooks.

But the other guys were just starting to.

To learn.

So they hadn't been in that winning attitude as of.

As of yet.

And so it's like, I'm the one guy.

I'm the guy that's going to take them to the promised land.

And.

But I laughed about it because I thought I could.

I said, this is going to be a miracle year.

But we didn't.

Because everybody wasn't.

Wasn't a team from the coaches, coaching staff to the players.

So when Frank Cashing came over, came from that winning attitude.

From Milwaukee.

No, from Baltimore at the time.

And so we started to fill in guys.

Keith Hernandez came over, Gary Carter came over.

You have.

Daryl Strawberry started to develop.

So you start to see it come together.

And, and I was, I was looking forward to that because, wow, Gary Carter's here, Strawberry's here.

I'm going to be behind Hernandez or between Carter and Strawberry.

I'm going to get a lot of fastball to hit.

No, you're batting.

You batting behind Carter and batting six.

But I'm thinking I'm going to be batting four.

So there's an adjustment I had to make.

But with the Reds, you know, you have guys, hall of Famers and also.

So it's a different attitude and it's a big adjustment I had to make.

Yeah, imagine.

Well, that's something I'm really excited with the Reds, you know, bringing in Terry Francona, somebody who's been there, done that, you know, going and getting Gavin Lux, who he's.

He's won a couple World Series.

He's got that experience.

And we were talking about last year, they would play this commercial where they would.

They would interview.

It was about the players.

And they were.

Who was the manager?

David?

And it would be.

It was Jonathan India and a couple other guys.

They're like, yeah, you know, we love David Bell.

Super laid back.

You know, whether we win or lose, lose.

You know, it doesn't put too much pressure.

They kept playing the commercial over, and it was supposed to promote David Bell.

And.

And I told.

I came in after they lost when I said, if I see that dumb commercial one more time, I'm gonna lose my mind.

I don't.

I'm sick and tired of them losing and then seeing a commercial like how David Bell doesn't care if they want.

How they were losing.

Like I say, it's just lethargic lack of days ago.

It's like, come on, you got to be more aggressive out there.

And you see situation that they.

They didn't take advantage of.

You know, hit and run or bump the guy over, go from first to third or.

Yeah.

Things as such.

And I look at the manager, I look at the coaching staff.

They're.

They're responsible for those, for those guys.

If you're going to let the guy.

Oh, yeah, you hit a.

Like freedom.

Not to call him out, but if he hit a ground ball to the.

To the pitcher, he just jogged to first base.

Oh, man.

So I, as a.

As a coach, and I would tell the kid, I said, you're out of the game.

He said, why?

I said, you're not hustling.

That's not only.

That's the number one thing you got to hustle.

Yeah.

And I said, well, right back to the pitch.

I don't care.

I want you to run hard because there are times that he may make a bad throw and you could have made it there.

But it's also the main thing is what.

What are you showing as a team?

You got to look professional out there.

And.

But they let that happen.

And so now everybody else felt, oh, it's okay.

On your best day, your best thing that you could do is inspire somebody to want to be better.

Right.

You can command it all you want, but it's not really going to take until you inspire them to want to be better.

Exactly.

Inspiration is far, far more powerful than.

Than position, power.

And when coaches rely specifically, I'm the coach, I say, so this is how we do it.

This how we do it.

You're only going to be.

You're limiting your own success.

If you're the kind of guy that says, all right, guys, here's what we're going to do.

We're going to run all the way out to that fence and we're going to hurdle it and then we're going to run back and they're like, yes, Coach, whatever you say, here we go.

Because they would live and die for you if they would live and die and do whatever you ask them to do because they believe that you've inspired them to do that.

That's, that's successful formula for life.

Yes.

Is not only to help yourself, but inspire somebody else to be better so that each person does that to see how it's going to grow.

Everybody's going to get better and better and believe in themselves.

Because with a kid, you talk to them, doing things to help them start to believe in themselves and having that confidence and having that commitment, knowing what it is.

And I mean, that's when I coach, I said by our winning and everybody played.

That's, that's a winning, winning situation.

And if we, if we lose and everybody play, I still feel that it's winning because everybody got a chance to play.

Kids don't sign up to sit on the bench and watch.

They want to be up there, go out there and participate.

So I don't, I'm not going to select, say 16 guys on the team because they're not going to play much.

So I have 12.

So everybody get a chance to play place.

Ethan is more than my podcast partner.

He's my son.

And like every baseball parent, my first priority was his development as a player.

Every year we'd start out with a new coach and a new team, making new promises, only to end up playing the same old tournaments with little to no practice in between.

You know what I'm talking about.

That's why I'm so thankful that we found MDNI Academy.

I first met Coach Rick over a decade ago when Ethan was just a kid.

And I'll never forget the relief I felt watching his first lesson.

I knew right then that no matter what team he played for, my son would have amazing, consistent instruction from someone who cared.

Rick has trained baseball and softball players at the select, travel and even college levels.

So I knew that Ethan could continue his excellence through training approach.

For his whole baseball career, he learned hitting, pitching, catching, fielding, and more all in one place.

Most of all, he learned to love the greatest game in the world and how to play it with character and integrity.

MDNI is a first class facility with plenty of tunnels for hitting and pitching.

Instruction that open up into large areas for teaching fielding, base running, speed and agility.

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Go to mdaiacademy.com and contact Coach Rick to learn how you can get all the baseball instruction you need from someone who cares about your favorite player as much as you do at MDNI Academy.

George.

So when you're talking about developing specific skills in practice, obviously you can't develop all the skills for all the kids every time you get together and practice.

So how do you determine as a coach?

All right, we got a practice coming up Tuesday.

We played yesterday, and some things went well, some things did not go well.

How do you set that, set that experience up before anybody ever gets there for success?

It's just planning, knowing what, what you need to do.

But back to, I would maybe have that kid, one kid that come earlier, come later.

So that now he's up, up to, up to par with everybody else.

So that now he's not really standing out.

Yeah.

So like say the crow hop, per se, knowing that he's having a challenge, knowing, doing that, he's going to be embarrassed if he's in front of everybody else.

So having to come earlier, come later to work on that.

So that now, when everybody else is doing it now they say, well, he's, he feel confident that he can do it.

Yeah.

So, but whatever skill that he needs to work on is trying to have him by himself so he doesn't feel embarrassed.

Right.

And so he could feel relaxed out there and feel that if he's not doing it correctly, he has time to do it.

And nobody else is out there laughing at him or talking that well, you should, should know how to do it.

But I found that some of the guys, they're, you see that their skill level overall is good, but there's something that's missing.

If it's the, the running part, the footwork or catching, catching the ball.

A lot of kids, they just feel like I could say it earlier.

Catching the ball, it's, it's.

They only put emphasis on catching it, but it's how you catch the ball.

Exactly.

And then talk about four seamer.

Okay, I want to throw on top.

Yeah.

A lot of them throwing sidearm.

He said, it doesn't matter how I throw, throw it as long as I get there.

I said, no, it makes a big difference.

And I don't want you sometimes to throw it all the way in the air.

I want you to one hop so it's.

You find that it's going to get there, get there sooner.

But they always want to throw it all away, try to show the arm.

I said, you got to hit the cutoff man, right?

But having that kid to come earlier, we could either go through it physically or just talk about it.

Let him know what it needs to do and.

But as a team, we may all.

Once he knows that, do that drill, do it over and over and over again so it becomes second nature.

And the same thing as bunting.

You know, kids like, I don't want to bunt, but, like, say right away, I said, if you want, if you want to be a team player, this is what you need to do.

But you know that some kids don't want to do it.

But they say if I don't do it, it's showing that I don't want to be a team player.

And someone just go through the motion.

I said, no, you do it again.

Let's do it again.

And.

But I don't then like running the bases.

I said, I want to.

There are certain things I want you to do.

Run through the base.

A ball is in the infield.

Run through the base and look to your right.

Yes.

And some of them would undo it and some don't.

I said, I learned from in spring training with the Reds that if you don't run hard, you're going to do it again and they're going to call you out, bench or false.

You guys didn't run hard.

So everybody runs again.

So they're looking at you and call you different names.

I mean, calling.

But I was smart enough because I had a 3.8 grade point average in college, so I was smart enough to run against Ken Griffey Sr.

So they knew that I could not run him.

But it gave me inspirations to try, at least try.

From the beginning, from that, starting by the first five yards I was there.

Then all of a sudden he's gone.

How often would you meet and how do you go about communicating with your other, with your coaching staff?

As far as the coaching, we'll just.

We'll meet once or twice or something.

It wasn't nothing because I think that collectively we're on the same page.

So I kind of.

Before the season, I would go over my philosophy.

And the thing about this was it was a difference from travel, baseball to mdni.

So with MDNI the coaches, their kids were already coming to me for training, so they already knew the philosophy versus with our Westchester Sluggers, Bandits, Midland and River Bats.

You know, we'll talk a little bit more about, you know, certain things because those are programs.

Some of them I was taking over.

So we would talk more with this here.

It was pretty simple.

It's pretty fun, you know, so that's all I have to add to that.

Well, and with your, your, your note card system, that is an excellent point in that it's awfully hard to be making notes during a game if you're calling everything from the bucket.

Yeah.

So, you know, the more, the more you can divest.

Yes.

Into, into your players to be doing, the more you can actually be, you know, observing it and figuring out how to take the team to where it needs to go rather than, you know, being making all the calls yourself.

And I will add something to that too because coaching those other travel teams to mdni, MDNI is a, was a different type of player.

It's more developmental.

So I had to be a little bit more hands on and making sure that they did develop the baseball IQ because remember those were kids that were playing rec while one or two was playing select but at a silver level and then now coaching them to play at a different level at a higher level versus the kids before were already more experienced.

You know, I'm saying.

So a different.

But I will tell you this.

When I learned a lot from coaching after travel baseball and playing all the top teams in the country versus now using that experience to get kids to understand the game and then it takes a little bit more patience and it's funner too, I have to tell.

It's fun.

So when it comes to MDNI versus coaching the other teams, seeing so many of those players for individual instruction, did that allow you to adapt your team practices to be more team focused and take the focus away from trying to.

Trying to address every little thing for each player.

I agree with you on that.

Yes, it did.

And it made it easier too because then that's why I said the coaches that were dads that was bringing them, it made it easier because they understood.

So I didn't have to micromanage.

Look over like George was saying, hey man, you're doing something wrong.

Didn't have to do that.

Yeah.

A couple of things to, to wrap up here in for with regard to parents, some questions that you can ask when you are looking at a new team.

You know, don't be afraid to ask.

So how often do you practice.

Right.

Okay.

How many, how many coaches will be at the practice?

How often do you, will you give us any information?

Will we receive any instruction on what we should be doing outside of practice.

Or the experience of the coach?

Yeah, yeah.

Don't be afraid to ask, you know.

Yes.

What, what is your main position?

Because when kids are say, going to college, I, I said, ask the coach, what position did he play and if he's were a catcher?

I said, yeah, he sees both, both sides of the game.

If he's a pitcher, then he, he's not going to be as patient with the hitter.

So you're going to really focus on the, the pitching aspect.

So don't be afraid to interview the coach.

Sure.

Yeah.

That is the key and key questions that will tell you a lot about the coach's philosophy.

Regardless of what's on the literature that he hands you.

You know, does the catcher call the ball?

Call right.

All the pitches?

You know, are you teaching catchers to call the pitches?

Do you, do you divest yourself into the, into the kids?

I mean, how often do the kids make the decisions versus Are you given the signs or are you trying to train the kids so that at some point in time they make their own choice whether they steal the base or.

Not or how much plan time will my son get and what, what positions are available?

Because your, your son is shortstop and okay, now you already have a shortstop, so where is he going to play second?

Or will he get much playing time?

Yeah, what I would, what I would want to hear from a, from a coach in that particular instance, if I'm asking about playing time, I would want my, my coach to tell me, well, look, a lot of things factor in the, the skill of the player, how hard he works, how good his attitude is, how much he's a team player as opposed to out, to playing for himself.

You know, if he starts to tell me these kinds of things, then I know that he's looking for quality of an experience.

He's not just looking for the kid who throws hardest to play that attending practices.

Yeah, they're kids that I, I wouldn't, they may not start because they didn't attend the practice.

I don't feel it's fair for kids who are attending practice not starting.

Like, I don't want your way.

Yeah, I don't want my kid out there working his tail off and then sitting on the bench because someone who just had more nature, natural talent is playing and then screwing off all the time and showing up late and not really caring and whatever, like, I want to know that there's, there's value in that, that hard work and that ethic in going on.

And those are things you can ask a coach.

Those are things you can totally.

But don't be afraid or reluctant to ask the coach.

And if the coach is giving you an answer you don't like, you need to go to try another team.

Yeah, sure.

Yeah.

And then the other thing is also if, if you're into the season, okay, and things are not going the way that the coach had told you they were going to go because the coach had a really great plan and he's a good guy and he's working hard, but then things just start coming apart and you're about, you know, halfway through the season and all of a sudden we're not doing those practices anymore.

We're not really, we're not staying up with all that stuff we said and we're not, you know, then don't be afraid to ask, hey, what happened to this?

And when we get back to that and you know, you gave us this and it said this, are we going to do that?

So, you know, that's fine.

But then also volunteer to help with things.

Volunteer to be part of the solution.

You know, how can I help?

You know, is there anything I can do?

And then if you end up with, if the coach is like, oh, thank goodness somebody asked to help, yes, here's what I need.

If you could, I mean, and even if it's just, can you, you know, type these things up or send out the emails or help you with, you know, whatever, anything you're helping now, if you're helping and those things still don't get any better and you're just being used for cheap labor, then that's, you know, you got to cross that bridge too.

Yes.

But you know, it, it's not always the, that your coach has an ego problem.

That isn't always the problem.

That is true.

Sometimes the coach is overwhelmed.

He's working a job, he's raising his family, he's doing all the stuff you're doing and he's trying to figure out how to, how to run your kids baseball team.

And so if you say, hey, coach, how can I help?

You know, that works.

One of the things that I taught Ethan early on about working a job for anybody anywhere, you get hired, okay, there's everybody in, that's in the, the company has a luxury that the guy who owns it doesn't have.

And that is the, the ability to say, I don't Know, everybody else can say it.

Okay.

Because if everybody in the place, you say, well, why didn't this get done?

I don't know.

Okay, well, guess who has to stay late and do it?

The guy that owns a company.

Right.

That's right.

And so he's going to go.

So if he's looking at you and saying, all right, all I'm getting is I don't know from this person, you're not a help.

He's going to move you down the road and find somebody else.

Exactly.

Yeah.

Okay.

So, right.

If you're going to answer it, say, I'm not sure, but I'll find out.

I'm not sure, but I'll work on that.

I'm not sure, but I would love to.

You know, I don't really know what's going on or what's, you know, not going well with the team here, but I would love to be a part of the solution.

How can I help?

A step back when about coaching, a lot of times I would.

I make sure that.

How, Say, maybe my coaches end up not coming or getting in there late.

So I want to make sure.

How would I run the practice by myself?

Yeah, you're right.

So you got to be prepared, show that organization.

Yes.

Because I.

The other day of the day, I had a clinic and there were five kids going to.

Were going to come there, and already in my mind saying, okay, we're gonna have different stations.

Right.

So then I found out half an hour before that the guy wasn't able to make it.

So now I had to go to plan B.

What would I do now?

By myself?

Yes.

So being able to make that adjustment as a coach and we talked about earlier, okay, we're doing a certain practice, but now it's not what I want it to be.

Let's go to something that's going to be quality and.

But back to you say, divest to invest.

So being able to.

What.

What time can you put into it to make it more quality and not sit back and complain.

Complain about it.

What can you, like, say you want to be part of the solution, not part of the problem?

Because you get to that halfway point, man, and things start coming apart.

And it is just so easy to sit in that stand.

Right.

And just complain.

Yes.

Because it's what everybody wants to do.

Because you feel powerless.

You feel like there's nothing you can do.

You're in.

You're halfway into the season.

You can't really leave.

You're.

You're stuck riding it out.

It's not going the way you wanted it to.

And now, gosh, all you do is want to complain to each other.

And my solution is just really try and dig in and be part of the solution.

You can't always do it.

It doesn't always work.

But, man, you're modeling that for your kids.

You're showing them that there's something better you could do than complain.

That's why at the travel baseball level, earlier career, we were trying to win championships and stuff like that.

And when I.

And then when I left Midland and went to Riverbats, you know, and then after Riverbats, I said, man, you know what?

I'm going to start something a little different.

A developmental program where I can take everything I learned and develop and just get just regular kids and not worry about wins and losses, right?

And develop their game to where they.

If these kids want to go and play in high school, school, I will have you prepared for high school and above.

And so.

So then I remember some of the emails I got, and I sent the email out to the teams, like, hey, it ain't about wins and losses.

Don't focus on that.

Right?

Focus on your.

Your son getting better.

That's winning.

That's winning right there.

And that was the win.

Win for me.

When I can.

When I have two guys on the bench telling me I.

I gave the infielders the wrong side, that's when I'm.

I'm like, oh, man.

Good, man.

Like, man, you're right.

And winning becomes a byproduct of.

Of developing good quality.

That's it.

Yes, exactly.

Exactly.

Yes, sir.

Not you.

I love that word, byproduct.

Yes.

Because you go out there and develop the kids, then the byproduct is with it, a lot of these kids, a lot of these parents at my team.

My team, or the coach at my team, it's not really your team, in a sense.

You're.

You're managing.

And when I see a kid go out there and do well, because when we won the championship, I love the fact that everybody got to play and, and everybody was a part of it.

That's it.

Instead of some kids sitting on the bench, they may get a ring and.

But they're not really.

They're not part of it.

I guess the one I could really identify with in 72, when we lost against Oakland A's, and.

And so I didn't really feel a part of the team.

I mean, we're in the World Series, but I didn't feel a part of the team because I Wasn't participating.

So, but now out there participating, I feel that I'm a part of the team and I brought some value to the team.

But it's, I try to put my, myself in, in the shoes of the players.

I said they want to play.

And last but not least, when I was coaching, I said everybody's going to play.

And so this one kid, he saw his name in the lineup because they didn't believe me because a lot of other coaches would say the same thing.

So he saw his name in the lineup, said, coach, did you make a mistake?

Am I playing first base?

Yeah, you're playing first.

Really?

I said yeah, you're in first base.

So.

But you could see the excitement on his face.

I'm going to get to play.

He's not just lip serving and he's actually out there going to let me play.

And I said yeah, but I tried to find the best position that he's going to be successful at and going from there.

Level swing, let it travel, wait for your pitch.

Be aggressive out there.

It's no wonder young players get confused at the plate.

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George Foster has played baseball at the very highest levels.

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Apply at George Foster baseball.com All right, so I'm going to wrap us up here a little bit.

Reminding us again, the key with, with coaching or with practice is inspiration.

And inspiration begins with the letter I.

What am I doing?

That that that is going to inspire somebody to want to do more.

That they've got to see it in me if I.

If they're going to see it in themselves.

Right.

And.

And so that you care.

That you care.

Yes.

You care.

That's it.

When I'm putting together a practice, when I'm trying to figure out how that.

That time schedule is going to go, what skills, what drills, what things we're working on, what things we're going to tackle this time.

Okay.

I'm trying to keep in mind that the goal is.

Is to inspire the players and that when they get in the car after it's over, they can say, I learned this, I did this.

This made me better.

And looking forward to the next.

Yeah, that's the key.

And if you're going to have 12 kids on your team, then you should be planning to win a game.

You should be planning to win games with 12 kids.

Right.

Meaning that you've got a reason.

You didn't just pick up three spares.

You got a reason to do that.

And so you're going to involve everybody in that practice.

You're going to make them make decisions.

You're going to add runners when you have drills.

So they have to think and they have to make decisions for themselves.

And you're going to divest yourself into them to encourage them to do more and more of the playing and the running, what goes on, what goes on on the field.

And that's.

That's the key to.

To solid, to solid practice.

Not necessarily doing the same thing over and over again or doing the same thing every time you get together or doing something, have a purpose.

And then one last thing I would encourage coaches is don't be afraid to go get training for yourself.

Right.

That's fine.

My goodness, we can all learn.

So there are trainings that go on all over the place.

Go sign up for something.

Get a training.

I know Rick does trainings.

I know these guys are going to be doing some coaching training coming up.

Make sure you go.

And you're constantly building your baseball knowledge so that you're becoming a better coach as time goes on.

You're not limited.

Yeah.

As you learn new things, you're going to be excited to share those new things in a practice, and it's going to inspire the players.

So I hope you've enjoyed our discussion about practice today.

And we have.

You know, we're going to be back here next week doing the same thing, and we hope that you would join us for another Complete Game podcast.

We hope you've enjoyed the Complete Game podcast.

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