Tulsa Baseball Lessons – Game Planning
The 5 Pillars of The Strategic Advantage Baseball Player Development: Game Planning
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Geoff and Darrell talk about The 5 Pillars of The Strategic Advantage Baseball Player Development: Game Planning
Geoff Rottmayer Twitter – @geoffrottmayer
Geoff Rottmayer Email – grottmayer@athletic-mission.com
Darrell Coulter Twitter – @darrellcoulter
Darrell Coulter Email – dc@starttpitching.com
Website: www.strategicbaseballpodcast.com
– Transcribe –
Tulsa Baseball Lessons All right there, I’m gonna let you kick it off. Today we’re doing the five pillars of the strategic advantage paper fraud, that number four it game planning.
Yeah, and we’re just gonna pick up and and kind of tie it together with what we’ve done up to this point. It’s really like Hey, get in our mind, right, having having a good mindset, and having that strategic advantage mindset. And then how that drives our offseason training.
And then last week, we kind of talked about how we transition into our preseason practice and the things that we have to do to really get our baseball skills and in pitching specific, our pitches game ready. And now that we have them game ready, we can kind of go into this in season game planning in.
And you and I are big about this because to me, I think a lot of the confusion happens with the the mental side and the end and kind of the strategic side of baseball. And and what we try to do here man is really tie it together and help these guys see that the middle side is not just about the mental conditioning that we hear about or a lot of the, the internet gurus market.
And, and again, to me, I take mental conditioning, and it’s part of the offseason training, it’s like it’s important and and we want to build a routine of, of learning how to breathe and controlling our breathing and how to think and clear our mind. And stay focused all those things could be key skills. Tulsa Baseball Lessons But when you and I talk about the mineral side, we talk about literally like the why, and the what and the how.
And so that’s what we take away from practice. And when we say here and start talking about game ready pitches, then we have to understand, you know, when we want to use that pitch and how that pitch is going to move, and what is it going to do. So we know that hey man based on the situation and count the that I can actually use it strategically versus an opponent.
And I think that’s the transition piece for this week is like understanding that now that we’ve we’ve got our game ready pitches that we got to help these guys have that mindset shift from preseason to end season that hey, now it truly is about the opponent, if you’re focused on your capability, and the season started, then we’re in trouble. We got to transition from capable and able to throw our master pitches or our game ready pitches. And really understand now it’s about reading and studying the opponent. It’s about understanding, like what that hitter knows about me. Tulsa Baseball Lessons And then the chess match starts.
And I think this is either super exciting for a lot of players, Jeff, or I think this is the pieces like Dude, I just want the catcher to call the game or the coach called the game and, and they really don’t have no emotional attachment to the pitch outside of the outcome. And so I think when it comes to game planning, and it comes to strategy, like this is a critical piece of what we teach because, like, you know, me, man, I want the pitchers to be the CEO of their career, you got to own that pitch. And, and again, man, I want collaboration with the coaches and the catchers and everybody else that can give us input.
But at the same time, man, as a pitcher, we were the center of attention literally like you got to control that. And you got to want that responsibility. And so a big part of that responsibility that for us and the way we Develop guys as when you leave the preseason, and you transition to NC to Mike, you got to own that outcome, like you got to own the execution. And you got to own the strategy.
And that’s kind of how we walk it backwards through that, hey, win win, you know what that hitters trying to do to you. And you know, like, what your pre pitch decision making process is, then literally the game just becomes a chess match it comes about, you understand the situation account, you understand that what you want to enter to do the swings when your mess or take it kind of where do you want to locate a pitch to get that hitter to do that, the swing, swing or Mister, take it in, in that situation account. And then ultimately, we pick the absolute best pitcher throw.
And I think when we break it down into that, then we give these guys an idea of like, Hey, man, like there’s more to this than velocity, there’s more to it than me just throw in nasty pitches, like I got to be able to strategically execute these pitches. And that is not luck when that happens. Tulsa Baseball Lessons And so for it to not be luck or wishful thinking, or really the inconsistency that you and I see most of the time when we have people come in, and they talk about live and when we walk them through, like what’s the biggest challenges you think you’re having? Almost every time we hear consistency, you know, and then when we start talking about bullpens was like well, what’s it look like in the bullpen? Well, he’s pretty good in the bullpen, then what’s happening between the bullpen and the game now.
And more often than not, if it’s not a physical thing, and it’s not a capability thing, then it’s a strategy problem. It’s that really once the game starts, they don’t get the concept that that hitter is game planning against them. But that hitter, another team and the coaches are trying to figure out like, what pitches you’re going to throw in when you’re going to throw them so they can help their hitters have a game plan.
And so as a pitcher and parents and coaches if if we if we kind of blow by this and kind of act like as just high school players or they’re just you know, we’re we’re missing a huge opportunity to educate these guys about Hey, man, if you want to play at the next level, or you really want to be a really good High School player, the more you grasp this, how to read the study hitters are reading study pitchers, and then really seeing it that it’s more than just stats and numbers. It really is about patterns, habits and tendencies.
It’s about situations and count it’s about coaches philosophies, there’s a lot that goes into the strategic side of it that we tried to teach these guys. Tulsa Baseball Lessons And what’s cool about a Jeff is when they see the game that way, then the game slows down for these guys man and and again, it it opens up the whole aspect of like, Hey man, like this really is a strategic game.
This is not just about my velocity. This is not just about my athleticism that it can feel like when you’re younger. But when you start moving up into that, that JV and varsity level and then on the college and pro ball, then you understand like hey man, a lot of times the kids have the same type of talent and capability it’s really comes down to execution and strategy.
And I think once they see that, that fourth pillar man and they understand how important strategy is to their success, then it does become a critical piece of the developmental process. And it makes the game foreign man that’s the piece that sits here and and really takes it the you know, the boring baseball and turn to them to like this is truly strategic. This is really about you know, me versus an opponent or the pitcher versus the hitter.
And and when it comes down to that, then I think that’s where we can find the that competitive spirit in and see where guys really want to step up and play. And from a 10,000 foot view, that’s kind of where it is. Now we’ll go deeper into it with our clients and the way we do it here. Tulsa Baseball Lessons But at the same time, when we look at it from that perspective, like Hey, man, that my mindset is going to drive my training, it’s going to drive my practice until I get my stuff game ready.
And then that same mindset that strategic advantage mindset is going to drive my preparation whether it’s pregame and and really tried to sit down with the coaches and catchers and trying to figure out like how we want to attack each hitter and then once we get in game kind of seeing the real time reactions to our game plan and then what kind of adjustments do we make pitch the pitch are bad, too bad and the ending the ending and again, that’s that’s about as deep as I want to get on this specific show today.
But I do want guys to see like this fourth pillar man, it’s like critical to your baseball success. And the best players in the world get it they get that the that the mental side is the strategic side. The mental side is really about how I think and How do I prepare? And then how do I take that with my physical skills and the things that I’m capable of doing? And how that shows up on game day?
And, and again, man, I’m not trying to downplay how, how difficult baseball is baseball is a hard game to play at a high level, and to play consistently. But the guys that we’ve seen in and honestly, you know, the best players, they get that everything that I can do has to give me a strategic advantage. Tulsa Baseball Lessons And the things that that I don’t do, that somebody else is doing is probably given them a strategic advantage over me.
So the more that we understand the the little pieces of the game, kind of those intangible aspects of the game, that that lets us slow the game down and really see the game, the way we need to see it based on our talent and our capabilities. Those kind of seem like those are the ones that kind of intersect and come together and and eventually end up making the best baseball players man.
So again, that people got questions about that they could reach out to us because this is a big piece of what we do at athletic mission. And, and, and again, it takes time, this is not something you’re going to learn in a 30 minute less than this is something that really kind of is a big picture integration into our whole training process, this whole strategic advantage baseball process.
And when you take it, you know the totality of the whole program, the the mindset, and and the offseason training, the preseason preparation and practice, the in season game planning. Tulsa Baseball Lessons And then next week, when we talk about, like how it all culminates, and shows up on game day, then I think, parents and players and coaches can really see like, Hey, man, all five of these things are truly interconnected.
And that if there’s one of them missing, or I got a hole in my game, and it could be any one of those four pillars, man that could really be causing you to struggle, especially when you get to the higher level. So having this base understanding of these, these five pillars, and understanding how during, you know, what time of the year and what season it is, like, what you should be focused on that that is a critical piece in the player development and, and we’re seeing it here man, as we kind of cycled through the in season stuff with our guys.
And they’re finally grasping by caveman, the the fruits of what I did last offseason is paying off right now. And sometimes it’s hard to see when the seasons four or five months away. But now I think these guys that we’re having some great conversations with these guys now about how, you know, it’s not about capability anymore in season, it’s really about strategy, it’s about execution.
And it’s about the opponent. And and it’s cool, man, because we’re having some really cool conversations with our guys in season. There are, you know, these high school sophomores and juniors and seniors that are really starting to see that for the first time. Like, Hey, man, you know, what my decision making process and how I prepared really did give me an advantage on game day, man.
And so that’s the cool part about this piece of it. But I think as we see and walk through this man, then we tie these these five pillars together, hopefully the the listeners out there, and the coaches and parents and players are seeing like, hey, if you don’t have, you know, these five pillars laid out in your programming that, you know, there’s the odds are the odds are that you know, what you’re really not performing at your best or your fullest capabilities.
And, and that’s kind of what, you know, we try to bring to the forefront and want people to see and take away from today’s show, man.
Yeah, for sure. And you know, when you and I first met that we had a conversation, this was my biggest takeaway that I learned from you was, yeah, okay, we all understand the game played by the opponent, but know the mindset of game day about the opponent with a big eye opener for me. And it did for a lot of the guy that we work with, when we start talking about,
Hey, man, you got to read and study the pitcher, you got to read inside the hitter, you got to read through the defense, you know, when you start reading, studying, you see the game in a different light, which allows you to gameplan which allowed you to feel confident in what you’re getting ready to do and in your preparation. Tulsa Baseball Lessons And so and then that’s why, like, you’re not talking all the time now. Instead than being the time where we see the biggest growth because of the conversation like how are we seeing the game? How do we make our judgement?
What are we seeing, and how did we attack it? And so, this is, this is my favorite piece of it all, you know, thank you. And I’ve been doing this, having the conversation and really just getting these guys to think about the opponent more and what they could have done, how they should have attacked him and then what they did to you based on what you’re capable of doing. And so that that right there, when we start looking at the development process and this five pillars, you can’t do this and the you can do that better once you understand all the other pieces when you take advantage of how you practically take advantage of how you try and take advantage of the minds. That, all of that allowed you to come together.
And really, like you said, Be be the player that you can be be to reach your potential or the player and, and actually go out there and compete against an opponent that’s really good, and actually compete. And so this is the cool part about what we do. And I think that when we say a game made about the opponent, they’re the they’re the whole mind that they go to that that I think people don’t really understand that I think that’s what’s really cool about what we do and how we help our guys.
Yeah, and I think one thing we got to be careful of is parents and coaches, we think talent automatically translates into strategic or our it gives us an advantage and at the lower levels, they can you can just overpower weaker competition. But when you start leveling up and you really start playing against guys that are as good or better than you and have the same capabilities and the same talent you have then you really got to sit down and think okay, what is going to be the differentiator in here and and really when you start looking at you know the patterns habits and tendencies of players and did you look at the patterns and habits and tendencies and have a specific player
then having that that information is this as important as having all the statistics that are having a 40 page scouting report because it literally it literally gives you that that something to look for in the game and when you’re focused on the things that you think that they’re going to do to are you know that this guy’s patterns habits and tendencies are then the brain is going to take on a whole new level a new level of confidence because it already feels like it knows what’s about to happen. And then when these guys see that it does happen that day man this this preparation is what happened or the opposite.
They see the preparation and now they see that the guide made an adjustment. Now we got now we got to make the next adjustment there’s the chess match.
And so but but if we don’t have no pregame preparation, and we don’t have really any kind of idea of what we’re going to try to do or planned strategically approach each hitter pitcher then guess what man we’re going to suffer the first two or three of bats until we try to figure it out and a lot of times man it’s too late It’s too late to make the adjustment you know with the damage has been done and we’re down five to nothing already.
Tulsa Baseball Lessons And so nowadays man especially with video and with all the different resources that we have out there now man you can gameplan almost against anybody it might not be a major league scouting report depth but you know what you don’t need a major league depth scouting report to build the game plan and kind of see the patterns habits and tendencies to players and kind of just get a feel of like you know what they’re looking for and and how you can attack that player but I think the mindset you touched on
Amanda mindset is a critical piece that we want people to take away like having that mindset that game day is about the opponent kind of gets players out of their own head to about whether they think they’re good enough or not and it really just focus in on going and playing the game and and for young players especially man that’s what we want you’ve trained your the whole offseason you busted your butt preseason practice to get ready and and to kind of get your pitches game ready.
Now, you know, the games got to be the sanctuary man the games got to be the funnest part in and if they don’t feel like that to you is because you don’t have a strategy or you don’t have a strategic advantage mindset. And that’s just as real as I know. Absolutely. And again, I
think one thing too we have to kind of touch on it and you didn’t you did is you know, real time adjustment like real time information is critical.
I mean, you can like I got a PR guy and we were talking the other day and he’s like man do goes when I get into the data and the static I get too much into my head and what I think he tried to do and I was like dude and that’s just that’s just a way to prepare but you got to ultimately watch the game and make a judgement based on what you’ve seen because good pitcher do make adjustments and so that’s very real that guide will get to into the data and what yeah to try to do to them that they over they overthink the concept instead of just sitting there and applying in real time and using that information to get to feel prepared didn’t know they know what to look for today know how if the guy didn’t make an object and more so than you know trying to you know pick your perfect every pitcher that he can pick he’s getting ready to throw
no and that’s a great point have to wrap my piece in that because the data is meant to validate your what you’re seeing is not is not meant to shape it is meant to validate like in my scene was I thought I would see and did this guy I make an adjustment to me, or did he make an adjustment overall? Tulsa Baseball Lessons And, and again, I think just having that base information to be able to guide that through and then people got questions they can email us reach out to we can go a little deeper into this.
And if they wanted another show, where we kind of dig deeper, I know we did, I don’t know what episode it was, we kind of went a little deeper back a couple months ago into like, the game planning piece of it. But understand like it the point for this week was that as part of the five pillars of the, of really becoming a good baseball player, or into that, like the developmental process, we call it the strategic advantage baseball process, you’ve got to understand that you can’t skip this and just rely on talent, sooner or later, you’re going to level up.
And and talent is not going to be good enough anymore, you’re going to have to have a game plan and a strategy. And and it takes a little more mental bandwidth to do that. And it takes a little more time and preparation to do that. But if you want to continue to grow as a player, and you want to be a really good pitcher, a really good hitter, then that information and that ability, the really game plan against an opponent is going to be a huge differentiator, and it will make a big time difference in your playing career and the success you have on the field for very good. But yeah, so that is that makes sense. So
we highlighted enough.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, cuz that’s one of those things that we want people to call us about. Yep. That’s what I was trying to push through today is like, Hey, man, what do you guys talking about non strategy like how you do that? Tulsa Baseball Lessons Because that might be something different enough to college that a pro coach or college coach or a high school coach might reach out and say, Hey, did you ever talk to that guy that that was surprised when you said you’re playing phone tag, I
finally said, Hey, man, we I sent him a tax Finally, not the Hey, let’s, let’s figure out a time where we could both get on the we’re not conflict chasing each other. So we’ll see. We’ll see when he can set that up. So I’m hoping to have that by now. But we’ll talk
Yeah, man, this thing ain’t no sweat yet that point. Tulsa Baseball Lessons And so so your stick I have a good talk with Nancy. She’s had some pretty good ideas about how she’s gonna put like a high school programming thing together for us for last September, and that because I want to have something that we can give these guys because I even talked to like Landon about it last night, like, Hey, man, like this, like this offseason, dude, you’re gonna have to commit like 10 hours a week to get bigger. If you want to legit be an OSU guy, or you want to be a big time. Do you want to admit man, like, dude, you got to get stronger, we got to get you moving better. And I think
