College baseball is one of the least funded sports in the NCAA. There is no debating that it is just a simple fact. With the emergence of the third assistant not coming anytime soon, this leaves college baseball coaches to a 12:1 player to coach ratio. It doesn’t take a mathematician to realize that’s not a great ratio to help players improve and develop. Some programs are fortunate enough to have an army of volunteers or managers, however, the reality is the vast majority of programs have 3 coaches or fewer. How do we expect athletes to develop with such limited resources? We can’t expect coaches to truly understand a roadmap to develop an athlete into a draft caliber player. Unfortunately, these coaches have 10-12 hour days in front of them 5-6 times a week. Their day-to-day includes recruiting, budgeting, practice plans, weights, actual practice, and any charting/data needed to present to players their strengths and weaknesses. So, with all of that being said, can we really get upset if they’re not player development experts?
Let’s take a look at this small sample of a major league organization.
This list doesn’t even include coaches or members of the player development staff. Now condense all of those roles into 1. That is your college coach’s day-to-day. Notice how at the professional level pitching and hitting coaches are not on the player development team? Coaches coach. Player development guys develop. An elite organization has a staff that can speak the same language but is elite in only one or two areas.
Now that everyone understands that being a college baseball coach is at least 3 full-time jobs in one, how can we alleviate some of the workloads and optimize their athletes’ development? Here are a few simple and financially reasonable ways college coaches can get word class development and still focus on coaching.
This is a simple and effective way to streamline your practice and your process. Most college players don’t fail because they stink, they fail because they don’t have a plan. Take the guessing out of the equation and make their day, week, and month as transparent as possible. Utilize a system like our player development software, Connect, that charts their metrics, holds files, and outlines their schedule. By doing so, a coaching staff can coach and monitor a substantially larger volume of athletes. What ultimately happens over time when using this software is your athletes start teaching your other athletes. As a staff, you’re only as strong as your weakest link. When your entire pitching staff is now holding each other accountable and helping each other out on a day-to-day basis the culture, expectations, and results elevate themselves.
The days of hiring coaches just to have bodies and run camps are over. At CP, we are already witnessing this especially at the D2 and D3 level. Athletes are more knowledgeable than ever. Therefore, development can’t be faked. As a player, I’ve seen teammates bring peer-reviewed studies to my coach and tell them they’re doing it wrong. Does that mean they’re a bad coach? Absolutely not. They were just coached in a different era or misinformed. We’ve already started implementing remote training programs in colleges to allow the pitching coach to focus more on in-game performance and pitching rather than their throwing programs. We’ve done this with small schools where their budget is a major constraint and they’ve been nothing but satisfied with the results. The process is simple, align on values and goals with the staff. Assess and conduct a walk-through. Individualize and map out their entire fall. Finally, the coaches can sit back and let the players drive the bus.
In conversations with a handful of college coaches, their mindset is shifting from having their athletes play during the summer to training during the summer. It’s great to go out and get more innings. However, have you ever noticed when you have an athlete who trains all summer and comes back, the game just means a little bit more to them? They’re heavily invested in themselves and the product they produce on the field. With an outsourced player development staff, you’ll have the ability to train your athletes on the same program for multiple years in a row. Rather than send them off to a summer ball league where the coach only has the interest of drinking beer and winning in mind, you can now monitor your athletes’ workload every month of the year. I’ve even spoken to some coaches who wanted their athletes to stay after the season throughout the summer and train.
In 3-5 years, college programs will have a substantially smaller emphasis on filling a spot for a part-time college coach with a stipend of 9k. Rather, coaches will look to put that money into a program that develops strength, throwing, mobility, and nutrition programs. These staff members will fly to the campus and stay for a few weeks. Integrate their systems, ensure the players and staff are well educated on the movements and goals of the program, then fly off to the next program to do the same. The coaches who utilize these programs and systems will ultimately have the most success as there will be less turnover in development systems and an athlete can see long-term results due to staying on a program for 2+ years.
For consulting, contact Training@Connected-Performance.com.