So the young man got there at 4 AM ready to rock and roll, got on a suit but he should have worn shorts. The old man grabs his hand and said “How bad do you want to be successful?” He said “Real bad.” The guru says “walk on out to the water.” The young man walks on out to the water he goes waist deep and the young man thought to himself “this guy is crazy, I want to make money but this dude got me out here swimming, I didn’t ask to be a lifeguard I want to make money.” The Guru said come out a little further and the young man was right around shoulder level with the water. The guru told him to come out a little further and he came out a little further until it was about up to his chin. The young man continued to think that this old man is crazy and was considering going back. “I thought you want to be successful.” “I do.” “Walk out a little further.” He came, and the guru took the young man’s head and held it under water and just before he was about to pass out the guru raised the young man’s head up. The Guru then said “When you want to succeed as bad as you want to breath then you’ll be successful.”

I do not know how many of you all have asthma in here today, but have you ever had an asthma attack before? When you’re short of breathe short of breathe, you’re weezy, and the only thing you’re trying to do is get some air? You do not care about no basketball game! You don’t care about what’s on television. You don’t care about anybody calling you. You don’t care about a party. The only thing you care about while trying to breathe is getting some fresh air, that’s it! Whenever you get to the point where all you would like to be is successful as bad as you would want to breathe, then you will be successful! I’m here to tell you that most of you say you want to be successful but you don’t want it bad enough, you just kinda want it.

You don’t want it badder than you would like to party, you don’t want it as much as you wanna be cool, most of you don’t want success as much as you want to sleep!

Some of you love sleep more then you love success. I’m here to tell you that if you’re going to be successful, you have to be willing to give up sleep. You gotta be willing to work off of 2 hours of sleep, 3 hours of sleep! If you really want to be successful, some days you’re going to have to stay up 3 days in a row because if you go to sleep you might miss the opportunity to be successful. That’s how bad you have to want it. You have to want to be successful so bad that you forget to eat.

Don’t try to quit. You’re already in pain, you’re already hurt, get a reward from it! Don’t go to sleep until you succeed. I’m here to today to tell you you can come here, you can jump up, you can be excited when we give away money but listen to me you will never be successful if I have to so much as give you a dime. You won’t be successful until you say “I don’t need that money cause I got it in here!”

In my 4th and final year coaching at Berean Christian HS, I had a special group of players not because of their talent and ability but because of their effort and commitment. In my 2nd year as Head Coach we decided to start a club team based around a group of 12 freshmen and an 8th grader (my brother) that really loved the game of baseball. This story is about that group of kids. I knew there was some talent in that group and I threw them in the fire quickly scheduling a very tough off-season game and workout schedule. After our last year together 8 of the 9 starters on that team ended up playing college ball. (6 in baseball, 1 in football and 1 in basketball).

During that first year that group of about 15 played year round taking only August and the last half of December off.

The following year we had a great year with a few starting seniors, but the nucleus of players were sophomores and the one freshmen. We ended up going .500 on the year, which was an improvement from the previous year and had some huge wins against some big name schools including a 10-0 win over Concord HS in a tournament where we were the smallest school by over 1,000 students.

This group continued playing year round. I never pressured any of them to play they just enjoyed the game and each others friendships, while getting better by the day. They truly desired to work hard. They showed up to every summer workout and every off-season 6am weight room session before school. This group was dedicated to moving onto the next level. I spoke to colleges about this entire group almost daily. It was easy to recommend players who were focused on developing but also had a pure love of the game and fun doing it.

The following season this group was now mostly juniors and the one sophomore, we added another player on Varsity, who was a freshmen at the time. This freshmen ended up hitting 2 Home Runs in 1 inning (both over the LF fence) in a game that tied the state record and he became a member of an elite group which included Ted Williams. That spring we had a breakout year winning 18 games. We had a very successful summer season taking home trophies in Reno and Florida.

After taking August off, this group went back to work once school started. We practiced 3 days a week with our Fall Ball team and they practiced on their own outside of team practice. They wanted more. We only had 1 starter graduate and the group had started formulating goals that included things like League, Section, and even a State title for our upcoming season. Realistic goals.

In the next spring this group had finally arrived. Our roster had 12 seniors, 4 juniors, and 4 sophomores. This team immediately shot out of the gates. After winning their first 14 games, they were the #1 Division V ranked team in the state. A few weeks later we were 18-0 holding onto that #1 ranking and were named the East Bay Team of the Week by High School Sports Focus and on our way to all of our goals. After 18 games we had outscored our opponents an unbelievable 231 to 48. That was an average score of nearly 13-2. The following week we had 2 games with the states #2 ranked team in Div V. It was a tough week for us dropping both games in classic battles, but it didn’t discourage this group. We ended up winning our next 3 games by a combined score of 52-7.

Going into our league playoffs and garnishing a 21-2 record we ended up losing 8-7 to a team that we had already beaten 3 times during the year by a total score of 50-7. Shock was an understatement. Even after trailing much of the game, this team was still fighting. You had the feeling in the dugout that eventually we would come back and before you knew it we ran out of outs. I look back now and realize that that loss was really a learning experience for me. I had made some decisions that I wouldn’t have made today. I still had (and still have) a long way to go in the coaching profession. It was very humbling for all of us.

We ended up getting an at-large bid to the Section Playoffs and drew the #1 ranked team in Div IV in the first round. (Back then D4 and D5 were combined). We ended up losing to a team that was on its way to a win streak that went will into the 40′s and included Houston Astros infielder Brett Wallace.

The team that beat us went unscathed through the playoffs and ended up with a Section and (mythical) State Title. Amazingly the team we had lost to a few weeks earlier took home a (mythical) Div 5 state crown (Cal-Hi Sports Rankings).

It was a tough break but an incredible season and incredible 4 years. We broke the record for the best record in school history, longest winning streak and first state #1 ranking for any boys sport in school history and highest state ranking to end the season.

Over the course of those 3-4 years we played 10.5 months out of the year with a group that was dedicated to every practice and every offseason game. They played over 100 games per year and made several trips all over the country. Keep in mind that this team consisted of 90% of players from a school of less than 400 kids. (now 446)

Just as much as these players were dedicated to moving onto the next level, I was just as dedicated to helping them. In the last 12 years of coaching I’ve coached over 20 players that have been taken in the MLB draft and many more that have moved onto the college level but it was during those years that I spent the most time talking to college coaches about kids with great effort, attitude, commitment level and ability.

Having said all that, I am an advocate for athletes to play multiple sports. I lettered in four sports in high school and cherish every memory I have of playing all of them. The game has definitely changed since I was in high school. Players as they get older are almost forced to specialize if they want to compete with all the showcases, tournaments and everything else that is out there. There are many players in this country that compete in their sport year round and find it difficult to spend time playing other sports.

The moral of this story is not to encourage players to play year round baseball or to not play other sports or be involved in other things. Of those 15 players that played year round, at least 7 of them played football and basketball as well. At a small school like Berean it is very common for players to play 2-3 sports. Right now my youngest brother is a Senior at Berean (My father is the Head Baseball Coach, my other brother an Assistant Baseball Coach and my sister the Varsity Assistant Soccer Coach). He plays 3 sports. As of this writing he leads the county in TD’s so far this year as a RB on the football team. He plays football on either Friday/Saturday and then plays on our club baseball team on Sunday. How Bad Does He Want It?

Most important part of this entire article…right now…If you’re going to read only one paragraph of this article, please read this one. One of the biggest mistakes I’ve seen parents/players make is spending too much of their money at showcases, camps and tournaments and buying into the idea of “exposure”. 90% of the players/parents who buy into that should be investing their time and money on development instead. My heart always hurts for the players/parents who get caught up in that idea and spend a ton of their money and then end up wondering why they haven’t gotten any offers from colleges. If the player/parent had just came to me and asked for some honest evaluation and guidance, I could have saved them a lot of money. In Northern California we have two showcase guys that I recommend to my players. Blaine Clemmens and Nate Trosky. I always recommend that if one of my players gets the opportunity to and can afford their events that they will get the best “exposure” and evaluations.

I currently have 30+ returning upperclassmen. (2012 Juniors/Seniors) at the high school I coach at. Of those 30+ players, if I was asked my honest opinion, I would tell them that only about 2-3 of them should be spending their money on “exposure, showcases, tournaments” and the other 30 should focus on development. And that that 2-3 players still have a ways to go development wise. We have many student-athletes who have the “potential” to be college players but their efforts don’t match their goals. I encourage all the coaches out there to have an open door policy for the parents/players regarding their son’s ability/attitude/effort/commitment. Now please don’t mistake this policy as an invitation to give me your opinion on our starting lineup, where you think your son should bat in the lineup and what position he wants to play. That’s for the coaching staff to decide. Every single player that has ever come to me asking what they need to do to make the team or move onto college I have been honest with them even if it’s not what they want to hear. For all the players, I encourage you to ask your coaches for an honest evaluation of where you stand in the program, what your coach thinks you need to work on and develop goals to get where you want to go.

Players please read: YOUR GOALS MUST MATCH YOUR EFFORT. Coach Hutton the Head Coach at Archbishop Mitty said it best. Your goals have to match your effort. I come across kids all the time that say they want to play college baseball. Do they show up to off-season workouts? No. Are they playing Fall/Winter Ball? No. Are they staying in the cage for 30 minutes after practice? No. Getting up at 6am to workout? No. They end up hitting .167 and riding the bench and wondering why they aren’t reaching their goals.

Here in Northern California we have two high school programs on our schedule that every year are powerhouses. One of them is in our league. Why is that they continue to be successful as a high school program? Do they have talent? Yes. Do they have good coaches? Yes. But I can tell you this…they play together all summer/fall/winter and grew up playing together. They show up to everything. They want it bad. Is it a coincidence they continue to win league and section titles? Are there not other teams in their league and section that have talent and good coaching? The basketball coach at one of these schools yesterday told me, “I hate baseball here at this school. (he was half kidding). As soon as February comes along we lose a bunch of our basketball players because they want to play baseball. They check out when baseball season starts because baseball is a religion here”.

At the school that I coach at currently there hasn’t been many players that have moved onto the 4 year college level and it’s puzzling to me. We won a North Coast Section Title in 2008. The football program has had success in the past. We draw from almost 2,000 students and almost 100 tried out for baseball last year. Of the players that have moved on in the last 10+ years almost all of them were coached by my predecessor who ironically coached with me for a few years and was only the Head Coach here for 3 seasons. He is a great coach whom I’ve learned from and we both have spent 1,000′s of hours sharing ideas and philosophy over the last 7 years that we’ve known each other. In the 10 months that I’ve been at this current school, I have received “real” contact for only 1 player. One. And this player is a Freshmen. Will it be easy to change the culture of baseball in this community? It definitely is my goal. My goals are not to win championships, state rankings or more wins, although it would be a nice bonus. The goal is to develop a group of young men that will move onto the next level of life whether it’s in baseball or not. The goal is that when they leave I know that I’ve instilled responsibility, integrity, honor, commitment and challenged them with the question, “How Bad Do You Want It?”.

The legendary coach Augie Garrido taught me something very important. Coach Garrido says they have 2 rules on their team. #1 Always do whats right and #2 Always do your best. I believe that if we can do that, the championships, wins and rankings will all fall into place without ever having to focus on them.

Lastly, please take from this story this…You will get what you put into your playing days. Players; if you want to play year round or you want to get better coaches can encourage you direct you and guide you but they cannot do it for you. There is every opportunity out there for you to get better. There are camps, showcases, club teams, private lessons and indoor facilities. There are baseball fields near where you live, batting cages at or near your school and most likely a garage or backyard in your home. There are so many more distractions to players than when I played. They have video games, Facebook and text messaging and the world of technology. This doesn’t include much bigger things going on like schoolwork, family obligations and of course…girls.

A very wise coach once told me that coaches/teachers don’t motivate players/students. They create environments where those who are motivated can succeed. There are great coaches out there that would love to see their players succeed and will help in anyway possible, but at the end of the day it is up to the player to do it.

This week I want to challenge each player out there, what is it that you want? what are your goals? How are you going to achieve them?

Because I can tell you this…right now there is a batting cage or a bullpen or an infield where there is someone working their butt off to get better. This person wants it more than you do. This person has the goal of playing college or professional baseball. He wants to win a league championship. He wants to win a section championship. Maybe this person is on your team. Maybe this person is on your cross town rivals team. Maybe this person is you. How Bad Do You Want It? Here’s a video of a college football player who wants it badly…

The biggest thing I noticed over the weekend was the players lack of Game Savvy. So I thought I would make a list of things that came up in our tournament that can help you and your players become more game savvy. For a majority of my readers these tips are no brainers but for 100% of my freshmen and sophomore they were all new concepts.

Baseball Game Savvy Tips

• When you are on offense and the last out of the inning happens whether you were the last out or you were stranded on the bases, hand your helmet to the nearest base coach and head to your position. Don’t run all the way back into the dugout, look for your stuff and then head to your position. Just go to your position and have the nearest fielder bring you your hat/glove.
• Which leads into my next tip… Make sure that the OF’s have all their hats/gloves together in a pile in the dugout and all the IF’s have their stuff in a pile so that when the inning ends your nearest fielder can pick you up without having to look all over for your stuff.
• Which leads into my next tip…At the Varsity level we expect that as soon as the 3rd out happens that you are at your position in less than 15 seconds. Not spending 60 seconds looking for your stuff and then walking or jogging to your position. (Pitcher/Catcher are the exception)
• Which leads into my next tip..When you are on defense and the 3rd out happens you have 11 seconds to get into the dugout. Which means you sprint.
• When you are on deck and a foul ball is hit that stays in play near home plate you are responsible for getting that ball if it is on your side or straight behind the catcher. Then put that ball in your back pocket and HAND it to the umpire at the next dead ball.
• Which leads into my next tip…Whenever you get a ball from foul territory whether you are on the bench or on the field at the next dead ball, run up and hand the umpire the ball. Don’t toss it to him, Don’t throw it to the catcher, Don’t roll it to him. Run the ball and hand it to him.
• When your team scores a run, or a player executes a sac bunt or moving a runner over, everyone should get up in the dugout and pick up that player by giving him a high-five, fist pound, “thatta boy” or something. Regardless of the score. It shows that your focused in the game and also a great encouragement to your teammates.

A majority of the best hitters in the game have what we refer to as the K posture. If you notice in the pictures provided, I drew with a red thick line what we call the K posture. Drawing a line from the foot to the hip and then the hip to the front shoulder.

What you’ll also notice about the best hitters in the game is that they maintain this K through a majority of their swing. Also, most of the best hitters in the game start with their eyes and chin in front of their belly button. Not on top of or behind. I drew a smaller red line to demonstrate that in some of the pictures. (Click on the pictures to see them larger). Lastly, we try to always keep our hitters in a 50/50 balance stance. This gives them the best chance at keeping balance throughout the swing which is very important. Keep an eye on your players. I deal with alot of players who “think” they start in a 50/50 balance when a majority have more weight on their back leg.

A common problem that I see with the hitters I work with is that they start in a bad posture and maintain that posture. See the pics of some of our other hitters. Another very common thing that happens is that when we put players into a great K posture, as soon as they begin to load/gather, they lose their K. When filming or working with your hitters setting them up in the proper posture doesn’t guarantee that they’ll be able to maintain it.

Getting players to start in the right position gives them the best chance to finish in a good position. Next week I’ll talk about more of the posture/stance and the grip. I’ll touch on ground/shin angles and horizontal drive and why those two phrases are so important.

Lisle was the head coach at Ygnacio Valley last season and has also headed programs at St. Mary’s, Berean Christian and Gallaudet University.

“I really wanted to be somewhere I could be long term,” Lisle said. “I wouldn’t have come to College Park unless I believed they could be one of the top teams in the Bay Area year in and year out.”

Coleman, who teaches in the West Contra Costa Unified School District, stepped down in August because of the time constraints associated with holding both jobs. In his first year at College Park, he was named the 2008 East Bay coach of the year after leading the Falcons from the No. 15 seed all the way to the North Coast Section 3A title.

– Ben Enos

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Matt, good article this week, I would add something that has become very apparent watching the MLB games especially since the ash bats have become more prevalent than the maple. Ash seems lighter and has a tendency to shatter making jagged edged projectiles that I feel have a better chance of doing harm. I find it very fortunate that no one has yet been injured seriously from the flying debris. I seen some very close calls, and lets face it a ball hit up the middle would be dangerous regardless with a four mile an hour difference the reaction time of the athlete is still not going to change the outcome very much.
Despite that being said we have to make a choice regarding the aluminum vs wood debate. I choose wood because it always gives you feedback when you make contact, helps you learn what you need to do in order to be successful and allows the pitchers to pitch inside when they need to, to get results. I would only want to see the maple bats at our level again for the safety issues.

Mark Whelan
Kimball High School Baseball

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I am and have been an avid supporter of real baseball. Real baseball is played with wood bats. I only wish that there was enough support across the country from tournament teams and directors to go strictly wood, but I don’t see it happening. When an organization like Little League, USSSA, AAU or any of the others straps on the big ones enough to say we are only going to allow wood, then the change will start. You can’t start the change at the high school level or college level. It has to start younger. There are several companies making wood bats that are suited for younger age groups. But a lot of the argument goes back to the same problems that we see across the board in this great game….. a serious lack of quality instruction for young players. Everybody wears the shirt that says “Coach”, but how many really are?

Mike Greene

Club Baseball Coach

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 We support the use of wood, or solid-core bats. The hollow-core bats are designed to be swung faster. They are engineered with a lower MOI and center-of-mass positioned closer to the knob, even though the overall weight is the same. Therefore, if someone can swing a wood bat at 90 mph, they will be able to swing a hollow-core bat significantly faster. That means the difference in ball exit speed is potentially MUCH higher than 4 mph. There is greater safety in the traditional bats used in the past.

 Jamal Harrison

Pro Hammer Bats

When your on the bench and are called on to warm up the left or right fielder between innings please keep do the following things and show the coaches and other players your Baseball Savvy.

1. Your job is to collect the balls that were warmed up by you and the OF you were warming up with. You should also collect the ball that was being used to warmup the infielders and the ball the CF was using as well. Don’t let them throw the ball in and roll to the dugout. Have them throw the ball directly to you.

2. When you get back in the dugout keep all 3 balls in your glove.

3. At the end of the inning greet the CF and 1B at the dugout and give them each a ball to keep in their glove so that when they head out at the end of the inning they already have one ready to get warmed up with.

Follow these tips and your infielders and outfielders won’t be standing around between innings like the guys in the picture above! And impress everyone with your Baseball Savvy.

A few seasons ago, I was one of the Official Scorers for the Bowie Bay Sox (Baltimore Orioles Double A). Was a very fun and stressful job. While doing that job, I had to really learn the rules of baseball. I thought that I’d share a few rules and scoring facts that will probably make you scratch your head.

This week I will share about an official scoring on a Stolen Base Attempt.

Here’s the scenario: The runner attempts to steal 2B. It looks like he’s been thrown out by a great throw but the SS drops the ball and the runner is safe. The official scorer in his judgement determines that had the SS caught the ball and applied the tag the runner would have been out. So the ruling goes as such: The runner is credited with a Caught Stealing and no Stolen Base. The catcher is credited with an assist and the SS is credited with an error. How many times have you seen that?

The official baseball rules state:

(h) The official scorer shall charge a runner as “caught stealing” if such runner is put out, or would have been put out by errorless play, when such runner
(1) tries to steal;

It also says:

10.10 Assists

(a) The official scorer shall credit an assist to each fielder who
(1) throws in such a way that a putout results, or would have resulted except for a subsequent error by any fielder. Only one assist and no more shall be credited to each fielder who throws or deflects the ball in a run-down play that results in a putout, or would have resulted in a putout.

Whenever I work with hitters there are a lot of times that I come across a small adjustment that makes a big change in their swing. One of the key but small changes I’ll make with a lot of players is their grip. I’m not talking about lining up knocker knuckles and things like that. What I’m referring to is having an axe or hammer grip with the top hand this allows many things to happen in the swing including allowing the wrists to gain maximum flexibility amongst other things.

There are a few products out there (that I’ve never used/endorsed) that are supposed to help with creating that feelings of the Ax/Hammer Grip. The Seattle Mariners are actually testing out a bat made by Baden Sports. Baden has received provisional approval from the MLB for players to give the Axe a test-run in spring training. These bats have no knob (see above pics) and instead is contoured just like those found on axes Ted Williams used to chop wood each winter to stay in shape. Ted Williams once wrote in a book he authored about hitting that swinging a bat is just like wielding an ax. (not the swing, but the grip)

Theres also a company that sells the Bat Ax which says:

When used correctly, the Bat Ax will:

Develops muscle memory for properly gripping the bat with the fingers
Eliminates physical tension; preventing hands from over squeezing the handle
Positions the hands properly, allowing correct top/bottom hand control; bottom palm down and top palm up
Increases bat extension by enabling more fluid movement of the hands, wrists, and elbows
Generates more power by maximizing movement of joints in the hands, wrists, and elbows
Allows the path of the sweet spot to track more accurately to the path of the pitch
Helps bat control or premature commitment of barrel into the striking area
Improves follow through of the swing, creating a better swing plane with more extended arch