The Role of the Coach in High School Sports

The Role of the Coach in High School Sports

 According to legendary college football coach Lou Holtz, “We are on the field and in the locker room to teach our players how to win. Not just on the gridiron, but in any profession they choose. We want to impart habits that will lead them to excellence throughout their lives. Most of all, we want to teach them the value of loyalty, integrity, and teamwork. Once you know how to work with people, you can accomplish anything.”

Now of course, Holtz was a college coach for most of his career; however, the basic principals he talks about when discussing the role of the athletic coach can be applied to high school sports as well. I think you’d agree with me when I say that many of America’s greatest coaches are not only committed to teaching their players how to excel on the field, but in life as well.

When it comes to high school sports, the basic function of the coach is to educate students through participation in education-based competition, and the interscholastic program should be designed to improve academic success and should not interfere with opportunities for academic accomplishments.

As part of the National Federation of State High School Associations’ Coaches Code of Ethics, the coach shall be aware that he or she has a tremendous influence, for either good or ill, on the education of the student and, thus, shall never place the value of winning above the value of instilling the highest ideals of character. I believe this statement speaks volumes in that it tells us that above all else, at the end of the day, the coach should set an example of the highest ethical and moral conduct as he or she has such a powerful influence on players’ lives.

In addition, research indicates that developing player life skills and character does not have to come at the expense of your program’s success. In fact, a study of award-winning high school football coaches indicates that character erodes when programs focus on winning. Although the coaches in this study won more than 75 percent of their games (as a group) and placed great value on on-the-field success, they did not implement a “win at all cost” approach. Instead, helping develop their players as people was one of their most highly valued coaching goals. (Source: University of North Carolina Greensboro; Dr. Karen Collins, PhD & Yongchul Chung, MS)

I’d like to point out that as high school coaches, we are certainly allowed to emphasize the success of our programs; however, we must be committed to helping our players develop life skills as only a handful of our young adults will move on to play collegiate or professional sports. By embracing a philosophy and sticking to it, building and nurturing relationships with our players as both athletes and people and providing clear expectations and sticking to those expectations, we will teach our players the value of being held accountable and so much more. Our student-athletes will not automatically gain valuable life skills such as this from simply participating in athletics. We must teach these skills and repeatedly emphasize them so that our players will be able to carry the characteristics they’ve learned while under our direction to the many off-the-field endeavors they will encounter along life’s journey.

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Training the wrong energy system:

I cringe every time I see a baseball player going on runs for several miles, or running poles in a long slow manner.  Without getting overly technical, the body uses different types of energy or fuel for different intensities and length of activity. 

Most baseball actions, such as swinging a bat or throwing a ball, take less than a second to perform.  They are incredibly explosive and require fast rotational movements.

There is no action in baseball that require slow movement over a long period of time.  Because of this, training in that manner doesn’t make much sense. In fact, long slow distance running trains the body to move slowly, not explosively. 

While a solid cardiovascular base is required for all sports including baseball, that can often be developed by performing recreational activities such as basketball, soccer, or even in PE class.

Players should do explosive short sprints (under 60 yards) instead of long slow distance running, and focus on movements that allow them to generate a large amount of force in a small amount of time. 

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Practice, Practice, Practice

It’s no secret that to be successful in baseball, you must practice, practice, and practice some more. But Mike Roberts, former college baseball coach and currently a consultant for the Chicago Cubs, says many young players fail to grasp the importance of putting in practice time, not just with their team, but by themselves.

“Repetition is great. Repetition done correctly is even better. Repetition done many times has a chance to help you be much improved,” explained Roberts, father of former Baltimore Orioles All-Star second baseman Brian Roberts.

Instead of relying on coaches or parents to provide motivation or map out a structured activity, Mike Roberts said players should create their own practice habits to coincide with organized games and team workouts. Activities can be as simple as throwing a ball against a wall or playing whiffle ball with a group of friends.
Whether you hit, pitch, field, or run bases, Roberts recommends different techniques players can use to work on individual skills away from the team.
Hitting
Swing a bat as often as possible. You don’t always have to be in a batting cage, or even use a regular baseball bat. Pick up a Wiffle ball, plastic, or wooden bat, and just swing.
Get used to the feel of a bat in your hands, the proper grip, the rhythm of your swing. Learn to enjoy hitting, whether it’s off a tee or free swinging in the yard. As you become more comfortable with a bat in your hands, you’ll develop the proper motor skills and rhythm necessary to become a good hitter.
Pitching
Placement of the fingers is crucial to pitching success, and can minimize the risk of arm injury. All young pitchers should learn to throw with their fingers behind the ball. Chicago Cubs pitcher and Cy Young candidate Kyle Hendricks is a great example of this method.
“He doesn’t throw as hard as most guys do, but he is behind the baseball and has phenomenal control,” Roberts explained.
Even if you don’t have anyone to play catch with, you can pitch by yourself using a brick wall and marking a square with chalk or other similar substance.

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Pepper Practice

Value in Playing Pepper

This was in Peter Gammons' blog.
Ted Williams used to play pepper almost every day, for what he said was the feel of manipulating the bat and getting the daily feel of exacting the barrel of the bat to the ball. Yet, for a number of reasons like complaints by ground crews that players dug up the grass with their games, pepper has virtually disappeared in the baseball culture; in fact, Walt Weiss says “most kids today wouldn’t know what we’re talking about when we mention it.”
I loved pepper. When I was travelling with the Red Sox for the Boston Globe in the seventies and eighties and would work out when the Sox took early hitting, Johnny Pesky would warm me up with 15-20 minutes of pepper.
Boston had two of the best fielding pitchers in the game, Tom Burgmeier and Bill Campbell, and they played what they called “Killer Pepper,” to improve fielding and practice getting into a fielding position after releasing their throws. My shins will hurt.
Somewhere over the years, grounds crew and ballpark administrators outlawed pepper games.
But Dodgers manager Dave Roberts has brought it back. For the last three weeks, he and his staff have taken Joc Pederson out at 2:45 every afternoon to play pepper, in Roberts words ‘to help Pederson regain the feel of manipulating the bathead.’ Pederson hit two home runs Tuesday night, but Roberts feels that more importantly for a young player who hit .178 in the second half last season, he has begun to use the whole field and develop as a pure hitter. His on base is up to .368. “He has shown the ability to manipulate the bat and take balls to all fields,” says Dodger Pres. Andrew Friedman, a devotee of pepper when he was playing at Tulane.
Trayce Thompson is now taking it up. And their housemate Corey Seager has requested to join.
Roberts and Weiss remember what pepper games meant when they were in high school and college. Weiss instituted pepper games in this year’s spring training, and yesterday said he may encourage players to do it in the regular season. And have pitchers have their own pepper games. “It’s good for  lot of things,” says Weiss, “including team-building.”

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How Science, Analytics Changed Hitting Forever 

by admin • Coaching, Hitting

By LOU PAVLOVICH, JR.
Editor/Collegiate Baseball
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Chicago Cubs’ hitting coach John Mallee is one of the most progressive teachers in the game of baseball.
Last January at the American Baseball Coaches Association convention in Nashville, he gave a remarkable presentation on How Science and Analytics Changed The Swing.
It was one of the most important talks in the history of the ABCA which dates back to 1945.
Mallee is in his second year in the Cubs organization and his sixth as a major league hitting coach.
He has 20 seasons of experience in professional baseball on every level. Along the way, he has tried to uncover every possible clue as to what allows a great hitter to excel.
The numbers supplied by Mallee tell an amazing story on the Major League level:

• The ideal launch angle for balls exiting greater than 90 mph for a base hit is 7-12 degrees (75% hits).
• The ideal launch angle for balls exiting less than 90 mph for base hit is 12-15 degrees (90% hits).
• The ideal launch angle for balls exiting greater than 90 mph for a home run is 23-35 degrees (40% home runs).
• The average exit velocity for a hard-hit ball is 90 mph.
• The average exit velocity for a home run in 2015 was 103.5 mph.
• The ideal attack angle for a line drive is 6-14 degrees.
• The ideal attack angle for a home run is 20-25 degrees.
• Average speed of a fastball is 92.5 mph.
• Average distance pitches thrown to the plate is 54′ 4″.
• Average height of the release point by the pitcher is 6′ 1″.
• Reaction time for the hitter is .41 seconds.
• The fastball crosses home plate at a 6 degree decline.
• The average fastball pitch height arriving at home plate is 2′ 7″.
• The average fastball crosses the front of home plate at 85.2 mph.
• Average speed of a major league curveball is 78 mph.
• The curveball plane is a minimum 10 degree decline.
• The curveball pitch height as it arrives to home plate is 1′ 11″.
• A curve crosses the front of home plate at 72.4 mph.
• The batting average for ground balls is .245.
• The batting average for line drives is .640.

“The story of how I arrived at my hitting philosophy is interesting, said Mallee.
“The foundation of what I believe in started in 1996 in Beloit, Wisc. It was my first year coaching in professional baseball, and I was 26 years old. Up until that point, I was teaching lessons and giving information to hitters that I was previously taught as a player.
 “Then I was introduced to Bob Keyes of Bio-Kinetics Research and Development and Ralph Dickinson who was my hitting coordinator with the Brewers. That was my first experience using science to help me understand how the swing works.
“I learned about dynamic balance, controlling the body’s center of mass, the kinetic chain, accelerating and decelerating links, sequential order, muscle torque, along with the pre-stretch that takes place prior to muscle firing.
“All of this vividly showed that the lower half of the body starts the swing. The big debate when I was finishing pro ball was whether the hands go first or the lower half. Where does the swing come into play in regard to the kinetic chain?
“What I learned from Bob Keyes and Ralph Dickinson was that the lower half must start the swing. I still follow those beliefs.”
Mallee said that he has become even more informed about hitting the last three years.
“Three years ago, I was involved with the Astros’ organization and was introduced to analytics. These are the numbers behind the results. I learned the importance of exit velocity, launch angle, OPS (on-base plus slugging), slugging percentage, trajectory with different types of pitches, spin rate, effective velocity, etc.
“Everything started to make sense. I do a lot of my teaching now based on what the numbers say.”
Hit Balls In The Air
Mallee said the numbers vividly show balls must be hit in the air and not on the ground.
“When you look at batting averages and slugging percentages of balls that are hit on the ground compared to line drives or fly balls in Major League baseball, the numbers are revealing.
“When you hit ground balls, the batting average is .245 while the slugging percentage is .266.
“The batting average for line drives is .640 while the slugging percentage is 1.030.
“The batting average for fly balls is .143 while the slugging percentage is .567.
“The numbers show that you should stay away from ground balls and ideally hit line drives. Fly balls are much better to hit than ground balls when you look at the slugging percentage.
“Pitchers are all trying to keep the ball low and sink the ball on the strike zone. So with all this data and common sense, a question begs to be answered.
“Should you swing up, swing down or swing level? The answer is to stay level with the plane of the pitch. It gives you a much better opportunity to hit a hard line drive or fly ball. I’m not talking about a pop up here. I’m talking about getting the ball in the air as opposed to hitting on the ground.”
Launch Angles
Mallee said when you examine launch angles for line drives and home runs, you get a better picture of what hitters must accomplish to be successful.
“The ideal launch angle for a home run is between 23-35 degrees which accounts for 40% of all home runs when balls are hit at a 90 mph exit velocity or greater.
“The ideal launch angle for a hit with balls exiting 90 miles per hour or greater is 7-12 degrees (75% hits). Balls exiting at less than 90 miles per hour, the ideal launch angle for hitters is 12-15 degrees (90% hits).”
To read more about the hitting philosophy of John Mallee, purchase the April 22, 2016 edition of Collegiate Baseball or subscribe by CLICKING HERE.
The rest of the article includes important information such as where the bat makes contact with the ball in regard to ground balls, line drives and home runs.
It also delves into the average exit velocity off bats of Major Leaguers, the bat speed at impact, the time to impact, the attack angle of hitters since typical pitches are coming in at a 6 degree decline, how to practice so that you can simulate a 92 mph fastball at a short distance for hitters and at what height it must be thrown from.

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Home Plate

In Nashville, Tennessee, during the first week of January, 1996, more than 4,000 baseball coaches descended upon the Opryland Hotel for the 52nd annual ABCA convention.

 

While I waited in line to register with the hotel staff, I heard other more veteran coaches rumbling about the lineup of speakers scheduled to present during the weekend. One name, in particular, kept resurfacing, always with the same sentiment — “John Scolinos is here? Oh man, worth every penny of my airfare.”

 

Who the hell is John Scolinos, I wondered. No matter, I was just happy to be there.

In 1996, Coach Scolinos was 78 years old and five years retired from a college coaching career that began in 1948. He shuffled to the stage to an impressive standing ovation, wearing dark polyester pants, a light blue shirt, and a string around his neck from which home plate hung — a full-sized, stark-white home plate.

Seriously, I wondered, who in the hell is this guy?

 

After speaking for twenty-five minutes, not once mentioning the prop hanging around his neck, Coach Scolinos appeared to notice the snickering among some of the coaches. Even those who knew Coach Scolinos had to wonder exactly where he was going with this, or if he had simply forgotten about home plate since he’d gotten on stage.

Then, finally …

 

“You’re probably all wondering why I’m wearing home plate around my neck. Or maybe you think I escaped from Camarillo State Hospital,” he said, his voice growing irascible. I laughed along with the others, acknowledging the possibility. “No,” he continued, “I may be old, but I’m not crazy. The reason I stand before you today is to share with you baseball people what I’ve learned in my life, what I’ve learned about home plate in my 78 years.”

 

Several hands went up when Scolinos asked how many Little League coaches were in the room. “Do you know how wide home plate is in Little League?”

 

After a pause, someone offered, “Seventeen inches,” more question than answer.

“That’s right,” he said. “How about in Babe Ruth? Any Babe Ruth coaches in the house?”

 

Another long pause.

 

“Seventeen inches?”came a guess from another reluctant coach.

 

“That’s right,” said Scolinos. “Now, how many high school coaches do we have in the room?” Hundreds of hands shot up, as the pattern began to appear.

 

“How wide is home plate in high school baseball?”

 

“Seventeen inches,” they said, sounding more confident.

 

“You’re right!” Scolinos barked. “And you college coaches, how wide is home plate in college?”

 

“Seventeen inches!” we said, in unison.

 

“Any Minor League coaches here? How wide is home plate in pro ball?”

“Seventeen inches!”

 

“RIGHT! And in the Major Leagues, how wide home plate is in the Major Leagues?”

“Seventeen inches!”

 

“SEV-EN-TEEN INCHES!” he confirmed, his voice bellowing off the walls. “And what do they do with a a Big League pitcher who can’t throw the ball over seventeen inches?” Pause. “They send him to Pocatello!” he hollered, drawing raucous laughter.

“What they don’t do is this: they don’t say, ‘Ah, that’s okay, Jimmy. You can’t hit a seventeen-inch target? We’ll make it eighteen inches, or nineteen inches.

We’ll make it twenty inches so you have a better chance of hitting it. If you can’t hit that, let us know so we can make it wider still, say twenty-five inches.'”

 

Pause.

 

“Coaches …”

 

Pause.

 

” … what do we do when our best player shows up late to practice? When our team rules forbid facial hair and a guy shows up unshaven? What if he gets caught drinking? Do we hold him accountable? Or do we change the rules to fit him, do we widen home plate?

 

The chuckles gradually faded as four thousand coaches grew quiet, the fog lifting as the old coach’s message began to unfold. He turned the plate toward himself and, using a Sharpie, began to draw something. When he turned it toward the crowd, point up, a house was revealed, complete with a freshly drawn door and two windows. “This is the problem in our homes today. With our marriages, with the way we parent our kids. With our discipline. We don’t teach accountability to our kids, and there is no consequence for failing to meet standards. We widen the plate!”

 

Pause. Then, to the point at the top of the house he added a small American flag.

 

“This is the problem in our schools today. The quality of our education is going downhill fast and teachers have been stripped of the tools they need to be successful, and to educate and discipline our young people. We are allowing others to widen home plate! Where is that getting us?”

 

Silence. He replaced the flag with a Cross.

 

“And this is the problem in the Church, where powerful people in positions of authority have taken advantage of young children, only to have such an atrocity swept under the rug for years. Our church leaders are widening home plate!”

 

I was amazed. At a baseball convention where I expected to learn something about curveballs and bunting and how to run better practices, I had learned something far more valuable. From an old man with home plate strung around his neck, I had learned something about life, about myself, about my own weaknesses and about my responsibilities as a leader. I had to hold myself and others accountable to that which I knew to be right, lest our families, our faith, and our society continue down an undesirable path.

 

“If I am lucky,” Coach Scolinos concluded, “you will remember one thing from this old coach today. It is this: if we fail to hold ourselves to a higher standard, a standard of what we know to be right; if we fail to hold our spouses and our children to the same standards, if we are unwilling or unable to provide a consequence when they do not meet the standard; and if our schools and churches and our government fail to hold themselves accountable to those they serve, there is but one thing to look forward to …”

 

With that, he held home plate in front of his chest, turned it around, and revealed its dark black backside. “… dark days ahead.”

 

Coach Scolinos died in 2009 at the age of 91, but not before touching the lives of hundreds of players and coaches, including mine. Meeting him at my first ABCA convention kept me returning year after year, looking for similar wisdom and inspiration from other coaches. He is the best clinic speaker the ABCA has ever known because he was so much more than a baseball coach.

 

His message was clear: “Coaches, keep your players—no matter how good they are—your own children, and most of all, keep yourself at seventeen inches.

 

This presentation was witnessed by Coach Bob Harley

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Bat Angle

Bat angle

When you have completed the separation phase of your swing and your hands are cocked back and ready to fire forward, the angle of your bat can determine who you are as a hitter.
Bat Angle 1 – Straight up and down (perpendicular to the ground)

• The back part of your swing will take a little longer to get to the baseball.
• Naturally, you will have a little loop in your swing
• There can be more power generated from this position because with the extra length in the back part of your swing, you are creating a longer space to build your bat speed.

Bat Angle 2 – Lying flat (parallel to the ground)

• The back part of your swing will be shorter to the ball.
• You will have a more direct path to the ball
• You will not generate as much power because your bat is traveling a shorter distance.

Option 3 – A combination of the two

• Most people use an angle that is somewhere in between straight up, and lying flat.
• This depends on how you control the baseball bat and what type of hitter you are. 

Hitting Tips

Hitting Tips:

• Understand that failure is a part of hitting. Good hitters fail 7 out of 10 times. 
• Be aggressive and hunt fastball strikes.
• Know the fastball counts: counts in which you can expect a fastball; 0-0,1-0,2-0, 3-0 3-1, 2-1.
• Understand that you will probably get only one good pitch to hit in an at-bat. Don't let it go by.
• You can't control the number of hits you get. Instead, think about quality at-bats and whether or not you hit the ball hard or advanced the runner.
• Work on recognizing the breaking pitch early and develop the discipline to lay off it until you have 2 strikes.
• Practice becoming a good situational hitter: bunt successfully on the first attempt, hit-and-run, moving a runner over from second, driving in a runner from third whether by a ground ball to the middle infielders or by a fly ball. 

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