Recap Show: Darrell Coulter

Welcome to The Baseball Awakening Podcast where we dive into the raw, unfiltered, unsexy side of player development.

Summary:

On this episode, Host, Geoff Rottmayer, recaps his conversation with Darrell Coulter of STARTTPitching.com. The biggest takeaways that he discussed on this show are:

• His process of getting a deep understanding of guys and their understanding of baseball.
• His five step process to becoming a world class pitcher.
• Understanding your why.
• Understanding and mastering your pitches.
• Understanding how to read and study hitters.
• Understanding how to develop game day strategies.

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Email Address: geoff@baseballawakening.com

Transcribe:

Hey guys Geoff Rottmayer here with the Baseball Awakening recap show where I share with you the biggest takeaways I got from my conversation with Darrell Coulter – as well as how I plan to implement what I have learned with my players that train with me at my academy in Tulsa Oklahoma.

Again, as I always say, we want to hear from you because different things mean different thing to different people so it would be interesting to see how you guys interpret something that Darrell said or something that I am going to say today. I will make a show reading your email because we can all learn something from it, so my email is going to be geoff@baseballawakening.com, so so me your thoughts, comment, or feedback.

This conversation with Darrell was great. Darrell is a pitching strategies. He help guys take things to another level. There is the physical part, which is what it is and its important, there is the mental part, which is what it is and its important, and then there is the developing game plan and strategy that is based of understanding who you are, understand what pitch you throw and have masters, understanding how to read hitters, and have confidence in the very next pitch that you are going to throw to get hitters out. The first step of the whole process though is to get guys to trust you, develop that relationship and have an honest conversation to where guys feel like they can open up to you. And get a deep understand of them and their understanding of the game of baseball.

I love his process and as he explained it it starts with  understand your “why” which he refers to as the IDEA Assessment, then it goes to understand “what” in that one needs to understand the mind shift change that needs to happen – going from compare and convince to compete and contribute. then its goes into the “How” which is Mastering your pitches – throw your pitches with grip, pressure, forearm angle until you can not go wrong with it, until you have zero hesitation standing on the rubber getting ready to throw that pitch to get hitters out. from there it goes to “Now” which is Reading and studying hitters – understand what the hitter patterns and tendencies and understand his swing and what is approach is is going to help you understand how you need to approach this guys. And lastly its about putting together a Game Day Strategy that is based on competing and contributing and is based on having confidence in who you are and your pitches and you have done your homework to successful execute the plan and get guys out.

Its a really great process, I am a big believer in it. And the same concept can be used for hitters, which is another conversation for another time. But as Darrell explain that most guys do not get out a A ball, who have all the physical tools in the world and amazingly talents, but they cant get past A ball because of an indecision problem. The do not understand themselves, they are not convince in their pitches, and they are not prepared for the hitters that are getting ready to face who is taking food off your table. The best analogy he used was think of an NFL QB – they are all physically talented, but the ones that study the defense and understand their strongest players and weakest players on the field along with his strength and weakness  and he has a plan going in is going to be much better off than the other guy who doesn’t study film and does understand what they are good at and not good at and will not be confidence is he decisions out there and anytime their is hesitate you respond slower and things do not work in your favor.

Another great thing Darrell said was that this is going to take a mind shift change. Too many guys, and its not their fault, are in the compare and convince mindset. We constantly compare ourself to everyone else at the showcase they attend because they are putting up better numbers or i ma right there with them, and I have too convince the evaluator and coach that I belong. SO one the baseball field I am comparing my self to the other guys on the field and trying to our perform him instead of just competing and finding a way to contribute to help your team win a game. I am trying to our perform him that I get away from my game plan and strategy. Everyone is different, and if you shift to a compete and contribute mindset and focus your energy on studying hitters and executing a strategy that is going to get guys out, then you will finally reach your potential and even over achieve as a pitcher or even hitter that goes through process.

But what is the key to it? you have to be intellectually interest, emotional interested, and personally interested. Mean you want to take the time to learn and study hitters, you want to take the time to master pitches, you want to take the time and connect emotionally with everything you do in the game, training, and practice. There needs to be an understanding of why you play the game and what is going to motivate you to keep going when things get tough. If you are not intellectually interested or emotionally interested or personally interested then this game isn’t going to have you around. The game will go on just fine without you. But if you are a guys that is interested intellectually, emotionally, and personally, then you need to get with Darrell and let him help you get your mind right, shift the mindset to this compete and contribute and understand who you are, learn how to read and study hitters while mastering your pitches and going to be what Darrell can help you with to develop awesome game day strategy.

The other part I like about our conversation was the routine part, routines are great and like Darrel said that is the gist of what he does with his STARTT Pitching clients – Specific Thoughts Action Require Today and Tomorrow. Routines allow you to get into a rhythm and allow to flow through things instead of mindlessly wonder through the day and having unpredictable results. Being able to develop a routine and sticking to a routines is going to help you measure and evaluate.

SO yeah awesome conversation with my good friend Darrel. My biggest takeaways is that the conversation is that we have got to help guys shift the mind set from compare and convince to compete and contribute. We have to help guys understand whit strength and weakness, we have to get guys to understand that they need to throw their pitches enought to where they have trust in it to throw it when ever they want, and we have to get guys thinking and learning how to read hitters to get them out. All of these things have to be thought and no one is better than Darrell. I talk to him quite a bit to help with my guys.