Tag: Jeff Krushell

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Show Notes – WYC 157 – Peter Caliendo

Cringe Moments

• Trying to repeat a process over and over again – each individual is unique and sometimes you’re best to just work with what works for each individual. Keep an open mind when working with athletes.

Teaching skills

• Don’t just practice ‘normal’ situations – practice reacting after a mistake is made (a groundball is dropped, then react to how recover)

Achieving Peak performance mentally

• Kids need to fail, earlier better than later. Ask them ‘what did you learn?’
• Let the kids make decisions, let them learn, don’t use them as robots.

Team Culture

• It starts with respect for the game. Respect your equipment, your opponents, the umpires. Clean your dugouts.
• Character – are you happy when your teammates do well? How do you treat your teammates, the coaches, ets.

Captains/Leaders

• They are servants and need to model behaviors

Discipline

• It’s all about communication – if a player isn’t hustling, ask them ‘are you tired?’ If they say no, tell them it looks like they’re tired because they’re not running hard. Maybe tell them you’re going to sit them out of the next few plays because they look tired, and they need to come tell you when they are ready to run hard again.
• Practice hustle. It’s a habit, not inborn. For warm-ups in practice, have them run to their position on the field. Then blow a whistle and have them run back to you. (hidden conditioning)

Connecting with and impacting kids

• It’s cool when players you coach start implementing things you taught them

The one that got away

• Tell kids what to do, not what not to do.

Best borrowed/stolen idea

• Don’t just copycat other coaches’ ideas. Learn, but make it your own.

Favorite books:

• Ken Ravizza – Heads-Up Baseball 2.0: 5 Skills for Competing One Pitch at a Time
• The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg
• Podcast – Krush Performance by Jeff Krushell
• Podcast – ABCA

Parting Advice

• Create the most fun you can in practice. Make it unique and not too repetitive/boring. Make it competitive.
• Come with enthusiasm. Talk to each kid during each practice. Talk less, ask more questions.