August 4, 2025 • 11 mins
On this episode of Baseball Talk, we welcome back Kevin Moulder, Director of Scouting at Prep Baseball Missouri, to dive into two of the hottest topics in the summer baseball circuit:
⚾ American Legion Mid-South Regional
Today on Keep Klimbing, Brett Graves talks through the importance of closing out your summer baseball cycle the right way — physically, mentally, and developmentally.
Whether you played in the PCDL, logged innings in a summer league, or traveled on the showcase circuit, how you finish matters. Brett shares insight into:
⚾ Evaluating your summer performance
🧠 Resetting mentally before fall ball or school
📊 Planning recovery & transition training
🔥 How to carry momentum into the off-season
It’s not just about how you start — it’s about how you finish. Stay sharp, stay focused, and keep klimbling.
📺 Subscribe to @YouthBaseballMidwest for more player-focused conversations and development-driven content.
👍LIKE, COMMENT, SHARE
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Follow Youth Baseball Midwest
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Website: https://www.youthbaseballmidwest.com
Follow Prep Baseball Report Missouri
Instagram and X/Twitter: @pbrmissouri and @pbr_mouler
Website: https://www.prepbaseballreport.com/missouri
⚾ American Legion Mid-South Regional
Today on Keep Klimbing, Brett Graves talks through the importance of closing out your summer baseball cycle the right way — physically, mentally, and developmentally.
Whether you played in the PCDL, logged innings in a summer league, or traveled on the showcase circuit, how you finish matters. Brett shares insight into:
⚾ Evaluating your summer performance
🧠 Resetting mentally before fall ball or school
📊 Planning recovery & transition training
🔥 How to carry momentum into the off-season
It’s not just about how you start — it’s about how you finish. Stay sharp, stay focused, and keep klimbling.
📺 Subscribe to @YouthBaseballMidwest for more player-focused conversations and development-driven content.
👍LIKE, COMMENT, SHARE
Check out our sponsor's pages!
Powered by Game 7 Baseball: https://www.game7baseball.com
Get all your Gear at Prime Sports Midwest https://www.primesportsmw.com
Follow Youth Baseball Midwest
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/youthbaseballmidwest
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/YouthBaseballMidwest
X/Twitter: Youth Baseball Midwest (@YBM_cast) / X (twitter.com)
Website: https://www.youthbaseballmidwest.com
Follow Prep Baseball Report Missouri
Instagram and X/Twitter: @pbrmissouri and @pbr_mouler
Website: https://www.prepbaseballreport.com/missouri
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
What's going on everybody. Welcome back, Thank you for checking
out this episode of the Keep Climbing Podcast. Back today,
the last week of the PCDL By Monday next week
when this goes out, we'll be done wrapped up for
the summer. It's kind of starting through some of the
reassessment process. It's the last games, you know, for us
for the summer, not necessarily the total end on Wednesday.
(00:28):
You know, after this, we'll do some more reassessments, recap meetings,
reevaluations with the players to kind of overview, you know,
what all has happened this summer, strides and gains that
they maybe have made, but also areas maybe that they
haven't that they need to continue to focus on, you know,
when they go back to college in a campus. But
the topic I wanted to discuss today, it's it's the
(00:49):
end of July and a lot of people are wrapping up,
you know, this kind of training calendar, training cycle. You know,
we talked about it a little bit, you know in
previous episodes. You know, I've been telling a lot of
the players coaches as well. You know that like these
last couple of weeks as where the men separate themselves
from the boys jokingly, And you know, I think it's
(01:11):
extremely true. I've done it really poorly, and I feel
like I've done it well in some spots, been around
some people that have done it extremely well, you know.
But it's really easy this time of year to get
to this time of year and already be thinking too
much maybe about the offseason, about the next step. You know,
recruiting and phone calls are about to start, like August first,
(01:32):
and all of those things are just distractions, you know,
into our overall execution and performance that if you still
have games and things to go, things to accomplish, you know,
that's got to stay the main thing. And I think,
you know, just from my personal experience, the further you go,
the longer you play, the more distractions there always are,
you know, So just trying to figure out how to
(01:53):
compartmentalize all that as extremely valuable for a player, especially
a younger player that maybe gets thrust it in to
some levels that that they're physically ready for it mentally
need to you know, catch up a little bit, you know,
so you know, I want to just take some time
to kind of discuss that the really like root thought
or core philosophy to me, you know, note inside of this,
(02:18):
inside of this topic is to find an edge, a
competitive edge, you know, in adversity, failure, fatigue, uncomfortableness, you know.
And to give a better example, give a better idea,
you know, on something like that, is that, like anytime
something feels uncomfortable for you, I see this through a
(02:41):
lens you know, on the field, so very clearly, because
that's you know, the life experiences that have shaped my mentality,
right that, Like I an example you know that comes
to mind very easily for me is in twenty thirteen,
I was at Miszoo and we switched from the Big
twelve to the SEC. Well, the very first weekend of SEC,
we hosted in Columbia, Missouri and South Carolina, who was
(03:04):
in the World Series the year before or a couple
of years before, you know, supposed to be a really
good team. They come up from Columbia, South Carolina. They
come to Columbia, Missouri, and man, we shoveled snow off
the field that whole week so that we could play,
you know, the middle of March. And all of you
from the Midwest know exactly what I'm talking about. Well,
(03:24):
you know, we got the bright idea. We knew they
were going to be uncomfortable when they came in. This
really wasn't a me thing. Our entire team, our coaching staff.
We knew that that uncomfortable ness was going to be
our edge. So I mean took We were taking it
to extremes. We were going out to batting practice with
short sleeves on. One dude went out with no shirt on.
We were just like messing around, trying to show that, hey,
(03:47):
you guys are uncomfortable and we're not. We're ready to play.
Because they're coming out in all their parkas and their
face mask and their gloves, you know, and they're like,
holy cow, where the heck am I? They've been outside
in January since the first of the year, playing ball
in sixty five degrees. On the field we've been we've
been stuck inside playing in practice in the whole time,
you know, other than our preseason or early season trips
(04:10):
that we took. That's the first time we've been on
our field probably since last October. And we had to
shovel snow off the field to do it, you know.
So so I just remember the thing I told myself,
you know, was that you know, the how uncomfortable it
is to hit, and obviously it's extremely uncomfortable to pitch
in a in a situation like that too, But I
wasn't focused on that. I was focused on how uncomfortable
(04:32):
it was to hit, you know, in a in a
situation like that that I kept telling myself we were
just gonna blink and be in the sixth inning. And
I mean, if you believe in all at the you know,
the power of your your mind, that that that's exactly
what happened. You know. I used that and use that
as an edge, you know, to trick myself, convince myself
that that was my edge against them in that moment.
(04:54):
Pitt surely well because we ended up winning that series
because of it, you know. So so it really a
really good, like tangible experience, you know. And you know
something that can be really applicable during the summer season
is that, you know, we've had an excessive heat warning
for a couple of weeks, you know in Missouri, uh,
where we're getting to the tail end of this season.
It is so easy and natural, honestly for all of
(05:18):
us as human beings to start looking ahead at what
else is to come that you're kind of mailing it
in on on what you've already done, you know, or
are you know kind of the way this summer has
unfolded for you. So easy to start to look look
over you know, some of these opportunities coming up ahead
and and maybe any anything that can be uncomfortable, whether
it be you know, a big picture fatigue setting in
(05:39):
after a long season, whether it be the uncomfortableness of
the weather or or whatever have you, that you could
take it all the way down into adult business and
livelihood that anytime you get into a situation where you
feel uncomfortable and tired, you know you can trick yourself
and get you should be giddy to the oppertunity that
(06:01):
lies in front of you for the next you know,
a week or two or you know whatever. The task
you know in front of you is when you feel
tired and uncomfortable, knowing that everybody else does and that
this is my moment now to execute and take a stride,
you know, ahead of the competition. And I think when
you start to look at you know, your adversity, you know, uncomfortableness, fatigue, whatever,
(06:22):
through a lens like that, you know, you start to
you start to get yourself a little bit of a
competitive advantage. It gives you something to like focus on,
because everybody can get excited about, you know, an edge
that they can give themselves. Especially the longer that you're
around this game, you realize how hard it is to
create an edge. There's so many people out there that
are fighting for spots in your job, just like you are.
(06:43):
There's so many people out there with measurables just like you.
There's so many people and and you know, most of
the time we spend our life just like dying to
be like seen or or evaluated, you know by the
scout or the recruiter or the coach or whatever that like,
when you get that opportunity, we all know, those opportunities
don't come by that often. So when you find yourself
in that opportunity, it's extremely easy to do it. Man,
(07:06):
in the championship game of a whatever whatever you know,
tournament or state championship some earlier in the season, everybody's
you know, energy is through the roof. No one's dog
freaking tired, you know, like but but but what about
a Tuesday game, you know, with a with a guy
in the stands here to watch you and you know,
if if you've already kind of shut it off, there's
(07:28):
no turning it back on. As some of my biggest
messages to to these guys, and then, you know, I
try to convince myself of this, you know that, like
you can't turn it on and turn it off, you
know you you can't. You can't execute at an elite
you know level like that, it's either on or it's off,
and once it's off, it's probably done for that day,
you know, So showing up here, switch on, ready to go,
(07:51):
ready to compete. Uh, there's just one. There's just one
way to do things. I love the Nick Saban quote
he's got at the podium. He's got a of them
at the podium. You know, but just talking about what
it looks like to be successful, you know, it really
just takes what it takes, is the message from it.
It just takes what it takes. There's really like one
(08:12):
one look you know at this from a discipline, focus, energy, attitude, effort.
You know, that's that's what success looks like. And that's
the switch on mentality. You know, the switch off mentality
is you know, taking breathers in between reps or you know,
taking plays off or you know, maybe just mentally focus wise,
not at one hundred percent. So so something kind of
(08:34):
gets by you as a player and you weren't necessarily
going into the rep thinking I'm going to take a playoff,
but because of the lack of one hundred percent you know,
attention and focused on on the details, that play got pasted.
You got you know, got got pasted you and you
know that to the coaches or the evaluators watching it,
it looks like maybe the play was taken off, you know.
So so those are just some of the some of
(08:56):
the you know, lessons from life that can be applied
through sport. You know that I feel like I've learned
through sport. You know that, I think other people you know,
can be aware of and see things, you know, the
the opportunity that adversity or uncomfortableness, you know, when you
go into a situation, whether it be work or you know,
(09:17):
sports athletically like this, you know, whether it be you know, fatigue,
whether it be weather induced. There's so many different things,
you know, like what what an opportunity? Some of that
can be through you, for you through a different lens,
through your mind, and that's really all it comes down
to is the way that you're perceiving, you know, the opportunity.
(09:38):
You know, I think that's something that's extremely valuable. So
if you can take that and apply that today, this week,
you know, this year, and the something that you're doing,
I know that will you know, produce some success for you.
It's extremely challenging to do. And I jokingly kind of
said it earlier. You're you're you're you're tricking yourself at
some points because holy cow, IM's so dog freaking tired,
(09:58):
or you know, this weather absolutely sucks. That really the
only chance I have for survival is stricken my brain
in the thinking it's all good, you know, so you know,
whatever the case may be. I know work can get grindy.
I know phone calls can get grindy. I know you
know your job can get grindy. I know that, you
know out here on July twenty eighth can get grindy.
You know all these different factors, you know it. Elite
(10:23):
successful people are just rarely comfortable, and I think people
think of things through this lens of like, oh if
I just get to hear, then I'll be good and
I can relax, or you know, you know, especially as adults.
I jokingly say this all the time with my wife.
We're always saying like, oh, I think it'll slow down
in three months. You know, like it's never slowed down.
(10:43):
It's never going to slow down to the day that
you die. And you just get more comfortable being uncomfortable
and operating at a high clip. If that's what you
want to do, you know, if you're if you're looking
to you know, achieve success and be elite in a
category that that you know you're in, that's just what
it's gonna take. So really appreciate you guys checking out
(11:04):
this episode. If something made you think, or you know
it made you, made you smile, or you know you
you you have a personal story or experience that you
felt that through, I'd love to hear about it in
the comments. Make sure you like comments, subscribe and we'll
see you guys next time. M
What's going on everybody. Welcome back, Thank you for checking
out this episode of the Keep Climbing Podcast. Back today,
the last week of the PCDL By Monday next week
when this goes out, we'll be done wrapped up for
the summer. It's kind of starting through some of the
reassessment process. It's the last games, you know, for us
for the summer, not necessarily the total end on Wednesday.
(00:28):
You know, after this, we'll do some more reassessments, recap meetings,
reevaluations with the players to kind of overview, you know,
what all has happened this summer, strides and gains that
they maybe have made, but also areas maybe that they
haven't that they need to continue to focus on, you know,
when they go back to college in a campus. But
the topic I wanted to discuss today, it's it's the
(00:49):
end of July and a lot of people are wrapping up,
you know, this kind of training calendar, training cycle. You know,
we talked about it a little bit, you know in
previous episodes. You know, I've been telling a lot of
the players coaches as well. You know that like these
last couple of weeks as where the men separate themselves
from the boys jokingly, And you know, I think it's
(01:11):
extremely true. I've done it really poorly, and I feel
like I've done it well in some spots, been around
some people that have done it extremely well, you know.
But it's really easy this time of year to get
to this time of year and already be thinking too
much maybe about the offseason, about the next step. You know,
recruiting and phone calls are about to start, like August first,
(01:32):
and all of those things are just distractions, you know,
into our overall execution and performance that if you still
have games and things to go, things to accomplish, you know,
that's got to stay the main thing. And I think,
you know, just from my personal experience, the further you go,
the longer you play, the more distractions there always are,
you know, So just trying to figure out how to
(01:53):
compartmentalize all that as extremely valuable for a player, especially
a younger player that maybe gets thrust it in to
some levels that that they're physically ready for it mentally
need to you know, catch up a little bit, you know,
so you know, I want to just take some time
to kind of discuss that the really like root thought
or core philosophy to me, you know, note inside of this,
(02:18):
inside of this topic is to find an edge, a
competitive edge, you know, in adversity, failure, fatigue, uncomfortableness, you know.
And to give a better example, give a better idea,
you know, on something like that, is that, like anytime
something feels uncomfortable for you, I see this through a
(02:41):
lens you know, on the field, so very clearly, because
that's you know, the life experiences that have shaped my mentality,
right that, Like I an example you know that comes
to mind very easily for me is in twenty thirteen,
I was at Miszoo and we switched from the Big
twelve to the SEC. Well, the very first weekend of SEC,
we hosted in Columbia, Missouri and South Carolina, who was
(03:04):
in the World Series the year before or a couple
of years before, you know, supposed to be a really
good team. They come up from Columbia, South Carolina. They
come to Columbia, Missouri, and man, we shoveled snow off
the field that whole week so that we could play,
you know, the middle of March. And all of you
from the Midwest know exactly what I'm talking about. Well,
(03:24):
you know, we got the bright idea. We knew they
were going to be uncomfortable when they came in. This
really wasn't a me thing. Our entire team, our coaching staff.
We knew that that uncomfortable ness was going to be
our edge. So I mean took We were taking it
to extremes. We were going out to batting practice with
short sleeves on. One dude went out with no shirt on.
We were just like messing around, trying to show that, hey,
(03:47):
you guys are uncomfortable and we're not. We're ready to play.
Because they're coming out in all their parkas and their
face mask and their gloves, you know, and they're like,
holy cow, where the heck am I? They've been outside
in January since the first of the year, playing ball
in sixty five degrees. On the field we've been we've
been stuck inside playing in practice in the whole time,
you know, other than our preseason or early season trips
(04:10):
that we took. That's the first time we've been on
our field probably since last October. And we had to
shovel snow off the field to do it, you know.
So so I just remember the thing I told myself,
you know, was that you know, the how uncomfortable it
is to hit, and obviously it's extremely uncomfortable to pitch
in a in a situation like that too, But I
wasn't focused on that. I was focused on how uncomfortable
(04:32):
it was to hit, you know, in a in a
situation like that that I kept telling myself we were
just gonna blink and be in the sixth inning. And
I mean, if you believe in all at the you know,
the power of your your mind, that that that's exactly
what happened. You know. I used that and use that
as an edge, you know, to trick myself, convince myself
that that was my edge against them in that moment.
(04:54):
Pitt surely well because we ended up winning that series
because of it, you know. So so it really a
really good, like tangible experience, you know. And you know
something that can be really applicable during the summer season
is that, you know, we've had an excessive heat warning
for a couple of weeks, you know in Missouri, uh,
where we're getting to the tail end of this season.
It is so easy and natural, honestly for all of
(05:18):
us as human beings to start looking ahead at what
else is to come that you're kind of mailing it
in on on what you've already done, you know, or
are you know kind of the way this summer has
unfolded for you. So easy to start to look look
over you know, some of these opportunities coming up ahead
and and maybe any anything that can be uncomfortable, whether
it be you know, a big picture fatigue setting in
(05:39):
after a long season, whether it be the uncomfortableness of
the weather or or whatever have you, that you could
take it all the way down into adult business and
livelihood that anytime you get into a situation where you
feel uncomfortable and tired, you know you can trick yourself
and get you should be giddy to the oppertunity that
(06:01):
lies in front of you for the next you know,
a week or two or you know whatever. The task
you know in front of you is when you feel
tired and uncomfortable, knowing that everybody else does and that
this is my moment now to execute and take a stride,
you know, ahead of the competition. And I think when
you start to look at you know, your adversity, you know, uncomfortableness, fatigue, whatever,
(06:22):
through a lens like that, you know, you start to
you start to get yourself a little bit of a
competitive advantage. It gives you something to like focus on,
because everybody can get excited about, you know, an edge
that they can give themselves. Especially the longer that you're
around this game, you realize how hard it is to
create an edge. There's so many people out there that
are fighting for spots in your job, just like you are.
(06:43):
There's so many people out there with measurables just like you.
There's so many people and and you know, most of
the time we spend our life just like dying to
be like seen or or evaluated, you know by the
scout or the recruiter or the coach or whatever that like,
when you get that opportunity, we all know, those opportunities
don't come by that often. So when you find yourself
in that opportunity, it's extremely easy to do it. Man,
(07:06):
in the championship game of a whatever whatever you know,
tournament or state championship some earlier in the season, everybody's
you know, energy is through the roof. No one's dog
freaking tired, you know, like but but but what about
a Tuesday game, you know, with a with a guy
in the stands here to watch you and you know,
if if you've already kind of shut it off, there's
(07:28):
no turning it back on. As some of my biggest
messages to to these guys, and then, you know, I
try to convince myself of this, you know that, like
you can't turn it on and turn it off, you
know you you can't. You can't execute at an elite
you know level like that, it's either on or it's off,
and once it's off, it's probably done for that day,
you know, So showing up here, switch on, ready to go,
(07:51):
ready to compete. Uh, there's just one. There's just one
way to do things. I love the Nick Saban quote
he's got at the podium. He's got a of them
at the podium. You know, but just talking about what
it looks like to be successful, you know, it really
just takes what it takes, is the message from it.
It just takes what it takes. There's really like one
(08:12):
one look you know at this from a discipline, focus, energy, attitude, effort.
You know, that's that's what success looks like. And that's
the switch on mentality. You know, the switch off mentality
is you know, taking breathers in between reps or you know,
taking plays off or you know, maybe just mentally focus wise,
not at one hundred percent. So so something kind of
(08:34):
gets by you as a player and you weren't necessarily
going into the rep thinking I'm going to take a playoff,
but because of the lack of one hundred percent you know,
attention and focused on on the details, that play got pasted.
You got you know, got got pasted you and you
know that to the coaches or the evaluators watching it,
it looks like maybe the play was taken off, you know.
So so those are just some of the some of
(08:56):
the you know, lessons from life that can be applied
through sport. You know that I feel like I've learned
through sport. You know that, I think other people you know,
can be aware of and see things, you know, the
the opportunity that adversity or uncomfortableness, you know, when you
go into a situation, whether it be work or you know,
(09:17):
sports athletically like this, you know, whether it be you know, fatigue,
whether it be weather induced. There's so many different things,
you know, like what what an opportunity? Some of that
can be through you, for you through a different lens,
through your mind, and that's really all it comes down
to is the way that you're perceiving, you know, the opportunity.
(09:38):
You know, I think that's something that's extremely valuable. So
if you can take that and apply that today, this week,
you know, this year, and the something that you're doing,
I know that will you know, produce some success for you.
It's extremely challenging to do. And I jokingly kind of
said it earlier. You're you're you're you're tricking yourself at
some points because holy cow, IM's so dog freaking tired,
(09:58):
or you know, this weather absolutely sucks. That really the
only chance I have for survival is stricken my brain
in the thinking it's all good, you know, so you know,
whatever the case may be. I know work can get grindy.
I know phone calls can get grindy. I know you
know your job can get grindy. I know that, you
know out here on July twenty eighth can get grindy.
You know all these different factors, you know it. Elite
(10:23):
successful people are just rarely comfortable, and I think people
think of things through this lens of like, oh if
I just get to hear, then I'll be good and
I can relax, or you know, you know, especially as adults.
I jokingly say this all the time with my wife.
We're always saying like, oh, I think it'll slow down
in three months. You know, like it's never slowed down.
(10:43):
It's never going to slow down to the day that
you die. And you just get more comfortable being uncomfortable
and operating at a high clip. If that's what you
want to do, you know, if you're if you're looking
to you know, achieve success and be elite in a
category that that you know you're in, that's just what
it's gonna take. So really appreciate you guys checking out
(11:04):
this episode. If something made you think, or you know
it made you, made you smile, or you know you
you you have a personal story or experience that you
felt that through, I'd love to hear about it in
the comments. Make sure you like comments, subscribe and we'll
see you guys next time. M
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