July 2, 2025 • 17 mins
In this episode of The Hitting Zone, host Mitch Thomas breaks down the role of training — and why it’s absolutely essential to every part of a player’s success.
⚾ What does effective training really look like?
⚾ How can players translate practice to performance?
⚾ Why is training just as much mental as it is physical?
Recorded live at CarShield Field, this episode dives into how quality training shapes athletes at every level, from mindset to mechanics — and why skipping the grind is never an option for those who want to level up.
📺 Subscribe to @YouthBaseballMidwest for more player development, insight, and real talk from the field.
#TheHittingZone #YBMcast #YouthBaseballMidwest #MitchThomas #BaseballTraining #TrainToCompete #CarShieldField #BaseballDevelopment #PlayerMindset #BaseballCulture #YouthBaseball #BaseballPodcast #HittingZonePodcast
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Check out our sponsor's pages!
Powered by Game 7 Baseball: https://www.game7baseball.com
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Follow Youth Baseball Midwest
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X/Twitter: Youth Baseball Midwest (@YBM_cast) / X (twitter.com)
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Follow Prep Baseball Report Missouri
Instagram and X/Twitter: @pbrmissouri and @pbr_mouler
Website: https://www.prepbaseballreport.com/missouri
⚾ What does effective training really look like?
⚾ How can players translate practice to performance?
⚾ Why is training just as much mental as it is physical?
Recorded live at CarShield Field, this episode dives into how quality training shapes athletes at every level, from mindset to mechanics — and why skipping the grind is never an option for those who want to level up.
📺 Subscribe to @YouthBaseballMidwest for more player development, insight, and real talk from the field.
#TheHittingZone #YBMcast #YouthBaseballMidwest #MitchThomas #BaseballTraining #TrainToCompete #CarShieldField #BaseballDevelopment #PlayerMindset #BaseballCulture #YouthBaseball #BaseballPodcast #HittingZonePodcast
SUBSCRIBE, 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
SUBSCRIBE, 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 (00:10):
Definitely a different type of process.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Down or freeze m.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
You know, being a coach of Son Jackson, of course, Uh,
they keep reaching. What still the things I hit five kids?
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Oh there you go.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Yeah, welcome everybody to the first episode of the Indies
Own podcast out here at beautiful Carshield Park.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
It's really nice under the tint that we're in right now.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Yeah, you're not getting hit by the sun rays.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
I'm not.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
Which is I need to be out of the sun.
I'm allergic to it. It's my favorite thing to do
to be outside. But I am allergic to the sun.
Real quick, before I get started on a topic I
want to talk about today. Tell everybody on the on
the show, on the Hitting Zone podcast, what what you
guys are doing with Youth Baseball Midwest out here today
at Carshield.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Premiere Collegiate Developmental League, Brett Graves and Premiere Pitching and Performance.
I think they started this two years ago. I think
it is maybe more something like that, and Brett's brought
his podcast on to the Youth Baseball Midwest channel and
we got to talking about this and you know, just
(01:34):
the synergy of what we bring and what we can do,
and we're highlighting some of the athletes the podcast we
just did. We did a podcast from here, you know,
so there was a lot of fundamental things that we
can do and branch out from it. So and not
to mention once we're done here, we're going to just
go out and live stream this baseball game.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
There's a lot going on that's pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
I think that's a really unique opportunity for these young
people that are out there to development.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
I like the way that they're warming up. They got live.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
It's like a college setting, is what they put it to.
Uh I should have said that.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Sorry, No, that's that's the vibe I got as soon
as I walked up and I was like, man, this
is this is pretty sweet. I like, I like what
they're doing here. So we need to check that out.
And you can do that. Make sure you're subscribed, you
hit the notifications so that when you're on YouTube or
you need to get them on your cell phone when
this goes live so you can watch what they're doing.
(02:30):
This is for our future athletes too, to show that
there's something outside of you know, there's still summer baseball
for these guys, outside of the normal you know, maybe
metro men's leagues or you know Carshiel League first form
and this is a unique setting in its own so
it's it's different. So make sure though you go follow
us on Youth Baseball Midwest so that you can get
(02:53):
that information. Also go check out Game seven baseball dot com.
They just wrapped up their World Series. We had a
barn burner for our game. We lost four to three,
got walked off. Eight innings we played and we played eight.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Inches and that was the team that won.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
This won the silver bracket.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
Too, I think took second. Would they win it? They
they want it. We had them on the ropes. We
had them beat eight innings of baseball an hour and
twenty five minutes, both pitchers, no walks like, no errors,
lots of really good plays, both teams selling out. That
was really fun to watch. I was really proud of
my guys. We had a call that didn't go our way, butpens.
(03:32):
That's we always talk about it, the fifty to fifty, right,
somebody's going to be upset and somebody's going.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
To be.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Excited. We were the side that was a little upset.
I had a conversation with the umpire.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
It was good.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
He came up to me actually after the game and said, hey, man,
I really like I appreciate the way you approached me,
you know, in the conversation, instead of being all huffy
and puffy with me. And I was like, listen, I
just wanted to know what you saw. I didn't think
you were in a good position to move up the
line because he was standing, you know, in his normal spot.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
He didn't move up to the plate to get a
good view. I said what I had.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
I said, he said, that's good, and I went back
in a dugout because you can't get thrown out in
that in that situation.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
An emotional game plus it's not even worth it.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
But shout out to Game seven Baseball, the World Series,
trying to do the best they can with the ring
we got.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
So yeah, wait, I saw Dandy uh semi Final fourteen,
the open side kid from the O'Fallon Bombers, Tegan Ritter,
remember that name, all right? Fourteen K's fleet game one hit, yeah,
one hit, one run, had like uh four and the
(04:44):
fourteen K's is what stood out in that was unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Yeah, I mean that's five in three and they walked
it off in the bottom of the seventh.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Did you walk it off?
Speaker 3 (04:55):
No, the shortstop Maddox Hyatt walked it off.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Nice.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
It's cool fun.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
It was a good weekend, man, good lots of baseball
was being played everywhere. Parks were full.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
It was my first time out of Plumber Park. Really
liked Plumba Park. They're doing a nice job over there.
But I just wanted to touch base because we're, you know,
we're getting ready for tryout season. You know, teams are
making changes. There's lots of changes from the youth, from
the you know, middle school side to the high school side.
And I wanted to talk about that a little bit
(05:27):
because I've been getting a lot of questions about training, yeah,
and you know, schedules, like you know, what what the
what the season will look like. And it got me
thinking about what's important in this game right now. And
so I wanted to bring you on the show just
to have this conversation because for me, and this is
(05:49):
I'm a I'm a club owner, I'm a facility owner,
and I'm an instructor. So I got all three hats
I'm wearing in this conversation. So I'm trying to do
my best here. But for me, like I think I
think the training right now for our athletes is one
of the most important drivers with a lot of the
data that's coming out on the size.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Of these athletes. And you look at these guys out here.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
There's nobody out here that's you know, six foot tall
and one hundred and forty five pounds.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
These guys are out here, they look like they're shaped.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
Some grown men out there.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Yeah, I mean I looked at this young man out here,
a number. I think he's numbered twenty seven or something
like that. It looks like he's about six four thirty.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
Marcus Graham. He's from Melbourne, Australia. He's plays at Mobat.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
That's an Naia school, if people, a very good one
and a very very good one. So don't you sleep
just because it doesn't say d one on that side.
That is a very good team, uh, And they do
a really good job of recruiting players, I mean dudes. So,
but I wanted to bring that up because it's something
(06:53):
I'm passionate about, is the training side. And I think
that you know, as you start to progress into the
high school side, I think gameplay is needed, of course, yes,
but I don't think it should be your priority. And
I'm not saying it needs to be a year long
journey in training because you have football, basketball, other sports
you might play. But I do believe that there should
(07:16):
be a large focus on the training side.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Well, I think there's balance to everything. You have to
be balanced in everything you do. You know, you have
to keep everything in a perspective, a focused perspective. Baseball,
you know, training a lot of times if you see
it like here, you came in here, they warmed up,
they had the big you know, the hitting deal up
(07:43):
over home, played for above a turtle, whatever people want
to call it. They got in their BP. They did
a little light scrimmage. But while they're doing BP, you
got coaches on either line hitting ground balls, fly balls.
You got guys throwing out here in outfield. It's it's
a it's a it's what you see at the higher
(08:05):
levels in a practice setting because when they they only
get so many, so many days to practice. It's baseball.
It's a grind. So you have to get your work
in in different settings. And that's I think the difficult
thing for us now with youth levels, we don't have
those settings. You go, you don't you know, you get
(08:27):
your in out, you know, and you get fifteen minutes
before the next game and you go, yep, so where
are you getting this work? And I think that's where
we have to, I think, be creative practice. You got
to save arms. You don't want to do this, You've
got so many things. I think an increase and roster
size would duo go a long way. But that's for
a whole other segment. But so I think you have
(08:49):
to you have to start being creative in how you
set your practice schedule.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Weeks off.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
Do you know, do you give guys just a chance
to rest their arms? And then how do you set
yourself in motion? I think it and I don't have
I don't think I have a really good answer in
certain respects. But you got to have practice. But I
think you also have to, you know, how do you
set yourself in motion that way? How do you get
that work in fielding ground balls before games and things
(09:21):
like that? In the in the uh elementary middle school,
the tournament style baseball.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
Yeah, I think I think it's the hustle of what
tournament baseball is.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
You know, you got to get on the field right away.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
You're not even letting the other team out of the
dugout and you're already trying to get your crap on
the field, you know, and you.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Got to play catch. You gotta do whatever you gotta do.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
I think that's the that's part of the training processes.
What do you even do before the games, how you stretch,
how you do your routines, what's expected out of those routines,
and you know, for me, I think that encompasses the training.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
So like we do dailies, so.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
Before a game, we are before we do our line
work because you know, you can't do a full in
and out and you are on the grade school, middle
school levels, or even high school for that matter, there's
not enough time in between. So you do line work.
You know, you hit third base and you hitting you
outfield and you do what you got to do. But
we do quarterbacks, we call them quarterbacks. Where we run
a ninety, we run a forty five, We run a
(10:16):
straight back, working on our footwork for outfield stuff, and
then we do like a two step drill. It's just
simple roll, ground ball, short hop drills. Those things right
there I think are are important in our.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Game because those are reps that you might not get
in a game. You might not get a ball in
right field, so you have to be prepared. So when
do you do it?
Speaker 1 (10:38):
And that's what I mean by the training side versus
you know, is it important to play sixty games in
a summer for high school or is it important to play?
And I think the practice more.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
No, I don't think it's so much practice more because
you still got to give. I think you have to
manage health a little bit more when they're younger. And
I think this there's some great topics pieces in this
as you go, but I think it's still just a
matter of how you manage through that and finding those
spaces where you can get your work in through the season.
(11:10):
And I think find that space in there, how you
do that? I think that's the challenge of baseball because
you still got to rest arms, You've got to do
those things you've got to get and if you're if
you're throwing four days like here, and then you go
in a tournament, you throw four days and practice what
you can't sustain that. And so I do think minimizing
(11:36):
the amount of games, I think that's the tough thing.
I think there needs to be a thought process. You
see a high school schedule is thirty six games, folks,
thirty six regular season games. I see nine year olds
playing sixty wrong, It's wrong. I think it's a it's
(12:01):
too many. As a nine year old, I think it's
a lot. I mean twenty five is probably good. I mean,
if you want to play and you can spread that out,
go to the lake.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
I think, oh, swimming is good if you If you're
in middle school base.
Speaker 3 (12:16):
That's that's fine too. Yeah, thirty but a high school
season and it's crammed into you knows exactly, and then
you have an allegian the high school legion season. These
guys are playing sometimes forty to forty five games in
about six weeks.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
So you understand the grind of this. So spread that
out for these little guys. I think eight you through,
you know, even twelve, you can, you can keep it
at a thirty six game.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
Spread it out.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
Let the parents go and go to the lake, enjoy
their lake house for for a week, take a week off.
It's okay, you'll you'll get there. You've got four months
from March, April, May and June and then even into July.
Now things, you got five months to spread that out
for enjoy the summer, enjoy the spring, enjoy the summer,
get you some work in. Maybe you take a week
(13:04):
off here, and then you have another week off where
you're just working. You've got notes from the first half
of the season, and you take an All Star break,
you know, and you work on things that you've had.
I think there's ways to do this. It isn't always
just about gameplay. And then go and see if you've
improved in the second half of your season.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Yeah, I think part of fundamentals. I saw this one
of a big leaguers said that. Actually it was herm
Edwards said this. He said, fundamentals. What is fundamentals and
how do you spell it? The first three letters of
that is fun, Right, So when we do these things
and we're playing these games, or we're practicing or we're training,
all of this still has to be fun. So I
(13:43):
think the gameplay is the fun part of it from
all the hard work that you put in in the
off season. It shouldn't be it shouldn't be something that
we're looking at going, oh my god, I can't pull
the season's over, so excited that it's over, because it's
really difficult. Yeah, you do and then I think that's
how we lose the passion for this game is every
single year you're just so excited about the season being
(14:05):
over more than you are, you know, wanting to maintain
the work. And you know that's that's my big thing,
and that's my big challenge is trying to find that
happy medium. And I am a strong believer that Legion
needs to make its comeback for high school baseball. I've
been pushing that conversation with a lot of my folks,
(14:26):
is like, let's get in the gym, Let's get bigger, faster, stronger,
let's get into These Legion programs are cost effective. And
I'm a legiant guy, So that's where this comes from.
It's one hundred years of Legion baseball. So this year, yeah,
I got to spend five of it of my time
in there. I was actually one of the few eighth
graders that I got a chance to make the Legion teams.
So there's always going to be a place to play.
(14:49):
Always get your work in. That's what I wanted to
talk about today. It's been it's been on my mind
with a lot of the conversations I'm having the Hitting
Zone STL dot Com, You go find out how you
can train with me if you want, but let me
know your thoughts on what you think is important or
how do you balance it as a coach, as a parent,
(15:09):
as a player, how do you manage your training, your
practice routines.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
And then the gameplay.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
I'm assuming parents, especially at a young age, is play
play play tell us the last three weeks of the year.
They're like, oh my god, thank god, it's over. You know,
so after you've experienced your season, because we're there, let.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
Me know how you feel.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
And you know that the only thing I got for you,
for our fans out there is just play the game
as hard as you can, every single rep.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
It matters. I just posted this the other day.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
This game is played in moments, their individual moments, and
whether you look at that as just one pitch, you know,
one swing, one ground ball, you know, one line drive,
all of this game is played on one single moment,
whether that you know, you groundball.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
You feel it, you got to feel it, you got
to throw it. Those are one moment.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
Ultimately, you have your one game, one inning, one season,
it's over, and you know, live in those and do
your best effort because you can walk away from that
proud if you put in max effort.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
So all you folks out there have a great day.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Make sure you check us out on you Baseball Midwest
on YouTube. You have to hit the bell that dinger
so that you can get those notifications if you're not
already on YouTube. But because if you're on YouTube, I've
learned this at least the last three shows.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
You know how to get to this channel.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
But there's a lot of great information, a lot of
old games, we.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
A lot of highlights, a lot of player spotlights.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
And of course make sure you go and hit that
Hitting Zone podcast and watch some of the previous episodes.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
So folks out there have a great day, and Brian,
thank you. Absolutely. I'm gonna go call a baseball. Yeah,
I'm coming. I'm coming.
Definitely a different type of process.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Down or freeze m.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
You know, being a coach of Son Jackson, of course, Uh,
they keep reaching. What still the things I hit five kids?
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Oh there you go.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Yeah, welcome everybody to the first episode of the Indies
Own podcast out here at beautiful Carshield Park.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
It's really nice under the tint that we're in right now.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Yeah, you're not getting hit by the sun rays.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
I'm not.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
Which is I need to be out of the sun.
I'm allergic to it. It's my favorite thing to do
to be outside. But I am allergic to the sun.
Real quick, before I get started on a topic I
want to talk about today. Tell everybody on the on
the show, on the Hitting Zone podcast, what what you
guys are doing with Youth Baseball Midwest out here today
at Carshield.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Premiere Collegiate Developmental League, Brett Graves and Premiere Pitching and Performance.
I think they started this two years ago. I think
it is maybe more something like that, and Brett's brought
his podcast on to the Youth Baseball Midwest channel and
we got to talking about this and you know, just
(01:34):
the synergy of what we bring and what we can do,
and we're highlighting some of the athletes the podcast we
just did. We did a podcast from here, you know,
so there was a lot of fundamental things that we
can do and branch out from it. So and not
to mention once we're done here, we're going to just
go out and live stream this baseball game.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
There's a lot going on that's pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
I think that's a really unique opportunity for these young
people that are out there to development.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
I like the way that they're warming up. They got live.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
It's like a college setting, is what they put it to.
Uh I should have said that.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Sorry, No, that's that's the vibe I got as soon
as I walked up and I was like, man, this
is this is pretty sweet. I like, I like what
they're doing here. So we need to check that out.
And you can do that. Make sure you're subscribed, you
hit the notifications so that when you're on YouTube or
you need to get them on your cell phone when
this goes live so you can watch what they're doing.
(02:30):
This is for our future athletes too, to show that
there's something outside of you know, there's still summer baseball
for these guys, outside of the normal you know, maybe
metro men's leagues or you know Carshiel League first form
and this is a unique setting in its own so
it's it's different. So make sure though you go follow
us on Youth Baseball Midwest so that you can get
(02:53):
that information. Also go check out Game seven baseball dot com.
They just wrapped up their World Series. We had a
barn burner for our game. We lost four to three,
got walked off. Eight innings we played and we played eight.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Inches and that was the team that won.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
This won the silver bracket.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
Too, I think took second. Would they win it? They
they want it. We had them on the ropes. We
had them beat eight innings of baseball an hour and
twenty five minutes, both pitchers, no walks like, no errors,
lots of really good plays, both teams selling out. That
was really fun to watch. I was really proud of
my guys. We had a call that didn't go our way, butpens.
(03:32):
That's we always talk about it, the fifty to fifty, right,
somebody's going to be upset and somebody's going.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
To be.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Excited. We were the side that was a little upset.
I had a conversation with the umpire.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
It was good.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
He came up to me actually after the game and said, hey, man,
I really like I appreciate the way you approached me,
you know, in the conversation, instead of being all huffy
and puffy with me. And I was like, listen, I
just wanted to know what you saw. I didn't think
you were in a good position to move up the
line because he was standing, you know, in his normal spot.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
He didn't move up to the plate to get a
good view. I said what I had.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
I said, he said, that's good, and I went back
in a dugout because you can't get thrown out in
that in that situation.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
An emotional game plus it's not even worth it.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
But shout out to Game seven Baseball, the World Series,
trying to do the best they can with the ring
we got.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
So yeah, wait, I saw Dandy uh semi Final fourteen,
the open side kid from the O'Fallon Bombers, Tegan Ritter,
remember that name, all right? Fourteen K's fleet game one hit, yeah,
one hit, one run, had like uh four and the
(04:44):
fourteen K's is what stood out in that was unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Yeah, I mean that's five in three and they walked
it off in the bottom of the seventh.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Did you walk it off?
Speaker 3 (04:55):
No, the shortstop Maddox Hyatt walked it off.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Nice.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
It's cool fun.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
It was a good weekend, man, good lots of baseball
was being played everywhere. Parks were full.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
It was my first time out of Plumber Park. Really
liked Plumba Park. They're doing a nice job over there.
But I just wanted to touch base because we're, you know,
we're getting ready for tryout season. You know, teams are
making changes. There's lots of changes from the youth, from
the you know, middle school side to the high school side.
And I wanted to talk about that a little bit
(05:27):
because I've been getting a lot of questions about training, yeah,
and you know, schedules, like you know, what what the
what the season will look like. And it got me
thinking about what's important in this game right now. And
so I wanted to bring you on the show just
to have this conversation because for me, and this is
(05:49):
I'm a I'm a club owner, I'm a facility owner,
and I'm an instructor. So I got all three hats
I'm wearing in this conversation. So I'm trying to do
my best here. But for me, like I think I
think the training right now for our athletes is one
of the most important drivers with a lot of the
data that's coming out on the size.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Of these athletes. And you look at these guys out here.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
There's nobody out here that's you know, six foot tall
and one hundred and forty five pounds.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
These guys are out here, they look like they're shaped.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
Some grown men out there.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Yeah, I mean I looked at this young man out here,
a number. I think he's numbered twenty seven or something
like that. It looks like he's about six four thirty.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
Marcus Graham. He's from Melbourne, Australia. He's plays at Mobat.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
That's an Naia school, if people, a very good one
and a very very good one. So don't you sleep
just because it doesn't say d one on that side.
That is a very good team, uh, And they do
a really good job of recruiting players, I mean dudes. So,
but I wanted to bring that up because it's something
(06:53):
I'm passionate about, is the training side. And I think
that you know, as you start to progress into the
high school side, I think gameplay is needed, of course, yes,
but I don't think it should be your priority. And
I'm not saying it needs to be a year long
journey in training because you have football, basketball, other sports
you might play. But I do believe that there should
(07:16):
be a large focus on the training side.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Well, I think there's balance to everything. You have to
be balanced in everything you do. You know, you have
to keep everything in a perspective, a focused perspective. Baseball,
you know, training a lot of times if you see
it like here, you came in here, they warmed up,
they had the big you know, the hitting deal up
(07:43):
over home, played for above a turtle, whatever people want
to call it. They got in their BP. They did
a little light scrimmage. But while they're doing BP, you
got coaches on either line hitting ground balls, fly balls.
You got guys throwing out here in outfield. It's it's
a it's a it's what you see at the higher
(08:05):
levels in a practice setting because when they they only
get so many, so many days to practice. It's baseball.
It's a grind. So you have to get your work
in in different settings. And that's I think the difficult
thing for us now with youth levels, we don't have
those settings. You go, you don't you know, you get
(08:27):
your in out, you know, and you get fifteen minutes
before the next game and you go, yep, so where
are you getting this work? And I think that's where
we have to, I think, be creative practice. You got
to save arms. You don't want to do this, You've
got so many things. I think an increase and roster
size would duo go a long way. But that's for
a whole other segment. But so I think you have
(08:49):
to you have to start being creative in how you
set your practice schedule.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Weeks off.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
Do you know, do you give guys just a chance
to rest their arms? And then how do you set
yourself in motion? I think it and I don't have
I don't think I have a really good answer in
certain respects. But you got to have practice. But I
think you also have to, you know, how do you
set yourself in motion that way? How do you get
that work in fielding ground balls before games and things
(09:21):
like that? In the in the uh elementary middle school,
the tournament style baseball.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
Yeah, I think I think it's the hustle of what
tournament baseball is.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
You know, you got to get on the field right away.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
You're not even letting the other team out of the
dugout and you're already trying to get your crap on
the field, you know, and you.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Got to play catch. You gotta do whatever you gotta do.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
I think that's the that's part of the training processes.
What do you even do before the games, how you stretch,
how you do your routines, what's expected out of those routines,
and you know, for me, I think that encompasses the training.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
So like we do dailies, so.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
Before a game, we are before we do our line
work because you know, you can't do a full in
and out and you are on the grade school, middle
school levels, or even high school for that matter, there's
not enough time in between. So you do line work.
You know, you hit third base and you hitting you
outfield and you do what you got to do. But
we do quarterbacks, we call them quarterbacks. Where we run
a ninety, we run a forty five, We run a
(10:16):
straight back, working on our footwork for outfield stuff, and
then we do like a two step drill. It's just
simple roll, ground ball, short hop drills. Those things right
there I think are are important in our.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Game because those are reps that you might not get
in a game. You might not get a ball in
right field, so you have to be prepared. So when
do you do it?
Speaker 1 (10:38):
And that's what I mean by the training side versus
you know, is it important to play sixty games in
a summer for high school or is it important to play?
And I think the practice more.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
No, I don't think it's so much practice more because
you still got to give. I think you have to
manage health a little bit more when they're younger. And
I think this there's some great topics pieces in this
as you go, but I think it's still just a
matter of how you manage through that and finding those
spaces where you can get your work in through the season.
(11:10):
And I think find that space in there, how you
do that? I think that's the challenge of baseball because
you still got to rest arms, You've got to do
those things you've got to get and if you're if
you're throwing four days like here, and then you go
in a tournament, you throw four days and practice what
you can't sustain that. And so I do think minimizing
(11:36):
the amount of games, I think that's the tough thing.
I think there needs to be a thought process. You
see a high school schedule is thirty six games, folks,
thirty six regular season games. I see nine year olds
playing sixty wrong, It's wrong. I think it's a it's
(12:01):
too many. As a nine year old, I think it's
a lot. I mean twenty five is probably good. I mean,
if you want to play and you can spread that out,
go to the lake.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
I think, oh, swimming is good if you If you're
in middle school base.
Speaker 3 (12:16):
That's that's fine too. Yeah, thirty but a high school
season and it's crammed into you knows exactly, and then
you have an allegian the high school legion season. These
guys are playing sometimes forty to forty five games in
about six weeks.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
So you understand the grind of this. So spread that
out for these little guys. I think eight you through,
you know, even twelve, you can, you can keep it
at a thirty six game.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
Spread it out.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
Let the parents go and go to the lake, enjoy
their lake house for for a week, take a week off.
It's okay, you'll you'll get there. You've got four months
from March, April, May and June and then even into July.
Now things, you got five months to spread that out
for enjoy the summer, enjoy the spring, enjoy the summer,
get you some work in. Maybe you take a week
(13:04):
off here, and then you have another week off where
you're just working. You've got notes from the first half
of the season, and you take an All Star break,
you know, and you work on things that you've had.
I think there's ways to do this. It isn't always
just about gameplay. And then go and see if you've
improved in the second half of your season.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Yeah, I think part of fundamentals. I saw this one
of a big leaguers said that. Actually it was herm
Edwards said this. He said, fundamentals. What is fundamentals and
how do you spell it? The first three letters of
that is fun, Right, So when we do these things
and we're playing these games, or we're practicing or we're training,
all of this still has to be fun. So I
(13:43):
think the gameplay is the fun part of it from
all the hard work that you put in in the
off season. It shouldn't be it shouldn't be something that
we're looking at going, oh my god, I can't pull
the season's over, so excited that it's over, because it's
really difficult. Yeah, you do and then I think that's
how we lose the passion for this game is every
single year you're just so excited about the season being
(14:05):
over more than you are, you know, wanting to maintain
the work. And you know that's that's my big thing,
and that's my big challenge is trying to find that
happy medium. And I am a strong believer that Legion
needs to make its comeback for high school baseball. I've
been pushing that conversation with a lot of my folks,
(14:26):
is like, let's get in the gym, Let's get bigger, faster, stronger,
let's get into These Legion programs are cost effective. And
I'm a legiant guy, So that's where this comes from.
It's one hundred years of Legion baseball. So this year, yeah,
I got to spend five of it of my time
in there. I was actually one of the few eighth
graders that I got a chance to make the Legion teams.
So there's always going to be a place to play.
(14:49):
Always get your work in. That's what I wanted to
talk about today. It's been it's been on my mind
with a lot of the conversations I'm having the Hitting
Zone STL dot Com, You go find out how you
can train with me if you want, but let me
know your thoughts on what you think is important or
how do you balance it as a coach, as a parent,
(15:09):
as a player, how do you manage your training, your
practice routines.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
And then the gameplay.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
I'm assuming parents, especially at a young age, is play
play play tell us the last three weeks of the year.
They're like, oh my god, thank god, it's over. You know,
so after you've experienced your season, because we're there, let.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
Me know how you feel.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
And you know that the only thing I got for you,
for our fans out there is just play the game
as hard as you can, every single rep.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
It matters. I just posted this the other day.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
This game is played in moments, their individual moments, and
whether you look at that as just one pitch, you know,
one swing, one ground ball, you know, one line drive,
all of this game is played on one single moment,
whether that you know, you groundball.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
You feel it, you got to feel it, you got
to throw it. Those are one moment.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
Ultimately, you have your one game, one inning, one season,
it's over, and you know, live in those and do
your best effort because you can walk away from that
proud if you put in max effort.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
So all you folks out there have a great day.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Make sure you check us out on you Baseball Midwest
on YouTube. You have to hit the bell that dinger
so that you can get those notifications if you're not
already on YouTube. But because if you're on YouTube, I've
learned this at least the last three shows.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
You know how to get to this channel.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
But there's a lot of great information, a lot of
old games, we.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
A lot of highlights, a lot of player spotlights.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
And of course make sure you go and hit that
Hitting Zone podcast and watch some of the previous episodes.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
So folks out there have a great day, and Brian,
thank you. Absolutely. I'm gonna go call a baseball. Yeah,
I'm coming. I'm coming.
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