Tom House On The Mechanics of Pitching, The Power of Play and Handling Failure

In this episode Greg sits down with Tom House, the "father of modern throwing mechanics." The pair discuss developing athletes with the power of play (9:58), how to handle failure (18:41), the importance of warming up (30:18) and of course, the mechanics of pitching (55:11).

Greg also answers listener questions (59:47)

Rate, review, subscribe and submit your questions on social @YouthInc.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
And the guy next to me who I hadnever met, but heard about was a
guy named Tom Seaver and I looked at him and I said, oh my
God. What's up everybody?
Welcome back to another episode here on.
You think presented by Audio Rama and body armor.

(00:22):
Quick update on the Olson. Family Sports Experience, we are
in the middle of a big run in our Pop.
Warner tackle football playoff bracket here in Charlotte.
We won this past weekend. We played really well.
We played a really good team that hadn't lost.
I think they'd lost one game in like the last couple years.

(00:43):
Pretty good team, not a good athlete.
It's good. Coaches.
And so we knew that was gonna bea tough game, but the kids came
out and played really well. So that was the second round.
Now this week is probably the week.
This this team we played during the course of the Season, we
only beat him by one touchdown. It was a close game again,
talented lot of really good players.
So got to have a great week of practice, Saturday morning, 8:30

(01:06):
semifinals of the city popcorn Championship here in Charlotte.
So we're fired up. The kids are getting better,
they're buying into To what we're doing.
Watching a lot of tape last night.
My wife looked at me, she's like, are we ever going to hang
out? And I was like, yeah, I said
that time me like Monday is my day off and I was literally
sitting home at like 6:00 on my kitchen table watching game

(01:29):
film, and making play call sheets of every play, the
opposing team ran and where theyrun it and how they run it in
the formations and what numbers.And I finally had to catch
myself and be like, this is fifth and sixth grade football.
You need to go sit on the couch with your wife and have a glass
of wine. So, We are in the full court,
press of bad pun but a football so that's that both boys have

(01:54):
their end there last fall. Baseball tournament, so that
will wrap up. Baseball for the fall, will kick
back up here after the new year and my daughter, I got to watch
her play soccer on Saturday. My flight was late enough before
I had to fly out to Green Bay tocall that game.
Got to watch her her team 1322. She played pretty good.
So we are, we are in a Of it. So I will let you guys know.

(02:16):
Hopefully, we have a fun update for all of you next week.
Show coming off the semifinals of the city Championship, so
hang in there and keep you stay tuned today.
We have an awesome guest. It's actually one of the first
guests I ever reached out to, I think, you know, when we were
putting together this show, and we wanted to find that balance

(02:38):
of Storytelling, but also that that balance of tools and
resources and things that families can use the
information. National component of the
conversation, any of you who have followed, you know,
watching the NFL games or pitching, you know the name, Tom
house, Dak Prescott, subtle hip dance before the games.
Walk guys walking around making,you know, goalposts and flexing

(03:00):
their shoulders back and forth and the heavy balls.
I mean all that stuff that you see in today's modern football
and also you know Major League Baseball all that stuff came
from Tom house. He's known as the father of the
modern day. Pitching mechanics also just
kind of throwing mechanics, he'sa baseball guy but he also is
just as you know impactful and influential in the world of

(03:23):
football. So to be able to get Tom to join
us and he was the pitching coachfor Randy Johnson, Nolan Ryan,
you know and and the NFL side, Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Dak
Prescott and all these guys. He worked with Cam Newton one
year, which is where I first methim after cam had shoulder
surgery. So it was just, it was a cool
story, telling listening to him his impact on the youth on the

(03:43):
youth scene. And to educate families, educate
young kids into the best practices of not only mechanics,
but Health maintaining shoulder Health proper mechanics.
It was just a really fun conversation.
So I think you guys are going tolove it again.
Tom house is this week's guest here on you think?
Thank you. As always to our sponsor body

(04:03):
armor, body armor. Not only fuels this show but
they fuel all of my locals youthsports team.
So we're super grateful that they have come on.
Then been such a great partner of ours here at you.
Think there's a lot of Choices for Sidelines, Sports drinks,
our family's personal favorite, my family.
My personal favorite is the orange.
Mango. My kids love strawberry banana.
It's all they want gas station, grocery store, mom.

(04:26):
Do you have any body armor for the game?
Do we have any body armor for practice?
They love it. I love it.
Our team's love it. And we're super thankful that
they are taking this journey with us through the world of
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No artificial sweeteners and youcan go to drink.
Body armor.com for more information.

(04:47):
So now please enjoy this conversation with the father of
modern day. Throwing mechanics, Tom house.
Tom house. Thank you so much for joining us
on you think, thank you. Greg is great to be here.
So, I mean, you first met and I said this to you before the show

(05:07):
started, oh God, it was probablyfive, six years ago, cam was
done. Back off his office offseason
surgery and was working on some mechanic stuff.
And I'd be out there training onthe, on the field of Bank of
America Stadium and you and cam would be out there and I just
remember, you know, glancing over and watching you and all
the all the technique stuff, anyone Follows you on Twitter or

(05:27):
follows your work, you know, obviously your routine is what's
kind of Bill. We're going to dive into a lot
of that. But you and I first started
talking, I told you, I got two young boys, that play baseball
and I was picking your brain about throwing mechanics, and
pitching mechanics. And here we are all these years
later and we're still talking about it.
Yeah. And I tell you what is
precipitous, is that a good wordlove that you never you never

(05:47):
know when paths are going to cross in the short and long
term. But the bottom line is, I bet I
bet you a little Lefty. I saw throw that to your son.
Got to be 13:12. He's eleven.
So he was, he was like five or six said that.
Okay. Yeah.
Five or six. Oh yeah.
He's, he's 11 and plays travel ball.

(06:07):
And I'm, we're going to get intoit because Tom, if I I got a lot
of travel ball questions, I got a lot of usage questions or
going to get to it before we do.I mean, I'm obviously very
familiar with your backstory, you know, everyone knows, you
know, your time with Nolan Ryan,you're, you know, coaching,
Randy Johnson. Some of the biggest names in
baseball and then you make this really unique shift into the
Football. And you know, Tom Tom Brady and

(06:28):
Drew Brees. Just give our listeners for
anyone who isn't as familiar as I am with your background and
what you do. Just give everybody a little
back story on how you've become you know, this quote, unquote
Guru of modern pit, you know, pitching and throwing mechanics
and all the work you do currently.
That's a great setup. I'd like to say it was well
thought out planned and organized it just kind of

(06:49):
happened generically. I had been a piston cup while I
was fishing the big leagues. And was a coach right out of the
Chute, right after I got released and we'd always
throwing the football as part ofour cross training as a baseball
pitcher because it was heavier than baseball, do signal
conditioning, and you can throw a football wrong and make it

(07:12):
spiral. So is it what we call it cross,
the cific training device and then as luck would have it can
Cameron, who was the offensive coordinator for the San Diego
Chargers way back. When had two boys that played
baseball, kind of like what you're going through.
And he said, one of the workoutswith these kids, he said you

(07:35):
ever work with quarterbacks and I said, well, we filmed a bunch
of quarterbacks, we have them inthe computer but I've never
worked with the court because well I got a youngster named
Drew Brees that I'd like to introduce you to and just see
what happens. And that was actually the
beginning, not not well thought out, but there was a guy can
Cameron. Who saw baseball.

(07:56):
In football and maybe there was a fit and I don't know if you
remember if you're old enough but Drew had a horrific injury,
the year was playing out to become a free agent and dr.
Andrews putting back together called me and said, well, I
fixed his shoulder, but I don't think he's ever going to play in
the NFL again. And with that, when Drew came

(08:20):
back from the surgery, I got involved in rehab.
So not only do we look at his mechanics, but we It how you
functionally strength, train andall that weird stuff you see on
TV with the Dax dance and all that kind of stuff.
That was the beginning of it right there.
And when Drew came back and was very successful, you know, very

(08:42):
well in football that quarterback for charity is
really small and one thing leadsto another and pretty soon, I've
got Drew and Brady and Alex Smith and quarterbacks just
started showing up and the fun. Thing is the only difference
between football and baseball throwing is the length of the

(09:02):
arm path and the fact that football players have to get rid
of the ball waste sooner than a pitcher does.
But everything else is about thesame, so obviously getting it in
the computer, looking at it, at 1,000 frames a second and then
actually having my first real client, be Drew Brees was how I
stumbled into it was not a bad first client.

(09:23):
I think for anyone, if anyone wants to start out, Some are
things starting with one of the best of all times.
So kudos to you, and we're goingto get into some of the, the
technique in the specific stuff.But I want to start with just
your, I follow you on Twitter. For anyone who doesn't?
It's a great follow aside from just, you know, you sharing your
warm up routine, you know, youthpitch counts and all some really
cool stuff that I use for my kids and my team's, I want to

(09:45):
talk just a little bit about your approach to working with,
of course, working with Drew Brees.
But within you all your time, working with youth athletes, as
a coach, you know, what is your approach?
How do you balance? Today's really ultra competitive
world of Youth Sports. And these kids are asked to play
in a lot of games and perform ata high level.
But then also find the balance of the developmental component,

(10:06):
keeping in mind that this is a long journey, right?
We always say, when I'm coaching, you know, my kids 5th
and 6th 5th grade, team's fourthgrade teams.
I'm trying to have them be a really good player on their
middle school team and then hopefully their middle school
coach is saying, I'm developing you that one day you can be on
the high school team like where is that balance today and what
is your approach between competition?
And going out there and playing at a high level.

(10:28):
But then also understanding there's a developmental
component when you're working with young athletes.
Well, he's your set me up perfectly here, Greg, I
appreciate it. No problem.
The the power of play, I mean, kids play whether they're in
organized sports or not. And in today's world, you know
how chaotic the world is today, especially for teenagers and

(10:49):
younger. It's a completely different
existence than when you and I went through playing sports.
So So in today's world, I say there's one set of rules but
there's a million interpretations and every kid
that shows up is showing up because he he likes to play
first. I mean, Tom Brady at age 45 is

(11:10):
just a big 12 year old. He still gets Joy from playing
and one of the hardest things intoday's world is artificial
intelligence kind of can kind oftake the joy out of the
interpersonal stuff that's have been involved with being Team or
in a sport. Even if you're just like a
golfer by yourself, you're stillenjoying.

(11:33):
It's what I call ignition. The fact that you really want to
be out there doing what you're doing, and then you have to, you
have to realize there's windows that trainability, there's a
neurological window. There's a muscle window.
There's a biomechanical, efficiency window, and then
there's the skill retention window and depending on the age.

(11:56):
Each of the athlete that shows up, you have to approach them
differently and you mentioned itearlier.
It's okay to be really, really good at 12 years old, but it's
really not the priority at 12 at12, you have to have fun first
and then make sure that the nervous system kind of
understands what it's supposed to do when testosterone.

(12:16):
Yes, then you can start talking about muscle.
If you try to strength train a nine-year-old, he's probably not
going to be as efficient as if Let him alone and let him work
on his nervous system. Conversely, if you're, you know,
pushing heavy weights on a skinny freshman, in high school
at age 14, he may actually hurt himself in the weight room.

(12:39):
She has to be careful about whatyou're asking, how the athlete
in the preparation to become to go between the lines and play
and have fun, whether plan. And in today's game, there's so
much information out there and you mentioned being on Twitter.
Everybody has an opinion everybody, you know, everybody
has what you think should be done.

(13:01):
What I try to tell people that come our way.
We're science-based were measurable and defendable and
for every one of the things we identify we have a deliverable
that will help teach you the nervous system, the muscular
system or the skill acquisition or the school retention.
So long story short you train nerves first, then muscle.

(13:26):
Then there's a muscles talk together which are put together
for skill acquisition, and then as you get older and into your
golden years skill retention is what the four Windows of
trainability are. So every kid it shows up like a
if your son left handed pitcher,if I remember correctly, he
shows up as a, you know, an eighth grader, a freshman in

(13:48):
high school will obviously look at his chronological age, but if
he's grown, if he's going to be a big kid like you, if you He's
growing two or three inches in the last six months or every one
inch of height gain and for every five pounds of weight,
gain it pushes you back two years or two months, in your

(14:09):
biological age. So your boy might be 13, but if
he's growing sixth inches in Gate, excuse me, gain 10 pounds.
He's really only 12 and a half. Is that makes sense?
That's really interesting. Talk a little bit more about
that. I think are our parents, you
know, and families that are listening to this.
I think the question I get askedthe most is how do, and you just

(14:31):
touched on a little bit. I'm gonna ask you to just expand
a little bit. They asked us like, when it's
too early to really focus on like physical training and you
know, whether that's at the young age, push-ups sit-ups
medicine balls. You know, functional movement
stuff, right? Not necessarily traditional
weight room you know and then inMiddle School the kids start
hitting puberty they start growing they start maturing you
know, how do we then take that next step and go along with the

(14:53):
skill retention the skill development of, you know?
Sport, baseball, basketball, football, whatever it is.
So like if you broke down the four Windows of the development
but now how does that tie into what you're saying?
Now about maturity puberty growth.
Like this time, this age that we're in now this 11, 12 13,
there's kids that are 61, and there's kids that are 4 foot 8.

(15:15):
How do we, as coaches and parents managed to coach?
A team, develop a team when we now have kids that are really at
different ages in this kind of Developmental process.
Well, And that's one of the hardest things for people to
understand right now. It's really, really cool.
If you're 16 year old child is the best athlete in the league,

(15:36):
but it really isn't important that he's really good at 16.
It's how good is he going to be when he actually hits maturity
and can go into college or pro ball?
So, every kid that shows up on your team is obviously in a
different state. You know, you've seen it when
you were growing up. I can remember I'm drawing a

(15:56):
blank on his last name but Doug was like a 6-foot 2-inch,
Italian kid that had probably been shaving since he was three
and he was really a stud until everybody caught up with him and
he never got any better. So what you have to realize is
it's not necessarily sighs. It's where they are with their

(16:18):
chronological versus biological age and the new the numbers are
easy to figure out. Out if you'll just be patient
and assume as a coach or a parent that you're going to
teach a kid the mechanics and the strength of a position, what
is necessary? Like you could strength train, a

(16:38):
ten-year-old with heavy weights but it wouldn't do any good at
all. And if you don't strength train,
when a kid is 16 or 17 years oldis arm speed and his arm
strength, may not match up and he'll hurt himself that way.
So what I would recommend to parents It's at all possible and
coaches that actually care aboutgiving one set of rules to a

(17:02):
million different kids is to be aware of what is out there and
it's not about outcome. It's about process and the
hardest thing even for a little league Dad.
It's volunteering to be a coach,you get competitive and you want
to win but winning or outcome has to be secondary to process

(17:23):
and there's going to be failure anything That is not addressed
enough in our in our society right now is parents suffer as
much in the stands when they seetheir kid fail, as the kid does
on the field. But, you know, as well as I do.
You play football for a long time, you're gonna screw up, you
know, you're going to fail at times and what you have to look

(17:44):
at. His failure is a learning
experience. We will learn more from our
screw-ups and we do our successes and that has to be
literally Great in a youngster when he's a little Leaguer that
9 10 11 year-old, that you're going to fail, you're going to
feel bad, it's okay to feel bad.But if you learn from it and

(18:08):
fail, less, the guys are gettinga big leagues.
It probably failed more than anybody else.
Is watching it on TV but they didn't let the outcome getting
away of the joy and learning from the failure.
So, something we talk a lot about here, Tom and I'm so glad
you brought up. Failure is I think as parents
and as Coaches in today's modernkind of sports world.

(18:28):
There's so many teams at so manydifferent levels.
You can really create an environment where your child is
always protected. He's always going to be the best
player on his team. He's always going to be put in a
situation to have success. My Approach is always the
opposite. I want my kid, I want my kid at
10 and 11 to stand on the mound and have a tough outing and deal
with adversity and not have his best stuff.

(18:50):
And let's I'd rather it happen then because it's going to
happen to your point at some point.
I don't want it to happen when he's 18.
I don't want it to happen the first time he pitches on his
first second. So like how do we encourage
parents? Because it's the parents you're
spot-on and I'm guilty of this at times too.
How do we encourage parents to let their child perform and play

(19:10):
and maybe a level of competitionthat might be a little outside
their reach. All understanding that any
little minor setback. If handled the right way.
Will allow your child to deal with these setbacks and deal
with adversity when it matters, which is in high school and when
you're a little bit older in thestakes are a little bit higher.
Like how do we get that message across?
Well, again that Eurasian with kids, he raised, you're very

(19:34):
aware that we live in a helicopter parent.
Society are our parents realize that outcomes are what kids get
College, scholarships and/or, Pro contracts, or get drafted or
whatever outcomes are important.But what Don't realize that
process is manageable outcomes. You have no control over.

(19:54):
So what I try to do and my favorite group to work with is
really the nine of the 12 year old kids that are under 13
athletes because they're just starting to understand that that
failure hurts. But if like my mom used to say,
if it doesn't kill you, it's a good experience and anybody can

(20:15):
go good. But the kids that fail, Fast
forward. I use that as much as I can.
The kids that aren't afraid to screw up and they're actually
playing for a coach that when they do screw up, ask why that's
important. You don't judge a failure, you
asked, why did you fail and the MS that you ask the youngster?

(20:38):
Why he screwed up and it forces him to think about the process
and not the feeling that went with a failure and that
youngster will deal with failure.
Better as it progresses through the system and it's the kids
that can handle adversity and the ones that understand
Amphitheatre and that you're going to have issues in the ones

(21:00):
that can feel really bad for themselves.
But when the team loses a feel bad for the team, that's the
athletes doing with that's goingto move forward in today's
society. You said it best these.
A lot of these kids are protected by parents that really
care. I mean the these are good but it
doesn't help your child progressthrough the system and the

(21:24):
competition of sports in itself.So long story short if everybody
realized that failure is part ofthe process and that the more
you fail, the faster, you fail, the better.
You're going to figure out what to do to not fail.
Those are the kids that continueto move forward because they

(21:44):
don't lose the joy of playing because of the bad feeling of
failure. Here it that makes sense.
Really I completely agree and again I try to get that point
across. I have three kids two boys, in a
daughter, the boys play my oldest son plays ultra
competitive baseball like his team is one of those teams that
they're come summer next year they're going to be flying to

(22:07):
East Cobb and to Florida and they're gonna be playing in all
these big show they just. So they're really care.
Very good. Like, last year last summer,
they went to the perfect game World Series and East Cobb down
in Marietta. There was 68 teams that was they
were ten. It was ten you at the time and
there were 68 teams and they made the championship.
They lost in the finals to A team out of Georgia, but like,

(22:29):
they're very good. Their coach is excellent.
It's been really nice. They have a, I don't have to
coach. I can be dad.
The coach doesn't unbelievable job with them there, but again,
it's ultra-competitive, you are expected to play.
Well, you don't play well, you move down the lineup, you don't
continue to hit your ad. Line up, you sit, you don't not

(22:50):
everyone plays, like it is, but it's what we signed up for.
It's what my kids, exactly. And what you just said is, is
kind of lost on this younger generation, sports are outcome
oriented Sports. Literally, you have to perform,
it's a meritocracy and that's the lesson that will help them

(23:12):
in the real world. Also, the and I hate to get on
someone that's trying to do the right thing.
That doesn't quite get it, but participation trophies for a me,
send it send the wrong message to a kid.
Yeah, that in the, in this worldnot everybody's going to be a
big Leaguer, but everybody can be the best that they can be.

(23:34):
And if you're passionate about asport and you're not good enough
to play, it's better to figure it out earlier the rather than
later and I have a stat to throwat you just in case because if
you're 10, 11, year-old is ultracompetitive in their what
Wherever they go. 92% of the Hall of Famers in all sports

(23:55):
were late. Bloomers, I call it the Michelle
Wie effect. She literally was a better
athlete at age, 16. Then she is now on the LPGA Tour
but she never got any better mechanically or physically.
Then she was when she was 16 conversely a young Nolan Ryan.

(24:18):
He really didn't put it togethertill he was 12. 324.
So you have to be patient with the process of maturity on one
end. There's there's four things that
allow an individual athlete to perform at a higher.
Level is biomechanics, is your her functional strength.
There are metal emotional makeup, how do they handle

(24:39):
adversity and failure and then nutrition and sleep for recovery
and if the parents and coaches that are on our little chat this
morning, Every kid that shows upshould be looked at with those
four. Things mechanics, strength,
mental, emotional, and nutrition, and sleep.
And then you've got something nomatter where the kid is on the

(24:59):
spectrum of talent. As he develops, the skill and
grows into it. He will be the best.
He could be individually and that will help the team.
It's so funny because these are the conversations, my oldest is
not overly big. He's not like a big strong
Physical kid, he's not the fastest kid, he's not the

(25:21):
tallest kid. He doesn't hit the ball.
The furthest like he's just not at that developmental stage like
both me and my wife are big people tall, you know,
relatively tall but he's just not that.
And my two younger, my twins that are in.
Fourth grade are very tall, they're long.
So they're just again, they're built very different but and so
my oldest son, he feels all right.

(25:41):
There's bigger kids on his team.It's a competitive team.
Very different than, you know, my, you know, my youngest son's
baseball team is like a local. Travel team and we've gotten a
lot better. Everybody Plays its
developmental. Now, we want to win, we go out
there and win but like, there's no aspirations that we're going
to go win like some tournament in California, right?
Like it's it's a very appropriate for him and it's

(26:02):
appropriate for the kids on the team and the same thing with my
daughter. But my point is and I had these
conversations along the lines ofwhat you just said.
With my son, I said be the not being the big kid now doesn't
better. It doesn't matter, right?
We need to focus on your mental.So this is our Relation I have
and it's so similar to what you just said.
Our priority is my number one thing is I want to see you

(26:23):
compete. I want to see you fight through
adversity. I want to see you compete and
don't let me ever see you back down and quit.
If things aren't going your way to me, that's number one rule.
You strike out, 50 times in a row.
I can live with it, I won't be thrilled, but you can live with
it. But if after every time you
throw your helmet, you slam yourbat and you act, are you get on

(26:46):
the mound and you walk two kids and you don't have your best
stuff and you crumble, I have nopatience for that.
So we are going to come. We are going to be ultra
competitors. We are going to keep our
emotions in check. And we are going to fight
through adversity. Our second goal, our second, big
thing we harp on is we're going to do things correctly and even
if the outcome isn't great, thisyou know how many times my kid

(27:08):
will say? But Dad, I hit a but I had a
base hit. I said, fine, but like, let's
look at how your swing. I said, give yourself a chance.
So my point is along those lines.
Like that's our approach and then, my message him is one day
if you have little man skills and you turn out to be big.
Then you're a big kid with little man skills.
Exactly. And that, you know, the game you

(27:30):
basically, you go to the ballpark every day.
Preparing yourself to be the best you that you can be.
I got real lucky. When I I went to the University
of Southern California on a baseball scholarship and my
first Bullpen, I'm throwing my little left hand, over whatever
it is that I throw. And the guy next to me who I had
never met, but heard about was aguy named Tom Seaver and I

(27:55):
looked at him and I said, oh my God.
Now the kids are the parents arelistening to this.
They may or may not remember whoTom Seaver was, but Tom Terrific
was probably one of the best right-handed pitchers in the
history of baseball and Fortunately raw data where head
coach came up and said, Tommy Haas, what do you think of young
Tom Seaver? And I said Rod, if you need me

(28:17):
to do that you got the wrong left-hander.
And here's the message that Rod gaming, very similar, what you
tell your kids, you said I don'tneed you to be Tom Seaver.
Any you do? I need you to be the best timing
house, you can be throw that curveball throw that stinker get
you ground ball. Hold Runners close and you're
both play and win for the Trojans and have a chance to

(28:38):
play. A some Pro Bowl.
So Rod, at that time, took all the pressure of me, trying to be
Tom Seaver and made me realize it.
All I had to do. When I went to, the ballpark is
try to be best prepared, Tom house that I could be, and
that's so takes that takes a lotof pressure off.
Absolutely. And I think we all as parents
are guilty of this, right? You want to compare?

(29:01):
Did you see, Johnny? We need to do it more, like,
Hammer. Did you see?
And we all and we all have to remind, like, I know again, on
this show, I'm the first to admit.
A lot of the things I talk aboutare I'm guilty of we all have.
I mean, I couldn't, I couldn't watch my son play.
I had to go hide behind the leftfield fence and look at the game
through the cracks because it drove me nuts.
Either what the coach was doing,or what my son was doing.

(29:24):
Remember his parents, it's not about you, it's about your kid
and so let me throw something else that you're aware that your
children because of who you are go to the ballpark with a whole
different set of Of pressures because, you know, having your
name on their back, makes it a little bit difficult, but if

(29:47):
they get through that, the kids are always better than the dead.
So fasten your seatbelt, they'recoming.
Hey, I'd be thrilled I and I tell them that all the time I
said you don't have you owe, nobody anything.
You don't owe me anything. You owe yourself, right?
Like maximize your own gifts, mytell, my kids, all time, I
remind him. I said, what's the saddest thing

(30:08):
in the world and he would A wasted potential.
I said, that's it. I said just don't waste it.
All right, I want to change gears a little bit.
You've talked a lot about process.
And to me, this is the really fascinating part of kind of
where the Youth Sports landscape.
So, we'll look at it through that lens, you know, high school
and, and below. I want to talk a little bit
about and it's a little baseballspecific right now.
So, our baseball families are going to love this.

(30:29):
You've been really the person who's kind of pioneered this
whole concept of you. Don't throw to warm up, you warm
up to throw and and I It's a baseball term, it's a throwing
term, but I think it really goesacross all sports right now.
Often do you see you go into a basketball gym and what do they
do? First layup lines know, they've

(30:50):
been sitting around in the gym, waiting for it.
So just talk a little bit about you know from the biomechanic
just from the way, the body works and gets warm like talk a
little bit about that process ofpreparing your child or
preparing. The team, you coach of young
kids, the process of preparing them to be ready to compete.
Okay, perfect. Again, you're setting me up
perfectly here. You warm up to loosen up to do

(31:13):
your activity. You prepare to compete to
recover and repeat. So keep that in your head.
It's harder on a little Leaguersarm.
If you watch most little the games, when the kids get there,
they'll get a, get a ball and a buddy, and it'll go out and I'll
start playing catch right out ofthe car.

(31:35):
That's actually harder on their arm, you know, throwing before
they loosen up to warm up, that's tight around their arm
that actually pitched in a ballgame.
So the process and again if it sounds like I know what I'm
talking about. It's only because I screwed up
enough to know what doesn't workand now we have the research to

(31:56):
support was coming out of my mouth.
There are we call it block training.
The first block, should be core temperature elevation.
And I'll give a plug to the National pitching Association
and to mustard. If you go to either one of those
websites, there's a process. The first block number one is

(32:17):
core temperature elevation and there's five or six exercises
that any thrower can do get yourquarterback infielder.
Whoever it might be The second block is arm care and recovery
and this is before they've gone to play, catch on the field or
take infielder whatever arm Karen recovery as four or five

(32:39):
will exercises. I don't know, if you remember
what when you see the, oh, you're back?
See if one is, we do it at everyone of our practices.
If my kid picks up a ball and doesn't do the whole thing
walking alternating it, I will think I'll kill him.
So he's right. Right at the head of the curve
on this one. It literally aren't care,
recovery. Is second block, the third block

(33:01):
if you have a chime is Bodywork and that's where you use.
Anything from arm pressed has toarm circles, two planks.
Something that wakes the whole body up physically and then the
fourth block is the big word is kinematic sequence ending, but

(33:21):
basically you go through exercises that are specific to
what you do. When you pitch range of motions,
And there's three or four that go over there and then you go
warm up to either start the gamer to take infield.
So if you follow that process and you don't have to do
everything in every block every day, you cherry pick Depending

(33:43):
on time available and the motivation of the kids.
Remember, kids can get bored really quick, even if they're
passionate about the game, so you have to keep challenging
them with doing things either, you know the same idea.
Different application or a new application of a better idea.
So all that was together, but ifthe parents and the coach is,

(34:06):
could remember one thing you warm up to loosen up to do your
activity? I think.
And it's, and I've taken it to heart.
I mean, as I mentioned, I followso just so everyone knows they
can go to mustard. We're going to talk about
mustard because I am a subscriber of mustard which has
nothing to do with having you onhere.
Just as a dad, I put my kids to three different angles of
pitching and all that and get the report.

(34:27):
It's really cool. And then of course, As you
mentioned, the national pitchingAssociation so that all those
resources people you guys can goon.
You can follow everything Tom just said it's there is now
correct me if I'm wrong. Another element to why I'm such
a big believer in this this process of getting ready.
We do the same warm-up routine before games that we do before
practices, and I'm correct me ifI'm wrong, but I think aside

(34:49):
from just the physical preparation loosening up your
body. Your core temperature,
activation all that stuff. There's also a mental component
where my prep before practice The same as the game.
So to my brain, right? I was told the kids.
Your brain doesn't know how important what you're about to
do is, is it a bullpen in April?Is it a bullpen in December?
Or is it the bottom of the sixthChampionship state championship,

(35:10):
your senior year you? Oh, so like there's a process of
like routine that builds confidence and builds kind of
their human right word. I'd say what you, I don't know
how much research you've done, what you said, everything
exactly. The way I would set it up
routines are huge. Judge not only in preparation

(35:30):
for like a practice, but also a preparation for a game of the
World Series at Super Bowl, whatever it might be and the
more consistent your routine, the better able you are to
handle stress. You have to be careful about
routine becoming Where if you feel like you don't do something

(35:56):
you're not in other words you don't want to get obsessive
compulsive about it. When I had a little of that
routine becomes ritual and I know all of us I would only turn
one way on the mount weather. When a ritual takes over your
brain, the obsessive-compulsive parts of what we did is

(36:16):
athletes. It's probably not real good.
So we met remember this and you can share it with your Orchids.
And maybe the parents that you talk to you, you're in charge of
a routine. A ritual is in charge of you.
And there's a fine line between telling a young player that this

(36:36):
routine is necessary for your body to get the most out of what
you're doing today. But when you feel like, if you
miss doing a push job that you're going to be less than
when you go between the lines that that ritual is that Teen
has become a ritual and you can't let kids do that.

(36:57):
That's so that's so awesome. I'll tell you a personal story
along the routine thing. So it's kind of the bad that
sets up the good couple weeks ago.
I'm out of town on the weekends during the fall so I don't I
don't get to see my kids playinga lot of the games.
So two weeks ago my oldest son was playing in a tournament and
he called me between games and he's like, Dad, I'm going to
pitch like they played, they played the first bracket play

(37:18):
game than he was going to pitch game two.
And I said, all right man. Well you know and I Started
going into hey remember your routine, make sure you get
warmed up, but don't just start throwing Bubba.
Bubba, Bubba, he hears it all time, but all he wanted to do is
talk to me about everything else.
Dad a million different directions mind you he's 11 and
I said, hey man, you gotta get yourself.
This is like 30 minutes for the game.
I'm like, all right, that's all great.

(37:40):
Long story short. He goes out there, doesn't
pitch, his best struggles, his command.
He's not his off-speed pitches or in the dirt.
He's just he's not as he's typically pretty consistent.
He was not so that night, he calls me.
He's feeling down and I asked him, I said, let me ask you
something. I said when me and you spoke on
the phone for two and a half minutes, but 30 minutes before

(38:00):
you were about to start. Where was your mindset?
Like where was your concerns? And at first he didn't know what
I was talking about but I explained I read back what he
said to me and I don't know if at the time he like recognized
it but this past weekend they were playing in like a big NIT
Tournament here and it was the same thing.
He was going to pitch game two on Sunday, the semifinal game
and his approach to his routine,my boy.

(38:22):
Wife was like, texting me, what he was doing in the Outfield in
his warm up, in his prep, in hisBullpen and all that.
And he went out and he pitched acomplete game.
And at my point is that night, Ididn't say, hey, you didn't
become a good picture, you didn't learn how to pitch in two
weeks, the team you pitched. Good against was better than the
team that you struggled against.I said, what was the difference?

(38:43):
And he goes how I got myself ready to go out in the meadow?
Hey, I said that's it at 11 years old, he got that.
It's well, I beat his head against the wall about route.
I mean I don't really harp on them on the outcome like of
course, we all want our kids to hit a home run every time and
strike everybody out. But like my biggest thing is if
your command is off why like picture is your glove drawer you

(39:05):
know not to get everyone bordersand see if your command is, ask
yourself why? Yep.
And what experiences is having been out there enough with
success and failure? That when you ask yourself, why
you've got an answer. And if you don't have Of an
answer you go, you have to go find somebody that does that.

(39:26):
Let me tell you something about brain chemistry.
And this is preparing you for when your kid becomes a teenager
Do you know what cognition is basically.
It's an understanding of the process that you need to do to
get an outcome. Okay, well, be amygdala in a
teenage boy. His brain is where everything is

(39:46):
the central Clearinghouse for all the emotions of all the
stuff. All the information, all the
instruction is centrally locatedand said to the frontal cortex.
Be aware that a teenage boy has You know, frontal cortex, they
have huge input. Their brain is like this big

(40:08):
ocean of stuff that's looking for a way to be directed and
they'll get through it at the expense of driving dad's and
coaches. Yes.
Well, you just described my lifeand they look at you like, he
has finish on your teeth. You have to be patient with the
fact that even though it's floating around their brain,
they don't know why either. So, you your job, Is, I don't

(40:33):
know. Basically navigate this
amygdala, living a message to the frontal cortex for a good
decision. I see you smiling.
Why? Cause you're describing my life
yet 16? 17 years old.
You were no better than any other teenage boy.
Truth, be patient with the process.
The magic word Greg is. Why when you can get a teenage

(40:56):
boy to ask myself, why that getshim back into were thinking and
feeling? Ealing matchup.
Okay, and that's literally how you compete at a higher level.
It's so important process, and you're feeling process, do not
away each other. That's when you get the most out

(41:17):
of your body and using your son's success and failure, as a
comparison allows him to connectsome dots and don't get cocky
because he'll forget it, you know, and two months.
But at least the why gets him back into the Cognitive
awareness of what it takes to throw, basically throw strikes

(41:38):
in competition. Yeah.
And to me and I say this all thetime that those lessons right
there, I have no ass. I have no like false Notions
that my kids are playing youth, baseball, or my daughter's
playing Youth Soccer because they're going to be professional
soccer players. That if they become good high
school players that would be wonderful.
But to me the lessons through all these Sports success and

(42:01):
failures there, just connect youmentioned I think the dots
they're connecting the dots for the rest of their life in things
that have nothing to do with sports.
It's just the greatest vessel for young kids to learn these
things in our country. Just happens to be through
Athletics. But yeah, that to me, that's the
entire reason we kill ourselves.With all this Youth Sports is so
that they start connecting thosedots and start learning these

(42:23):
lessons. If you can connect two dots to
as a coach, you know, the process of Y and then the
outcome doesn't Define you. It's huge for like I got lucky
because my parents knew nothing about sports.
I can come home and I say, hey Mom, I threw a no-hitter today.
She said, great, did you get an A in English?

(42:44):
I got then I walk into my dad and said, hey Dad, I popped it.
No here today. He said, it great.
How does she do that? I'm going so because we weren't
judged by outcome, because my parents really didn't know a
whole lot about sports. I was never caught up in the
fact that I struck got x amount of guys.
Well, I threw a no-hitter. I always had to go home prepared

(43:06):
to say to answer the question, why, and was like I still
getting A's in school, so I think that helped me deal with
failure, much better than anybody at my age and it's one
of the reasons I was able to be stay competitive, you know, even
though I wasn't physically a prospect that mental approach is

(43:28):
so much more, right? And the great, the greatest
players of all time, have the physical and And the mental
approach because you do if you had to just pick one, if you
told me, you could either have amentally tough competitive and
find any way to do it or just a kid who is blessed with
everything. But had a lazy mentality, I
would take the mental approach by couldn't have, I would

(43:49):
ideally like both. But if I had to just pick one,
I'd pick the kid who just had the approach, the routine, the
mental toughness to battle, to find the answers, to find out
why he's failing over the naturally, talented kid, any day
of the week? Yeah.
The mentally Tufts At least skilled athlete will always win
over the great, a great athlete that isn't mentally prepared.

(44:09):
So that the bottom line is everykid is different playing the
same Sport and you kind of have to deliver a message through a
team environment or that youngsters going to get nurtured
with his passion for the game. If you have you heard that word
ignition? Yeah, it's like once.
Okay. It's like your kicks are

(44:29):
searching for is a coach is finding a Ignition in the kids,
you working with and that ignition in baseball.
Even if they never or football or whatever the sport is, even
if they don't play on the Collegiate level, where the pro
level that passion for what theywere doing in the high school

(44:50):
days, will carry them for a lifetime.
As far as self-esteem. Understanding what the process
does that, the best team doesn'talways win?
The best prepared team wins those?
Well, it sounds trite, still hold up and your we're seeing it
in the baseball playoffs right now.

(45:11):
The most talented teams in this last Wild Card thing most
talented teams two of the four teams didn't didn't make it the
better prepared teams did and there's a lesson to be learned.
The hardest thing is that as a parent or a coach I talked about
it a little I would it would tear me.

(45:33):
Me up to see my son strike out with the bases loaded.
I mean, it would probably hurt me, or bother me with more than
it bother him, but you have to realize, it's not about me.
It's not about you. It's about your kid by the
athlete. Could do working with and you
mentioned something earlier. I don't know if you remember,

(45:53):
but you said your oldest boy, has found a coach that just gets
it. Your your athlete as a parent.
You should really do a screeningthat your child is playing with
a coach that knows how to nurture young people.
Because if it becomes about the coach and winning and losing,

(46:16):
it's going to be a bad experience and a bad experience
will actually cost a kid more than actually failing himself
and not having an answer. So, If I could coach, you said
are listening to us, talk right now or parents.
You know, look at yourself in the mirror.
If you're a coach, is it about the kid or is it about you?

(46:38):
And as the parent, don't let what your kid is doing between
the lines, make or break, your ego as a parent because your job
as a parent is to put them in a situation where they can succeed
and help them when they don't ifthat makes sense.
Absolutely winning winning is a byproduct win.
Is a byproduct of every single thing we do at the Youth Level.

(47:01):
Now, you get up to some of the higher levels at the college and
the Collegiate. Yes.
Professionally winning is the only objective I guess, what?
Yeah, what's this what you have a job for us to horse?
But at the Young leveled and I say this to all our teams we
coach our kids. Now Tom we coach our kids hard
like our tackle football team that we coach.
It's hard. It's demanding because it has to

(47:22):
be right. You're trying to coach 25 kids
to play tackle football. There's a lot going on, but at
the end, the day, our message tothem is we are not going to win
because we make winning a priority.
We are going to win because we are going to force you guys, and
encourage you guys, and hold, you guys to such a standard that
you're going to do so many more things right than the other team
were playing. And as a result, we're going to

(47:44):
win. Yeah, you're back together
prepared than the opposing team.You'll have a better chance.
Have a positive outcome. No there's still no guarantee no
doubt, but when you go between the lines, if you're the best
prepared that you can be as an individual and a team, then your
chances for a positive outcome or increased exponentially, no

(48:04):
doubt it. This last thing and I'm going to
let you go Thee. I want to ask you the questions
that people ask me that. I don't have an answer to sure.
And this is very specific to baseball.
Okay, so the biggest thing we see at this competitive level of
baseball is there's young kids. Throwing curveballs.
There's young kids throwing overthe course of a four day

(48:24):
tournament. You could throw 100 pitches
right? There's now there's pitching
rules. Every tournament we has, has
pitching rules and I've never been around a coach.
Whether it was a coach I work with, or a coach of just
somebody who coaches, my kids, who I've ever seen abused, any
of our players, right? But your best kids are going to
throw 100 pitches in a weekend at 10 years old and they're

(48:46):
going to throw breaking balls. My own kids do it.
Give me some like what are the messages that we can tell these
concerned parents? Who on one side?
They want their kid to be challenged.
They want to go play in these tournaments.
They want to play a lot of, you know, we could play seven,
eight, nine games in a five-day weekend and these big, what is
the balance between putting yourkid in those competitive

(49:06):
environments and letting them letting them learn to compete
and learn to battle. But then also understanding
there are limitations at their age and how do we manage?
You know, pitches and arm care and arm count and overworking.
Playing 12 months a year versus seasonal.
Like when I was growing up like all these things that are
floating around specifically baseball, I don't have the

(49:28):
answers to What's the best way to handle it?
I'll tell you where the researchis taking me and I've been in
I've been blessed to be a part of it for piss.
A specific pitch. Totals.
Go to a SMI dot org and Glen flySig.
Did the collection of all the research.

(49:48):
It will give you Age specific pitch totals per inning per game
per week, per month and per season, and they're basically
within parameters that will allow a team to be competitive,
even though their best pitcher can't throw every day.

(50:09):
So a specific pitch, totals acid, my dot-org, it's all
there. As far as curveballs curveballs
thrown properly are Actually theeasiest pitch to throw, it's
easier on the arm, but if there's any twisting motion or
snapping motion with a figure, but the fingers that's very hard

(50:30):
on the elbow. So make sure if you're going to
allow your kids to throw curve balls, that they're taught the
correct way. And again, you can go to mustard
or national pitching.com to get the correct way to throw a
curveball. And then I'm trying to think of
the other thing you asked, In a given year and a given year.

(50:52):
That's a big thing right now. Yep.
You want us to throw year round but there has to be some time in
every Fisheries year where he takes two to three months off
from the mount. Okay.
The our young athletes push too much.
They don't throw enough so you can throw your round on flat

(51:13):
ground, but you got to give yourself two to three months
depending on workloads. Yeah.
Just stay off the mount if that makes sense.
So you're doing online. Sure.
That we cover creates like a long toss short like at their
other distances based on your age and the offseason that you
encourage kids to throw at even though it's all backgrounds.

(51:35):
All kinds of programs out there.Long toss and you can follow
follow the bouncing ball. We have a really good young
child's program. Alan Jagger has one.
What I found is long toss is as far as you can throw perfectly,
A on a line. Some people leave, you have to
throw it as far as you can. Don't worry about your

(51:57):
mechanics. Basically, when you're throwing
long toss, it's to tolerance Throne as far as you can
perfectly. And if you're throwing long toss
a day, after you say your son through four Innings yesterday
Long Toss. Today might only be 70 feet.
If he hasn't thrown for a week-long, theis might be 120

(52:18):
feet. Okay, that is how far can you
throw? Throw perfectly and that leads
me to my last thing and again, I'm a user of it.
I'm a subscriber, I've signed upand I know it's a big program,
Clayton Kershaw. I mean you got some really cool
people. You've mentioned it a few times
but we always want to leave our listeners with tools with
Resources with. Okay.
Where does the conversation go? After you, listen to Listen to

(52:39):
our conversations here, like where do you go?
Find this information. We're going to share the
websites on. Well, share the website, you've
provided, but I also want you totalk a little bit about mustard
and I want you to talk a bit a little bit.
Because I think it's a great tool as someone who's used it
with his two young Sons, you know.
Just to really have someone takea biomechanical.
Look at little things. You might not fix it.
All right, there they're young, but it's just a nice starting

(53:02):
point. So maybe just talk a little bit
about why you started mustard. What you think, the biggest
benefit that it has two familiesand coaches, as they kind of
grow up with their young children and baseball, or
whatever they're doing. That would be great and you use
the correct word. It's a tool.
What we were looking at is our Elite athletes you guys that
have thirty thousand dollars fora motion analysis have access to

(53:26):
everything that's out there in the world.
How can we democratize? What we give to our Elite guys,
for the mom and dad of a 12-yearold daughter or son.
So what we did with the creationof mustard is we came up with a
technology and I've surrounded myself with some really smart
people. We had the model based on almost

(53:47):
a thousand pictures and around. 180, Elite quarterbacks for
throwing. And what we did is we took what
we would normally do in a laboratory with the
light-sensitive God's in a three-dimensional motion
analysis captured, and a lot of parent that had a cell phone to
film from the two angles, send that data to the cloud and come

(54:10):
back with a motion analysis of their child's delivery.
Based on our variables, that we,that will give you the
efficiency and point you in in the direction to fix.
So in effect, what we did Greg was democratized what the elite
guys get and put it in the handsof a moment.
Dad of a 12 year old and it's probably the best thing I've

(54:33):
ever done. And they the cool thing is, it's
free. So there's no reason to.
There's no reason not to have a look at it.
And if you want to take it to your coach, or you could teach
yourself, we've made it. If you've looked at it, we made
it as simple as we possibly could.
And the efficacy it holds up. It's pretty solid little too.

(54:54):
Yeah. I mean, I personally did it and
I you said, you do do three fromone angle which, you know, from
the side. Depending if your child's a
righty or Lefty you pick the appropriate side and then you do
it from, you know, traditionallyhead-on like from the batter's
box and you send it in and then the other thing, you know, I
knew some of this stuff, right? The strong front side where, you
know, don't you know a lot of people I know you teach bring
your chest to your glove as opposed to bring your glove back

(55:16):
you know, there's a couple different ways, we will do it.
The thing I thought was the coolest Was how long the stride
should be in relation to your height and how?
And when you guys measure and you talk about, if your head is
going down on your load, like when you pick up your knee and
you drive home, if your head goes down too much, start in
that position, bend your knees, more and starting, you're ready,
like that. To me, was all a little stuff

(55:37):
that I genuinely found interesting and eyes, find eyes,
find myself. Like, reminding my kids like,
hey, Bend in your set position or, you know, you talked about
how you grip off-speed pitches, sure, set your wrist in the
glove. All right you know it takes
stress off the arms like this. Yeah, trust me.
I've watched it. I don't watch this awesome.
If I was there, I'd give you a big hug, that's totally cool.

(55:59):
Well, I'm one of these days you might have a DM with just a
bunch of 10 and 11 year, olds pitching mechanics.
And I'm always just give me a heads up.
I know. Well Tom, I can't thank you
enough. This is a conversation like I
said that I've been wanting to have with you since we kind of
kicked around the idea of doing you think and just to be able to
bring families and coaches and Kids your expertise, your

(56:22):
background, your experience, andallow them to kind of learn from
it again, as a tool, as a resource is just so beneficial
to our journey here in our mission at you think.
So, just for you to take this time and share, a lot of that
with us is has been a blast I'llhang out with you anytime.
So just just let me know. We'll go for it, okay, be
careful what you ask for becauseI have a lot of questions.

(56:43):
I'm counting a guy with a machete, Tom, the kid.
Thank you are take care. Alright, see you later.
Thank you, Tom. I hope you guys enjoyed that
conversation with Tom house as much as I enjoyed having it.
It was just really cool. Again, one of the guys that I
knew in the beginning, like I needed him on this show.

(57:03):
I, you know, if you follow them on Twitter, you can see he's
constantly posting, you know, information on Pitch counts and
mechanics, his mustard app. I actually said, well, before I
had the conversation with him for you think actually went on
and subscribed and, you know, did a little pitching evaluation
of my two boys. It's actually a pretty cool app
the way they kind of, you know, kind of embed.
Biomechanics in the charting their body positioning and where

(57:28):
they need to improve and what not, it's actually pretty
interesting. It's a really cool tool.
So, Tom house, I mean, he's worked with some of the best
throwers, right? I mean, not just, you know,
baseball pitchers and obviously quarterbacks anybody who's in
the world of throwing has been impacted and influenced by Tom
house. And I think with today's world
of young kids being exposed to, you know, playing more games and

(57:49):
throwing and you know, arm you see all these kids with elbow
pain and shoulder. Palms.
Whatnot. At a young age.
I just think somebody like this,that has such a wealth of
experience in and just has such a great background and making
sure kids and are learning the games, the right way, right?
Are learning to do things the right way.
So as they continue to build on that Foundation as they get
older, they're doing it in a safe way and it healthy way.

(58:10):
And then also optimizing that they become the best player that
they can. So really appreciate Tom house
for taking some time to come chat with us.
If you guys don't follow them onTwitter, he's a great follow and
just an overall. Great guy in super smart,
highlighted the show right now, we are in a big Syracuse Orange.
We're big fans here on the show,Tasha what a weekend.

(58:33):
I mean, I feel like every time we talk, it's just one big
Syracuse went after an if winning every game was easy.
Everybody would do it. That's true.
My dad said something interesting.
He was like, since all of his years is of coaching, there's
only been three teams. He's been on that have had a
16-0 start, so, it's pretty, pretty rare.
And yeah, everyone's excited, I got Go to the game this weekend
actually in New York, so it was really fun.

(58:56):
But does he attribute their success this year to our
segments on the Syracuse Orange here on?
You? Think this has he made the
connection yet. I mean, if he doesn't I don't
know what he's thinking. I think I think because we were
talking about it, that's probably the reason why they're
doing so well, we'll see. We have Clemson this weekend,
so, alright, so here's the baby,they beat Clemson.

(59:18):
He's coming on next week's show,that's it.
He has to I mean, it's here you're his daughter.
Yeah, we I think I could get make it happen.
He would come on for you, please.
Hey, what do you want, please? All right.
Well then we're all following weyou think has become a Syracuse
fansite organically. Stay tuned.

(59:41):
We're enjoying the ride with them.
Speaking of fans for fan questions.
We have a good note from Bragg way.
Yeah, really good segue. Exact way connected by really
good. We have brought from Instagram.
It says, when your kids have games at the same time, what do
you do? That's that's tough.
I'll tell you, it can't. That's a good one because every
family goes through it, I can't tell you the last time, like

(01:00:04):
every family of one of the teamsthat my kids are on, were like,
every family member was there typically the parents are are
split between the two and with us having three kids, like
Saturday mornings. This like, for example, this
upcoming Saturday, my oldest son, will have his tackle
football game. My daughter will have a soccer
game at some point on Saturday and then both the boys will

(01:00:25):
start the They have a weekend-long, baseball
tournament. So, traditionally what we do is
I go to the team that I'm helping with.
So, right now, in the fall, I'm coaching the football team.
So I will, I always go to the football game.
So, if I miss my younger son, TJ's, baseball games, there's
other coaches, that do it, and they kind of know the

(01:00:46):
arrangement, because my obligation in the fall is to the
football team. So, then the same thing in the
spring, if I'm, if there's a conflict, I'll go to my son.
My younger son's baseball team. I helped coach that one and I
won't go to my older Sons team because I don't coach that one.
And then typically, what I do isat least every other or every
couple weeks I'll miss the boys because obviously I want to go

(01:01:08):
watch my daughter play soccer, even though I don't coach her
team, so we kind of do our best that my wife will go to one, and
I'll go to the other and then we'll try to switch and some of
the multi-day sports. Like, if she takes one kid to
their Saturday games on Sunday, she'll go to the others, and
then my parents live here. They'll take.
So we kind of divide and conquerfall.

(01:01:28):
It's the biggest challenge just because we've talked about this
a lot. There's the most sports going
on, but we typically default to whichever team, I'm coaching,
that's the one that I go to. My wife goes to the other and
then we do our best to try to flip it.
The next time as long as there'sno conflict with the team, I'm
coaching so it's it's hard. Most every couple we know are

(01:01:51):
not experiencing their child, their children's games together
for the most part. It's kind of a bummer.
You can't make fun of people's. It's hard.
It's just hard. I mean it's even worse.
When you go out of town you can you have an out-of-town
tournament, but one of your other kids has it local like in
town. Tournament one parent to end.
It's not you know it's every family that we play sports with

(01:02:13):
is dealing with this so it's it's a challenge I guess my
advice to answer the question. More directly would be just do
your best to share time that youalways see all of your children,
play at least in some sort some form or fashion at times.
You don't want to it's easy to go to your oldest.
Later, it's easy to go to the travel team.
It's easy, right? We all find ourselves
gravitating towards one. Maybe it's more fun to watch or

(01:02:35):
whatever but your kids know whether you're there or not.
So you got to make sure you do everything.
You can to try to see all of them at least somewhat equally
that's good. The next one's from JP.
Also from Instagram. He says, how do you pick what
hat to wear for each episode? How many baseball caps?
Do you think you own? I owned hundreds of baseball

(01:02:58):
hats 100, so it's a great question.
I typically, as long as I remember, I typically go on
recording days. I typically go, you think at
shout out to you think hat, I collect minor league baseball
hats. What just happened to have one
sitting here. So like I've worn this one a
lot, it's the Columbia fireflies.

(01:03:18):
I have I really I think the likeyeah like so if I go to a random
City or go to a Kyle, go to liketheir local team store in New
Era makes most of them and they just make cool hats and their
logos are cool. And they're fun and they do like
special edition throwback one. So, like the local team here in
Charlotte is a Triple-A affiliate with the White Sox
their the Charlotte Knights, butthey do all sorts of different

(01:03:41):
themes. Throughout the course of the
year. So every time they do a theme,
they come out with a one year. They did like the Charlotte
Pitmasters where they made like this cartoon, like, barbecue
sandwich. So, like there's all these fun,
fun ones. Charleston RiverDogs has a
bunch. When I was out in Seattle, I got
some of the Washington, you knowminor league teams and so as I
go to these different cities if they're Affiliated and they have
a minor league baseball team andthey have some cool hats, I pick

(01:04:05):
them up as just kind of like a souvenir and I have dozens and
dozens of the hat. So the ones a lot of the times I
Wear hats. I don't even know who the teams
are. Hmm.
People like oh, what team is that?
Mike? I don't know.
But the logo school, you know, will there ever be a you think
beanie There should be a you think beanie think I should be

(01:04:25):
going to think beanie. That's a huge seller.
It is. Winter need to get on that.
Winter is coming. Getting hugs here.
I bet about it is getting cold, they're not for people, and
although many of our last fan question is from Trisha from
Instagram. She says, what is your opinion
on playing time? Requirements, and youth sports.

(01:04:49):
Yeah, I think it's a good. I think it's a good thing.
I think again something we've talked a lot about here.
It's all based on what you sign up for if you're playing Rec
Sports or through some sort of like wreck organization and its
you know some sort of instructional.
It's the first time a lot of these kids are playing like
that's the way our football right now is set up its Pop
Warner, it's through a local it's called South Charlotte,

(01:05:12):
South Charlotte wreck and Everyone has to play.
There's minimum play requirements.
They track it on the sideline, it's like a full procedure and I
think it's great. I mean, I think it's good.
These kids for the most of them including my own son are playing
for the first time and how else do you learn and develop, if you
don't get opportunities to take what you doing practice and do
it in the game in some capacity.So I think at that level the,

(01:05:34):
you know, first time playing at the introductory kind of Rec
level, I think it's great. I think the kids need those need
those experiences. They need those reps.
Now, as you get to the other levels and we've covered this,
the travel ball, the more competitive, the tryout, you
know, the quote unquote, try outtype teams, I think the best
kids should play and if it's nota team that your plant, your

(01:05:55):
kids not playing a lot or it's not a team that you don't feel
comfortable, the kids, don't rotate enough or they don't then
it's not the team for you, then go find a different team.
So again I just think as long aseveryone seeks out the team that
best suits their own child's needs, their own families
desires, what they're looking toget out of Sports.
There's something for everyone, but you just have to be honest

(01:06:15):
with what you're expecting. Don't want to be on the best
travel ball team because you want to be able to tell your
friends, your kid made the soccer team or the baseball
team, but then you don't like that.
They run it like they run it, which is highly competitive and
the best kids play. So there's something for
everyone, just be really smart on where you put your child.
I think that would be my biggestadvice to families and don't put

(01:06:36):
your child in a spot that they are not comfortable in and don't
pick, you know, don't pick a team or a coach or Something
that doesn't know whose approachmight not align with yours and
that's okay. You know, not everyone has to do
things for everyone, but there there are opportunities out
there for everyone. And whether that's at a Rec
introductory, you know, introductory level or at a

(01:06:57):
hyper-competitive, the best man wins.
We do cuts, we do tryouts, whatever it is, are anywhere in
between it's all out there. Yeah, that's good.
That's the worst. One parents are on travel teams
and then complain about playing time.
You're like you're on a competitive team.
You don't want it then then go to a different team like that's
fine. There's nothing wrong with it.

(01:07:18):
I always say don't ask the team to change to suit your needs.
You need to go out and seek a team that fits your needs.
You heard it here first. That's all the van and put it on
a t-shirt. Put it on a, you think beanie?
Okay. Yes.
That's all the fan questions fortoday.
Keep summoning them. Greg loves answering them.

(01:07:39):
You think we're at Greg, Olson on Tick, Tock, Instagram, and
Twitter. I appreciate you guys, as always
Tasha, thank you. Good luck orange.
Thank you guys so much for continuing to listen to us here
on you think, please continue torate review.
Subscribe wherever you, get yourpodcasts and we look forward.
We'll see you guys next week.