Ahead Of The Curve with Jonathan Gelnar Jonathan Gelnar

Coaching with Flexibility and Communication with James Ramsey 
 
During this episode of Ahead of the Curve, I interviewed James Ramsey, Hitting Coach at Georgia Tech. James Ramsey talks about the importance of clarity, simple wins, communicating with players, measuring players in the off-season, his BP set-up, what a hitting meeting looks like in the fall, and not overthinking things. 
 
Episode Highlights: 
 
How did James Ramsey get involved in baseball and as a coach?   
Was coaching something that he had in the back of his mind when he was playing baseball? 
What are some life lessons that he has learned from other coaches that he will never forget?   
What was his transition like into the Georgia Tech program? 
What did this past off-season look like for him? 
Are there any set things that he is looking for in players to group them together to address their needs? 
When new players arrive on the team where does he start with them? 
What does ‘plan and approach’ mean to James? 
What kinds of competitions have they used in their training practices that they really like?  
What are some different ways that he really likes to train game-like practices, especially on the hitting side? 
What are some different ways that we can train players to make better decisions?  
What is his advice to be a better communicator? 
What does his BP set-up look like?
What is something that James Ramsey is excited about learning and applying?
What changes has he been making from last year to this year?
What are things his players get excited about doing during practice? 
Is there anything that he believes that other coaches might disagree with?
What is something we would notice at one of James Ramsey’s practices?
Are there any resources that James Ramsey would recommend? 

3 Key Points:
Make sure you are ready for when your opportunities come. 
Keep the most important things important. 
Have an accountability partner on the field that can keep the expectations going on and off the field.   
 
Tweetable Quotes:
“I love to read and it’s baseball, it’s mental toughness, it’s corporate culture books. I think that baseball has a lot to learn from some other areas.” – James Ramsey  (09:18)
“Being able to kind of relate off the field too as well. I think telling the players, ‘I don’t know what I don’t know and I’m new to this as well and I’m going to make mistakes. But I’m going to make them aggressively.” – James Ramsey  (11:46)
“I did 6 BP groups, laminated them, stuck them out there so I didn’t have to take the time on the day-to-day to do it and so, some of them are grouped by ‘rightys’ versus ‘leftys’ as basic as that sounds. Can we throw a different angle on the machine?” – James Ramsey  (15:54)
“I have clarity. That is one thing I try to search for.” – James Ramsey  (18:20)
“These guys have grown up in a showcase setting where some of them have never had a first and third plays put on.” – James Ramsey  (19:22)
“As far as the team is concerned, doing self-evaluations, doing evaluations on the coaching staff, I want to make sure, hey, am I communicating this clearly?” – James Ramsey  (22:05)
“We can overthink it sometimes too. So it’s, can I just fundamentally get to, where did this kid come from? What is his style of learning? What is his style of coaching? What is his motivation style that he likes?” – James Ramsey  (22:58)
“Every pitch a pitcher is forced to throw, I believe that there is probably a good correlation to winning a game.” – James Ramsey  (40:24)

Resources Mentioned: 
Ahead of the Curve Podcast
Twitter: @AOTC_podcast
James Ramsey: Twitter Instagram

During this episode of Ahead of the Curve, I interviewed Matt Borgschulte, MiLB Hitting Coach, for the Minnesota Twins. Matt Borgschulte discusses where his baseball career has taken him, the importance of working on the swing in the off-season, helping players process the mental side of success, how to train for adjustability and pitch recognition. 
Episode Highlights: 
 
How did Matt Borgschulte get involved in baseball and as a coach?   
How does the off-season look like for Matt Borgschulte as far as goals? 
What should be focused on in the off-season? 
What are some different ways to help players make better decisions? 
Are these particular things that Matt looks for when viewing player videos? 
Is there an example of a common movement limitation that he sees often? 
What are some ways that we can train for adjustability?  
How does he help players deal with the mental process of playing baseball?   
What are some ways that he gets players to get ingrained in competition? 
How has he become a better communicator?  
What does he do to be a better communicator with guys with whom English isn’t their first language? 
How does Matt Borgschulte prioritize individual development within the season?
Each player is different when it comes to what they need to get better.
What are some things that he is very intentional about? 
What is something that Matt Borgschulte is excited about learning and applying? 
Is there anything he is looking to improve on? 
What are things his players get excited about doing during practice? 
Is there anything that he believes that other coaches might disagree with? 
What is something we would notice at one of Matt Borgschulte’s practices? 
Are there any resources that Matt Borgschulte would recommend?  

Are there any competitions that he likes to use with players? 
What are things that he is looking for when watching video? 
How does he help players whom English isn’t their first language? 
How does he go about individualizing training in the team setting? 
 
3 Key Points:
Training pitch recognition is important for helping players make better decisions.  
Game Sense Sports offers an app for training pitch recognition: gamesensesports.com
Ways to train for adjustability include: changing the environment, changing the task, and you can change what you implement. 
 
Tweetable Quotes:
“Some of the things I really tried to accomplish this fall season is just to continuing to study the swing, a little bit more in-depth than you can do in-season.” – Matt Borgschulte (04:16)
“I think in the off-season it is a great time to really dig in on the swing in terms of making certain swing adjustments, much more difficult to do in-season, especially when you are trying to perform that day or that week.” – Matt Borgschulte (05:18)
“The first place you really need to start or you need to look when it comes to any athletic movement is how that specific athlete’s body moves.” – Matt Borgschulte (08:33)
“As hitting coaches, we really need to be able to work with strength conditioning, athletic training, so we can better understand each athlete’s movement capabilities.” – Matt Borgschulte (08:43)
“When you talk about the mental side it is just understanding what success is and recalculating and redefining what that is for each guy.” – Matt Borgschulte (14:18)
“It is such a long season and the work you have to put in day in and day out it can get monotonous for sure. But, creating competition is a great way to kind of keep the energy and focus during a long season.” – Matt Borgschulte (17:03)
“Communication is so huge, especially when you are working with professional players that have had a lot of success.” – Matt Borgschulte (18:57)
“What I’ve found is that if you show that you are willing to try and you are willing to mess up

During this episode of Ahead of the Curve, I interviewed Kyle Wilson, Milb Hitting Coach for the Tampa Bay Rays, OBU-TPI-FMS Certified, and Owner of TPA (The Performance Academy) in Apex, North Carolina. Kyle Wilson talks about how he got into coaching, starting his own performance facility, keeping players interested and engaged, making training more like real games, the importance of balance in your swing, and giving back to younger players through training and mentorship. 
 
Episode Highlights: 
 
How did Kyle Wilson get involved in baseball and as a coach?   
How did Kyle start his own performance facility?  
What does he wish he had known last year that he knows now?  
What were his main goals for the off-season? 
What are some things they do for teenaged players?
What are some ways they train for adjustability in the swing?
How can we train better for decision-making? 
Are there any competitions that he likes to use with players? 
What are things that he is looking for when watching video? 
How does he help players whom English isn’t their first language? 
How does he go about individualizing training in the team setting? 
What is something that Kyle Wilson is excited about learning and applying? 
What are things his players get excited about doing during practice? 
Is there anything that he believes that other coaches might disagree with?   
What is something we would notice at one of Kyle Wilson’s practices?  
Are there any resources that Kyle Wilson would recommend?  
 
3 Key Points:
If you are not balanced through your move it becomes hard to control and adjust when you are swinging.  
Facilitate environments that are more game-like for players. 
The average attention span of people is 8 seconds. The attention span of a goldfish is 9 seconds.  
 
Tweetable Quotes:
“The game of baseball has taught me so much about life and how to overcome adversity and just the team camaraderie and the friends. I wanted to get into coaching to mentor kids through the game, which has taught me so much.” – Kyle Wilson  (02:15)
“I think why I truly enjoy coaching is just purely being able to impact and see the development of kids turn into young men and learn things through this beautiful game.” – Kyle Wilson  (05:05)
“Guys that are in professional baseball or have an opportunity to have a little bit of a break, I highly encourage to try and to get set up with some type of facility to give back to the youth, for one. For two, to maintain your craft .” – Kyle Wilson  (08:51)
“I set up evaluations. They come in and it’s an hour evaluation. We are sitting down, first and foremost, and I'm asking them a bunch of questions about what that player’s goals are.” – Kyle Wilson  (13:05)
“It should be a goal of every hitter in my opinion...become more adjustable, to have and create movements that allow you to sit on a fastball and adjust to an off-speed and still be able to do damage with that.” – Kyle Wilson  (16:32)
“I think we can learn to reward guys for taking good pitches.” – Kyle Wilson  (21:55)
“At the end of the day, if you aren’t competing and having fun, then it is going to be a long, long season.” – Kyle Wilson  (25:29)
“I personally believe there’s a lot of really, really good things from, call-it ‘old-school baseball.’” – Kyle Wilson  (45:03)

Resources Mentioned: 
Ahead of the Curve Podcast
Twitter: @AOTC_podcast
Kyle Wilson: Twitter
The Performance Academy: tpanc.com
Kyle Wilson’s Email: kwilson@tpanc.com
Book: Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise by Anders Ericsson

During this episode of Ahead of the Curve, I interviewed Michael Deegan, Head Baseball Coach at Denison University in Granville, Ohio. Michael Deegan talks about writing his book Let It Rip: Life Lessons Learned Through Sports, being elite as a coaching staff before being elite as a program, competitive scrimmages, meeting with players individually, and facing the struggle of wanting to make everyone happy while knowing this is virtually impossible. 
 
Episode Highlights: 
 
How did Michael Deegan get involved in baseball and as a coach?   
What made Michael decide to write a book?  
How can you go about forming a strong team?  
Michael talks about 2013 and taking the job at Denison?  
What did this past fall look like in their baseball program? 
What are some of the details of building up his team culture? 
What are some of their favorite practice competitions? 
One-on-one meetings are crucial with players.  
How do they create a ‘culture of coaching?’”
How does he prepare assistant coaches to be ready to be head coaches one day? 
What are some standards they have and how do they hold each other accountable for them?   
What does a typical day look like in the spring? 
How does their BP setup work? 
How does Michael handle the struggle of wanting everybody to be happy?  
What is something that Michael Deegan is excited about learning and applying? 
What are things his players get excited about doing during practice? 
Is there anything that he believes that other coaches might disagree with?   
What is something we would notice at one of Michael Deegan’s practices?  
Are there any resources that Michael Deegan would recommend?  
 
3 Key Points:
Michael Deegan has been able to learn from fantastic people by sharing his own thoughts through his writing.  
Identify where you are has a coaching staff or as a baseball program, get your ego out of it, set goals, and take action. 
They do six individual meetings with the players to ask questions and listen to what motivates them. 
 
Tweetable Quotes:
“What I’ve learned is that by having the courage to put something out there, then you learn a lot in return and so I did that through the newsletter and I’m just excited to see where the book takes it.” – Michael Deegan  (03:41)
“One of the things I have been able to do over my life is surround myself with really good people and put myself in environments that allow you to thrive and are curious and allow you to learn and grow, and to me, that is what team formation is.” – Michael Deegan  (05:26)
“If I were taking over a program right now I would say what you have to do is strip away everything. Take the emotion out of it and decide, where do you sit right now?” – Michael Deegan  (08:31)
“I think you really have to identify where you want to go. It’s creating clarity. We use a phrase that ‘clarity is king.’” – Michael Deegan  (09:07)
“We want to be elite as a coaching staff before we are elite as a program.” – Michael Deegan  (09:44)
“We want to play baseball a lot. I think there is sometimes a push for ways to manipulate our game. Our game is also beautiful in itself. So just a straight-up scrimmage is an opportunity to compete.” – Michael Deegan  (18:21)
“The biggest competition that we try to focus on is ‘me versus me.’” – Michael Deegan  (19:29)
“That inherent wrestling match between wanting everybody to be happy and also knowing that’s never happen, right? That’s just not going to happen. So for me, I always call on the shared vision of the program.” – Michael Deegan  (39:34)

Resources Mentioned: 
Ahead of the Curve Podcast
Twitter: @AOTC_podcast
Michael Deegan: Linkedin Twitter
Book: Let It Rip: Life Lessons Learned Through Sports by Michael Deegan

During this episode of Ahead of the Curve, I interviewed Michael Schlact, MiLB Pitching Coach for the Milwaukee Brewers. Michael Schlact talks about ways to properly communicate with players on your team, the importance of learning how to lose, how he approaches data, and why pitchers needing to learn how their fastball works. 
 
Episode Highlights: 
How did Michael Schlact get involved in baseball and as a coach?   
What are some different changes he is making from last year?  
What has been Michael’s process to become better at incorporating data?  
How does Michael Schlact communicate with a large range of diverse players? 
What should a pitcher’s off-season look like? 
What are we missing at the amateur that at the major league level they need to know? 
What does Michael look for when viewing a player video?
How does workload management factor into working with players? 
What are some different ways to address player development from a pitching standpoint? 
How do you address a player who needs to be convinced to use a better pitch?
What is something that Michael is excited about learning and applying? 
What are things his players get excited about doing during practice?   
Is there anything that Michael Schlact believes that other coaches might disagree with?
Strive to make your players better people. 
 
3 Key Points:
Learn who your players are first, and then help them second.  
Be vulnerable enough to prove to your players that you are there for them when they are playing well and when they are making mistakes as well. 
Pitchers need to understand how their fastball works, what does it do, and how they can play it into your benefit.  
 
Tweetable Quotes:
“I want to continue to learn what makes a player better, and specifically for me being a pitching coach, what is it that I can use that allows the pitchers to get better.” – Michael Schlact  (05:22)
“For me, it is what is most important and how can I communicate that to a player without overwhelming him?” – Michael Schlact  (06:04)
“Understand the player’s background that you are coaching. You have to know them as people. You have to know where they came from. You have to know what their learning styles are. There are so many different learning styles.” – Michael Schlact  (07:56)
“There is something really rich about a player asking you a question and you saying, ‘You know what, I don’t know. But let me find that out for you.’” – Michael Schlact  (12:54)
“If you don’t understand your fastball and the profile that it has, you’ll never truly understand the best pitches for you to work off of that.” – Michael Schlact  (17:44)
“If you don’t learn how to lose, you will never really win.” – Michael Schlact  (19:08)
“Pick out something each time. Don’t feel like you have to just watch that video, that one setting for 10 minutes, and never go back to it.” – Michael Schlact  (22:27)
“Everyone wants to be told the truth. People don’t like to hear the truth all the time. But everyone wants it.” – Michael Schlact  (37:52)
Resources Mentioned: 
Ahead of the Curve Podcast
Twitter: @AOTC_podcast
Michael Schlact: Twitter

Suggested Title: Developing Players Individually Inside the Team Structure with Casey Dunn
 
During this episode of Ahead of the Curve, I interviewed Casey Dunn, Head Baseball Coach at Samford University. Casey Dunn pulls from his extensive experience to talk about helping his players develop their own development plan, the importance of concentrating on advantages instead of what you are lacking in your situation, building a strong connection with players, and being aware of their needs. 
 
Episode Highlights: 
How did Casey Dunn get involved in baseball and as a coach?   
Baseball was very much a part of Casey’s upbringing.  
What are some of the first steps that Casey took as a coach? 
Don’t get caught up in what you don’t have.  
What did the fall look like for his team? 
How did he transition into his team and develop the baseball culture there?  
What are some ways that he connects with his players individually?  
How does he help develop his assistant coaches into potential head coaches? 
What are some rules and standards he has for his team?  
What does a typical spring practice plan look like? 
What does their BP setup look like? 
What is something that Casey is excited about learning and applying? 
What are things his players get excited about doing during practice? 
Is there anything that he believes that other coaches might disagree with?   
What is something we would notice at one of Casey Dunn’s practices?  
Are there any resources that Casey would recommend?  
3 Key Points:
Casey Dunn started at Samford University in 2004 and he has been there for 15 seasons.  
Focus on the advantages of where you are at.  
Know where your team members want to go in order to provide them valuable opportunities and prepare them.  
Tweetable Quotes:
“As a coach, it is tough to have a lot of family time with what we do and growing up and having a close relationship with my dad, going to the field, going to practice, going to the cage, that was the way for me to spend time with my dad.” – Casey Dunn  (02:30)
“It is so easy to get trapped in what you don’t have or get trapped in what other people have that you don’t.” – Casey Dunn  (05:15)
“There are positives to every situation.” – Casey Dunn  (05:25)
“The fall is a developmental time. The fall is not a period of time where you are trying to win games.” – Casey Dunn  (06:54)
“The thing I tell our guys all the time, in the game of baseball, I think more than any other sport, you have to take personal ownership in you. You have to invest in yourself.” – Casey Dunn  (10:06)
“The thing I like best that I get the greatest value out of at this time in my life is watching guys do it at an elite level.” – Casey Dunn  (12:52)
“One thing I tell our guys is you have to represent our program as you would your family, as you would yourself, your mom and dad, your last name.” – Casey Dunn  (25:52)
“A lot of this quote, ‘new stuff’ that is out there with the enhanced video and all the technology and all the metrics we’re getting on players, I don’t think it is that new.” – Casey Dunn  (37:01)
Resources Mentioned: 
Ahead of the Curve Podcast
Twitter: @AOTC_podcast
Casey Dunn: Twitter