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Do You Have Intent?

What is your intent on a daily basis? Are you getting better? Are you practicing deliberately? Or are you just going through the motions and letting life happen to yourself? I think this is something I have been thinking about a lot recently. I want to make sure that I am making the most out of myself and others that I am around. Having INTENT is one of the biggest and best things that you could associate yourself with. Think of this, have you ever written anything down knowing that it would come true? That you would work so hard until you had what you wanted? That is intent. That is having a clear goal for yourself. If you aren't trying to point to what are you honestly looking at? What do you want to be in 5 years? How will you get there? You need to be focused with one thing in mine. I have been mulling this idea around. What is my own intent? I think that I am getting closer to identifying exactly what I want to get done in the day, and what I want to do to get there. So ...
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Fouled Straight Back

Someone who hasn't made a play like this might think that this is nothing. In reality this is difficult for any catcher. A foul ball straight back to Sandy Leon might seem typical but don't think this for granted. Big play by the catcher to realize the foul ball stand up, identify where it is and how it is spinning which is toward the pitchers mound. Most high school or college catchers might find it a habit to go straight up to the ball and not wait for it to move backward to them. This is good training by anyone who has worked with Leon. Identify the ball, move slowly toward it. Toss the mask. Simple to see but when it comes to execution of the play it can be more difficult.
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How hard do catchers throw to second?

High school or college catchers are always looking at how they stack up to one another. Watching high level baseball you might be thinking how good is my arm? How does my pop time stack up? How about the exchange from glove to throw? Interesting to think that not all catcher in MLB are throwing 95 MPH fastballs to second base. Consider the following clips: Both catchers only throwing between 80-85 MPH. Very reasonable. This tells me that coaches don't care as much for rockets for an arm and are MUCH more concerned with catching ability, receiving, blocking, calling a game, and many other things that go into the position. I was shocked when I first saw this. Think about that for so long I as consumed with thinking that catchers were throwing 95 MPH to second base but in reality it is much slower than that. 
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Instant Success...

Want to be clear about this. No one is an instant success. The only people who have instant success are people who have worked long and hard to get to where they need and want to be in their lives. If you aren't willing to put in the work to get to where you want to be, expect to be where you are forever. You as a person need to be willing to grow, learn, and adapt to the best of your abilities. I think that this is one of the strongest things that we can do as human beings. I think that by allowing yourself to fail, learn, and grow only enables you to do it more. Fail and fail often. Learn to accept challenges and push yourself to your abilities. I always make a to do list to start each day, and as successful as I feel those lists are at organizing myself I often find myself looking back at them and thinking that I could have gotten more done. I have started to look at to do lists as if they are lists that truly never get accomplished. What I need to begin doing is looking at wh...
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Team Rules & Structure

At the beginning of every season coaches lay out their own goals, style of play, rules, norms, ideas and many other items. I put anything that coaches do to "set-up" their own team under the blanket of "Team Structure". This idea of how a team is structured in my opinion goes along way in to how successful a team can/will be. Team structure goes in many different directions and how a coach handles different instances ultimately sets up how a team functions. Each team structure is built in a different way. I can almost guarantee how I handle one years team will differ from how I will handle the following year. I keep my own set of rules pretty straight forward: Show up on time Care while you are on the field Have respect both on/off of the field.  There is zero tolerance for any kind of "knucklehead" who might be on his own plan. As a coach I can say that I want to help build a students character through sports but ultimately if they are consistent...
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Building From The Bottom Up

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Happy Monday everyone hope that everything is going good! Today's thought includes looking at building a sports program from the bottom up. I know the occasionally I like to focus on struggles that I am encountering and share them with everyone. As an assistant coach I find it difficult sometimes to try to fit in or find my way. This isn't a social thing but more of a finding where you fit in the team or coaching "tree."  For instance I find that when varsity coaches are looking at their team they seem to put a greater emphasis on the varsity level (Often times rightfully so). Especially early in the season this is a great time for all three levels to really get acclimated to the whole program. Whether that means learning or reviewing tactics or schemes or even plays that might pop up. This might be valuable time for senior or even upper class men to show or teach the underclassmen different things. (Hopefully this goes beyond the field and relates to them perso...
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Prospects Vs. The Real Deal

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MLB Musings Bryce Harper Nationals  With the trade deadline approaching I find it very interesting that a lot of teams find themselves at a crossroads in their long term development. Teams every summer make a statement to fans about where they believe that they stand at the July 31st trade deadline. Over the past several season I have found that every team seems to be trying to adapt to baseballs financial realities of trying to hoard young prospects who they can control for several seasons at league minimums. There does come a time though when teams must look at themselves in the face and come to terms with the fact that prospects are nice but the real deal can be sometimes just as good if not better than prospects. I loved the move that the Athletics made in going out and "sacrificing" the future for a real time big pitching in Jeff Samardzija. They gave up what might be a nice shortstop in order to contend now. It seems as though the idea of going for the champio...
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