Ahead Of The Curve with Jonathan Gelnar

Matt Kosderka- Head Baseball Coach, Lewis & Clark College (OR)

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Summary:
In this episode of Ahead of the Curve, I welcome Matt Kosderka, Head Coach of D3 Lewis and Clark College Baseball team. Matt shares how he keeps his players motivated and successful in the game of baseball and the game of life.
Show Notes:
Guest: Matt Kosderka, professional baseball player who now teaches and coaches college baseball.
What a typical fall training week looks like for Matts team
How Matt recruits key players and strives to get them to the next level
How Matt builds the culture of his problem and what sets his team a part from anyone else
Why Matt uses coaches pillars in his coaching
How competitions can be integrated into practices for the betterment of the team
How to prioritize individual development on a team
Why communication is important and how Matt encourages open communication within his team
What many high school players are doing wrong and how we can improve it
What a typical practice looks like for Matts team
How Matt sets up his BP
Why it is important not to rush practices
How Matt uses data with his team
How to balance data and player relationships
What Matt wishes he knew before he became a head coach
How Matt prepares his assistants to become head coaches if that is in their goals
Why Matt makes changes each year in his programs and how it benefits his players
How Matt learns from his mentors
How using mindful apps daily has made a difference in his life
What are the players favorite aspect of practice
3 Key Points:
    Coaching a D3 school can pose unique issues for baseball players.
    Matt develops intentional training programs, communication, and unique competitions to keep his players engaged.
    Matt emphasizes why it is important not to get stuck in the kids and their different upbringings. It is important to teach baseball but it is even more important to teach life.
Tweetable Quotes:
-       ¨I think of the best ways to help our players is to have a high expectations and hold kids accountable to them.” – Matt. (46:25)
-       “I think that its normal, regardless how old you are, to love to compete. And so there's two things that I think we probably do that they like the most One is we call for spotlight base running. And so we put a base runner at every position we put to first base, just to have an extra guy there. And then we put a defense against them, and in each hitter gets two swings, to get the ball and play.¨ – Matt. (39:09)
-       “My career ended because I couldn't handle the failure. So now I want to help my players with that.¨–Matt (38:20)
-       “Spend your off season studying one element of the game that you want to get better at.¨–Matt (35:50)
-       “Adjust the culture to develop your identity as a program and we use pillars to teach those things to our guys. And I think that definitely helped last year.¨– Matt (34:40)
-       “When I started out as a coach 20 years ago, I would say that I had a different definition of success.¨–Matt (29:36)
Resources Mentioned:
Ahead of the Curve
Headspace
Compound Effect
Above the Line by Urban Meyer
Matt Kosderka
Website and Social Media sites for the show 
www.aotcpodcast.com
Twitter
@aotc_podcast
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Dr. Greg Rose- Co-Founder of Titleist Performance Institute (TPI) and OnBaseU

This episode is brought to you by baseballcloud. Summary: In this episode of Ahead of the Curve, I welcome Dr. Greg Rose of OnBaseU and the Titleist Performance Institute. We discuss the OnBaseU philosophy and program for improving the efficiency of baseball swinging and pitching, along with various data-based methods for improving baseball practice regimens. We also discuss the way data is becoming increasingly important baseball as it did in golf, and the possible reasons for the different approaches to data in these sports.
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Robert Woodard- Pitching Coach, University of North Carolina

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Summary:
I welcome Robert Woodard, pitching coach for the University of North Carolina. Robert walks us through what the training program at UNC looks like while sharing some of his best practices and he also shares what they look for on the recruiting trail.
Show Notes:
 
Guest: Robert Woodard, Professional Player turned Coach
Robert reveals how he develops his players and what a typical week looks like for his team
How Robert shuts-down pitching players
The analytics Robert is using to measure players against one another as well as themselves
Why the culture is important in a program and how you can build the leadership, team, and culture to be in alignment
How Robert recruits players to play in college
Important factors for a player to have: Time management, Responsibility of themselves, and Knowing how to fail.
Why Robert ¨messes with timing¨ with his pitching players
How Robert structures his recovery program
The importance of conditioning and how you need to structure it around your season
The best ways to develop ball command
Changes that are being incorporated into Robert´s program
Fun practices incorporated into each practice for the players
 
3 Key Points:
  Robert´s experience with professional baseball and later coaching enables him to share baseball best practice with us.
 When recruiting players for college, the soft skill like time management, being able to failure, and responsibility are just as important as skill.
  It is always important to implement change into a program and reinvigorate players with new ideas and methodologies.
 
Tweetable Quotes:
¨I don't really draw any hard lines. I keep an open mind and communicate with each pitcher. We need to communicate with each pitcher in terms of what his vision for his personal processes are.” – Robert (11:00)
-       “We trust our players. We give them a lot of leeway in terms of policing themselves, and maintaining our team standards, and maintaining that culture.¨ – Robert (20:40)
-      “The most successful players are the ones that look at failure as an opportunity to grow. They look at challenges as another opportunity to grow and they are open to trying new things as opposed to just getting somewhere and being stuck.
- Every player is going to fail or be challenged at some point in their career and you have to you have to be equipped to to handle it and embrace it.¨–Robert (24:14)
-    “[Messing with pitching timing] It's just another weapon that guys can use to get hitters out.¨–Robert (29:06)
-       “(On bullpens) It's not necessarily scripted, but it is it is ironed out. Whether it's establishing the fastball or their primary off speed pitch. Then we’ll finish with simulating counts.¨– Robert (36:50)
-    Command is a daily mindset. Every single throwing session our guys have they to throw targets, or to the glove, or it's checkpoints on the body.¨–Robert (44:18)
Resources Mentioned:
Ahead of the Curve
Robert Woodard
Twitter: @rwoodard20
Email: rwoodard@unc.edu
Reading Resources
Sabermetrics Article
Ahead of the Curve by Brian Kenny
Website and Social Media sites for the show 
www.aotcpodcast.com
Twitter
@aotc_podcast
Facebook
Ahead of the Curve Coaches Facebook group
Instagram
aotc_podcast
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Head Coaches (HS)- Tony Szymendera- St. Christophers, Randy Tomlin- Liberty Christian, Sean Ryan- Benedictine, Jeff Petty-EVO Shield Canes / Frederick...

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Summary:
We start with St. Christophers head coach Tony Szymendera, then we have Randy Tomlin, Former MLB player and now head coach at Liberty Christian, from there we move to Benedictine Head Coach Sean Ryan, Newly named Fredericksburg Christian head coach Jeff Petty who is also the president of the EVO Shield canes, and we end with Menchville head coach Phil Forbes.
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@aotc_podcast
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Randolph-Macon Head Coach Ray Hedrick, Jeremy Sheetinger and the Paul D. Camp CC Staff

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Summary:
In this episode, I get the opportunity to introduce several college baseball coaches, and the man behind behind the mic at the ABCA Jeremy Sheetinger. We start with Randolph Macon head coach Ray Hedrick, then move to Jeremy Sheetinger and we end with the entire staff at Paul D Camp which include head coach David Mitchell, hitting coach Brandon Matthews, and pitching coach Pat Stafford!
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Tom Walter- Head Baseball Coach, Wake Forest University

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Summary:
If you are not a fan of analytics, launch angle, exit velocity and spin rate, this episode may not be for you. Tom and I discuss how he is using these to provide individual player development plans for all of his players, and he gives us a ton of practical advice on HOW he does it.
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Shawn Stiffler- Head Baseball Coach, Virginia Commonwealth University

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Summary:
In this episode, I of speak with Virginia Commonwealth  head baseball coach, Shawn Stiffler. I did not know much about Coach Stiffler before we got the opportunity to chat, and I was completely blown away by his attention to detail, the culture he has built, and what he is doing to make his players better on and off the field. His presentation was over “finding your difference” and you will love this episode.
 
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Billy Wagner- Former Major League All Star and current Head Baseball Coach at The Miller School (VA)

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Summary:
In this episode, I speak with former major league all star and current high school head coach Billy Wagner. Billy gives some great insight on what he learned in his career that he brought back to The Miller School.
 
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Brian O’Connor- Head Baseball Coach, University of Virginia

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Summary:
In this episode, I of speak with the University of Virginia Head Coach, Brian O’ Connor. In short, Coach O’Connor and I discuss what championship culture vs regular culture looks like from every aspect of the program.
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Paul Mainieri- Head Baseball Coach, LSU

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Summary:
In this episode, I get the privilege of speaking with LSU head baseball coach, Paul Mainieri. We hit on what he’s learned in his almost 40 years of head coaching experience. We talk about the value of relationships with our players and our coaches. And we get into his best advice for assistant coaches who would like to be head coaches someday.
#VBCA2018
 
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@aotc_podcast
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