Lang-Episode 7

The Unparalleled Performance Podcast features ambitious and passionate guests who strive for more than average. The host, Josh Rebandt, discusses topics on discipline, goals, and faith. In this episode, Caleb Wang, a successful hitting coach and player, is interviewed. Wang shares his unique approach to coaching and getting players to perform at an elite level. He emphasizes the importance of understanding each player's strengths and helping them play to their full potential. Wang also discusses the balance between making changes and building on a player's existing skill set. He believes in giving players time to showcase their abilities before making adjustments. Wang also highlights the importance of competitiveness in practice, creating a fun and competitive atmosphere for players to thrive. This is the Unparalleled Performance Podcast. I'm your host Josh Rebandt. Each week we'll feature guests who are ambitious and passionate about being more than the status quo because we all know that being average is the enemy to success. We will cover topics that will help you become more disciplined and committed to your goals in life, leadership, and faith. Now on to this week's episode and remember as iron sharpens iron so one person sharpens another. Enjoy the show. Hey everyone, Reeves here your host and first I just want to say thank you to each of you who are listening in and also those who have also helped by leaving a rating and or review on the platform you're listening to. It's a huge help as we continue to grow this podcast so I really appreciate it. Transitioning into this week's episode I have with me Caleb Wang who's the hitting coach at Concordia University in Nebraska and also in his new role as a field manager with the Rochester Ridgeman in the New York Collegiate Baseball League and he's nothing short of an elite performer as a coach and a player. He was a two-time NCAA All-American player at Carne University or Cairn he'll probably correct me at some point one or the other and then also was the New York Collegiate Baseball League player of the year when I had an opportunity to coach him probably about 10 years ago now and he's helped guide teams to championships as a coach in 2019 and then also in his two years at Concordia they've won the conference championship and the tournament and then also went to the NAI World Series in 2021 and they've set a ton of records offensively as he's kind of manned the offensive side of the game and the hitting coach role so Wang to get started since they just mentioned a short list of your accomplishments one of the things that I've noticed about you and I've mentioned it in passing I know maybe over a couple different occasions is that you have a unique way of getting players to perform like you did like I said you were an All-American you hit for home runs had a high OPS you stole bases and I don't think that a lot of coaches that have that elite performance have a way of breaking down the game like you are able to and get players to perform at that elite level just because a lot of times when guys have natural ability they can't always explain things in a way that players can understand so yeah just get started what do you think has helped you be able to do that yeah first thanks for having me on this is a blast anytime I get to talk to you and just you know share thoughts so in regards to that question I don't think it came right away when I was in grad school as a grad assistant I honestly had no idea what I was doing and we didn't really have any resources so I think creativity came right away within that we didn't have any machines it was me and the head coach two guys he was just like hey you played offense why don't you go go do the offense I was like all right we'll see what we can do so we just got super creative and through that I think I was able to fail a lot and just kind of learn along with the players so it set me up for future success but in regards to just coaching coaching various types of players you mentioned that you know I kind of hit for power stole bases kind of did a little bit of everything so I can relate a little bit to everyone within that and really just helping guys play to their strengths I think that's really big for us now obviously we have a lot of guys whose strength is hit the ball of the ballpark so it makes it a little bit easier but we also have guys at the bottom of the lineup who just get on base like crazy steal bases put pressure on the defense so when it comes to coaching different players I think it's just understanding what where they come from what they're good at and then just really pushing into those things and helping them to be aware that if they're elite and just one little category we can be a we as a team offensively when you put all those categories together so I think that's just a brief synopsis obviously we'll get more in depth here in a little bit but just coaching a player where they're at and allowing them to play into their strengths and be successful within the whole offense yeah yeah and if you can touch on that as well because I think a lot of times we recruit players to come play for us in any sport and they come with a very specific skill set that we wanted in our program and then I think a lot of times as coaches it coaches can tend to rush to make changes with a player I think you're pretty patient with that and I think that's a unique balance that we have to have as coaches because we want the players to know that we're there to help them get better but we also want them to feel confident what they're really good at as well can you build on that unique balance of a new player that transitions into your program and building up on what they're actually already good at yeah in the fall I have a lot of the freshmen that come up and they just want to they're just hungry to get better so they just ask hey what do you see with my swing what should I change what should I do differently what do you want me to do and really in the fall for the freshmen they just play so when we when they get on campus we're going to practice outside and then we're going to scrimmage a ton and see what they're capable of and it's really hey we recruited you for a reason right we didn't recruit you because we don't think you're good at baseball we recruited you because you're good at baseball and we just want to see what you're capable of at this level so just relax go play the game let us see you and kind of a bigger sample size so we can really evaluate and get stuff down on paper and and see what you're really actually good at and then we'll when we go inside and we have that development period from November to January that's when we'll really push in and you know law for advice and get you on a plan and really help you develop in the ways that you need to but right now August September October just relax play the game see how you match up against 22 year olds in college and guys that throw a little bit harder than you're used to guys that spin it a little bit better we'll get all your chase rates down your timing percentages and things like that and then we can really see what you what you need to work on just because you didn't hit the breaking ball the first first scrimmage doesn't mean you're not going to hit in the breaking ball just because you got blown up on a fastball sometimes you just need you know that two to three month adjustment period to really see what you're good at so in regards to patience I think that allows guys to be a little bit more comfortable in their own skin and we can just kind of talk and have normal conversations and build relationships during those first three months so that when we do offer advice and they do need to develop they trust us a little bit more and they'll be like oh yeah he's not just saying that like he's actually evaluated me and these are the real things that I need to work on yeah and I think that timing of that to it gives players the chance to feel out what the standards are within that program as opposed to everything being on them right away and just kind of getting overwhelmed with a ton of information from their either their hitting coach pitching coach or even head coach on certain things I think that that's a time where they can really just soak in information especially being a younger player they can watch and observe the older guys that have been there that have performed at a really high level and you talked about the fall kind of getting at bats and evaluating I think that's a great time to learn competitiveness of the younger players as well and I think that's one thing that you've done really well in practice settings is that you and you mentioned creativity being at Eastern Nazarene and having to you know figure out ways to make practice run smoothly and efficiently and help players develop but you've done it in a competitive way and I remember back in 2019 with Traverse City and we it was a Sunday BP we're hitting indoors and it was just a big it was a big competitive BP indoors I don't remember how it all kind of transition but the team that was across the hallway in the locker room they heard all the hooting and howling in our cages and so they started to come down and they were like man I wish we had this much fun like you know taking BP and being competitive and I think that's a huge compliment to the way that you coach is that you know obviously if another team is coming in and saying man I wish we did this or that you know how in terms of competitiveness and incorporating that a how does how have you become so creative in that like you said you you had practice at it but be how do you continually implement competitiveness on a year-round calendar yeah sometimes and that everybody can feel this as a baseball player you get to the cage and it can be a little bit mundane you get through your warm-ups and your routine and things like that and then it's like okay we're gonna take some batting practice today we're gonna hit off the machine it's like oh I just did this last 200 days and a lot of our guys just love it anyways like if I did that they would still get better because they genuinely enjoy the game and they enjoy hitting but when it comes down to actual game like reps and things like that we're going to compete in pretty much everything we do and we have a good competitive atmosphere just in general like our guys will compete like they love to play fancy baseball with each other they play each other and everything and you know if you're in college athletics you're probably a pretty good competitor just naturally but we really like to bring that out during practice we're going to chart a lot we're going to break up into teams a lot groups against groups point systems even if we're just doing basic machines you know like hard hit in the air backside gap you get three points hard hit in the air in general you get two points just like everything I mean we'll have a whiteboard in there a couple whiteboards and we'll be tracking everything putting it into the computer and things like that but I think that translates to games in those pressure situations a lot if we're off our machine or I pitch at 90 miles an hour with a slider and a breaking ball and you're in front of 17 guys by yourself in that cage and if you get a hit you know we don't have to do any exercising today and if you don't get a hit everybody's going to have to go do these burpees and everybody hates burpees like that put some pressure on you not to fail your team right there so that when we get in the bottom of the ninth inning you're like okay like I've had pressure situations obviously it's a little bit different but you know I've handled pressure already against you know a better arm if you will in the cages so that the game's a little bit slower my heart rate slows down a little bit I'm ready for those big moments and I think we've done a good job of that in the past in our first year here my first year here in 21 we went to the World Series obviously and we had some really big clutch home runs in the regional final regional semifinal and I think those guys just the competition that they participated in throughout the year really helped them to kind of slow the moment down and you know execute in those big moments yeah for sure and I think a lot of that stems obviously from leadership and the things that you're putting together and the things that your head coach is putting together and in terms of leadership kind of kind of switch topics a little bit here and this is in general in life but also with players so obviously not every guy that we coach is going to play professional baseball we would love to see them do that but one of the things that I think is so true in life is that everyone is born to do something really unique or special with their life like God has given every individual a passion and a desire to do something and I think there's a lot of people that miss out on what that is for various reasons why do you think people miss out on reaching their full calling in life and this is also kind of in realms of coaching to like we see put things that players are really good at off the field and how can we inspire them to reach those goals and I know you kind of have a unique story of how you got into coaching and your health and things like that so you can touch on that a little bit too but just curious your thoughts on on all that yeah I think a lot of times it's just influence of outside noise and what the world perceives as success kind of drives our decision-making so you know wealth power things like that so a lot of our just natural instincts are to try to accumulate wealth try to accumulate power and that really gets us off on kind of a path that doesn't truly make us happy it just gives us temporary fulfillment you know whether it's like even like a diet right like you eat sugar you get that like little bit of a sugar high but then you're long term you're drained of energy and all that and you're not actually living your fullest life although in the moment it feels really good long term you're really not achieving what God has for you so it's the same thing for me I was fortunate enough to kind of get slowed down by my health after college I did the same thing I took a job that I thought you know a corporate job in a different city than I grew up in and I was like okay this is going to be kind of a fast-track organization to accumulate wealth accumulate power kind of get to where I want to be and then all of a sudden you know my health slowed me down I had to get a pacemaker and then during my recovery period I had to move back home and I got a call from someone I didn't even know but was a friend of a friend and was like hey we have a grad assistant job open I wasn't even thinking about coaching at the time but they're like do you want to you know get your grad degree for free and stay around the game a little bit and at the time it just you know it felt right so I was like yeah sure and then instantly I knew like hey this is what I'm passionate about you know and I only worked a corporate job for two weeks but I was already miserable for two weeks just staying in an office for nine hours a day for five days a week it was just it was just boring and so baseball being around the guys and people and just helping young men kind of grow into who they should be and who they want to be it was really easy to see that that was my my passion but I think a lot of people don't really get slowed down by the health so they just you know that might have taken me 10-15 years to figure out and then I was miserable for 10-15 years so I think it's really about just following God's plan for your life staying in constant communication with him and letting him kind of guide you and trying to push out those other factors whether it's you know people saying hey you need this or hey you should do this God will tell you what you need to do and he'll provide for you everything that you need so I think it's really important to just kind of stay in constant communication with him and and listen to him and he'll guide you through life to help you get the most out of your life. Yeah and I think a lot of people also miss out on what they were born to do because they're chasing things that somebody else does that they think that they want because it might look cool or look more fun than what they're doing and maybe what they're doing still isn't what they were born to do but they end up chasing this other thing that looks like a blast and they end up completely unsatisfied unhappy because it's just if you're doing it completely for yourself I think that's one thing that I've noticed is that people that are truly fulfilled are people that are doing things for other people and I think that's why I love coaching is because I will I have a passion of trying to help inspire athletes to reach their goals and dreams and whether that's on the field or through talking with them and bus rides and you know learning more about their life outside of baseball and what they want to do but maybe just try to help point somebody in the right direction or whatever that looks like have you noticed kind of some things along that those lines too? Yeah I mean even in hitting right guys will come in and be like hey I saw this guy on Twitter and he does this or like you know I was watching my favorite player hit and he hits like this I think I should hit like this it's like well yeah that's that guy you know you're you and that that's that guy that's what works for him and it's not going to work for every single person you're this type of hitter this is kind of what's working for you why why would we stray away from that so I definitely see that and it was funny when you're thinking about what you said what you were called to do in life my wife and I were actually talking the other day because we just we played terrible the other day and it was just like I got home and I was like man like this is just like this is just annoying you know and it's like you have she's like you have those bad days but like you have one of those days every month where you come home and you're like man like today was just not it you know but it's like if you were doing something else that you weren't passionate about that you didn't enjoy you'd be coming home like two three days a week like that like man today was just not it whereas now it's like once a month you got to realize you're still working you're still doing a job and you're still going to have you know bad days at times where you know things don't go your way or just like the guys didn't perform but in the grand scheme of things those days are you know that's part of the job you're ultimately working so it's like if you have one of those days a month I think you had 29 good days you know what I mean so it's kind of just looking at it in the broad scope of things and realizing that if you are called to do something like you're still going to have those bad days along the way yeah and I think you mentioned earlier freshmen that get on campus and you know part of it is that they figuring out who they are and I think that's one of the most important parts about realizing what we're made to do in this life is being comfortable with who we are being comfortable with the skill sets that we have not trying to have to be like somebody it's not that we can't take things from other people and learn and try and grow and you know get out of our own comfort zone as well and maybe do some things that we aren't very good at just to grow ourselves but I think being comfortable with who we are and being confident in that and just being excited about what God made us to do I think you know I you and I have both spent some time with Miracle League volunteering and I mean sometimes those kids are way more happy and fulfilled and then players that we you or I have coached and it's because they they're excited about life and they're excited about the things that they can do and they haven't let you know hindrances of health you know make them not feel important in this world and I think that's something that we can miss and take for granted even as somebody that has health or has a job that you know we enjoy and things like that so yeah I'm glad you you kind of touched on that a little bit so another topic too that I think would be important to discuss is as coaches a lot of times we were super competitive you know and our season is short but outside of that like we have to find a way to make our enjoy something competitive you talked about fantasy baseball or football or whatever guys that you know your players that do that what else do you do to help you stay competitive and it just kind of scratched that itch when you're not in season because I think the more that we try to compete out of season can help us become a greater competitor in season as well not that we can't take a break from you know being competitive over a couple months or whatever but I think the more things that we enjoy and being what whether it's competitive against our own selves or whether it's you know going out and golfing with four buddies you know every month and seeing who's best that month you know those kinds of things how do you stay competitive outside of baseball yeah competition is something that I don't know if it just finds me or if I make up big competitions in my head all the time to compete with myself but one thing is I'm almost always in season of some sort so I am competing through through players if you will you know I just kind of stand out there and I'll give signs once in a while but you know those are our guys that's our team and I love those guys and you know the wins and losses I feel like as coaches sometimes we take them even harder because a lot of times it's things that we feel like we fell short on and if even one of the players makes a mistake it's like okay that's still my mistake you know what I mean so but outside you know working out is big something that I've really enjoyed and that's just a constant competition I try not to max out lifts as much anymore and things like that but it's still you know competing with yourself and seeing what you're capable of and then just like friends we get in random competitions all the time like my buddy a couple weeks ago is just like all right let's have a steps competition today and just see who has the most steps and it's like it's pretty dumb but it's still a good time and I found myself like walking at 1030 at night just to beat him by a couple of steps and it's always nice he's Eastern time zone so if I have to I have that extra hour from 11 to midnight so as long as I keep it close I know I know I got it in the bag so but there's all kinds of stuff I mean my wife and I will play board games at times or cards or something like that and even with my little brother the other day as dumb as it is my brother lives in New York and he's 12 years old he loves this he loves this app called Crossy Road and it's basically the same game that everybody's been playing for years dating back to Frogger where it's just like you just get as far as you can and he'll send me a screenshot and then I'll send him a screenshot we'll just go back and forth beating each other's records and it's just I mean competition is just a way of life at this point I feel like for me and I don't think I've ever been accused of having that competitive spirit if anything I got to dial it down sometimes so but it's just a way of life yeah and I think that's what helps you be make your players competitive talking about competitive practice environments you just you have so much experience in that just by nature of who you are and I think that's what makes players excited to play for you and show up to practice and be you know developed in that sort of thing so and talk about competitiveness I've thought about some character traits that I love that players have if a guy is reliable if a guy is resilient and if a guy is competitive I'll take those three character traits any day of the week and if there's players are listening to this I think that's a great thing for coaches is to know what players want from us and the character traits that they want from us but also for players to know what type of traits what do coaches want out of me and I think you know talking about reliability just being the same person showing up every single day being disciplined I think discipline has a lot to do with being reliable I think about a starting pitcher you know Andrew Hoffman and Chad Patrick in 2019 I don't think those guys missed a start at all and both of those guys are now you know having successful minor league careers already and probably you know have a shot to make it to the show someday and so I think about reliability you know just from a pitching standpoint resiliency being able to get back up again and like not letting failure bring you down and being competitive and having that desire to compete every single day what are some traits that in you may have some of the same similar traits that you really like out of players but what other traits do you think are valuable for you and that you enjoy coaching yeah there's been a few that I've had to just kind of like tolerate over the course of the years where it's like man this kids really good and he doesn't play the game exactly how I would love for him to play it but in you know in regards to how he plays the game he's really good but what you said is is big you know discipline perseverance commitment focus optimism you could throw all those keywords out I think the the biggest one that I've seen and noticed as of recent recently is self-awareness that's really big for our guys and develop and developing who they are because we can say stuff to them but if they you know take it in and then they're like yeah not really and push it aside there's no development that takes place but the guys who are self-aware a lot of times develop naturally within our system without us even having to say something a guy I'll have in a bat and he'll come back to me and you know he'll say exactly what happened during the at-bat and he's just really self-aware of that situation whereas I don't even have to go up to him and explain it to him he's explaining it to me and then it's like all right what do you what do you need for me he's like well is that right I'm like yeah that's right and you know the next time he does something a little bit differently and he's growing but self-awareness in in today's world is becoming just more and more important because less and less people have it they just have no idea in regards to the grand scheme of things like how talented they are what they need to work on and things like that you can tell them but ultimately at the end of the day if their parents are telling them that they're they're this good and they're telling them they're this good and their friends are telling them they're this good and then I'm the only one that is like hey you need to work on this those other ten voices are going to trump my voice so the self-awareness pieces is really big and I think we have a lot of guys who are very self-aware which is big and then like what you said earlier just the reliability of being able to go out there and play every day coach do pick that the head coach here and I we're talking the other day our best players have played all the time like our one through five is the same one through five every single day for the last three years Joey Garbanski he's you know he's 260 pounds he's started every single game since he's arrived on campus Jay Adams who's one of the best players in the country at second base has started every single game over the last three years our four hole same thing our two hole all but one star so it's just like man being able to be there every single day and compete every single day that's a big part of it as well yeah being able to count on people yeah the reliability aspect I think even guys that you and I had the opportunity coach I forgot to probably throw Kyle Jones into that mix to reliable starters and Austin Shay but even positionally like you said like you know a guy like Mario Camiletti and Adam Proctor and again I naming guys is kind of pointless because there's a lot of guys that we you know miss naming like those guys were so reliable that we knew that we knew what to expect from them we knew that they were going to show up and play hard every single day there wasn't a doubt about it they were going to come in and try to get better as well and you talk about self-awareness those guys are very self-aware and I think a lot of times too it's a behavioral thing it's not just an informational thing as well but like how being aware of how we're coming across to people and how we treat other people and how they respond and if we're making other people better or if we're you know you hear the faucet and drain type people are you know am I a faucet and actually pouring into other people or am I a drain and I don't know if everybody actually realizes when they are a drain and how much you know just a slight bit of negativity can bring down so many people you know I even think yesterday I was in the Chick-fil-a drive-thru and that you know it's emerging lanes so you have you know a car getting in front of you or you getting behind them or in front of them and the person came and asked my you know my name so I gave my name and I was right at the merge there's this pickup truck that just blows right by me they hadn't even gotten their name and they knew that the other person had come to my car already the Chick-fil-a employee to make sure that the order was right they get up to the window and I my windows rolled down they said order for Josh and they're like nope because they were the car ahead of me and everything was kind of screwed up and I'm like people just aren't aware of how one little thing affects so many people like that affects the inside workers at Chick-fil-a like they if they never asked they would have given them the wrong order potentially right and then you know it throws things off so I just think a lot of times people are very not aware of kind of their surroundings so I was just thinking about that and it's probably been on my mind because that that bugged me a lot and I don't get I don't get bugged a lot but like people have zero awareness yeah just yeah we say we say they have no feel we always are saying hey I have a feel one time so we have a couple guys like that and it's just most of them have no idea and it's it's not even their fault a lot of times it's just like the programs they've been in or their upbringing or something like that so but trying to teach someone how to have a feel it's one of the most difficult things so it's it makes for a lot of laughs and then other times it's it's really frustrating so it is definitely something that self-awareness is big yeah no doubt I wanted to talk with you a little bit about goal-setting and you know a lot of times at the beginning of the year whether it's a business you know trying to get you know set the tone for the year and what they need to do to make money whether it's a team I think everybody has relatively the same goals at the beginning of something whether it's as an individual or as a team or as a business the goal is always success nobody nobody doesn't strive for success but there's only certain people or certain teams that reach that success and like if at beginning of the year we asked Concordia Nebraska we asked Doan University you know what what are your goals they're gonna everybody on both teams are gonna say we're gonna win we want to win a conference championship we want to get to the tournament go to the World Series what separates the people that do rise to the top and then the people that that don't that you know the teams that because there's always bottom-of-the-barrel teams and at the beginning of the year their goals were exactly the same success and I just think a lot of people don't reach that full success you have some thoughts on that yeah a couple stories on that too when I was a freshman in college and we don't do this now but we were a really bad program and everybody had to write out their tier one goals tier two girls goals and tier three and they were personal goals so me coming from a small town I had at the time I didn't have a feel what we just talked about about college athletics and in high school like I was facing really bad arms like 550 or something like that so I was like okay like so it's going to be harder but not that much harder so I wrote down my goals and then you had to like share some of your goals in front of the team and so there's a bunch of seniors there and things like that and so I was like reading off my goals and the freshman would go first I was like the third person so I didn't listen to everybody else's goals first and realize like how absurd my goals sounded so I get up there and like my tier one I get all the way up to my tier one goals and it's like I want to hit 420 you know I want 15 doubles I want 10 home runs I want 50 RV eyes and like these kids they're like laughing at me obviously the seniors are laughing at me and things like that and I didn't have that much of a feel but at the end of the year we had to go back over our goals with our head coach and things like that and you know I almost hit every single one of my goals and you know looking back the seniors were laughing at me and things like that but I think sometimes you just have to have the audacity to set goals that are a little bit too high for yourself at times and be okay with failure along the way and if you don't reach those goals being self-aware and able to kind of go over why you didn't so that maybe the next year you can start to hit some of those but when it comes to separators between teams that kind of hit those and teams that don't one you have to have the right personnel like you have to actually have the players who can achieve something great and you know if you're revitalizing a program you might not have those players yet so setting realistic goals is really important so that you can continue to build on that success right if you're the worst team if you take over the worst team in a conference and the next year your goal is to go to the World Series right you're not going to hit that goal unless something some miracle happens so you know having stepping stone goals is really important I think for team success so they can see like hey we're making progress here and next year we're going to be even closer in the next year and we're eventually going to get to where we need to go and it might be three years to get there you know if you weigh 200 pounds overweight you're not going to get there probably in a year it's going to take three or four years and the same thing so so knowing where you're coming from is important but I think when it comes to the separators our head coach does a really good job so the culture is in place you must have the appropriate culture in place and he does a really good job at just over communicating our culture so that guys are constantly aware of who we are what we're trying to accomplish and keeping us on task within that and then just continual improvement is big within our team as well so that yes these are our goals I mean let's make sure that our goal is to win a World Series this year that's our goal but if we're just focused constantly on that goal and not on our daily activities of how of what we're doing today we're never going to reach it so I think that teams and the people that achieve success at a constant rate are the people who can set those goals but focus on their specific day and the specific tasks that they have in front of them so today you have a lift go all in on that lift and then we're hitting go all in on that hitting then we're doing defense go all in on that defense at the end of the day you're going to be better and then you just keep building days building days building days and then you're going to be at least you'll be at your ceiling whatever your ceiling is if you continually get better every single day you're going to reach your ceiling and you're just going to have to be okay with whatever that ceiling is at the end of the season and then the next season you can set that that ceiling should be higher you know what I mean so yes staying focused on long-term stuff but staying within your daily process I think is the biggest separator yeah and you also yeah you mentioned being okay with some failure and you tweeted out I think at the beginning of this year season you know a hitter may go over for that first day and that guy may go home to his dorm or apartment and be like man this was this was not what I expected I'm off to a bad bad start and I didn't you probably have the percentage memorized I don't know if I'm putting you on the spot but it's such a small it's such a small percentage of the seasons at bats and if you let that one day of failure you know kind of start making your mind shift of that you may not be able to reach those goals or maybe after it's a full weekend and you you know you maybe you go two for twelve and you have six punch outs and you're like man maybe my goals aren't as attainable as I thought letting that negativity creep into our mind I think is sometimes a separator between elites and people that aren't is because the elites are okay and can handle failure and you talked about setting goals you know maybe even a little bit more lofty or achievable my brother Adam he got the head coaching job at Novi Christian Academy this past year his boys go to school there and girls and so a couple of his boys around the varsity team that he was coaching and about I don't know probably a year before their season started you know he's talking about he's him and I are entirely competitive and he's like he's like do you think we got we got a shot to win the state championship this year and the previous year they I they were losing program I think they were one of the bottom barrel teams in their conference type thing and I'm like I have no idea what your personnel is I'm like obviously anything can happen he's realistic too but like he we're both competitive we both really want to be at the top whenever we do something and because of that competitiveness they ended up winning their conference championship they turned around the program they came one game away from winning their district and he was named coach of the year in the conference and I think setting goals that yes are attainable but maybe setting a few goals that are and maybe we don't tell anybody that big lofty goal maybe it's just an internal goal that we have ourselves and we're okay if we don't reach it because we know how to handle failure and I think that's part of it too like I said like handling an over for start at the plate or maybe you don't win the state championship your first year but you win the conference championship and you're off you know you're really laying a great foundation you know I think failure is definitely handling that is a huge part of of it all so yeah I think a failure within our program if you don't learn how to fail quick you're gonna wash out of our program because we failed we try to say I try to set it up so we fail 70% of time during our hitting sessions overall just to kind of make it realistic obviously we want to be successful but our freshmen are failing you know we'll throw them a bone here and there where they have a feel-good day to get their confidence back but they see the upperclassmen okay with handling failure and learning from it but our hitting practices are really hard and probably seven out of your ten swings are not going to be the swings that you want to see like the results that you want so our guys learn how to learn how to fail well early and as a team I think that's helped us a ton last year in our conference tournament we were the two seed actually and we lost to the seven seed to open it up in a double elimination and then we had to win a triple header so we won all three games and then we won two more and we won five games and then in the regional we lost the first game and then we went on and won four games in a row and I think if they did not know how to fail they'd be they'd be in big trouble in those situations yeah absolutely and you talked a little bit about your program and you know if guys you know don't know how to fail they'll walk away type thing and I think standards within a program are huge and you talked about Ryan doing a great job they're setting the tone with that and probably even over communicating at some point I think that is a quality trait that really good leaders have one thing I've heard a lot is that it's not what you preach it's what you tolerate within a program and I think that's also goes back to goal-setting and it's not what you say you want to do it's what you actually do and I think a lot of times people miss that part of it and even us too like when I bring these things up like we fail at these things all the time as coaches but if we are self-aware then we're going to have a better opportunity to not let these things happen can you touch on that type of philosophy and standard of it's not what you preach is what you tolerate within your program and how that facilitates a good competitive environment environment where you know people are holding the standards defending their own culture within their program as players and coaches that type of thing yeah I feel like when I when I started coaching I I was like really strict on on things that didn't matter like there was guys that would show up and they would like hit with their hat backwards or something like that or it was like things that you know didn't affect anything really and now I've started to kind of be like okay with the with the things that don't actually matter if guys show up are 100% locked in whatever they're doing and whatever is important and allowing them to kind of be themselves within our structure obviously we're going to treat people with respect and we're going to have those overarching things that are important but also setting kind of the example of if you do fail just be accountable for your failure and don't necessarily be okay with it but if I the other day I called a hit-and-run and it was a situation where I was thinking it was going to be a fastball in the zone it ended up being like a perfect pitch out type fastball and we got thrown out and it was like totally my it was completely my fault right so just taking ownership for that listen I had this tendency he didn't follow the tendency but that's my fault because that's my research I cost us that out I cost us that inning and they pick me up you know the next inning they go out and they score four runs and it's like it's okay like we're making mistakes at the same time but as long as you're accountable for those mistakes and learn from them I think that's where we're guys really achieve greatness and there's things that like you said tolerating certain things and preaching you know preaching things some people will preach like hey this is what we do this is but then their best player does something and they're like like he's our best player it's kind of whatever that's where I think the culture really starts to diminish because guys who might not be your best player are like oh he can do that but I can't do this and then you know it's just building conflict for no reason where if everybody's held to the same exact standard it really helps the team culture I think knowing that like I might be the third guy off the bench but I'm given the same opportunities and I'm treated the same way as our best player so there's a time even earlier this year where it was one of our best players and I like call them out publicly for something but we have an understanding where you know like he is okay with that because it sets the example for everybody else that like he can't get away with anything so just making sure you have those one-on-one talks after or before to have a mutual understanding on you know how to communicate with with certain people I think is really important yeah and you need those older guys to be okay with that because how else are you gonna end up getting that message to your younger guys and I think even in businesses too like your best salesman does something that the company doesn't want represented you need to you need to hold that company to that standard or otherwise you know like you said that you know the other salesman would be like why can he get away with that you know maybe I'll start you know doing those types of things too and then the whole culture diminishes and you mentioned it with the hit-and-run situation and being vulnerable being willing to take ownership and it was actually perfect because it segues into something else I wanted to talk about there's a book called extreme ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Baber two Navy SEAL guys and I read it I don't know probably five years ago I need to reread it again soon because it's just such a good book and I think that that's one thing that environments need to be successful is that we have to be willing to take ownership of our mistakes and I think you know younger players or maybe on players that aren't self-aware like we talked about earlier or even coaches that are younger coaches aren't aware coaches if we always try and pass the blame like you know my team's just not that good well what are you doing to make a difference are we you know really striving for greatness are we just going to now take a step back in our competitive level because we don't like the guys were coaching that year and usually if we don't if a coach doesn't like the guys that they're coaching it's usually a reflection of themselves and that they are you know that they're kind of messed up themselves as coaches that you know we just need to figure those things out talking about extreme ownership and being vulnerable can you talk about maybe a situation you've ran into with that or you know just kind of what that looks like in a program and how it helps helps out yeah so I mean perfect example we split on Thursday and the first game we lost 6-5 we were down 6-5 in the sixth and we had a first and third with one out and we had our best base dealer at first base he was 16 for 16 and our guy on third base ran well so we communicated what we wanted to accomplish there with him and sure enough the play happens they throw the ball down a second base we don't execute it properly we get thrown out at the play kind of you know spells what we had going our guy was going to be safe at second so it's been second third one out down one we end up not scoring we lose 6-5 that's like he would say that it's his fault but really I need to take ownership over that situation we just didn't cover it enough like we haven't done it enough you know it's it's a part of our offense but it's a part of our offense that over the course of the last month where we're in season we just haven't worked on it to the point that we need to and we didn't execute it properly I mean if I go to the coach like that needs to be on me period you know like I need to take ownership for that like we need to execute that better but ultimately like I'm in charge of the offense if we have good days the players did a really good job that's like that's them if we have bad days like I need to take ownership of those bad days though that's that's my fault you know what I mean because I've been working with these guys for three years maybe we didn't have the proper game plan maybe we didn't execute in this fashion or whatever but if I'm willing to kind of go to bat for them and take ownership they really appreciate that and then everybody's starting to take ownership for their actions and you build a culture that's that's really strong and I think that's that's a kind of a silly example but I mean it cost us a game and it was it was completely my fault so now the next game they went out and they hit five home runs and you know they did they did really well so they're they're more than capable and they're really good athletes so but that's just kind of a silly quick example from the last couple days yeah and I think it does it's not just the players that have to take ownership it's us as coaches we have to be willing to take ownership and publicly take ownership not just you know one-on-one and maybe there's situations we need to one-on-one but in front of the team take ownership of our mistakes or let's let them know those things and like you said it's going to make that environment a lot better and again back to self-awareness so one last topic I wanted to talk about with you is you are very keenly aware again of just like game situations or things that happen like so when I went to Davenport one thing that the coaching staff there Kevin Tiety, Doug Wabeck, Ryan McCoskey those were the coaches that were on staff when I got there and one thing that they talked about a lot was there's probably 250 pitches in a game how many of those pitches are our players missing over the course of the game or even us as coaches and it made me think I hadn't really thought about the game of baseball like that and how there's so many opportunities to learn from each pitch but you're a guy that doesn't miss many pitches and you don't miss many things in between innings either I don't know how you necessarily do it like not much gets by you like if a guy's using a illegal bat or if the wind shifted one pitch to the other like in you're like hey we need bump that guy back you know 10 feet in the outfield or whatever like not much gets by you do you have any advice on how to like stay locked in over the course of the game and yeah just in general like how that makes such a big a big difference yeah I don't know if I have advice other than just like realizing every pitch could determine the outcome of the game so like I I think offensively like when we're on defense I have a lot of conversations with bench players and we just kind of like talk about the game and we hang out one guy who loved to do that was Tito Flores from Michigan you just like chew your ear off asking questions and trying to learn things but we're having that conversation looking at the field and like I think that's something that I've enjoyed since I was little I remember going to my brother was playing Little League he was nine years old and they were playing another undefeated team and his team was playing and they were playing for the championship and you know I was 12 and I was just watching the game and the kid hit a home run and he was like celebrating before he got the home and missed home plate and I was like yelling at my brother at short like hey go tell the umpire like he missed home plate the kid got out and so it's just something like I've always enjoyed trying to get like that slight advantage throughout games that other people might not get whether it's just like taking a base like I remember Bertram in the championship game I took second base there just like if guys aren't paying attention and our courtesy runner just he does a better job than I do he's he's taken third with the pitcher having the ball on the mound twice this year because he just picked up tendencies from the third baseman turning around between pitches and taking his glove off and so like he'll just take there one time it was like two outs and I like looked up I was talking to my hitter and I looked up he's standing at third base I'm like what the heck he's like oh yeah he wasn't paying attention I was like neither was I but it's just something I feel like if you just enjoy the game and watching the game and even you know whether you're watching a pro game or a college game and just kind of thinking through situations and just having that kind of antagonistic mindset while watching the game like how can I kind of combat that or maybe he does this or and our hitters do a good job too they picked up the other day a guy was tipping pitches and he went through the lineup once say who it was because maybe we'll see him in the playoffs or something but he was tipping pitches first time through they figured it out I didn't even pick it up they figured it out they relayed it to themselves and second time through we scored six runs and I was just like what the heck yeah we know what's coming I was like you guys want to let me know that so they kind of they kind of have picked up on that too and it's it's just a it's a fun way to go about the game and it adds a little bit more entertainment and more fun to the game too yeah and like you said I guess maybe there's not necessarily advice outside of being willing to be intentful yeah during the entire game and not allowing ourselves to get distracted and not notice things or pick up on things and like you said it becomes kind of a culture thing at that point if they know that the coaching staff is locked in for 250 pitches in a game then they'll probably you know start latching on to that as well so well dude appreciate it I your unique relationship because I had the opportunity to coach you coach with you coach against you yeah we've kind of done it all so yeah I appreciate a relationship and appreciate you sitting down and chatting for a little while and I think this stuff will really apply to whoever it gets into the hands of thanks yeah I mean I've loved listening to your podcast it's been great and then obviously playing for you I think I enjoyed playing for you coaching with you more than coaching against you although I think that series is 4-3 us right now so we're gonna need a you're gonna need to find a league that I'm in or I find a league that you're in so we can kind of go back at it because I don't like sitting on 4-3 forever so yep exactly yeah I wasn't going to bring that up because I'm too competitive so now it's public and now we need to thank you for having me on I appreciate it yeah absolutely man we'll talk soon thanks for joining us on this week's episode of the unparalleled performance podcast and if you enjoyed it please share with those around you we'll see you next week and go dominate your day you