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Maximizing Playing Time in High School Baseball: A Comprehensive Guide

Maximizing Playing Time in High School Baseball: A Comprehensive Guide

For high school athletes who have successfully made the baseball team, the next challenge is to earn and maximize playing time. Coach Eric Johnson and Aaron delve into insightful strategies and tips in their podcast, emphasizing the importance of consistency, mindset, and continuous improvement throughout the season.

Understanding the Key Points
Making the Team is Just the Beginning
Every Rep Counts: Treat Practice like a Game
Knowing Your Role and Being Ready for Opportunities
The Evolution of an Athlete: Freshman, JV, and Varsity Levels
Adding Value to the Team: Offensively, Defensively, and Motivationally
Patience and Perspective: Trusting the Process
Overcoming Unrealistic Expectations and Mental Challenges
Earning Playing Time Throughout the Season
Freshman Year
First Impressions: Make an impact during scrimmages and early practices.
Trust Your Preparation: Stay confident and trust the work put in during the off-season.
JV Level
Prove Yourself: Show growth and improvement from the previous year.
Consistency is Key: Demonstrate that you deserve playing time through your performance.
Varsity Level
Make an Impression: Introduce yourself to the varsity coach effectively.
Competing for Opportunities: Be prepared to compete with more experienced players.
Maintaining a Positive Attitude and Work Ethic
Contributing to the Team: Find ways to add value consistently.
Staying Patient: Results take time to show; trust the process and […]

Maximizing Playing Time in High School Baseball: A Comprehensive Guide2024-05-13T22:47:57-07:00

Turning Setbacks into Opportunities: What to Do When You Don’t Make the Team

Turning Setbacks into Opportunities: What to Do When You Don’t Make the Team

In the world of sports, not making the team can be a tough pill to swallow. However, Coach Eric Johnson and his co-host delve into the silver lining of being cut from a team and how it can actually propel athletes to greater success. Let’s explore the key takeaways from their insightful podcast.

Embracing Rejection: A Path to Improvement

Learning and Reinventing
Learn from Feedback: Engage with the coach to understand why you were cut and what areas need improvement.
Reinvent Yourself: Use the setback as motivation to show significant improvement for the next opportunity.

Preparation for Success
Ready for Prime Time: View the extra time as a chance to prepare intensively for future opportunities.
Maximize Training: Focus on training to excel, especially when aiming to be scouted by college programs.

Cultivating a Winning Mindset
Harnessing Motivation
Fuel Your Fire: Let the rejection fuel your determination to prove yourself.
Develop Resilience: Use setbacks as a catalyst for becoming a better, more resilient athlete.

Competitive Mindset
Earn Your Spot: Understand that competitive sports require continuous effort and improvement to secure your place.
Annual Challenges: Scholarships are on a yearly basis, emphasizing the need for ongoing dedication and performance.
Looking Ahead: Webinar and Resources

In conclusion, […]

Turning Setbacks into Opportunities: What to Do When You Don’t Make the Team2024-05-13T22:40:42-07:00

Unlocking the Path to Athletic Success: Overcoming the Pack Mentality Embracing Individuality in Sports

Unlocking the Path to Athletic Success: Overcoming the Pack Mentality
Embracing Individuality in Sports

In the world of sports, it’s easy to get caught up in the “pack mentality” – a tendency to follow the crowd, blindly adopting the same training programs, coaches, and strategies as everyone else. However, as Coach Eric Johnson and Coach Aaron discuss, this approach can be detrimental to an athlete’s growth and ultimate success.

The Dangers of Conformity

The coaches emphasize that the pack mentality can stifle an athlete’s individuality, creativity, and personal development. They argue that true success often comes from stepping outside the box and finding the path that works best for the individual, rather than simply following the crowd.

“If you’re with the pack, expect to be with the pack.” – Coach Eric Johnson

Developing Goals and Aspirations

One of the key issues the coaches identify is the lack of clear goals and aspirations among many athletes. They believe that without a strong sense of what they want to achieve, athletes are more likely to fall into the trap of the pack mentality, simply going along with what everyone else is doing.

“What’s wrong with aspiring to greatness? You have to shoot for something.” – Coach Aaron

Collaboration and Empowerment

The coaches […]

Unlocking the Path to Athletic Success: Overcoming the Pack Mentality Embracing Individuality in Sports2024-05-13T22:57:05-07:00

Unlocking Athlete Confidence: Strategies for Coaches and Parents Identifying the Confidence Challenge

Unlocking Athlete Confidence: Strategies for Coaches and Parents
Identifying the Confidence Challenge

In the world of sports, confidence is a crucial element that can make or break an athlete’s performance. As coaches EJ and Aaron discuss in this podcast, many athletes struggle with maintaining a strong sense of self-belief, especially when faced with adversity or challenging situations.

The underlying reasons for this lack of confidence are multifaceted. As Aaron points out, some athletes may have inherently lower levels of confidence due to their personal experiences and family backgrounds. Additionally, the environment in which young athletes are often placed, with participation trophies and a lack of emphasis on honest feedback, can contribute to a false sense of confidence that crumbles when faced with the harsh realities of competition.

Fostering Honest and Constructive Environments

The coaches emphasize the importance of creating an environment that fosters genuine, honest confidence in athletes. This means providing clear and constructive feedback, both positive and negative, to help athletes understand their strengths and areas for improvement. As EJ notes, the key is to build athletes up, not break them down, by offering solutions and a clear path forward.

“You’re trying to uplift. And I think the keyword that you said after honesty is […]

Unlocking Athlete Confidence: Strategies for Coaches and Parents Identifying the Confidence Challenge2024-05-13T22:42:38-07:00

Knee Protection- A Season Long Activity

By Aaron Thigpen

November, 2021

Performance Coach, Gamespeed

One of the most devastating injury’s an athlete can have is a knee injury. However, thanks to advances in medical science  what once was  career ending, most athletes now fully recover from. In addition to medical advances the strides made in performance training have helped to reduce the severity and number of knee injuries. Unfortunately, most training programs don’t apply this valuable knowledge into the daily regiments of athletes. Most are used post injury during rehab or as pre season prep work. Protecting your knees is a regular season long activity. Try supplementing your routines with some of these valuable exercises.

  • Lower leg/ foot exercises – Ankle walks, calf raises and the like provide the foot strength and ankle mobility that can absorb the forces that travel up the kinetic chain that can cause a knee injury.
  • Cutting, jumping exercises – Simple two footed and single footed jumping, cutting, starting, decelerating and stopping can provide the critical foot to ground contact awareness (proprioceptive) that can teach athletes how to move their bodies safely.
  • Stability exercises – Single and two footed exercises on unstable or uneven surfaces can strengthen the kinetic chains response to unpredictable movements.

Pepper […]

Knee Protection- A Season Long Activity2021-11-10T13:23:24-08:00

Water Work Outs – Come On In the Water’s Fine

October 2021

By Aaron Thigpen, Gamespeed

You gotta be wondering, I play a land based sport, why would he be talking about pool workouts? Well pool workouts are valuable to all athletes.  For most athletes, you don’t even need to have an Olympic size pool. There are a variety of exercises that can be performed to give you the perfect workout for your sport.

Benefits of Pool Workouts

  • General overall conditioning – aerobic, anaerobic, strength.
  • Non weight bearing in nature reduces wear and tear on joints.
  • Water provides enough resistance for motor learning and patterning for those recovering from injury.
  • Builds connective tissue strength.
  • Active recovery & regeneration.
  • Variety- Can use implements such as dumbbells, resistance cords, medicine ball, kettlebells
  • Can apply some sport specific movements. (swinging a bat, throwing, dribbling).

Try this shallow water workout

Three minute easy swim mixed strokes or dog paddle (warmup)

3-4 Sets of:

Rest 30-60 sec between exercises and 2-3 min between sets.

30 sec Hi Knee Run

20 x Alt Arm Raise Side/Front

20 x Tuck Jump

30 sec Wall scissor kick

40 x Running Arm Swing

20 x Split Jumps

Three minute easy swim mixed strokes or dog paddle (warm down)

Not just for  H2O athletes, mix in some water workouts weekly to […]

Water Work Outs – Come On In the Water’s Fine2021-12-17T13:42:40-08:00

Want to get Fast? Jump to It with Plyometrics

Want to get Fast? Jump to It with Plyometrics

By Aaron Thigpen, Gamespeed Sports, August 2021

In an athletes pursuit of speed the one thing that brings the “speed -power” equation together is plyometrics (Plyo’s). Plyos can be defined as “exercise involving repeated rapid stretching and contracting of muscles (as by jumping and rebounding) to increase muscle power”. I encourage coaches to add these to an athletes training regiment. Below is a brief progression of how to introduce plyometrics to young athletes.

Jumps/Hops: Provide ability for vertical and horizontal projection. Two footed hops are the most basic form. When working with young athletes be sure to monitor proper take off and landing technique.  They require no equipment but coaches can advance athletes to jump over and onto obstacles such as cones or boxes. Once there is proficiency athletes should move onto single footed jumps and hops.

Skipping: Adds the aspect of rhythm and coordination and starts to mimic the running action. A  simple progression might be no arm skipping, arm drive skipping or skipping in place as well as directional skipping. Changes in height (amplitude) can teach athletes how to apply force to the ground and effect propulsion.

Bounding: In its simplist definition […]

Want to get Fast? Jump to It with Plyometrics2021-08-07T13:47:37-07:00

5 Reasons to Consider A Summer Lifting Program

Okay summers here. Time for sun, fun and weights? Yes I said weights. Summer is an optimum time to make strength gains. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not talking “bulking up”.  I mean developing and improving relative “strength to body weight ratio”. The type of strength work that can translate into power and explosiveness when you get back on the court or field.

Here’s some good reasons why:

More Available Training Hours – With no school you may have a few more available  hours to schedule gym time.  Now you can take your time and not just squeeze it in but quality time. Also with more time comes more consistency which is the foundation for developing strength.

Replenish Strength Stores– Summer is a great time to replenish strength stores that are depleted from the rigors of the past competitive season. Reload!

Opportunity to Correct Imbalances – Summer provides an opportunity to get the body centered. Playing sports creates imbalances that need to be corrected in the off season. For those whose competitive seasons were more demanding you can recover from injuries and trauma and reset the body  for the next season.

Do Things The Right Way – Time to cross the T’s and dot […]

5 Reasons to Consider A Summer Lifting Program2023-06-01T10:44:14-07:00

The “Training Effect” – How long does it take?

“The Training Effect”- How long does it take?

By Aaron Thigpen, May 2020 

How long will it take me to get faster? how long will it take me to get stronger? The most common questions asked by parents and athletes.  There are a lot of factors that can determine that time frame. However, there must be a clear understanding of the training process so as to have the right expectations and most importantly adherence to the training program.

Understanding the training process, I break it down into these FIVE phases:

  • Initial learning– Learning the exercises, the athletes introduction from a physical, technical and mental standpoint.
  • Early Physical Adaptation – The process of progressing through the workout routines, the athlete’s physical ability to complete the training, the ramping up. Initially  high levels of soreness, completing partial reps or sets of the activity.
  • Major Adaptation – The program is in full flight, adjustments where intensity and volume are modulated for desired effect, body’s training IQ goes up.
  • Application – Transferring the attributes of the training to sport specific activities. (throwing harder, running faster)
  • Performance – Executing the attributes on command under pressure in a competitive setting.

You may notice the absence of a time […]

The “Training Effect” – How long does it take?2021-05-21T11:30:40-07:00

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