April 21, 2025 • 45 mins
In Episode 50, Krista Stoker and Ashley Sunshine break down the unique opportunities summer presents for college athletes—especially pitchers and hitters—looking to reset, improve, and take control of their development. They explore how structured programs, biomechanics assessments, and individualized training can reignite performance and confidence after a long season. The conversation dives into how data-driven feedback supports growth, the risks of summer burnout, and why understanding one’s identity as an athlete is crucial for long-term success. Whether you’re training, resting, or recalibrating, this episode offers insights to help athletes, parents, and coaches make the most of the off-season.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:04):
All right, we are back for another episode and today we're
going to talk about summer training and sort of how we look
at it and approach it in our summer program at OGX for
college athletes. So this is a time period
obviously for college athletes. It's very unique.
For some of these athletes. This is, you know, for freshmen
(00:24):
often or those finishing their freshmen year, this is probably
the most sort of unbroken true offseason many of those athletes
have had. I think also just in general for
college athletes, when they're coming off of like the structure
of a college season and training, it's a time period
where everyone's just kind of navigating what exactly to do,
(00:46):
what training should look like. And you know, I don't think it
that's and they're it's very common that we have college
athletes who are like, I sat around all summer and did
nothing. But I think building that
structure and knowing how to approach the summer program is
hard. I think that we're still have
been navigating that the past few years with supple players
(01:06):
and programs and maybe how that they should attack that.
What we've seen sort of historically is that college
players kind of they have their lifting program maybe from their
school or they have some generaloutline of like these are the
types of things we'd like you towork on and get better at and
prove out of the summer. And then they kind of go home
(01:26):
and that process becomes a little haphazard for them of how
to attack those things or what way to attack those things.
And so we really have built in our summer program mirrored very
much off of what we do just generally is a system that, you
know, starts with our bio mechanics assessment and builds
from there of sort of a very structured offseason.
And we have found it so valuablefor so many players because it
(01:49):
is that there it's the most, youknow, offseason that college
athletes get. And so it's really a time that
they can make a lot of change, get healthy.
We'll talk about some of these examples, but they have this
like first opportunity to reallydive in to a time period where
they can really be trying to make progress and change.
So we'll talk about hitting two or position players, but maybe
from your standpoint for pitchers, walk through kind of
(02:13):
why some pitchers should or havechosen to come do our summer
program, whether some of the things we're tackling during
that time period. Yeah, I was going to say when as
you were talking, as you were talking, I was going to say like
the idea of going home over summer and doing training, it's
(02:34):
basically darts in a dartboard. And this is a concept and a like
a, a phrase that we use all the time.
You like, you know you need to be better or you know that you
need to come back more prepared or you think I want to add a
tool. And it's just all like
gathering. It's, it's kind of like pulling
ideas out of nowhere, throwing abunch of darts, hoping something
sticks. The plan is just something
(02:55):
probably like you came up with who knows?
And so I think that just the core concept of what we do at
OGX, that alone is so powerful for our college athletes over
the summer because it's a very, as you said, a very particular
time that is really it's their time.
That's the best way to say it. This is their time to separate
from their from their coaches toreally own up to how did you
(03:20):
feel about the year? What was it like?
Did you feel your best? Did you feel as if you were
linked to you felt, you know, like you were in your own
identity there? Did you feel like you were
fighting your identity? Like let the athletes speak for
themselves and then let's establish objectively what's
real. So let's look at the bio
mechanics assessment, which obviously comes with a full ball
flight assessment. We always say, you know, it's a
(03:42):
biomech assessment, which is true.
It's going to tell us about how about how you're moving in your
motion, how susceptible you maybe are to experiencing some
pain, what you're likely your velocity is looking like, what
your arm slot gets to. And then we link that to ball
flight. We link that to what is going on
with the ball. How hard are you throwing?
Like what's your main brake profile?
How much variability do you have?
(04:02):
And then we're able to really sit down and say like, OK, this
is what you how you ended the year.
Is this was this enough? Where does this stack up based
on other pictures at that level?What do you feel like you need
for next year? I need another tool.
OK, well let's be really objective about what your arm
side is going to allow you to beable to add.
So it's a very calculated it's grab one dart, throw one dart,
(04:25):
stick one dart through the center of the dartboard.
Like we we don't have to guess, we don't have to just pull these
random pieces and then we can lay out for you how we would go
about achieving those types of goals.
So I think that's just so powerful because we don't have
time. Summer program is like what, 10
weeks? You know, like by the time our
athletes say, OK, I'm going to maybe take a two weeks off, I
(04:48):
want to take a breather, then I'm going to start ramping up.
A lot of times our athletes willramp up with just strength re
additioning before they add skill and then by the time you
know it, it's August, they're getting back in season or maybe
they want to throw live a littlebit toward the end.
Like it's a very short period oftime.
We don't have time to throw darts.
So I want to go over some of theexamples of reasons why pitchers
(05:09):
specifically have done a summer program at OGS.
There's a couple categories and you know, we've said this many a
times, but the summer program isfor everyone.
So even if this is not a category that necessarily feels
like it's, oh, I'm in that category A or category B, it is
for everyone. Target what you want to achieve.
Do not spend your whole time over the summer just lounging.
You could take some time off andthen still really build up
(05:32):
because as we know, once you hitthe fall, like things just go,
you know, like things start rolling.
The fall season is fast. So it really is the time to be
able to feel like this is where I want to really get a hold of
or take charge of whatever I want next year to look like.
So some of those categories are AI.
Did not have the year I anticipated.
(05:52):
I'm going back to my university.I love my university, but I just
didn't have the year I expected.I didn't get the playing time I
expected. I didn't do as well as I thought
I would like. I don't really understand why
probably. And so sometimes coaches might
give those athletes some suggestions to go play live to
go do like a summer league. We'll talk about that I'm sure
(06:14):
later in this episode of our thoughts on that.
To simply do that without identifying like, why weren't
your why weren't your tools goodenough to get you the
performance or get you the playing time that you wanted
expected, etcetera. We can't just play games and now
all of a sudden your drop ball is going to get better.
We already know this tools do not get better in games.
They regress command regresses because the game induces
(06:37):
fatigue. So we know this already.
And so we need to establish why weren't your tools good enough?
Let's you could pair that with alittle bit of live with a little
bit of, you know, league play. There are ways to do that.
We can talk about that. But the reality is we have to
get at the root of growing your foundation of tools.
So that's one example I did not get.
I didn't have a year. I expected another example would
(06:58):
be I'm hurt, I'm in pain, maybe even my performance was good,
but I've got elbow pain, I have back pain.
And so what's really important to note about athletes like this
is that a huge mistake is for them to just take a break the
majority or all of the summer because yes, of course the
pain's going away. You take away the variable
that's causing your patterns arecreating, your pitching patterns
(07:20):
are creating pain. You remove that pain is gone.
You know you're feeling good. You can't just then return and
ramp up and go. Is it important to put out the
fire? Meaning, yes, remove the
stimulus and get things to, to calm down.
Of course it is, but then what? So repatterning, being able to
understand that this is where the biomech assessment is huge
for our our athletes is to understand what's going on with
(07:43):
their patterns. Like workload is too high for
all pitchers. That's not simply why we have
pain. There's other things behind
that. It could be on the strength and
conditioning side. It could be susceptible to
certain, you know, like weaknesses, lack of stability,
etcetera, which we can talk about.
And then oftentimes the majorityof it is in pattern
inefficiency. So we have to, yes, put out the
higher, but then understand how to repattern so we're not on
(08:04):
this like merry go round of pain.
So that's another reason parentsmight come.
We have some pictures that will come because they had a great
year. And a lot of times these are
pictures where it was their first great year.
Maybe they're freshmen, red shirt freshmen.
Maybe they kind of came out of nowhere.
But now they're like, but now everyone knows who I am.
And it's so difficult for pitchers to return a second year
(08:25):
and have success again once everyone knows what they have,
what to expect. And so they're like, I need to
add something. And so again, we can't just say
like, oh, you're a drop off pitcher.
So at a rise, duh. Like it's kind of that simple.
Your arm slot doesn't give you that.
So we can through our initial assessment, give them really the
options. If you want to be able to
(08:45):
elevate a ball here, then we have to be able to throw it at X
speed. It's not going to be able to be
at Y speed. Like we can really break those
things down. And so we do have athletes that
come or like, I had a great year.
So just because you had a great year does not mean that you just
chill and put your feet up all summer or that you go back and
do what you did the summer before because now it is so much
harder to repeat that. And then I think this is so
(09:06):
interesting. This is a category that I think
some of some of our most powerful summer program stories
have really originated. And it's in this I've like lost
my identity. It's usually freshman I I got
recruited because I threw XYZ. I had so much success in high
(09:26):
school and travel ball and then I got there and I was told like
these tools aren't enough. Usually it's a velocity concept.
It's usually an athlete who throws kind of like a weird, I'm
going to say weird and like air quotes here because I don't mean
that in a negative. They just have like a unique
ball flight profile, but it looks like you should, they
(09:46):
shouldn't be having success. And because they throw a little
more off speed, that's confusingto their coaches maybe who don't
quite understand it. And so that picture didn't
really get a lot of time. And so this isn't you didn't get
a lot of time because your toolsaren't good enough.
It's like they asked me to startthrowing X pitch or leaning into
an identity and I just couldn't match with that.
(10:07):
These are pictures that come to us and they feel lost.
They feel disconnected from who they've always been as a
pitcher. And that's a major problem
because I'm not saying that you can't reinvent, Oh, you thought
you were a drop off pitcher, butyou're actually a next pitcher.
We've seen things like this before.
But when you really disconnect apitcher from the identity that
has given them success all the way up, it's you really have to
(10:30):
give them some concrete reasons why and show them some
measurables that they're gettingthere.
And so I think some of our most powerful stories, athletes we've
had in our office who have like cried athletes on, you know, the
cry, the initial assessment cried at the end of the summer,
like, thank you so much. This has changed my career.
I know that sounds like dramaticjust from a summer program, but
(10:50):
it's not. We get these circumstances all
the time. And that's usually what we're
looking at. We help them understand This is
why you're great. This is what makes you who you
are. This is what that pitch probably
needs to be for your coach to understand it.
It should have this many swings and misses.
This is where you need to locateit in order to get back.
This is the variability off of it you need to have.
This is the off speed element ofit.
(11:11):
You need to have like layer it so that basically they go back
with their same identity, with their same tools, but a better
understanding of it, better layers of variability with it,
better success rates with it, etcetera.
And then we sort of like reconnected to who they are.
So yeah, there's been a lot of categories, I would say, of why
pitchers do this. But I think it all comes back to
(11:31):
this concept of target, exactly what your goals are, measure
exactly what's going on and how far away or how close you are to
those goals. And then let's literally plan
out for the entire summer the track you should be on.
And let's plan out how we will track whether or not we're on
the right. You know how we're going to
(11:52):
measure whether or not we're on track with those goals based on
some objective type of of goals and our ability to to see those
things in our managed data management system.
Yeah. I was going to say, I think it's
interesting because we have had athletes from programs who we
work with, who have a high levelof access to data and player
development in the season who come and train still with us.
(12:16):
And it still makes sense becausefor the reasons you're saying,
you know, whatever you were working on leading into that
season is going to change and fluctuate and how you're going
to attack and what you should attack that summer changes.
And so it gives you this sort ofrestart, this fresh assessment
to kind of see where are we right now?
OK, now where are we trying to go this summer?
(12:36):
It's very targeted. Obviously those players often
not always because maybe we're able to deliver it in slightly
different ways than their staff,but they'll have some knowledge
of, you know, it won't be like, Oh my gosh, I didn't know I was
going to work on that or my pitches did those things.
But it's it's still so valuable for those players.
And then we have the players that come, whether they're
hitters or pitchers who have no access to anything at their
(13:01):
campuses. And that could be because of the
level they play out. They just don't have a level of
those resources or maybe their staff just hasn't invested in
certain parts of it or whatever that might be.
And those are obviously so powerful because sometimes for
those athletes, this is the first time they've heard this
information. Or maybe they worked with us
before they left for college andother they're coming back and
(13:22):
kind of restarting from this. And I think those are powerful
because one, all the things you already said, which it gives
them a really targeted basis forwhat their training should look
like. Sometimes with knowledge they
don't even have yet or know about themselves to tackle that.
But it also empowers them, even if they're not going to have
those resources when they go back to campus, to really then
(13:43):
go back into the fall season with an understanding of
themselves that they maybe didn't have before.
And so I think in all of those scenarios, it's it's just such a
good opportunity for coming and really learning these things.
On the hitting side, I think we see a lot of similar things.
Obviously injuries is probably not as workload.
Injuries are not as prevalent unless it's a two way player.
(14:05):
But I think a lot of times, you know, one of the things that we
see is we've talked about this like freshman thing a lot.
Sometimes we see freshmen have aGoodyear hitting or at least
they start with a Goodyear because they're lifting not
maybe for the first time. I think at this point, at this
stage of our game, most people go into college having lifted a
little bit at least, but but they're lifting that focused and
(14:27):
in that way with supple being their main focus for the first
time. And so they put on mass, they
put on power, they kind of, theyhave these, you know, they
fueled their engine. And so they might sort of come
out with a bang because of that.We've added exit velocity.
We've done things that are giving them more success, but
they don't know the story of their swing and patterns.
(14:47):
And so they either sometimes like fizzle in that year or it's
inconsistent. Or if they don't come and attack
things that summer, we'll have. And I think what a lot of people
refer to as like the sophomore slump for all the reasons we you
talked about, which is no one knew me when I was a freshman.
And now whatever level you play at, at the minimum, I'm going to
(15:10):
have a spray chart on you. I'm going to have something.
And at the highest level, we're going to have really detailed,
you know, hot, cold, and we're going to be able to really go
after you and your weaknesses. And so if you don't, then build
on that and make sure you're filling in those gaps you're
going to go in and, and maybe bedisappointed with what you bring
to the table the next thing. And so I think for hitting, we
(15:30):
see all those same things of identifying, you know, what do
we need to work on? I think sometimes if I don't
have regular access, you think about these seasons, you know,
we, I had someone asked like, why do you think X pitcher isn't
as dominant as she's been in the, you know, past or whatever?
And you look at the SEC now and the highest level of our game
and it's just, it's so brutal. It's so competitive.
(15:51):
There's so many games. Like everyone's tired people.
I've seen you, you know, we havethe highest level of knowledge
on everyone now. So there's just so much going
on. So as I'm in that grueling
season as a hitter, one thing that we'll see is I don't
realize things are unraveling. And I know that you see this for
with pitchers too, but pitchers maybe realize it faster because
(16:15):
they start getting hit. And as a hitter, maybe I, I keep
writing the success for a while and then sometimes we'll comment
that first assessment. And when we get the high speed
and the the motion capture and everything, it's surprising how
much has changed. They haven't realized their
whole first move has changed. They have this like whole
different approach with their bat.
They have all these things and that happens a lot.
(16:37):
And so it gives us this opportunity to like, let's
reset, let's clean the patterns up.
Let's really go to work with what we need to.
And so it's similar from that standpoint.
So I'm going to go rewind reallyquick and can get back to you to
talk a little bit more about leagues in the summer and
playing games. And maybe some of the, you know,
I know it's easy to say you shouldn't play like, you know,
(16:59):
you should focus on training, like why do you need to play a
league? But I think we've seen examples
where maybe it has been helpful.So maybe walk through your sort
of opinions on that. You can talk just from the
pitcher's standpoint. I can talk a little bit from the
hitter's standpoint. Yeah, sure.
It's kind of goes hand in hand, but I wanted to comment quickly
on what you were saying about. I mean, I think this is really
(17:20):
important now that we have data.We spend so much time during the
during for years we did at the high school level and now we're
doing it at the college level tracking what happens with
athletes during the course of season, They they just regress.
I mean, they get so unstable, you know, they're exhausted,
their bodies are exhausted. Command is the number one thing
(17:41):
to go for pitchers. So the first thing to go first
sign of fatigue is command, thengoes break profile, then goes
below. And sometimes we just think if
they're still throwing hard, they're they're not tired like
they're doing OK. And that we've realized that's
not the case. So I think what's really
important is that it's not just we don't just see it with the
pitchers who are throwing two out of three games a series.
(18:01):
This, the schedule, the travel managing, you know, they're not
just softball players managing what they might have going on in
their home life, what they have going on in school.
They're just fatigued and exhausted.
And so the schools we work with throughout the college year,
we're pulling every string we can to try to keep those
athletes afloat throughout the year as much as possible, right?
So maybe they're like in game IQgoes up, their ability to like,
(18:24):
you know, compete and such is isgoes up, but their actual tools
are just slowly regressing. So that's the case for everyone.
And it's, it's not a one-size-fits-all model.
There's individuality to it. But I think the reality is
because of that, almost no athlete needs games over the
summer. They're exhausted.
They need to rebuild the base. What does that look like
(18:45):
exactly? To what extent, how bad you
know, from a strength and stability standpoint, how bad
are we looking over there? How much of your patterns
regressed? What can we build up?
There's individuality here, but games are just adding more
fatigue. It's just more of the same, more
of the same, more of the same. So I would say the only
(19:06):
circumstance where I would say someone needs games are really
in this. I did not get the playing time I
expected and I'm the circle feels foreign to me.
There is this real element whereif you do not walk into the
circle and feel at home and you do not feel like this is the
(19:27):
space, this little, this little circle drawn around me is the
space where I feel like me. It's where I feel most at ease.
It's where I feel most confident.
When I, I get in there and I start to feel like this is the
version of myself that I don't recognize.
I don't want to know. I, I now I'm questioning this
because of whatever reasons there are, it's usually just
(19:48):
like a disconnect from being outthere.
Enough then, yeah, we have to tie that in.
Does that make sense? So we also want to go back to
the root of light and get the time we need to train.
And then there are circumstanceswhere we can say, OK, maybe on
the weekends, maybe twice a week, there's either you can
throw live to hitters, you can get into a league where you
throw a little bit. We've had athletes do that and
(20:10):
we just built their training throughout the week in between
games so that games become just this extension of testing what
they're doing in training and anopportunity.
To find themselves back in that circle again, right to
understand who they are, to remember who that person is, to
take deep breaths and know like I'm not, I'm at ease.
And so it becomes a part of training.
(20:32):
It's not games league or training.
And anytime we've chosen one over the other, meaning we chose
games, I mean over training. It's a huge mistake.
I, I, I don't know many circumstances where I would say
like all or nothing in games is where that athlete needs to be.
I think we've just done that because we don't know what else
that do. I mean, it's like the pitching
(20:52):
community, we just are like go, throw, go, get better.
You know, we don't know what that means.
And so pitchers aren't out therebecause they have these amazing
tools and they just don't know how to compete.
You would have seen that before you recruited them.
If that's really what it looks like, then they have some
serious performance anxiety and then they need train, they need
also a plan and the sports psychologist, etcetera.
(21:14):
You don't just throw them into aleague.
So yes, I do think there's an opportunity.
Sometimes athletes are just like, I just want to play for
fun. I just need to like feel
reconnected to the game, into myposition again.
Great, as long as it's a piece. It's not four times a week, five
times a week. We practice every single day.
Like something totally extreme, as long as it can intertwine
(21:36):
with a training plan of probablyat the bare minimum 2 * a week,
if not 3, then that's fine. I think that's fine to
intertwine it. I think it's best to not do it.
But there are circumstances where I can see why athletes
need it and where we've seen them do it and it's been very
successful for them. Yeah, I was going to say, I
think it's very similar for hitters, which is sometimes if
(21:58):
they really haven't gotten the opportunities up into that
point, they want to go into fallhaving taken some live at bats,
having tried to get as close to bridging that gap, another
should. And we'll get plenty of
opportunities to do that in the fall.
But if they don't want the firsttime that happens, it's going to
be in front of the coaching staff are on campus and some
opportunity. And and I think with hitting,
(22:19):
it's like you probably just needlive at bats.
I'm not sure you really need to go into a league and and hit.
And also a lot of times is the pitching you're facing and that
really bridging the gap. You know, there's a lot of
questions about that, but I think similar that's when it has
been most beneficial for hitters.
I think as you were talking, I was thinking, you know, the
transfer portal now has become aplayer in these things.
(22:41):
And I think a lot of times people think maybe they need the
leagues as an opportunity to getsort of recruited out of the
summer. And I think I'll actually talk
specifically about pitchers here.
I think what we're finding and and you know, we have a long way
to go and exactly what this needs to look like.
And I know now the clearing house and is going to be doing
(23:03):
some of these things and there'sthe rules are constantly
shifting and evolving as nil changes and molds and all of
those things. But I do think we have had a bit
of an issue right now as everything is falling to figure
out how to value pictures when we are paying them and also to
(23:26):
figure out how we will know if pitchers will be successful at
the level or in our league that we're going at.
So I think I would say to both coaches and players that in the
situation where you find yourself looking for a player or
one thing to kind of, you know, you're going to go into that
transfer reporting and know you're going to do this.
(23:47):
It's all the more reason in my mind, especially if you came
from a program that has, I just think in any scenario.
But if you came from a program that has no access to data,
didn't play in many fields of data like you had success at the
level you were at, but you in some ways like only sort of know
why and only sort of know how that will translate.
Then I think this is such a powerful way to get a real sense
(24:10):
of how is the stuff I have goingto translate at this next level
and then or the next school I goto and you know, whatever that
looks like and what do I need tothen build on that to go.
And I think coaches should really be looking for that
information more than sort of wanting to see them compete in
these leagues, which also are not going to be apples to apples
with what you are going to ask them to do.
(24:32):
And to me, you're just then still going into it blindly
unless you're getting data out of that.
You really have no idea why thatthat athlete is having success
and her like competitiveness. Yes, as you said, it's there's
certainly a piece of having to like, you know, be a boss in the
circle, but there is. But you're not going to have
success doesn't matter how competitive you are if you don't
(24:54):
have the tools you need at the level you are.
And so I think that has come up more and more.
Certainly not like encouraging people to jump in the transfer
board all, all the time if they're happy at their home, but
that's the reality of of where the game is.
That is a big piece of what happens during this time period.
And I think for people to just really get a sense of who they
are and to then have that information to also talk to
(25:16):
coaching Staffs as they're goingthrough that process is really
important. It's something that we've seen a
lot. So that's the other instance
where I think. I was going to say that's a
bucket I missed. I would say, and I wouldn't say
that's a bucket I missed is like, I know I want to transfer,
you know, whether I got time or not.
I just know this isn't a great fit for me.
And so basically like, can you help me because I want you to
(25:36):
speak on my behalf. I'm going to go into the
transfer portal and I want you to speak on my behalf as far as
like what my data is, like what you think I can get to,
etcetera, etcetera. So that's a bucket.
I didn't mention I should have of pitchers that players, not
just pitchers, but that come to us and are like, can you tell
someone what's special about me?Why they should want me?
And especially if they didn't get time because they can't look
(25:57):
at their stat lines from the year before, right?
And so they're not just going tobe like, she had this many
strikeouts. She had this, oh, yeah, she had
such a great year. And so instead they're relying
on what are her tools, right? You know, like, how much does
that scale? So I think that's a huge one.
There's something else that you said, OK, if you're an athlete
who is at a university with lower resources and they don't
(26:19):
have date, they don't have access to technology, I, I would
never say like you can't go there because there's so many,
there's so many variables that go into your decision to pick a
certain school, right? And so that decision is only on
an athlete and their family. But if you want to really
maximize who you are as an athlete, you have to understand
the barrier that is lack of tech, lack of resources.
(26:43):
And so if it is like I want to be the best version of myself
and my school cannot give me those resources, there has to be
an element that, you know, you have to take that on some of
that on yourself then. And so it's difficult to do
that. We do have athletes that do it
in the summer that they still stay connected to training.
Maybe they still do OGX trainingthroughout the year.
(27:05):
They come every time they have abreak, whatever that looks like.
But the summer is it like if youdo not have access to data, you
do not know what you're throwing.
You do not know what makes you special as a hitter, where the
holes in your swing are, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera,
and you have nothing objective telling you those things.
It's not just some coaches subjective idea of what that
looks like. You have to get in these doors.
(27:26):
You cannot just go to like your local pitching coach or local
hitting coach, hit off front toss, do whatever this looks
like. This is absolutely your time.
I would say that like you know, this is the time to be able to
like see the information, understand who you are.
What does that mean? Connect to data.
That's a huge thing. I mean, that is a huge, huge
(27:46):
thing. So I think the reality is in a
game in which we live in now, not having access to technology
and data feedback from from fromtech is it's a limiting factor
on how good you can get. And that's just straight up
doesn't mean you can't be good. It's just it's a limiting
factor. So like, this is your time, get
(28:08):
in the door. Another thing that I was
thinking about is I think athletes were really burnout.
They're the ones that are least likely to do a summer program
and I would say they're the onesthat are most likely should come
find us because I think one of our superpowers is in really
(28:29):
humanizing our bio mechanics assessment, really helping them
feel seen coming at them. Not from like an X's and O's
standpoint. Simply yes, an X's and O's, but
also a like, let us hear you. What are your pain points?
Maybe I want to get better, but I also am so burnout.
(28:52):
I need time off. OK, here's the most amount of
time we think you can take. We think you should keep
lifting. We think you should add in plyos
in two weeks. We think you should ease into X.
Like let us hear you and then also see where you are and help
you create a plan that matches that, right?
We're not just dictating something to you.
And like you've got to do this if you miss a single day.
(29:15):
Like we're not just getting athletes that are like the day
school ends or the dis the day their season ends are like let's
go. We're not just getting athletes
that are like that. We're getting athletes who are
drinks. They are exhausted and we
understand. We understand that.
And so I do think, you know, don't allow it to be so extreme.
I need a break. I need to take off until July.
(29:37):
I think waiting until like mid June is probably the absolute
Max. If you start taking off until
you get into July, you are goingto have to ramp up.
If you're a pitcher inappropriately meaning too too
much too fast just to get ready.Forget games.
There are no games, right? So if you take off, there has to
be in a ramp up and so for you to appropriately dose volume and
(30:01):
intensity back into your body and to ensure your body can stay
healthy. So if you wait until July, it's
all about ramp up and none of that is going to be about
performance gains. And if that's your choice,
that's your choice. But most of the time athletes
don't want that. They don't want to show up the
same old version of themselves. So we can just help kind of
explain the X's and O's of that and lay out a full trajectory.
We want to get to this. It should take this much time.
(30:24):
This is when we need to start. Here's how we can dose volume
intensity for that and weigh in.Weigh in on what you need
because we always say, like, player development doesn't work
if the athlete is not in. And so like, let us help you get
in. Let us help meet you halfway.
And I do think there's a huge superpower for OGX staff members
in that of like, we get who our audience is here.
(30:47):
We get who our athletes are. These are young women who work
so damn hard. They work so damn hard and their
hearts are on their sleeves. And these are great.
Not kids, young women. And they just have kind of been
through the wringer, most likely.
And so we see them for that. And yeah, we can really be
(31:08):
great. I guess, like partners in this
process for them to reach their goals and also have what they
need to like, take a little timeaway from the game because a lot
of them also need, they want to get better and they also need
the space and they need the timeaway.
And I do think our program is designed to be able to give them
both. Yeah, I was going to say, I
(31:29):
mean, the way we write it is four days a week in the summer
and this isn't made, you know, Ithink one of the things that
just social media in general andand sometimes the culture we
create is like, you got to grindit out.
You know, practice is not enough.
Like just like all the cliche things that people here and, and
(31:53):
we obviously we've talked about topics like this here before.
We're at the at the high school level and even in the junior
high level, that becomes crazy. What we're asking the kids to,
to grind it out and do it as children, you know, a lot of
times. But that same, you know, these
are the the kids that came out of that system and structure and
(32:14):
then maybe are still in a college structure that is
similarly minded or or has some of that which some of which is
appropriate, you know, like compete with the person next to
you, work hard, push yourself. All those things are
appropriate. But some of which leads to this
like haphazard, just go work hard, you know, do something
(32:35):
every day, hit the T every day. That's how you're going to get
better. You got to go, you know, take a
million swings and do all these things.
And so I think a lot of times it's shocking to people how much
progress they can make in that sort of 10 weeks of the summer
program by doing seemingly so little.
It's not little. It's, you know, it's four days a
(32:55):
week of a very thoughtful program and whether they lived
with us or not. But it's intentionally built off
of the information we learn in the bio mechanics assessment and
what that person needs. And then it's tracked and
monitored in a way where we're not just randomly taking swings
or randomly throwing pitches or going and doing full bullpens
(33:17):
or, you know, sometimes I'll seein the summer, all of a sudden
it's like a pitcher's throwing live or something, you know?
And it's just like, wait, why? You know, it's just random.
Like we're just randomly grabbing things.
And that, I think, is what leadsto burnout.
And so oftentimes when we have conversations with players who
are exhausted, they do end up kind of jumping right into it.
Now, maybe we need to ease them into it because of things you've
(33:39):
said about pain or we're trying to get to the root of certain
things or that kind of thing. But they usually are able to
kind of jump right into us and it's refreshing to them once
they start and kind of get a sense if they haven't trained
with us before of like this is very manageable.
I can still have my summer. I can still work if I'm working.
We've had people that have had internships.
We've had people that, you know,there's all kinds of things that
(34:00):
people have done in the summer while training with us.
We've had people where they're living on campus and they are
just training for the summer. You know, that is their main
focus outside of just like living their social life or
whatever it is. But I think this gives them when
you are not guessing, when you are not randomly grabbing at
things, when it's not like you need to make sure you get better
(34:20):
this summer, go work hard. And that comes with no idea how
to do that. It does feel easier, even though
the work is likely to have so much more of a reward on the
other side. And so I think whatever people
are doing in the summer, that really should be one of your
focuses, which is not to feel like I want to get better this
(34:41):
summer or I want to get healthy this summer, or I want to at
least go back as good as I am. You know, I had a good year and
I want to go back that strong this summer.
And I'm going to do that by justguessing every day, waking up
randomly every day and guessing whether I'm going to do that
day, you know, like go have someone tossing front sauce or
I'm going to do those things andthat.
To. US seems crazy almost to think
(35:02):
about because no one trains it like that with us.
But that is a lot of times what people do in the summer and
you're just you are. If.
You go back the same, which I would say is a big if doing
that, you will have learned nothing internally to sustain
that in the next year. And that is when things, when
(35:22):
they start going poorly, you have no idea why.
So I think of a hitter, I want to be as connected to what I'm
going after, why I'm doing it when I'm when I miss hit the
ball this way. Why does that happen?
Where do I kind of fall into on my first move when it's
changing, what are the holes I'musing and, and using training to
learn all of that. So when inevitably that starts
(35:45):
to happen for you in season or on campus that you know, to see
and identify that sooner and youcan sort of go in that
direction. So if you just keep riding this,
you know, maybe you are doing fine or you're, you're doing OK
or you're happy with your performance, but you ride that
without ever having known the really intricate details.
(36:06):
Maybe you even know what your spin profile is, the pitcher or
something. But you've never trained in a
way that connected or known how to tap when it goes and how to
get it back and all of that. You just, you know, you're
hoping that when you go back it,it kind of sticks or you're
hoping that you go back better. And I think that is what you
(36:26):
have to do in the summer. What you have to do in that time
period is get a basis to get better and then to know how to
maintain that throughout the season or to know how all the
red flags for maybe when that isn't happening or, or what's
going wrong. And I think that's one of the
most powerful things when we're talking about empowerment.
And whether your school has the resources or not, there's so
(36:49):
many ways you can start to learnhow to identify that.
And so you can either phone us in or something on campus, or
you can figure out a way to makesure that that doesn't unravel.
And I think that's really where we go wrong is oftentimes I'll,
I'll be talking to people we work with when they get back to
season and they'll be like, I have no idea what's going on.
(37:10):
I'm struggling with this. I'm like, no, you do have an
idea what's going on. Let's talk about that.
You know, let's talk about the things you know about yourself
and what you need to tap into and how you can do that.
And I think that is what is so powerful about the way that we
go about the summer program kindof in it with the athletes.
Yeah, I only phrased it earlier about like if your school
doesn't have resources in tech, you have to come and you have to
(37:31):
see the data. That's because I do believe
that, obviously, but we also have like schools that we work
with. Also, side note here, there's a
good chance you're hearing like my daughter reading a blue
e-book in the background. So if someone's like.
And you can hear something. Who's the kid on Yeah, yeah,
yeah, right, great. So we also have schools that we
work with. They have like Max high a very,
(37:55):
you know, like a lot of resources.
They have Max level of tech available to their athletes.
Maybe they consult with us all year long, but they still want
their athletes to come to us because they're like the power
and the athletes knowing that level of individuality, having
the like one-on-one support, because it doesn't matter how
knowledgeable a coach is, they're job is to win.
(38:15):
Their job is everyone on staff. It's not, they can't just sit
down and have individual meetings, you know, every single
time, especially seasons going on, like maybe in offseason and
preseason, etcetera, but especially as seasons going on.
And so, you know, I, there have been a lot of circumstances
where coaches we work with very closely.
Again, they have the tech, they have the resources, they have
(38:36):
the knowledge, but they're athletes coming for the summer
and getting that same level sortof like on A1 on one basis
really, not just in training, but in conversation and talking
about their data. It has created such a like a
much stronger culture when they get back of like, oh, now I know
why we're doing this. Even things of like, oh, I
(38:57):
didn't fully understand why I did this, this and this in my
plyo routine. Oh, now I get why we're doing
this at this intensity because it's like their coach is like,
yeah, we've said that, We've said that and they have said it.
But it's a different, you know, when someone's communicating to
you so directly, then it it's I think a way for the athletes to
just really embody and take ownership of what they do so
(39:21):
much more versus like my coach tells me this, my coach gets
advised by this person, then that trickles down to me.
It's so much more direct. And I think it like loops us all
in so much tighter and it makes for such a more powerful like
culture in the next year when we're all now communicating
about, OK, she should throw moreoverload.
(39:41):
Let's give her under load here. Let's switch this up, get rid of
this intensity. It's like we don't have to
explain the athlete anymore. What we're talking about, what
that language is, why we might do that.
They're like, Yep, Yep, Yep, Yep, got it, got it, got it, got
it, you know, because now all ofa sudden they've spent all this
time. And so I think that that's we've
had a lot of athletes like that.They're a part of the system
where. Like maybe I feel like I know
(40:02):
them like the back of my hand because I've been managing them
all year long, just not directly.
And then but they show up like the hell is this place kind of
thing, you know, like they don'treally know, but like my coach
told me I should and we've had just such great experiences and
they're like, oh man, it all makes so much sense now.
So I think that's a huge piece at the end of the day, being
great. I I don't care who you play for.
(40:25):
I don't care how good your coachis.
You want to be great. You have to have like you have
to have two feet in the understanding of why the hell
you're doing what you. You're not in charge of, you're
not in charge of who your coach is, even at their collegiate
level. It's like for all you know, that
person leaves the next year or you know, you're you're pitching
coach changes or hitting coach changes, you move freaking
(40:47):
conferences. It's like there's so many things
that are just not in your control.
And so you have to have that understanding for yourself.
When we talk about players, we've had that.
Maybe we do work with our program, but the summer is our
opportunity to work with them. The summer is about the athlete.
We're not going and telling coaches things.
Everything is athlete driven. It's their time to sort of be in
(41:10):
control of that process. And it is so important because
of all the things you already said, but you have to be in
control of the athlete. You have to know these things
and, and we've had so many timeswhere things have kind of like
gone wrong. Or I think of one recently, we
had athlete come for winter break and she had a good fall,
like a fine fall and wasn't unhappy, but was like I, I don't
(41:35):
feel as powerful as I used to be.
Like I'm not really hitting the ball to the fence.
And her exit velocity was down, her weight was down.
And these are things that like we hadn't, you know, the the
staff and resources she had and the sort of cohesion on that
staff not uncommonly wasn't in aplace to identify things like
that. And so it's like, even though
(41:56):
her swing and patterns look kindof similar to when she left, she
lost power, you know, she went down in power and and there was
not a management system in placeto flag that for her.
And so I think having the opportunity to reset and to
really identify if things are off, where is that coming from?
What is different? Maybe we've missed some things
(42:17):
because of all the possibilitiesof what could possibly go wrong
and try to manage an athlete, which is, you know, it's, it's
very complex to try to do. And so we missed some things.
And this is our opportunity to really to go from here and to,
to build and most importantly todo it with the athlete driving
it, with the athlete understanding what we're going
for. We build in a lot of like
(42:37):
connection throughout the summerprogram.
So even if athletes are trainingwith us remotely of being able
to talk to them regularly about how the week was going, what are
we going for? You know, helping them find
access to data if they don't have it regularly or coming to
us to do check insurance to makesure that we're really tying
this all hand in hand because itjust really doesn't.
(42:58):
You can't rely on your staff. And not because you maybe have a
great staff, but you still just you can't, that cannot be where
you put all of your sort of likeeggs in the basket.
You have to know those things for yourself because even when I
think of like, if I call pitches, you know, I'm the
pitching coach and I'm the one calling the pitches.
If I as the pitcher and I as thecatcher don't understand the
(43:20):
nuance of the O2 version of thatpitch in that call, it loses its
its thing. And so yes, you could blame the
coach for that, but you have to be understanding why am I
throwing this pitch in this count?
Why does this pitch effective against this lefty?
You know, what am I trying to induce here or make happen here?
(43:40):
And it's really similar with training.
Even if you have a coach who is able to communicate some of
those things to you, if you can't really be driving it and
have the sort of knowledge of it, it's just not going to go as
far as it can. And so summer program, I don't I
always say like wherever you go,I'm not sure there is just, you
know, full humility. I think our place is the only
(44:04):
way that place that really does it this way, but you have to go
to a place where you're going toget this baseline of what the
heck are we working on. You and that place are going to
be held accountable to that and you are going to be educated
along the way of we are going for X we're we're doing it with
Y. And let me make sure you
(44:25):
understand why we're doing that.Let's keep checking if it's
working. If we pivot off of that, let's
make sure we pivot off of it together.
And you're really driving the boat so that you go into that
next year with the with your ownknowledge, even if you're
walking into a staff that can then take that and run with it.
And I would say, you know, especially if not and making
sure that you're able to do that.
(44:47):
All right, can we end there? I feel like I kind of wrapped it
up for us. I think you kind of wrapped it
up. That's right, yeah.
All right, well, until next week, we're getting close to
May. I'm like I was watching the game
the other day and I was just like, we are tired.
We are tired. So hopefully everyone can get
geared up here for conference play soon and and postseason.
(45:11):
I'm sure we'll be talking about that in the next couple
episodes. But until then, make sure you're
making your summer plans like and subscribe the OGX Podcast
anywhere you listen to your podcast.
It helps us and we appreciate it.
All right, we are back for another episode and today we're
going to talk about summer training and sort of how we look
at it and approach it in our summer program at OGX for
college athletes. So this is a time period
obviously for college athletes. It's very unique.
For some of these athletes. This is, you know, for freshmen
(00:24):
often or those finishing their freshmen year, this is probably
the most sort of unbroken true offseason many of those athletes
have had. I think also just in general for
college athletes, when they're coming off of like the structure
of a college season and training, it's a time period
where everyone's just kind of navigating what exactly to do,
(00:46):
what training should look like. And you know, I don't think it
that's and they're it's very common that we have college
athletes who are like, I sat around all summer and did
nothing. But I think building that
structure and knowing how to approach the summer program is
hard. I think that we're still have
been navigating that the past few years with supple players
(01:06):
and programs and maybe how that they should attack that.
What we've seen sort of historically is that college
players kind of they have their lifting program maybe from their
school or they have some generaloutline of like these are the
types of things we'd like you towork on and get better at and
prove out of the summer. And then they kind of go home
(01:26):
and that process becomes a little haphazard for them of how
to attack those things or what way to attack those things.
And so we really have built in our summer program mirrored very
much off of what we do just generally is a system that, you
know, starts with our bio mechanics assessment and builds
from there of sort of a very structured offseason.
And we have found it so valuablefor so many players because it
(01:49):
is that there it's the most, youknow, offseason that college
athletes get. And so it's really a time that
they can make a lot of change, get healthy.
We'll talk about some of these examples, but they have this
like first opportunity to reallydive in to a time period where
they can really be trying to make progress and change.
So we'll talk about hitting two or position players, but maybe
from your standpoint for pitchers, walk through kind of
(02:13):
why some pitchers should or havechosen to come do our summer
program, whether some of the things we're tackling during
that time period. Yeah, I was going to say when as
you were talking, as you were talking, I was going to say like
the idea of going home over summer and doing training, it's
(02:34):
basically darts in a dartboard. And this is a concept and a like
a, a phrase that we use all the time.
You like, you know you need to be better or you know that you
need to come back more prepared or you think I want to add a
tool. And it's just all like
gathering. It's, it's kind of like pulling
ideas out of nowhere, throwing abunch of darts, hoping something
sticks. The plan is just something
(02:55):
probably like you came up with who knows?
And so I think that just the core concept of what we do at
OGX, that alone is so powerful for our college athletes over
the summer because it's a very, as you said, a very particular
time that is really it's their time.
That's the best way to say it. This is their time to separate
from their from their coaches toreally own up to how did you
(03:20):
feel about the year? What was it like?
Did you feel your best? Did you feel as if you were
linked to you felt, you know, like you were in your own
identity there? Did you feel like you were
fighting your identity? Like let the athletes speak for
themselves and then let's establish objectively what's
real. So let's look at the bio
mechanics assessment, which obviously comes with a full ball
flight assessment. We always say, you know, it's a
(03:42):
biomech assessment, which is true.
It's going to tell us about how about how you're moving in your
motion, how susceptible you maybe are to experiencing some
pain, what you're likely your velocity is looking like, what
your arm slot gets to. And then we link that to ball
flight. We link that to what is going on
with the ball. How hard are you throwing?
Like what's your main brake profile?
How much variability do you have?
(04:02):
And then we're able to really sit down and say like, OK, this
is what you how you ended the year.
Is this was this enough? Where does this stack up based
on other pictures at that level?What do you feel like you need
for next year? I need another tool.
OK, well let's be really objective about what your arm
side is going to allow you to beable to add.
So it's a very calculated it's grab one dart, throw one dart,
(04:25):
stick one dart through the center of the dartboard.
Like we we don't have to guess, we don't have to just pull these
random pieces and then we can lay out for you how we would go
about achieving those types of goals.
So I think that's just so powerful because we don't have
time. Summer program is like what, 10
weeks? You know, like by the time our
athletes say, OK, I'm going to maybe take a two weeks off, I
(04:48):
want to take a breather, then I'm going to start ramping up.
A lot of times our athletes willramp up with just strength re
additioning before they add skill and then by the time you
know it, it's August, they're getting back in season or maybe
they want to throw live a littlebit toward the end.
Like it's a very short period oftime.
We don't have time to throw darts.
So I want to go over some of theexamples of reasons why pitchers
(05:09):
specifically have done a summer program at OGS.
There's a couple categories and you know, we've said this many a
times, but the summer program isfor everyone.
So even if this is not a category that necessarily feels
like it's, oh, I'm in that category A or category B, it is
for everyone. Target what you want to achieve.
Do not spend your whole time over the summer just lounging.
You could take some time off andthen still really build up
(05:32):
because as we know, once you hitthe fall, like things just go,
you know, like things start rolling.
The fall season is fast. So it really is the time to be
able to feel like this is where I want to really get a hold of
or take charge of whatever I want next year to look like.
So some of those categories are AI.
Did not have the year I anticipated.
(05:52):
I'm going back to my university.I love my university, but I just
didn't have the year I expected.I didn't get the playing time I
expected. I didn't do as well as I thought
I would like. I don't really understand why
probably. And so sometimes coaches might
give those athletes some suggestions to go play live to
go do like a summer league. We'll talk about that I'm sure
(06:14):
later in this episode of our thoughts on that.
To simply do that without identifying like, why weren't
your why weren't your tools goodenough to get you the
performance or get you the playing time that you wanted
expected, etcetera. We can't just play games and now
all of a sudden your drop ball is going to get better.
We already know this tools do not get better in games.
They regress command regresses because the game induces
(06:37):
fatigue. So we know this already.
And so we need to establish why weren't your tools good enough?
Let's you could pair that with alittle bit of live with a little
bit of, you know, league play. There are ways to do that.
We can talk about that. But the reality is we have to
get at the root of growing your foundation of tools.
So that's one example I did not get.
I didn't have a year. I expected another example would
(06:58):
be I'm hurt, I'm in pain, maybe even my performance was good,
but I've got elbow pain, I have back pain.
And so what's really important to note about athletes like this
is that a huge mistake is for them to just take a break the
majority or all of the summer because yes, of course the
pain's going away. You take away the variable
that's causing your patterns arecreating, your pitching patterns
(07:20):
are creating pain. You remove that pain is gone.
You know you're feeling good. You can't just then return and
ramp up and go. Is it important to put out the
fire? Meaning, yes, remove the
stimulus and get things to, to calm down.
Of course it is, but then what? So repatterning, being able to
understand that this is where the biomech assessment is huge
for our our athletes is to understand what's going on with
(07:43):
their patterns. Like workload is too high for
all pitchers. That's not simply why we have
pain. There's other things behind
that. It could be on the strength and
conditioning side. It could be susceptible to
certain, you know, like weaknesses, lack of stability,
etcetera, which we can talk about.
And then oftentimes the majorityof it is in pattern
inefficiency. So we have to, yes, put out the
higher, but then understand how to repattern so we're not on
(08:04):
this like merry go round of pain.
So that's another reason parentsmight come.
We have some pictures that will come because they had a great
year. And a lot of times these are
pictures where it was their first great year.
Maybe they're freshmen, red shirt freshmen.
Maybe they kind of came out of nowhere.
But now they're like, but now everyone knows who I am.
And it's so difficult for pitchers to return a second year
(08:25):
and have success again once everyone knows what they have,
what to expect. And so they're like, I need to
add something. And so again, we can't just say
like, oh, you're a drop off pitcher.
So at a rise, duh. Like it's kind of that simple.
Your arm slot doesn't give you that.
So we can through our initial assessment, give them really the
options. If you want to be able to
(08:45):
elevate a ball here, then we have to be able to throw it at X
speed. It's not going to be able to be
at Y speed. Like we can really break those
things down. And so we do have athletes that
come or like, I had a great year.
So just because you had a great year does not mean that you just
chill and put your feet up all summer or that you go back and
do what you did the summer before because now it is so much
harder to repeat that. And then I think this is so
(09:06):
interesting. This is a category that I think
some of some of our most powerful summer program stories
have really originated. And it's in this I've like lost
my identity. It's usually freshman I I got
recruited because I threw XYZ. I had so much success in high
(09:26):
school and travel ball and then I got there and I was told like
these tools aren't enough. Usually it's a velocity concept.
It's usually an athlete who throws kind of like a weird, I'm
going to say weird and like air quotes here because I don't mean
that in a negative. They just have like a unique
ball flight profile, but it looks like you should, they
(09:46):
shouldn't be having success. And because they throw a little
more off speed, that's confusingto their coaches maybe who don't
quite understand it. And so that picture didn't
really get a lot of time. And so this isn't you didn't get
a lot of time because your toolsaren't good enough.
It's like they asked me to startthrowing X pitch or leaning into
an identity and I just couldn't match with that.
(10:07):
These are pictures that come to us and they feel lost.
They feel disconnected from who they've always been as a
pitcher. And that's a major problem
because I'm not saying that you can't reinvent, Oh, you thought
you were a drop off pitcher, butyou're actually a next pitcher.
We've seen things like this before.
But when you really disconnect apitcher from the identity that
has given them success all the way up, it's you really have to
(10:30):
give them some concrete reasons why and show them some
measurables that they're gettingthere.
And so I think some of our most powerful stories, athletes we've
had in our office who have like cried athletes on, you know, the
cry, the initial assessment cried at the end of the summer,
like, thank you so much. This has changed my career.
I know that sounds like dramaticjust from a summer program, but
(10:50):
it's not. We get these circumstances all
the time. And that's usually what we're
looking at. We help them understand This is
why you're great. This is what makes you who you
are. This is what that pitch probably
needs to be for your coach to understand it.
It should have this many swings and misses.
This is where you need to locateit in order to get back.
This is the variability off of it you need to have.
This is the off speed element ofit.
(11:11):
You need to have like layer it so that basically they go back
with their same identity, with their same tools, but a better
understanding of it, better layers of variability with it,
better success rates with it, etcetera.
And then we sort of like reconnected to who they are.
So yeah, there's been a lot of categories, I would say, of why
pitchers do this. But I think it all comes back to
(11:31):
this concept of target, exactly what your goals are, measure
exactly what's going on and how far away or how close you are to
those goals. And then let's literally plan
out for the entire summer the track you should be on.
And let's plan out how we will track whether or not we're on
the right. You know how we're going to
(11:52):
measure whether or not we're on track with those goals based on
some objective type of of goals and our ability to to see those
things in our managed data management system.
Yeah. I was going to say, I think it's
interesting because we have had athletes from programs who we
work with, who have a high levelof access to data and player
development in the season who come and train still with us.
(12:16):
And it still makes sense becausefor the reasons you're saying,
you know, whatever you were working on leading into that
season is going to change and fluctuate and how you're going
to attack and what you should attack that summer changes.
And so it gives you this sort ofrestart, this fresh assessment
to kind of see where are we right now?
OK, now where are we trying to go this summer?
(12:36):
It's very targeted. Obviously those players often
not always because maybe we're able to deliver it in slightly
different ways than their staff,but they'll have some knowledge
of, you know, it won't be like, Oh my gosh, I didn't know I was
going to work on that or my pitches did those things.
But it's it's still so valuable for those players.
And then we have the players that come, whether they're
hitters or pitchers who have no access to anything at their
(13:01):
campuses. And that could be because of the
level they play out. They just don't have a level of
those resources or maybe their staff just hasn't invested in
certain parts of it or whatever that might be.
And those are obviously so powerful because sometimes for
those athletes, this is the first time they've heard this
information. Or maybe they worked with us
before they left for college andother they're coming back and
(13:22):
kind of restarting from this. And I think those are powerful
because one, all the things you already said, which it gives
them a really targeted basis forwhat their training should look
like. Sometimes with knowledge they
don't even have yet or know about themselves to tackle that.
But it also empowers them, even if they're not going to have
those resources when they go back to campus, to really then
(13:43):
go back into the fall season with an understanding of
themselves that they maybe didn't have before.
And so I think in all of those scenarios, it's it's just such a
good opportunity for coming and really learning these things.
On the hitting side, I think we see a lot of similar things.
Obviously injuries is probably not as workload.
Injuries are not as prevalent unless it's a two way player.
(14:05):
But I think a lot of times, you know, one of the things that we
see is we've talked about this like freshman thing a lot.
Sometimes we see freshmen have aGoodyear hitting or at least
they start with a Goodyear because they're lifting not
maybe for the first time. I think at this point, at this
stage of our game, most people go into college having lifted a
little bit at least, but but they're lifting that focused and
(14:27):
in that way with supple being their main focus for the first
time. And so they put on mass, they
put on power, they kind of, theyhave these, you know, they
fueled their engine. And so they might sort of come
out with a bang because of that.We've added exit velocity.
We've done things that are giving them more success, but
they don't know the story of their swing and patterns.
(14:47):
And so they either sometimes like fizzle in that year or it's
inconsistent. Or if they don't come and attack
things that summer, we'll have. And I think what a lot of people
refer to as like the sophomore slump for all the reasons we you
talked about, which is no one knew me when I was a freshman.
And now whatever level you play at, at the minimum, I'm going to
(15:10):
have a spray chart on you. I'm going to have something.
And at the highest level, we're going to have really detailed,
you know, hot, cold, and we're going to be able to really go
after you and your weaknesses. And so if you don't, then build
on that and make sure you're filling in those gaps you're
going to go in and, and maybe bedisappointed with what you bring
to the table the next thing. And so I think for hitting, we
(15:30):
see all those same things of identifying, you know, what do
we need to work on? I think sometimes if I don't
have regular access, you think about these seasons, you know,
we, I had someone asked like, why do you think X pitcher isn't
as dominant as she's been in the, you know, past or whatever?
And you look at the SEC now and the highest level of our game
and it's just, it's so brutal. It's so competitive.
(15:51):
There's so many games. Like everyone's tired people.
I've seen you, you know, we havethe highest level of knowledge
on everyone now. So there's just so much going
on. So as I'm in that grueling
season as a hitter, one thing that we'll see is I don't
realize things are unraveling. And I know that you see this for
with pitchers too, but pitchers maybe realize it faster because
(16:15):
they start getting hit. And as a hitter, maybe I, I keep
writing the success for a while and then sometimes we'll comment
that first assessment. And when we get the high speed
and the the motion capture and everything, it's surprising how
much has changed. They haven't realized their
whole first move has changed. They have this like whole
different approach with their bat.
They have all these things and that happens a lot.
(16:37):
And so it gives us this opportunity to like, let's
reset, let's clean the patterns up.
Let's really go to work with what we need to.
And so it's similar from that standpoint.
So I'm going to go rewind reallyquick and can get back to you to
talk a little bit more about leagues in the summer and
playing games. And maybe some of the, you know,
I know it's easy to say you shouldn't play like, you know,
(16:59):
you should focus on training, like why do you need to play a
league? But I think we've seen examples
where maybe it has been helpful.So maybe walk through your sort
of opinions on that. You can talk just from the
pitcher's standpoint. I can talk a little bit from the
hitter's standpoint. Yeah, sure.
It's kind of goes hand in hand, but I wanted to comment quickly
on what you were saying about. I mean, I think this is really
(17:20):
important now that we have data.We spend so much time during the
during for years we did at the high school level and now we're
doing it at the college level tracking what happens with
athletes during the course of season, They they just regress.
I mean, they get so unstable, you know, they're exhausted,
their bodies are exhausted. Command is the number one thing
(17:41):
to go for pitchers. So the first thing to go first
sign of fatigue is command, thengoes break profile, then goes
below. And sometimes we just think if
they're still throwing hard, they're they're not tired like
they're doing OK. And that we've realized that's
not the case. So I think what's really
important is that it's not just we don't just see it with the
pitchers who are throwing two out of three games a series.
(18:01):
This, the schedule, the travel managing, you know, they're not
just softball players managing what they might have going on in
their home life, what they have going on in school.
They're just fatigued and exhausted.
And so the schools we work with throughout the college year,
we're pulling every string we can to try to keep those
athletes afloat throughout the year as much as possible, right?
So maybe they're like in game IQgoes up, their ability to like,
(18:24):
you know, compete and such is isgoes up, but their actual tools
are just slowly regressing. So that's the case for everyone.
And it's, it's not a one-size-fits-all model.
There's individuality to it. But I think the reality is
because of that, almost no athlete needs games over the
summer. They're exhausted.
They need to rebuild the base. What does that look like
(18:45):
exactly? To what extent, how bad you
know, from a strength and stability standpoint, how bad
are we looking over there? How much of your patterns
regressed? What can we build up?
There's individuality here, but games are just adding more
fatigue. It's just more of the same, more
of the same, more of the same. So I would say the only
(19:06):
circumstance where I would say someone needs games are really
in this. I did not get the playing time I
expected and I'm the circle feels foreign to me.
There is this real element whereif you do not walk into the
circle and feel at home and you do not feel like this is the
(19:27):
space, this little, this little circle drawn around me is the
space where I feel like me. It's where I feel most at ease.
It's where I feel most confident.
When I, I get in there and I start to feel like this is the
version of myself that I don't recognize.
I don't want to know. I, I now I'm questioning this
because of whatever reasons there are, it's usually just
(19:48):
like a disconnect from being outthere.
Enough then, yeah, we have to tie that in.
Does that make sense? So we also want to go back to
the root of light and get the time we need to train.
And then there are circumstanceswhere we can say, OK, maybe on
the weekends, maybe twice a week, there's either you can
throw live to hitters, you can get into a league where you
throw a little bit. We've had athletes do that and
(20:10):
we just built their training throughout the week in between
games so that games become just this extension of testing what
they're doing in training and anopportunity.
To find themselves back in that circle again, right to
understand who they are, to remember who that person is, to
take deep breaths and know like I'm not, I'm at ease.
And so it becomes a part of training.
(20:32):
It's not games league or training.
And anytime we've chosen one over the other, meaning we chose
games, I mean over training. It's a huge mistake.
I, I, I don't know many circumstances where I would say
like all or nothing in games is where that athlete needs to be.
I think we've just done that because we don't know what else
that do. I mean, it's like the pitching
(20:52):
community, we just are like go, throw, go, get better.
You know, we don't know what that means.
And so pitchers aren't out therebecause they have these amazing
tools and they just don't know how to compete.
You would have seen that before you recruited them.
If that's really what it looks like, then they have some
serious performance anxiety and then they need train, they need
also a plan and the sports psychologist, etcetera.
(21:14):
You don't just throw them into aleague.
So yes, I do think there's an opportunity.
Sometimes athletes are just like, I just want to play for
fun. I just need to like feel
reconnected to the game, into myposition again.
Great, as long as it's a piece. It's not four times a week, five
times a week. We practice every single day.
Like something totally extreme, as long as it can intertwine
(21:36):
with a training plan of probablyat the bare minimum 2 * a week,
if not 3, then that's fine. I think that's fine to
intertwine it. I think it's best to not do it.
But there are circumstances where I can see why athletes
need it and where we've seen them do it and it's been very
successful for them. Yeah, I was going to say, I
think it's very similar for hitters, which is sometimes if
(21:58):
they really haven't gotten the opportunities up into that
point, they want to go into fallhaving taken some live at bats,
having tried to get as close to bridging that gap, another
should. And we'll get plenty of
opportunities to do that in the fall.
But if they don't want the firsttime that happens, it's going to
be in front of the coaching staff are on campus and some
opportunity. And and I think with hitting,
(22:19):
it's like you probably just needlive at bats.
I'm not sure you really need to go into a league and and hit.
And also a lot of times is the pitching you're facing and that
really bridging the gap. You know, there's a lot of
questions about that, but I think similar that's when it has
been most beneficial for hitters.
I think as you were talking, I was thinking, you know, the
transfer portal now has become aplayer in these things.
(22:41):
And I think a lot of times people think maybe they need the
leagues as an opportunity to getsort of recruited out of the
summer. And I think I'll actually talk
specifically about pitchers here.
I think what we're finding and and you know, we have a long way
to go and exactly what this needs to look like.
And I know now the clearing house and is going to be doing
(23:03):
some of these things and there'sthe rules are constantly
shifting and evolving as nil changes and molds and all of
those things. But I do think we have had a bit
of an issue right now as everything is falling to figure
out how to value pictures when we are paying them and also to
(23:26):
figure out how we will know if pitchers will be successful at
the level or in our league that we're going at.
So I think I would say to both coaches and players that in the
situation where you find yourself looking for a player or
one thing to kind of, you know, you're going to go into that
transfer reporting and know you're going to do this.
(23:47):
It's all the more reason in my mind, especially if you came
from a program that has, I just think in any scenario.
But if you came from a program that has no access to data,
didn't play in many fields of data like you had success at the
level you were at, but you in some ways like only sort of know
why and only sort of know how that will translate.
Then I think this is such a powerful way to get a real sense
(24:10):
of how is the stuff I have goingto translate at this next level
and then or the next school I goto and you know, whatever that
looks like and what do I need tothen build on that to go.
And I think coaches should really be looking for that
information more than sort of wanting to see them compete in
these leagues, which also are not going to be apples to apples
with what you are going to ask them to do.
(24:32):
And to me, you're just then still going into it blindly
unless you're getting data out of that.
You really have no idea why thatthat athlete is having success
and her like competitiveness. Yes, as you said, it's there's
certainly a piece of having to like, you know, be a boss in the
circle, but there is. But you're not going to have
success doesn't matter how competitive you are if you don't
(24:54):
have the tools you need at the level you are.
And so I think that has come up more and more.
Certainly not like encouraging people to jump in the transfer
board all, all the time if they're happy at their home, but
that's the reality of of where the game is.
That is a big piece of what happens during this time period.
And I think for people to just really get a sense of who they
are and to then have that information to also talk to
(25:16):
coaching Staffs as they're goingthrough that process is really
important. It's something that we've seen a
lot. So that's the other instance
where I think. I was going to say that's a
bucket I missed. I would say, and I wouldn't say
that's a bucket I missed is like, I know I want to transfer,
you know, whether I got time or not.
I just know this isn't a great fit for me.
And so basically like, can you help me because I want you to
(25:36):
speak on my behalf. I'm going to go into the
transfer portal and I want you to speak on my behalf as far as
like what my data is, like what you think I can get to,
etcetera, etcetera. So that's a bucket.
I didn't mention I should have of pitchers that players, not
just pitchers, but that come to us and are like, can you tell
someone what's special about me?Why they should want me?
And especially if they didn't get time because they can't look
(25:57):
at their stat lines from the year before, right?
And so they're not just going tobe like, she had this many
strikeouts. She had this, oh, yeah, she had
such a great year. And so instead they're relying
on what are her tools, right? You know, like, how much does
that scale? So I think that's a huge one.
There's something else that you said, OK, if you're an athlete
who is at a university with lower resources and they don't
(26:19):
have date, they don't have access to technology, I, I would
never say like you can't go there because there's so many,
there's so many variables that go into your decision to pick a
certain school, right? And so that decision is only on
an athlete and their family. But if you want to really
maximize who you are as an athlete, you have to understand
the barrier that is lack of tech, lack of resources.
(26:43):
And so if it is like I want to be the best version of myself
and my school cannot give me those resources, there has to be
an element that, you know, you have to take that on some of
that on yourself then. And so it's difficult to do
that. We do have athletes that do it
in the summer that they still stay connected to training.
Maybe they still do OGX trainingthroughout the year.
(27:05):
They come every time they have abreak, whatever that looks like.
But the summer is it like if youdo not have access to data, you
do not know what you're throwing.
You do not know what makes you special as a hitter, where the
holes in your swing are, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera,
and you have nothing objective telling you those things.
It's not just some coaches subjective idea of what that
looks like. You have to get in these doors.
(27:26):
You cannot just go to like your local pitching coach or local
hitting coach, hit off front toss, do whatever this looks
like. This is absolutely your time.
I would say that like you know, this is the time to be able to
like see the information, understand who you are.
What does that mean? Connect to data.
That's a huge thing. I mean, that is a huge, huge
(27:46):
thing. So I think the reality is in a
game in which we live in now, not having access to technology
and data feedback from from fromtech is it's a limiting factor
on how good you can get. And that's just straight up
doesn't mean you can't be good. It's just it's a limiting
factor. So like, this is your time, get
(28:08):
in the door. Another thing that I was
thinking about is I think athletes were really burnout.
They're the ones that are least likely to do a summer program
and I would say they're the onesthat are most likely should come
find us because I think one of our superpowers is in really
(28:29):
humanizing our bio mechanics assessment, really helping them
feel seen coming at them. Not from like an X's and O's
standpoint. Simply yes, an X's and O's, but
also a like, let us hear you. What are your pain points?
Maybe I want to get better, but I also am so burnout.
(28:52):
I need time off. OK, here's the most amount of
time we think you can take. We think you should keep
lifting. We think you should add in plyos
in two weeks. We think you should ease into X.
Like let us hear you and then also see where you are and help
you create a plan that matches that, right?
We're not just dictating something to you.
And like you've got to do this if you miss a single day.
(29:15):
Like we're not just getting athletes that are like the day
school ends or the dis the day their season ends are like let's
go. We're not just getting athletes
that are like that. We're getting athletes who are
drinks. They are exhausted and we
understand. We understand that.
And so I do think, you know, don't allow it to be so extreme.
I need a break. I need to take off until July.
(29:37):
I think waiting until like mid June is probably the absolute
Max. If you start taking off until
you get into July, you are goingto have to ramp up.
If you're a pitcher inappropriately meaning too too
much too fast just to get ready.Forget games.
There are no games, right? So if you take off, there has to
be in a ramp up and so for you to appropriately dose volume and
(30:01):
intensity back into your body and to ensure your body can stay
healthy. So if you wait until July, it's
all about ramp up and none of that is going to be about
performance gains. And if that's your choice,
that's your choice. But most of the time athletes
don't want that. They don't want to show up the
same old version of themselves. So we can just help kind of
explain the X's and O's of that and lay out a full trajectory.
We want to get to this. It should take this much time.
(30:24):
This is when we need to start. Here's how we can dose volume
intensity for that and weigh in.Weigh in on what you need
because we always say, like, player development doesn't work
if the athlete is not in. And so like, let us help you get
in. Let us help meet you halfway.
And I do think there's a huge superpower for OGX staff members
in that of like, we get who our audience is here.
(30:47):
We get who our athletes are. These are young women who work
so damn hard. They work so damn hard and their
hearts are on their sleeves. And these are great.
Not kids, young women. And they just have kind of been
through the wringer, most likely.
And so we see them for that. And yeah, we can really be
(31:08):
great. I guess, like partners in this
process for them to reach their goals and also have what they
need to like, take a little timeaway from the game because a lot
of them also need, they want to get better and they also need
the space and they need the timeaway.
And I do think our program is designed to be able to give them
both. Yeah, I was going to say, I
(31:29):
mean, the way we write it is four days a week in the summer
and this isn't made, you know, Ithink one of the things that
just social media in general andand sometimes the culture we
create is like, you got to grindit out.
You know, practice is not enough.
Like just like all the cliche things that people here and, and
(31:53):
we obviously we've talked about topics like this here before.
We're at the at the high school level and even in the junior
high level, that becomes crazy. What we're asking the kids to,
to grind it out and do it as children, you know, a lot of
times. But that same, you know, these
are the the kids that came out of that system and structure and
(32:14):
then maybe are still in a college structure that is
similarly minded or or has some of that which some of which is
appropriate, you know, like compete with the person next to
you, work hard, push yourself. All those things are
appropriate. But some of which leads to this
like haphazard, just go work hard, you know, do something
(32:35):
every day, hit the T every day. That's how you're going to get
better. You got to go, you know, take a
million swings and do all these things.
And so I think a lot of times it's shocking to people how much
progress they can make in that sort of 10 weeks of the summer
program by doing seemingly so little.
It's not little. It's, you know, it's four days a
(32:55):
week of a very thoughtful program and whether they lived
with us or not. But it's intentionally built off
of the information we learn in the bio mechanics assessment and
what that person needs. And then it's tracked and
monitored in a way where we're not just randomly taking swings
or randomly throwing pitches or going and doing full bullpens
(33:17):
or, you know, sometimes I'll seein the summer, all of a sudden
it's like a pitcher's throwing live or something, you know?
And it's just like, wait, why? You know, it's just random.
Like we're just randomly grabbing things.
And that, I think, is what leadsto burnout.
And so oftentimes when we have conversations with players who
are exhausted, they do end up kind of jumping right into it.
Now, maybe we need to ease them into it because of things you've
(33:39):
said about pain or we're trying to get to the root of certain
things or that kind of thing. But they usually are able to
kind of jump right into us and it's refreshing to them once
they start and kind of get a sense if they haven't trained
with us before of like this is very manageable.
I can still have my summer. I can still work if I'm working.
We've had people that have had internships.
We've had people that, you know,there's all kinds of things that
(34:00):
people have done in the summer while training with us.
We've had people where they're living on campus and they are
just training for the summer. You know, that is their main
focus outside of just like living their social life or
whatever it is. But I think this gives them when
you are not guessing, when you are not randomly grabbing at
things, when it's not like you need to make sure you get better
(34:20):
this summer, go work hard. And that comes with no idea how
to do that. It does feel easier, even though
the work is likely to have so much more of a reward on the
other side. And so I think whatever people
are doing in the summer, that really should be one of your
focuses, which is not to feel like I want to get better this
(34:41):
summer or I want to get healthy this summer, or I want to at
least go back as good as I am. You know, I had a good year and
I want to go back that strong this summer.
And I'm going to do that by justguessing every day, waking up
randomly every day and guessing whether I'm going to do that
day, you know, like go have someone tossing front sauce or
I'm going to do those things andthat.
To. US seems crazy almost to think
(35:02):
about because no one trains it like that with us.
But that is a lot of times what people do in the summer and
you're just you are. If.
You go back the same, which I would say is a big if doing
that, you will have learned nothing internally to sustain
that in the next year. And that is when things, when
(35:22):
they start going poorly, you have no idea why.
So I think of a hitter, I want to be as connected to what I'm
going after, why I'm doing it when I'm when I miss hit the
ball this way. Why does that happen?
Where do I kind of fall into on my first move when it's
changing, what are the holes I'musing and, and using training to
learn all of that. So when inevitably that starts
(35:45):
to happen for you in season or on campus that you know, to see
and identify that sooner and youcan sort of go in that
direction. So if you just keep riding this,
you know, maybe you are doing fine or you're, you're doing OK
or you're happy with your performance, but you ride that
without ever having known the really intricate details.
(36:06):
Maybe you even know what your spin profile is, the pitcher or
something. But you've never trained in a
way that connected or known how to tap when it goes and how to
get it back and all of that. You just, you know, you're
hoping that when you go back it,it kind of sticks or you're
hoping that you go back better. And I think that is what you
(36:26):
have to do in the summer. What you have to do in that time
period is get a basis to get better and then to know how to
maintain that throughout the season or to know how all the
red flags for maybe when that isn't happening or, or what's
going wrong. And I think that's one of the
most powerful things when we're talking about empowerment.
And whether your school has the resources or not, there's so
(36:49):
many ways you can start to learnhow to identify that.
And so you can either phone us in or something on campus, or
you can figure out a way to makesure that that doesn't unravel.
And I think that's really where we go wrong is oftentimes I'll,
I'll be talking to people we work with when they get back to
season and they'll be like, I have no idea what's going on.
(37:10):
I'm struggling with this. I'm like, no, you do have an
idea what's going on. Let's talk about that.
You know, let's talk about the things you know about yourself
and what you need to tap into and how you can do that.
And I think that is what is so powerful about the way that we
go about the summer program kindof in it with the athletes.
Yeah, I only phrased it earlier about like if your school
doesn't have resources in tech, you have to come and you have to
(37:31):
see the data. That's because I do believe
that, obviously, but we also have like schools that we work
with. Also, side note here, there's a
good chance you're hearing like my daughter reading a blue
e-book in the background. So if someone's like.
And you can hear something. Who's the kid on Yeah, yeah,
yeah, right, great. So we also have schools that we
work with. They have like Max high a very,
(37:55):
you know, like a lot of resources.
They have Max level of tech available to their athletes.
Maybe they consult with us all year long, but they still want
their athletes to come to us because they're like the power
and the athletes knowing that level of individuality, having
the like one-on-one support, because it doesn't matter how
knowledgeable a coach is, they're job is to win.
(38:15):
Their job is everyone on staff. It's not, they can't just sit
down and have individual meetings, you know, every single
time, especially seasons going on, like maybe in offseason and
preseason, etcetera, but especially as seasons going on.
And so, you know, I, there have been a lot of circumstances
where coaches we work with very closely.
Again, they have the tech, they have the resources, they have
(38:36):
the knowledge, but they're athletes coming for the summer
and getting that same level sortof like on A1 on one basis
really, not just in training, but in conversation and talking
about their data. It has created such a like a
much stronger culture when they get back of like, oh, now I know
why we're doing this. Even things of like, oh, I
(38:57):
didn't fully understand why I did this, this and this in my
plyo routine. Oh, now I get why we're doing
this at this intensity because it's like their coach is like,
yeah, we've said that, We've said that and they have said it.
But it's a different, you know, when someone's communicating to
you so directly, then it it's I think a way for the athletes to
just really embody and take ownership of what they do so
(39:21):
much more versus like my coach tells me this, my coach gets
advised by this person, then that trickles down to me.
It's so much more direct. And I think it like loops us all
in so much tighter and it makes for such a more powerful like
culture in the next year when we're all now communicating
about, OK, she should throw moreoverload.
(39:41):
Let's give her under load here. Let's switch this up, get rid of
this intensity. It's like we don't have to
explain the athlete anymore. What we're talking about, what
that language is, why we might do that.
They're like, Yep, Yep, Yep, Yep, got it, got it, got it, got
it, you know, because now all ofa sudden they've spent all this
time. And so I think that that's we've
had a lot of athletes like that.They're a part of the system
where. Like maybe I feel like I know
(40:02):
them like the back of my hand because I've been managing them
all year long, just not directly.
And then but they show up like the hell is this place kind of
thing, you know, like they don'treally know, but like my coach
told me I should and we've had just such great experiences and
they're like, oh man, it all makes so much sense now.
So I think that's a huge piece at the end of the day, being
great. I I don't care who you play for.
(40:25):
I don't care how good your coachis.
You want to be great. You have to have like you have
to have two feet in the understanding of why the hell
you're doing what you. You're not in charge of, you're
not in charge of who your coach is, even at their collegiate
level. It's like for all you know, that
person leaves the next year or you know, you're you're pitching
coach changes or hitting coach changes, you move freaking
(40:47):
conferences. It's like there's so many things
that are just not in your control.
And so you have to have that understanding for yourself.
When we talk about players, we've had that.
Maybe we do work with our program, but the summer is our
opportunity to work with them. The summer is about the athlete.
We're not going and telling coaches things.
Everything is athlete driven. It's their time to sort of be in
(41:10):
control of that process. And it is so important because
of all the things you already said, but you have to be in
control of the athlete. You have to know these things
and, and we've had so many timeswhere things have kind of like
gone wrong. Or I think of one recently, we
had athlete come for winter break and she had a good fall,
like a fine fall and wasn't unhappy, but was like I, I don't
(41:35):
feel as powerful as I used to be.
Like I'm not really hitting the ball to the fence.
And her exit velocity was down, her weight was down.
And these are things that like we hadn't, you know, the the
staff and resources she had and the sort of cohesion on that
staff not uncommonly wasn't in aplace to identify things like
that. And so it's like, even though
(41:56):
her swing and patterns look kindof similar to when she left, she
lost power, you know, she went down in power and and there was
not a management system in placeto flag that for her.
And so I think having the opportunity to reset and to
really identify if things are off, where is that coming from?
What is different? Maybe we've missed some things
(42:17):
because of all the possibilitiesof what could possibly go wrong
and try to manage an athlete, which is, you know, it's, it's
very complex to try to do. And so we missed some things.
And this is our opportunity to really to go from here and to,
to build and most importantly todo it with the athlete driving
it, with the athlete understanding what we're going
for. We build in a lot of like
(42:37):
connection throughout the summerprogram.
So even if athletes are trainingwith us remotely of being able
to talk to them regularly about how the week was going, what are
we going for? You know, helping them find
access to data if they don't have it regularly or coming to
us to do check insurance to makesure that we're really tying
this all hand in hand because itjust really doesn't.
(42:58):
You can't rely on your staff. And not because you maybe have a
great staff, but you still just you can't, that cannot be where
you put all of your sort of likeeggs in the basket.
You have to know those things for yourself because even when I
think of like, if I call pitches, you know, I'm the
pitching coach and I'm the one calling the pitches.
If I as the pitcher and I as thecatcher don't understand the
(43:20):
nuance of the O2 version of thatpitch in that call, it loses its
its thing. And so yes, you could blame the
coach for that, but you have to be understanding why am I
throwing this pitch in this count?
Why does this pitch effective against this lefty?
You know, what am I trying to induce here or make happen here?
(43:40):
And it's really similar with training.
Even if you have a coach who is able to communicate some of
those things to you, if you can't really be driving it and
have the sort of knowledge of it, it's just not going to go as
far as it can. And so summer program, I don't I
always say like wherever you go,I'm not sure there is just, you
know, full humility. I think our place is the only
(44:04):
way that place that really does it this way, but you have to go
to a place where you're going toget this baseline of what the
heck are we working on. You and that place are going to
be held accountable to that and you are going to be educated
along the way of we are going for X we're we're doing it with
Y. And let me make sure you
(44:25):
understand why we're doing that.Let's keep checking if it's
working. If we pivot off of that, let's
make sure we pivot off of it together.
And you're really driving the boat so that you go into that
next year with the with your ownknowledge, even if you're
walking into a staff that can then take that and run with it.
And I would say, you know, especially if not and making
sure that you're able to do that.
(44:47):
All right, can we end there? I feel like I kind of wrapped it
up for us. I think you kind of wrapped it
up. That's right, yeah.
All right, well, until next week, we're getting close to
May. I'm like I was watching the game
the other day and I was just like, we are tired.
We are tired. So hopefully everyone can get
geared up here for conference play soon and and postseason.
(45:11):
I'm sure we'll be talking about that in the next couple
episodes. But until then, make sure you're
making your summer plans like and subscribe the OGX Podcast
anywhere you listen to your podcast.
It helps us and we appreciate it.
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