Need to Make a Change? Do it Now!

Steve Bernhardt: Building the Better Ballplayer

This is the perfect time of year to make a necessary change in your game. It takes time to “teach” your body to do something in a different way. These next few months offer you the time necessary to make a mechanical adjustment that will help you when your season arrives next spring.

I often work with young players who can benefit from making a minor adjustment to the way they are currently doing something. At times, they are having success at their current level of baseball and are reluctant to change anything. If you work with a qualified coach or instructor, you need to trust that they are looking out for your best interest. They see something that may eventually prevent you from reaching your full potential.

Keep in mind that change is difficult. It will feel “weird” to change a grip on the bat, or the width of your stance, or your leg lift on the mound, but give it some time. Through repetition, the feeling will change from weird to natural. If you are dedicated to making the adjustment, it will become second-nature to you by the time your high school season begins.

Remember to keep an open mind and don’t get discouraged. We all need to make improvements. Major League players are constantly working on ways to improve. On the golf course, Tiger Woods re-vamped his swing despite being the #1 ranked player in the world with several Major Championships already to his credit.

Good luck improving your game this off-season. It’s hard work, but you’ll be glad you did it.


Steve Bernhardt is the Executive VP of Baseball Operations with Baseball Factory. Bernhardt played for five years in the Colorado Rockies organization. As Executive VP of Baseball Operations at Baseball Factory, he oversees all events and instruction. Bernhardt currently serves as an Associate Scout with the Colorado Rockies. He received his B.S. from the University of Richmond where he was an All-Conference player.

Learning How to Learn

Andy Ferguson: Another Day, Another Double Play

I have overheard many times statements such as: “Any little league coach knows that,” or, “That’s nothing new,” or, “I could teach him that myself.“ I somewhat agree...but what I have watched and witnessed over my time around baseball says that what people say is simple, apparently is not. Why do players in general have such bad throwing mechanics? Why is base running so abysmal at the high school level? These are just two examples, but if anyone can teach it, or it’s nothing new, or you could do it yourself, why isn’t it better?

The answer, in my opinion, is that many players (and parents too) think that simply showing up at a camp or clinic or practice is going to be enough. While they all certainly help, I doubt anyone that runs any of these events would claim that they could completely cure any shortcoming while at that particular event. The goal should be to gather information and learn drills that will help you learn how to develop your skills. As such, “player development” is an ongoing process, and one that must continue as long as a player plays the game.

With that in mind, the player development responsibility falls on the shoulders of the player – either he is willing to regularly work and get better or he is not. All the coaching in the world is worthless without an honest and ongoing effort from the player. This is all too often overlooked. Mom and dad often care more than the player does, which is very disappointing for us as coaches – and I am sure even more disappointing for parents, who work hard to provide the opportunity for the player. One of the first things I learned, and it still rings true, is that you cannot teach someone who doesn’t want to learn.

The key concept here is aptitude. It is very important in determining the potential for a player to get better. According to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary, aptitude is, “a tendency, capacity, or inclination to learn or understand.”

It should make perfect sense why this is important. In order to improve a skill, first the correct technique and/or fundamentals must be taught. Then they must be drilled and worked on, with repetition being the most important thing. The player with “a tendency, capacity, or inclination to learn or understand,” is certainly more likely to pick up the correct techniques and/or fundamentals – therefore making it far more likely that he will be able to take the drills and repetitions and use them to actually develop and improve. In other words, a player with aptitude has the potential to learn how to learn – which sets him on the ideal player development path.

Andy Ferguson is currently the Senior Director of Baseball Operations with the Baseball Factory. Ferguson joined the North Carolina State baseball team as a walk-on, and went on to solidify his role on a team that participated in four consecutive NCAA Regionals. He later coached with the Harwich Mariners of the Cape Cod Baseball League, and then served as an Associate Scout with the Pittsburgh Pirates and the San Diego Padres.

Think Before You Change Your Swing

Matt Schilling: From the Batting Cage

From doing private lessons at Baseball Factory I have learned an immense amount about the swing, how players bodies move and react and about the adjustments that coaches try and get hitters to make. One thing that drives me crazy is that young players will do whatever a coach tells them to without thinking about it or questioning it. On one hand you expect a kid to listen to his coaches and be respectful towards them, on the other hand you want players to learn and understand their own swing so that they can make the correct adjustments on their own and not always rely on what a coach says. As there is in any sport, there are knowledgeable coaches who give good advice and there are bad coaches who give incorrect information to players. As hitters you need to understand your swing and what makes it good and what makes things go wrong. As coaches we need to explain this to players clearly when trying to get them to make a change.

I often have players come to me and they are doing something in their swing that is odd or out of place. For example, I had a player the other day who was starting with his hands really low, almost down to his waist. I asked him why he did that; his answer was, "because my coach told me too." I then asked him why, what does that do for you, his answer "I don't know?" If I had a dime for every time I've heard this I would be a very rich man. I don't necessarily have a problem with the coach having the kid move his hands down, what I have a problem with is that the coach did not explain to the kid why he wanted him to do this and the kid didn't question it, he just did it. As players we have to understand our swing, as coaches we have to help players to understand hitting and to understand there own swing. Otherwise how can we get angry at a kid for not making the right adjustments?

Players please think before you allow a coach to change your swing. Ask questions of the coach such as:

• What problem will this solve in my swing?
• Why do you want me to make this change?
• What will this adjustment do for me?
• Will this adjustment have any negative effects on my swing?

Once you have gotten these answers, try the adjustment in your practice sessions and see if it makes sense to you and if it helps you. Once you have done this then you can make a sensible choice on whether or not you are going to change your swing.

I had a player in for a lesson the other day who was hitting over .500 through 17 high school games. He had a bad week last week and was 0-9. His coaches wanted him to completely change his stance, hand position, and stride because he wasn't hitting well. When the player came to me for his next lesson he asked me what I thought. I refused to answer and made him tell me what he thought first. I was really proud of him. He said his swing felt fine, that he had chased some bad pitches and had just missed a few others and that he didn't think he should change anything because he had been killing the ball. I forced him to think about his situation and use common sense. When I asked him what his coaches said these changes would do for him he said "They never told me, they just said I needed to change because I was struggling."

The moral of the story here is THINK before you start making changes. I'm not saying that you shouldn't make adjustments, but think about them, understand them and test them before you start changing for the sake of changing. If you can learn to understand your swing and how and why it does and doesn't work you will meet your best coach...


...yourself.

Schilling graduated from Coastal Carolina University, where he was an All-Conference and All-State player while being voted the fourth best second baseman in the country by the Smith Award Group. Schilling went on to coach at Coastal for five years, helping them reach the top 25. He is also a former Associate Scout with the Atlanta Braves.

What Does it Mean to be a “Great Coach?”

Steve Sclafani: All Access Pass

For all of us who have ever played the game of baseball, we have all had that great coach we remember with joy, as well as that coach that made our baseball experience a living nightmare. For all you coaches out there that are coaching youth and high school baseball players, your number one goal should be to give young players a positive upbeat experience where they can learn the game of baseball and also walk away with more confidence and overall self-esteem.

When I am asked to speak to little league and high school coaches across the country about our coach certification program on Baseball University most of the questions from the participants are regarding the appropriate age level to introduce specific strategies and techniques. While this is no doubt important (i.e. we don’t want to teach a 10 year old to throw a curveball) we must also realize that it is not only what we are teaching, but also HOW and WHEN WE ARE GETTING OUR MESSAGE ACROSS. BASEBALL IS A SLOW MOVING GAME; NO YOUNG PLAYER LIKES TO GET YELLED AT IN THE MIDDLE OF A GAME WHEN HE HAS MADE AN ERROR.

OK, by now I guess you get my point. Good coaches get players to relax and play at the top of their game. They can still be tough and firm and demand a lot from their players, but they do it in way where they’re not “showing up” their players in front of the entire team. Let me give you an example of a great coach that I once had….

The summer before entering my senior year of college, I had the privilege of playing for the Winchester Royals of the Valley League. Our coach was a young guy (25 years old) who was a tremendous teacher of the game and baseball strategist. But what I really remember about him was how he helped each and every player on our team to believe in himself. This coach helped me to get the most out of my ability by staying positive in stressful game situations. For example, if I struck out in a clutch situation or made an error, he would quickly tell me to “wipe it out and look ahead.” He never showed up a player or yelled at a player during a game situation. He realized that causing a player to crawl into his shell and play the game scared is the wrong thing to do.

That being said, there was certainly a few times that as a team, he let us know that he was not happy with our overall effort and expected more from us. Again, this was always after a game or before a practice session. How many times do we see a coach chew a young player out on the field for swinging at a bad pitch or for making a physical error? What is the upside of this behavior? Do we think the player is trying to make an error?

Positive reinforcement in a game where failure is common is key to the success of a young player. After all, it’s more than the three hits every 10 at-bats that makes a young player successful. How does that player and coach handle the failure of making an out 7 of 10 times?

Be one of those coaches that your players will always remember. Stay positive. I certainly have fond memories of my former coach, Dayton Moore who is now the general manager of the Kansas City Royals!

Steve Sclafani is the CEO/Founder of the Baseball Factory.

Sclafani’s ability to create new opportunities for baseball players nationwide and to develop exposure vehicles has led to over 20,000 Baseball Factory and Team One players competing at the college level, $500 million in scholarships, and over 2,000 players selected in the MLB draft. Sclafani was recognized as a member of Baltimore’s prestigious 40/40 Club, honoring 40 top executives under 40 years of age. Steve is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania where he played second base.