In and Out Talks Podcast Episode 64: Tyler Starks

On this episode of the In & Out Talks Podcast, powered by Tier One Performance, we’re joined by Tyler Starks, a former Division I pitcher whose baseball journey spans some of the highest levels of the game.

Tyler has competed in the prestigious Cape Cod League, been drafted twice, and pitched in Minor League Baseball, gaining firsthand experience of what it takes to succeed at the professional level.

Now, Tyler is giving back to the game as a personal baseball instructor and 9U coach for the Houston Wildcatters, helping young athletes develop both their skills and mindset early in their careers.

In this episode, Tyler dives into pitching mechanics, coaching philosophy, and the realities of working with young athletes and parents in today’s game. He shares insight on navigating travel ball, developing players the right way, and understanding the bigger picture beyond just performance.

🎙️ Tune in for a valuable conversation on building athletes the right way and creating long-term success both on and off the field.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:34

Hey guys, welcome back to Tier One Performance. This is the In N Out Talks, your host, Jordan Powell. I'm here with the wonderful, the top of the line, Tyler Starks. What's up, everybody? I appreciate you having us over at your place. Of course. And then he's got his all his fan and rebellious in the background. Got the whole setup. The whole setup, the whole setup. This is really nice, man. I appreciate you having us out here. Of course, man. Continuing off where we went last time, obviously, um, Tyler, you being a ex D1 college player, an ex-pro player, being drafted twice. Um, and now you are in uh Umble, Texas, Tasca Cita, working at D Bad Umble and the Wildcatters. You have multiple experiences dealing with kids of all ages. Um, what are you doing now with the Wildcatters?

SPEAKER_00 1:22

Okay, so we are, I'm currently a coach for the 9U, what you consider national team. Uh so we're number two in the country right now. Uh coming up next month in May, like May 20th, we have best of the best in Florida. Qualified for that. Out of the Super 1000, they only take eight teams. So it'll be an eight-team tournament at the Boomer Sports Complex in Florida is gonna be insane. Yeah, dude.

SPEAKER_01 1:45

That is that is Chris. Tell me about your well, before we get into your team, tell me about what is the Wildcatters organization and what is that about. Dave, back when I was um a player and back when I was young and in college, I never heard of the Wildcatters. I think it was the Dynasty back then.

SPEAKER_00 2:00

Yeah, well, I believe it was the Dynasty before I was like my first year here in Houston, they were still the back of their dynasty, and then it became Wildcatters. Uh so Wildcatters, uh, I know now it's just I guess we can say organization trying to keep everything as top of the line. There's not as many teams, like it's a big organization, but not as many teams strong in and out. Uh mainly stick to like your AAA makers division, a couple of teams per age group, and you have what your national elite kind of level teams all the way through high school. So they have a high school program that's really good.

SPEAKER_01 2:33

I have heard of them in high school. Um, their high school program, the Wildcatters. I know they compete at a national level. They'll get guys from all over, um, especially in New England area. I've heard of a couple guys from New England are playing for the Wildcatters, and but I just want to be clear the Wildcatters' home base is Houston.

SPEAKER_00 2:48

Yes, Kingwood. Is where the rig is, it's where the big indoor train facility is. There's like a there's a wildcatter south, wildcatter central, but base of operations, Kingwood, Texas. Oh, that is awesome.

SPEAKER_01 2:59

And so you guys have how many teams total? Gotta be maybe two per age group?

SPEAKER_00 3:05

Yeah, I would go on average super age group. So you're looking from I don't know, I saw a coach pitch team out this weekend. Was that even though we had so it was like a seven, eight U team? So it gotta be what 20, 22 teams when we got.

SPEAKER_01 3:17

Now, when you say you guys get top of the line, guys, you guys get um very good kids starting from I guess 8U up all the way through. How do you guys screen for those guys? Do you guys have tryouts? Do you guys bring them in, do your own kind of recruiting to form these teams? What separates you guys from?

SPEAKER_00 3:34

So I know there's like a Wildcatters Day ran by Wildcatters where there's a day for each age group, and every single coach from the program is out there for their age group, kind of screening through kids. Us personally for our nine-year team, the entire summer we ran workouts, inviting people uh normally twice a week in the like 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. running essentially what our practice would look like, screening kids. And we did that all summer up until tryout day. So I know we pretty much had our team picked before tryout day. So our ours was a pretty extensive screening process for kids, trying to make sure, not only on a talent level but coachability level, like seeing how they were gonna and going with kids we knew were gonna be on our team already, see how they messed with the kids we already had existing on the team. So I do know the screening process for these teams seems pretty extensive to make sure you're getting what you want.

SPEAKER_01 4:25

Yeah, I would say also that um, you know, not it maybe this level or intensity of baseball isn't for every nine-year-old baseball.

SPEAKER_00 4:35

No, no, not at all. I mean, I've I've told several parents and some of the other coaches like this isn't even this is not my favorite kind of youth sports. This is it really like the traveling and what you're playing it and what it's about. I do believe the type of development we have when as far as prizes approach and our game day type stuff, I believe that is what it's about. But I do I do think the level of competition and like the time required is not for everybody. And if it's not, then absolutely don't do it. Don't do it. Get the development, get the good coaching, spend the time. But I you don't gotta go to Florida.

SPEAKER_01 5:13

So what being one of the yeah, being one of the best developmental coaches I've ever seen, right? When you're working with these nine kids, that's ultimately the biggest part of it is to develop these kids, not to make sure that they're the number one in the nation, but to make sure that they're getting developed like they are number one in the nation.

SPEAKER_00 5:29

100%. I I think the whole ranking thing of the competition is a byproduct of it. I but yeah, the type price we have, the way we push these kids, I mean, they are nine, but you can almost get whatever you want out of any kid if you ask them to. And if they don't respond to it, then you then you respond to that. But I do think if you ask a lot of them, you will get a lot in return, and I think that's what we've seen with our 9U team. We ask a lot of them. Prices are long, twice a week, we do some pretty high-level stuff, and they normally rise to the challenge, and I think that's where our our level of competition and level of play is come from, just from that. They're very talented kids, but they're just responding to what's being asked them all.

SPEAKER_01 6:09

So I have kind of like a question. So two there's two sides, right? You got this intense um eight-year-old and up all the way through high school, intense side of the wildcatters that develops, you know, I think early ballers, especially guys that show promise very early. But what about these kids that play, you know, in the league when they're nine, or maybe they play uh double A, triple A, lower tier baseball. Are you saying that like it's too late for them, or are you saying like these guys are just in this scenario that have to go play, or do you say like you can get better in your own way?

SPEAKER_00 6:42

It's not necessarily Oh, it's absolutely not too late. I think me and you both, we both can get for I've seen some guys join dudes like 16 years old. There's the stories Lorenzo Kane didn't even play baseball to his junior year of high school. Play football, I was like, Yeah, he showed up to baseball trials in jeans, and dude, he got drafted out of high school in like two years. Right. I don't think it's too late. You can absolutely, dude, you don't even have to play organized baseball to get better. That's not even the part that's important. It's the honestly, the working on your own, the getting in your own hours, honing in on things you know you're gonna get better at is the most important part. I I think you should play for to learn the game for IQ-wise to put yourself in that situation, to have those moments. And I think more than anything, it's a almost like a a judging of like what you're working on, making sure it's applicable. I mean, I would tell most people not even to play football at any level. I don't think you should play football. I think you should be in the weight room, be in the cage, and then when spring rolls around, when people actually care about it, go play. Be ready to go. But no, absolutely not too late. Not too late at all. I mean, dude, that's what it's about. Go go learn the game. As long as you're learning the game, I don't care if you're triple A, double A. If you happen to be on a major team and you're in that situation, great for you. But if you're not, I also don't think it matters. Like, as long as you're learning the game, you're getting good coaching and you're developing, play wherever you're playing.

SPEAKER_01 7:58

Yeah, no, I agree. Um, as a coach, from my own perspective, you know, I've seen some kids that shoot, I've gotten some 14-year-olds that could hardly throw 90 feet, and then, you know, two years of hard work and them dedicating themselves, they uh they were able to go out and get a scholarship, not a big scholarship, some big D1 school, but they were able to go out and get a D2 in a absolute scholarship, and they were a decent player by the end of it. Also, I'd say that with younger kids, like younger kids, I kind of view, and I tell a lot of my parents is they're like play-do. Like, oh they're like you can mold them into whatever you want. And I mean they don't even have to do it right, they can suck at it. They can like I'd be like, hey, I need this kid to hit on a T 30 times a day. That's it. 30 times a day. Almost even the bad repetition, the repetition is a good idea. The repetition itself, yeah. The repetition itself is muscle memory to some degree, and it's honing that skill of him being slowly more accurate over time. And I tell them, I was like, I was like, if you just spend the time and do it, your kid will literally transform in a couple months.

SPEAKER_00 8:56

Honestly, I think sometimes worrying about playing, worrying about being successful in a game can be more hindering than good sometimes. You get too focused on am I getting hits, am I striking people out instead of what you need to be focused on, what it what it looks like, am I doing things the right way? You know, being able to hold in all those skills, you get more concerned with oh my god, I got a base hit. Yeah, dude, you gotta roll over to the six-hole. Like that's that's not what you wanted. It looks great in a game. Like I got my base hit.

SPEAKER_01 9:24

That's another thing I want to talk to you about, man. Um you go in and you see your you get parents that come up to you. Um, let's take this from a view of a private instructor. Okay. A private instructor, not a head coach. Okay. So private instructor, you get kids that come back and be like, hey, how'd you do? Or you get parents and you ask them, hey, how'd so and so do? And they come back and they oh he'd been good, he got a couple hits, three through four hits, and then you know, you see the hits and they were, you know, weak side ground balls that just got through, or the kid maybe kicked it and accounted it as a hit. Yeah. You know, how do you deal with that when you're like, you like, do you consider that progress? Do you consider that mental progress? Or do you think that's more of an excuse for like those those parents and those kids?

SPEAKER_00 10:02

I think not as far as like if they're kicking it to the error, I'm not considering a hit. That's not good. Uh yeah, I mean if you're getting your rollover hits, your you know, your punchy flares are like, hey, you don't want to take away, hey, we're doing good enough and getting in the zone or whatever, like getting enough barrel, getting our hands to the ball. Like, hey, we're able to get it there, but understand we want to be better than that. Like, hey, looks great in scorecard, good for you. I hope confidence level-wise, I hope it feels good to be on first base. Right. But understand that's not what we're looking for. And uh, and I think as a private instructor, it's not as bad because you're not as tied in. I think more coaches, it's completely different. I almost don't reward it at all. I don't reward it all, like, it's like, hey man, like, cool, you caught it. Don't care. Did we work behind that flyball? Did we come through it? Hey, do we slow our hands down to hit that ball and hit the rollover? Oh, that's not good. Can't let the hands low down. Things like that. So I think that is a good point from two different perspectives. I think you'll get two coaches telling two different things. Yeah, understand you're on the same page, but like, yeah, as an instructor, you're you're heavily involved with a kid, we almost don't have as much skin in the game. I mean, dude, 30 minutes one time a week, you're like, hey, good for you, open confidence is there, but let's work on let's get some more barrel, let's let's turn behind it, let's get some more, let's hit a line draw, let's let's work on it being better.

SPEAKER_01 11:25

I'm ultimately more like selfish about the kid, because you know, I'll be like, I mean, how do you how do you think you hit it? You know, and usually I'll have like dad there with the video, or I'll have the video because the parents sent it to me. I'm like, how do you think you hit it? You're like, I I hit good. And I go, you think you think this is like let's take the outcome away.

SPEAKER_00 11:40

How do you feel about that swing?

SPEAKER_01 11:41

I was like, yeah, I was like, look, look, look, I was like, did you, when you made contact with Bob, did you actually feel good when you hit it? And like, yeah. Or I'll have some kids, I'll just straight up go, like, yeah. And I'm like, Alright, so you think you swung, you made perfect contact with that? And I was like, You think perfect contact with a pitch going 60 miles an hour is a bleeder over the first baseman? Yeah, that's not true. And they're like, no. And then I'm like, alright, well, now we need to kind of like bring it back into reality here. What actually happened? Well, I swung hard as hard as I usually do, and I go, no doubt about that. But where'd you catch it on the barrel? They're like, you know, oh, I caught it um off the end.

SPEAKER_00 12:14

Um defining success. Yeah, exactly. Like, can't get caught up in the outcome. Base hit, yeah, that's not success for us. Yeah, if you take your best swing and make good contact with a good pitch, because that's all you can control. Yeah, right, and that's that's what I tell every single kid, I think any kid that's ever swung with me is we're taking good swings at good pitches, cool. We're successful. Yeah, that is success, success. The hit is not, like that is what it is, but yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:39

And I kind of my I kind of make a point to my players as well, especially my high school players. I go, I go, hey, in the grand scheme of things, you just want to win the battle. Because baseball is a bunch of 1v1s. It's certain just compiled together in this play, in this thing called a baseball game, right? So like if you're faced out of a pitcher, I was like, Did you get on first base? If you did, you won. As a team goal. Now, as an individual goal who wants to make it to the next level and keep building, we'll review that and how you got to first does matter. Yes, absolutely. Individually how I walked. Alright, we'll take that as a dub.

SPEAKER_00 13:11

Or like, I got on via error. And it goes back to like we were talking about the young kids. Yeah, different, there's different levels to this. Like you say, there's levels to this, and there's different things, different people are looking to achieve, and you've got to understand what level you are, what person you are, and that determines what you're trying to achieve. Yeah. That's yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:29

So moving on to your 9U team, man. How did you come about this team of stars? Okay. Essentially, it's an all-star team of 9-Unity. That's what it's better. That's what it feels like. Better being cheap.

SPEAKER_00 13:39

I think, dude, every kid in our team would be top four in every other lineup. I mean, I got, dude, we got a 12-hole going backside home runs, and then you get a turnover to our leadoff who's about like 9.50 on the tournament. But uh, so private instruction got me into this. I was coaching a lot of pitchers for an older Wildcatters team who were playing for the guy who's currently the head coach of our team. Uh, doing a lot of pitching lessons. This guy hit me up and was like, hey, let me run a 91 team, what do you think? I was like, Alright, I'm in. And then we not much persuasion. Yeah, not much persuasion. Uh honestly, we we had our wildcatters team in the fall, we weren't quite as good. Still pretty good, not quite as good. Uh, and then we start running that screening progress like we talked about, and then we get invited, honestly, to coach the PG Texas national team for the All-State games. We go out there and we come in second. We lose the California National in the ship. We were like 6-0 before that. Going crazy. Kids are balling out. And then essentially, that team was like, hey, let's just make this a wildcatters team. Like, let's just, and we're like, alright. So now we end up with 11 of some of the most talented, like hardworking nine-year-olds I've ever seen. Oh wow. And we and we are extremely, extremely talented. It's insane. Can't believe at Nagyu this is what it looks like. The traveling, the types of practice we're having. I mean, I feel like I was good at nine, but I don't think it was like this. This intense. I mean, this is it's very intense, very intense. The things kids are working on now are baffling.

SPEAKER_01 15:18

I mean, when we when we throw, I mean, I talk to Mitch about this all the time, but when we throw back and we think, like, if I right now was able to coach myself at the age of eight until I was 14. Oh man. Like, imagine how crazy good you'll be. The things that are the knowledge and things that are available now at stage. Just crazy. Me thinking just from an injury standpoint, how many injuries I can avoid is outrageous, right? I mean, maybe I still have a better arm to this day, but like, you know, it's you think about it, you're like, wow, and then all you take it and you give it to all these young kids, and you know, and you see them actually listen to you. The kids that actually listen to you are the ones that you know you can just see the success. That in itself is a gift. Because I struggle, I mean, I don't think I struggle. I think as coaches, we all struggle in unlocking that ability to have a kid um execute what he learns in practice, right? So you first teach it to the kid, that's step one. Step two is having the kid try to execute it in practice, and then step three is execute it in a game. Now you got some kids, which I'm assuming is probably the majority of your nine-year-olds, all have that ability to take what you say and execute it in a game. That is beyond rare because most people don't even learn how to do that until they're in high school. I would say I would arguably so, yeah. You know, like it like I'm talking about your average high school baseball player.

SPEAKER_00 16:38

And I would I would say a lot of dude, 90% of the credit goes to the kid. The ability to mentally connect that. I mean, yeah. But I will say there are things you have to hold yourself responsible for as a coach that make things applicable. Like, that's gonna make it easy to apply. You have you we gotta ask more of these kids in practice. You gotta ask more of them. In these lessons, in these practice, you gotta ask more. You gotta put them in intense, intense high value situations when it's time to work, so they get to a game, it's not as it's not as crazy, it's not as foreign. And I think we do a good job of that, especially these wildcatters kids. We like these practices are very, they're intense. We're asking of them what we'd ask of them in the game. So when they get there, it's not sped up, it's not too much.

SPEAKER_01 17:20

Now, here's a question. Um, this is mostly for the parents. Out of all your nine, out of all your wildcatters kids that you have, do you ever have to talk to them about motivation or wanting to work hard or wanting to be a man?

SPEAKER_00 17:32

No. Yes. Uh I think more so it's why. Not like don't need the motivation to do it, but it's what it what is the motivation for. Like, I can understand that because you get as much as we get the highly motivated, highly competitive kids, most of the time that comes out as we are the highly emotional kids. Yes. So, and then you've got to find a way to bring them back to get that motivation that Y so we can level out. Right. Like, because I mean, these kids, we don't have to we don't have to ask them to get hyped up for it. They're the number two team in the country. Every time they line up, that other team's bringing their number one guy, and it's hey man, you lose this game, that team gets to say they'd be the number two team in the country. Right. We can't let that slide. Right. Like we we can't let that happen. Absolutely. We can't, like, what's that do?

SPEAKER_01 18:22

So when you do when you do get a kid that's overly emotional or hyper-emotional, how do you bring him back? How do you what are some of the things that you do?

SPEAKER_00 18:28

I think it goes back to reminding them of process over over outcome, like wise kids, barrel the ball to the right fielder, put up put a hole in his chest if he didn't catch it, and they come back to the devil out and they're about to cry, and it's like, hey man, usually the ball like 100 miles an hour of the right fielder, bro. If he's not standing right there, that's a big hit. And trying to be like, hey, like, why are you upset about well now? Okay, can you control that the kid caught the ball? No. Alright, then what are you crying about?

SPEAKER_02 18:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:54

You cannot get emotional about things we cannot control. And that's with everything. Like, I mean, did you say good swing? Absolutely. Then you're good, bro. No one here is mad at you. Dad, who you think hates you right now? Now mad at you. He's up there clapping for you telling you good swing. Coach who determines your playing time so when you great swing, bro. Don't care.

SPEAKER_02 19:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:11

And I think we can do that all the way down to strikeouts, man. Like, I'm okay with strikeout.

SPEAKER_02 19:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:15

Did you take a mean cut, bro? Yeah, absolutely. See the dugout, bro. Keep it up. It's how you strike. Be okay with it.

SPEAKER_02 19:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:22

You take strike three with a runner on third less than two hours. I'm a little upset at you. Like, yeah, we can't have that. I gotta rather run it. But dude, took a mean cut at a freaking painted fastball way. It was a full full speed cut. You're on time on balance, just miss it. Alright, buddy. Who cares? Good swing. Keep it up. Not gonna miss those very often. You're probably gonna hit that next time. Yeah, yeah. I'm good. But yeah, just you gotta bring them back to what matters and not let them get so caught up in whether it's a hit or not. Can't you can't get caught up in that baseball? Too many abats, baseball's way too hard for that.

SPEAKER_01 19:52

For sure, 100%. And then the emotional side now moving on to the parents. Not singling out any non-new parents or anything, but parents in general that you've dealt with from all age groups. How do you I guess what are the do's and don'ts for parents, and then how do you handle parents?

SPEAKER_00 20:10

Uh we'll start with the do's and don'ts. Okay, one of the my one of the biggest rules I love to have is 24-hour rule. 24 hours after you're the last game of Sunday, we're not gonna talk about anything to that. Me and you both have time to process, think, we're good. So yeah, never mid-game, mid-tournament, not the time. Not the time to come up and discuss why is little Timmy batting seven hole, why is he not the shortstop? Also, keep it after play has happened, you know. Phone call, like hey, you mind taking a phone call, cool, that's fine. But the whole in the moments I'm getting, don't do it. Uh you know, the comments out loud, like during the game, also crazy. Uh, for the love of God, do not talk about a kid that did not come from you or belong to you. I cannot stand it. You're our first base and misses the ball, your kid plays shortzok, and we're talking about the first base and missing balls, not your place. If you want to say something, tell your kid to make a better throw. Like, yeah. Don't talk about a kid that's not yours. Uh yeah, leave it to the couches. Always the talking to umpires is crazy. I don't know if hey, newsflash guys, you uh talk to the umpire, the call's only gonna be worse. So your kid is getting rug up on the ball that's four feet outside, the more you talk. Especially if he doesn't see it. Yeah, lay off the umpire's bud. Like, it's it's not, it's it's never good. Never productive. It has never made anything better. Uh you know, dudes, bro, be supportive, bro. Don't, don't like that's it. Be that's all you're there for. Be endlessly supportive of your kid. You know, you want to talk about learning curves, like their attitude. Like, I don't know how many of you played ball. They your kid doesn't care. If you played ball, didn't play ball, they're not gonna listen to you anyway. Because if they did, we wouldn't have jobs. Me and Jordan have instructor jobs because your kid does not listen to you. Because endlessly supportive, bro. And then if you see an attitude thing like, hey man, like, let's pick our head up, let's have better body language, you know, like but keep them. Up. That's that's your whole job. Be there, support every man. Doesn't matter what happened, you're there for them. Uh it's super simple, bro. Super simple. Be positive. If you can be positive, you're probably a great parent. Like, be supportive of every kid and you're and you're being a great parent. Outside the game, you know, talk to your kid as a person. You know, like when they just lost a championship and went over four, they don't want to talk about it. So don't talk about it. Uh just be imagine if you're the one playing, that's it. Imagine if you're the person playing. That's your best approach. Yes. How would you feel if you went over four or three Ks? Let's now approach that kid how you would want to be approached. Exactly. That's it.

SPEAKER_01 22:36

Yeah, that's it. When it comes to, and then when it comes to dealing with parents, like I'm sure you've dealt with your fair share. Maybe you've had to step in, maybe you've had uh uh, you know, different scenarios when it comes to parenting on and off the field. What are some things that you've uh seen and dealt with?

SPEAKER_00 22:52

I think now it's our turn to see it from them. It may be, they may be one of 11 players for us, but that is that person's probably only kid. You know, like every parent that is a kid for them on the team, it goes beyond being one of our 11 players, partial side of our second basin. So we know we're looking at it's like, hey, that's our child, and no, that's the viewpoint they're looking from. And now being able to make them understand where you're coming from as a coach. A lot of people say, well, it's not their it's not your job to make them understand. Well, yeah, not everything, but there's things they didn't understand, you know, why you made that decision. You know, it's not personal. You know, your your kid may be great, but right now he's struggling. He went from three-hole to seven-hole to take some pressure off of him. He can breathe. Not every at bat has the weight of the world on it now. And when you start finding your stroke again, you'll come back.

SPEAKER_02 23:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:39

Hey, why didn't you pull him? He's looking tired, he's leaving his mechanics, and when he does it, there's a chance he gets hurt, or there's a chance we start to lose confidence, and I can bring in a guy who can come in, clean it up, and now he gets to chill.

SPEAKER_01 23:52

So ultimately seeing the bigger picture.

SPEAKER_00 23:53

Yeah, uh hundred percent. That's all anybody wants is to understand what they're seeing. So I think they need to understand that that may be your kid, but he's one of our 11 players. And we need to understand he may be one of 11 players, but also their kid, and find a way to meet in the middle and make it make sense to everybody. Yeah. And so we're all on the same page. It's it's it's not and everyone needs to understand it's not personal. Your kid's not batting seventh because I hate him. You know what I mean? Like, it's it's not that's not what it is. He's not not playing short stop because we hate him. That's not what it is. 100%. This team can swing it. He's one of our better defenders. Maybe we need him in the outfit. These teams driving baseball. Or hey, we've thrown a slow guy who they make a lot of rollover contact. Now we need him at shortstop to get a lot of us ground balls. Stuff like that.

SPEAKER_01 24:34

Do you think it's your duty as the coach when you make a change like that to have to explain it to the parents?

SPEAKER_00 24:40

Or maybe not necessarily? No, not especially not in the moment, absolutely not. I think if you're asked to, then you should be able to. If your coach cannot explain a decision they made, then that's not a good coach.

SPEAKER_01 24:52

I mean, I mean, the kid should, I 100% agree. The kid has every right to ask, but not the parents.

SPEAKER_00 24:57

Yeah, I mean, yeah, I I I mean if the parents want to. I think if they end up, then yeah, sure. You can explain it to them. I think they have a right to know, I guess. But then again, as a parent, why? Yeah. Why, why do you need that's why do you need to question what's happening? Let them grow. You yeah, let them grow and assume I have what's best in mind for not only our team as a whole, but for your kid. I'm never gonna make a decision that's harmful to your kid. That's it's never the goal. I've never I never want to do anything else to harm the team's ability to succeed or grow, and I never want to hurt your kid. Yeah. So if you're questioning it, then you're taking it too personal.

SPEAKER_01 25:35

Yes. And uh this also goes um to something that I've seen, particularly this season, a lot of team hopping that is it's I think it's picked up a lot over the past couple years. Um, and I know via that you're uh private instructor, you get a lot of different kids from different teams, and then you coaching teams yourself, you know, like what do you think the deal is with all this team hopping? And should it even be occurring? Like, I don't even see the point in it.

SPEAKER_00 26:00

Yeah, I mean, honestly, I don't In the middle of the season. Yeah, that that is insane. That is absolutely insane. I don't, it would have to be the wildest, most toxic situation for me to be like, yeah, it's okay. Dude, I know I'm sure you're grown up the same way, we're the same generation. You commit to something, you stick it out. It may be not an ideal situation, but you committed to it. Committed to it. It wouldn't be punished for leaving. Yeah, you it would have to be the craziest situation for me to deem it okay to team hop middle of the season. Honestly, and I've heard of those team hopping, I've never heard of a valid reason for. You can't even tell me a good reason.

SPEAKER_01 26:33

What is a valid reason to team hop? I mean, obviously mine is malicious intent with players and all that, but like, you know, do you think if it's like, hey, my kid, we've played three turns, my kid hasn't seen the field once.

SPEAKER_00 26:45

I think at that point, yeah. I think because now you're not being developed, you know, like, and I do believe at this age, you should be in a situation where you are getting the game reps. If you're gonna be on a team, you need to be in a situation where you give game reps. Yeah, and you're paying. When you're paying, you have a right to reps, essentially. You're paying to be developed. Now, you have a right to play what position you want. We're not gonna discuss our wildcode situation, but we will say it's different. Those kids do not have an inherent right to auto-reps. Like you do. That is not, you don't have the right. You you are here to be developed as a player to begin at, but they are not they are not doing what you and Deem having the right to get those reps. But I do think in other situations, as a young, as a young player and as a parent, go where you're getting reps. And dude, if you ended up on that team somehow and you're not three weeks worth of reps, probably made a bad choice when you're choosing your team because that's something you would probably see pretty far out. You've got to go somewhere you're getting developed, good coaching, and you're getting those reps. Now, when you get a little bit older, those are completely different situations because everything is completely earned. You don't pay to be on the high school team. Yeah, like you you gotta earn those. And I to an extent I like that when you're young. Culture shock is huge for a lot of kids and they do not know how to react. But yeah, I mean, yeah, if you go somewhere, you're getting reps. That's that's a situation I can say, hey, and they're not team hopping, but going to a new team. I think team hopping that term, that's crazy no matter what. There is no good situation where I see you jumping like Kevin Durant from team to team. That makes no sense. What are we doing?

SPEAKER_01 28:28

And then a quick pivot, so then there's team hopping, and then there's picking up for a team while you're still playing for your organization. What are your thoughts on that?

SPEAKER_00 28:37

Uh, keep it healthy, dude. I mean, if your team just played three weekends in a row that fourth weekend, no sense to pick it up. That's ridiculous. Take a weekend off. Uh and just be mindful, like, don't go through 85 pitches CG for a team you don't play for.

unknown 28:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:52

Like, don't like you should be going to pick up. You know, you want to charge your reps, go get your swings. Be mindful of it, be smart. And I would say, clear it with the dude you play for. Clear it with the organization you play for. I don't need to find out through game changer or from the grave line you went and you went and threw 90 pitches for some random dude. Like, and if your guy is a pickup and you're the coach coaching the pickup team, don't do that. That is not your kid. You shouldn't need him to do that. You need a pickup, not a star player. Like, don't don't go use for the sake of the situation, don't go use my kid for 95 pitches. Don't catch him seven games in the weekend. Yeah. Like he's there to be your pickup because you didn't have enough people. Be mindful both ways. If you're the if you're the team, if you're the kid going to go pick up, clear it with the guy you play for, don't be stupid. If you're the coach who has a pickup team who you're picking up kids, also don't be stupid.

SPEAKER_01 29:48

For kids middle school and younger, this is more of a message for the parents.

SPEAKER_00 29:52

Yeah, because you're the one in control.

SPEAKER_01 29:54

The kid obviously wants to play baseball. He's gonna say yes.

SPEAKER_00 29:56

But understand there's times just take a break, bro. Like, these, I understand you want to play it. I hope you're loving the game and you want to play a game you just want to play. Sometimes, man, just chill. Get on the PlayStation, give the armor break. You know, if you want to go take some swings with dad in the cage or take some ground balls, it's great.

SPEAKER_02 30:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:12

But you don't gotta go play. You just you don't have to.

unknown 30:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:16

I think a lot of these kids do too much and you and they wonder why at 12, oh my god, I'm exhausted, I'm burnt. Yeah. You spent every waking weekend playing. And you got caught up in the outcome like we talked about in the front of this. Yes. You play so much, it's the only thing you have reference to. It's like, am I adding 500? It's your giving up a run? Yeah, it's your identity. It's your whole identity, and that's not good for it. At all. It's not good for anybody. Correct. This game should not be your identity. Look at what we're sitting in right now. It looks like Comic-Con. Have something, have something you love that is not tied to your success in baseball, please. 100%.

SPEAKER_01 30:49

You need an outlet. Everyone needs an outlet. I know plenty of guys that um, you know, they're they're huge fishermen. I had a teammate who was a pro fisherman in college, and he was like, I think I'm this baseball thing's not for me. And I go, I really don't think so, dude. Because we're talking about carp, you know, and I'm wearing the outfit together. Have something you love. You gotta have something. You know, for me, it I I love podcasting. Um for you, it's Comic-Con or anything. More video games, love. I love video games too, TV shows, you know, everyone has their thing, but yeah, baseball shouldn't be your whole identity, especially growing up. I'm huge for especially growing up. That's why I play different sports. I played as much as I could, as much different. I do recall the waking up, you know, in March and being like, smells like baseball season. Yeah, let's go play baseball.

SPEAKER_00 31:32

You should have it like that. I think if you can spread out like what you do, you can keep the love for everything fresh. Like, fall, play your football, play your bachelor, but then when it comes to March and like, ooh, time to put the cleats on, it's time to it's time to swing the ball, like let's go.

SPEAKER_01 31:47

Because I don't care how how hard you train or how good you train, by the time that season rolls down, if you're not mentally sharp or mentally into it, you'll get beat. You'll get beat. It's just the game is the game is unrelenting. Um now taking a deep dive towards your special skill set. We know you have uh past history with hitting, but mostly pitching is your domination. Pitching guard, yeah, sure. That is your that is your dominant field, um, pitching. My question to you is like, when do you think kids should learn how to throw a proper off-speed pitch? Uh I'm talking not a change-up, anyone can teach a changeup without curveball slider. Yeah, we're talking, we're talking high spin rate, curveball, slider, cutter. When do you think?

SPEAKER_00 32:28

Or uh, so I know this is highly debated, and I know all the dads out here gotta be 13 years old, gotta have R but hair. Uh, just a little neutral if you're watching this. A curveball correctly thrown is healthier on the arm than a well-thrown fastball. It's thrown slower, so thrown properly is less stress on the arm. Now I do stress, throw properly. Uh uh again, we talk about levels of this. My 9U team, I do believe each of them need a quality breaking ball. They need a curveball or a cut or something because that's the level they're playing at. Fastball chained up is not gonna. And I know you can say good chain up is a five. No, it will not. Not at this level. These kids chained ups, they're not Pedro Martinez. It's basically just slow. Their hands are not big enough to make it move. It's gravity. It's basically just slow. Good teams can adjust and hit it. So again, there's levels of this. I think a normal person, 12 years old. I think 12 is about the time everyone's gonna need one. Don't care what level you play, you're gonna need one. But I do stress you can throw it as early as you want. You can start, I'm not gonna throw in a game and you can control how much you're throwing it. But I think at 9 years old you can start running one. And there are there's several different ways you can learn to properly throw one. Now I will say, don't throw a slider. A slider is something that even if probably thrown is a lot of stress. I mean, dude, if you go to all these Tommy John things, I think a constant is those guys those sliders, cutters, splitters, those are high stress things that require highly developed tendons and ligaments. Throw a curveball. Learn it well, learn not to break the wrist, learn to just pull down the strong wrist. You can throw a super healthy, not hard drawn curveball, that's disgusting. And not have to worry about arm problems, and you developed a good breaking ball, and we're all everyone's happy. But yeah, I don't think there's a certain age like now, or like they shouldn't. But I think 11, 12, everyone should start running one, should develop one. I think that's just the time.

SPEAKER_01 34:13

So you said you said some key things there that I also agree with. Um, if you throw a curveball properly, it really does have zero stress. Now, I think through my years of coaching, I through BP have learned to throw a pretty decent, nasty curveball. Now, with that being said, I also coach pitching, but I never pitched in college, so I never teach any type of uh curveball or anything like that. I might teach some sort of uh cutter where I just have them move their two seam over to the side and I just hate throwing. Yeah, throw like relying on grip, relying on your gip, your grip, and the spin rate, just to slightly move the ball. I never I never I always iterate, don't you ever rotate your wrist, don't you ever sling across your chest. I was like, everything needs to come down. And it's usually for kids that have the straight up top-down how you'll throw.

SPEAKER_02 34:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:00

Because that's easy for me because that's what I have. That was my natural arm slot. And then um, but when it comes to like curveballs or sliders, usually I'll come suddenly you. I'll be like, hey, you need to develop an off-speed pitch because you know what? They're just showing your fastball and your changeup's not looking great. Yeah. I was like, I was like, I I usually go to my parents, the parents, I go, I can't teach you, I can't teach your son how to throw anything like that. I'll go. But we do have guys here that I can refer you to, and I do have some guys that'll throw to you, like you or Kyle that I'll that I'll that I'll refer reference them out to. Um, but what are some of the things that you can tell us right now that like, hey, to help you throw a proper curveball, do this. Like you said, keep your wrist straight, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:37

So out front. Honestly, you want to uh there's everyone knows Trevor Bauer, that dude, super nerd pitching. He says some of the best cues for throwing proper breaking balls, and I love him because he talks through things really well analytically and what he feels and stuff. But I think he's a great person watching that. Not always a great language for young kids, but he does say something. He knows the stuff. Yeah. Uh super important. We I talk about the karate chop, the firm wrist. That is just maintaining this. You'll get kids who who run the hook like this, or you get kids who try to turn it over, and that's where you start to create problems with the elbow. All you're doing is taking essentially this fastball, turn it on its side, and now you're doing this. If you do this, man, I can do this all day for the rest of my life, and my elbow would never have a problem. And you're just here and you're allowing like your fingers being in front and the timing of release point to create the spin. That's all you're doing. You're not trying to create the spin with the way you snap it off or nothing. And that's the number one way to get it. Yeah, where's it? That's the number one way to get hurt, bro. Like it is strictly this pulling down, and you are thinking calm to the ground, getting out here, and that forces the ball to spin downward. And now you have the low stress, you know, and there's there's different grips that help you emphasize where you're on the seams and everyone's different for what they feel. But I think a common thing is fingers in front at release, strong wrists, just feeling the pull. Uh, another super important thing is thumb placement. Uh, it's crazy that I don't have a baseball in this room specifically. There's one, there's some in the house specifically. Another thing is thumb placement. If you're too high up, you're gonna cut the spin off, it's gonna be hard to get off. Make sure that thumb is in line with your middle fingers where you're essentially cutting the ball in half, throwing one half of the baseball. But yeah, if I could stress anything, it's a firm wrist. You are karate chopping down to the catcher, not creating any any movement, any turn of the wrist. And do you what what pitches do you mainly teach? Or do you teach all of them? I can teach anything. You have high school kids who come in and they want to learn different things. And I I I didn't I may not have thrown everything, but I do make it a point to have some knowledge on things, so I can be there for cues and certain things for different pitches. So I can essentially teach most any pit. I do keep it to so I was a four-seam splitter slider guy. Uh I do teach a lot of the circle change, I teach a kick change. That's a more up here type thing. Uh sliders, cutters, uh, sinkers. Like I saw I can do anything, but I stick to especially younger kids who you see in lessons, it's gonna be circle change, two seam, four seam, and a curveball. I've seen some kids with like the baby cutter. I think the cutter is a perfectly healthy pitch that gives you some side-to-side movement. Yeah, we don't have to get into the slider. Cutter's super healthy, like you said, you turn the axis ball, rip it off the finger like a fast hole. Yeah. You get a little cutter, you're good. So yeah, mainly cutter, curve, circle, and then your fastballs.

SPEAKER_01 38:31

Yeah, no, I think I think it's important because especially when I look back on it as a young kid, and then you know, I had someone teach me the slider, and they're like, hey, really just snap your wrist. And it's like, and thank God I wasn't like adept enough to kind of figure out what he meant because I'd see some dudes do it, and like, yeah, at the age of 11 it looked sick, dude. But dude talked out at 76 when he got to high school, his elbow was already always hurting.

SPEAKER_00 38:58

I had a buddy back home gonna go and do some name, Peyton Grass of Vinitis. We were like 13, bro, and this guy was stolen a gazillion miles an hour. But he also goes slider. I was the first time in my life I heard Tommy John. I we're at BOD, like opening weekend of BLD, first tournament ever, down in Mansfield. Dude's elbow exploded. Just ripping sliders at like 12, 13 years old. He's dude, he's stolen mid-8 ripping sliders, bro. And dude, I literally heard Tommy John. We were like, was that a gun shot? They're like, no, that was bro's elbow.

SPEAKER_01 39:33

Oh, that is that is gross, dude.

SPEAKER_00 39:35

And I I mean, and I I and the problem with that, that pitch is the easy it's the easiest pitch to throw wrong. It's the easiest pitch to not throw correctly, to not throw healthily. Like, and that's my problem with teaching it when they're young, it's the easiest thing to mess up. Highest risk pitch, right? Yeah, I mean, people feel that way about a curveball, but in my opinion, it's super easy if you do it properly to learn it the right way.

SPEAKER_01 39:56

Now, well, when it comes to, you know, kids got different arm slots though. Does that also change how you how you teach them? Like, because you know, I guess some kids that will just sling it out.

SPEAKER_00 40:04

Absolutely. And you mentioned earlier, you talked about how you throw and you said the word natural. Do not force an arm slot. If I was to roll you a ground ball and you pick it up and throw it, however you throw that, that's your natural arm slot. And you'll see in the game now, we got not a high to mid three force guy. You're starting to see this make a comeback, it's not as much as this anymore. And 100% this plays with pitch arsenal in what we're gonna throw. If you're out here, we're probably gonna talk about sneakers and circle changes and sliders, things that play off of this arm angle to fit your arm slots. Yes, yeah. You're not gonna throw a good 12-stitch curveball from here. It's not real. So if you throw like this, dad could try to make her get the curveball. It's not real. You can probably do a slaughterfish type thing, but you gotta understand certain things fit certain arm slots. You got your pronators, your supronators, different things, and that's super in-depth type stuff. But we can really get into, understand your arm slot before you just start trying to force pitches on yourself. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:59

Well, Tyler, man, we have taken up approximately 45 minutes in a blink of an eye. I know you have a busy day. I have a busy day. I appreciate you coming on in and outbox again. Um, we're gonna have you on again. Um we got big things going on. Um, good luck in Florida, dude.

SPEAKER_00 41:14

We'll have plenty to talk about. We'll have plenty to talk about.

SPEAKER_01 41:17

All right, appreciate it, man.

SPEAKER_02 41:19

Five, four, three, three.