Bulldog Baseball Player Guide

Bulldog Baseball Player Guide

Overview: This Player Guide is intended to help each player in the program gain an even deeper sense of pride for Bulldog Baseball. The coaching staff is passionate about the program, and wants every player to succeed and reach their potential. Go Bulldogs! Baseball Success lessons for life: Work hard: On and off the field. When you are tired, dig down deep and find more to give. Baseball is an extremely competitive sport. You have to yearn to give all that you can if you want to have individual and team success. Keep your body in shape: Stay conditioned, work on agilities, endurance and eat healthy. Treat your body well, and success will find you. Be coachable: Listen and practice what you are being taught. Focus on your coaches, respect them, and put into practice the lessons. Don t just nod your head. Listen, think about it, visualize it, and then do it! In the game of Baseball, you will constantly be changing your swing, mechanics, positions, and improving on every aspect. You have to have the desire and dedication to keep tweaking things in order to find success. Practice: Repetition and consistency. Before and after practice, visualize success and what you need to work on and focus on that! Confidence: We want you to believe you are the best player on the field at all times. Know you are going to succeed and when things don t go as planned, have the confidence you are going to pick yourself up, learn from it, and improve! Patience/Relax: Be patient and relax. Don t make the game faster than it is, keep it simple and let the game come to you. One pitch at a time, one swing at a time, and one play at a time. Be in control of yourself. Sportsmanship: Be respectful of your opponents, your teammates and all coaches. Even in defeat, please respect the game at all times. Have fun: The game of Baseball is a game. It should be fun, so have fun and enjoy it!

Attitude: Every time you step onto the field or engage in any Baseball activity, bring a positive attitude, clear your head and be ready to learn, get better, and compete with passion! Repetition: Repeating good Baseball habits is a must. Having consistent repetition in practice and workouts is key to succeeding on and off the field. Whether it is pitching mechanics, hitting, fielding, stretching, running, throwing, how you dress for practice/games, where you put your bag, etc. Baseball, more than any other sport, is a game of repetition and consistency. Heart: When you leave the field every day, leave knowing you gave everything you had that day to become a better player, person and teammate. Warm up/down: Properly warm up and warm down your body. Before and after any Baseball related activities, this is key to ensuring you give yourself the best chance of avoiding injury while also becoming a better player. Accountability: Most often, success on or off the field is determined by one s own accountability. If you give 70% in life, it will show. If you don t work hard, listen, practice and commit to getting better, it will show. Be accountable for your success! Team player: Before, during, and after games/practices, ask yourself How can I help my team get better and succeed today? Be humble: Be confident, but not arrogant. Be humble in victory and defeat. Study: Be a true student on and off the field. Study, learn, practice and focus on the task at hand. Visualize success. Attentive: You have to be alert at all times. Know the situation in every situation for every play, and be a step ahead! Passion: Have a true passion for what you are doing for yourself, the program, your teammates, and the coaching staff. The Little Things: Focus on the doing the little things, the right way. The coaching staff will work with every player and team on this in practices and team meetings.

Developing Your Individual Routine: Having a regular routine is a very important key to your success, no matter what phase of the game you are engage in whether it s conditioning, throwing, mechanics, mental preparation, pre practice/pre-game strategy, or working on drills. When you develop a regular routine in your practices and games, your performance will improve. It doesn t make a difference at what level you are playing, Having an individual routine is probably as important to your overall success as the drills you use in that routine. The key to your routine, though, is focus and consistent work going through the motions will not cut it! Here is an example of a pre-pitch routine for a Pitcher: Using a pre-pitch routine (during every pitch thrown in games, practice bullpens and during flat ground drills) is an important part of developing consistent location and, more importantly, confidence in your various pitches. Many Major Leaguers pitchers use this routine: 1) Get relaxed and set 2) Look in and get the sign 3) Decide on location 4) Focus on a dime size spot in the catcher s mitt 5) Mentally verbalize the pitch and location i.e. fastball, low and away 6) Relax and clear your mind then focus on the glove 7) Commit to throwing your best pitch 8) Trust that pitch 9) Pitch the ball Practice and pre-game routine: Routine is ultimately about being consistent in all aspects of the game of Baseball. Since all players are different, your own routine won t be exactly the same as any of your teammates. It is completely your own, so find the things that work for you in physically and mentally preparing for each and every practice, game or workout. Utilizing repeated behavior in preparation is the first key in establishing consistent and predictable results. Post-Practice/Post-Game analysis:

After each time you step onto the field, you should do an analysis. Keep a journal of each of your games/practices and write down what you did physically, mentally and mechanically in that performance, including: what went well, what didn t get well, what surprised you, what didn t surprise you, what felt comfortable, what felt uncomfortable, what are your goals prior to your next outing, etc. Be specific and honest in your assessment and look for areas to work on prior to the next practice or game. At the time you complete your analysis or thoughts, get any negative thoughts about your performance out of your head! Once you ve completed the analysis they re gone. Go to sleep or go do something else to take your mind off of it. Then, get up the next day and continue your routine and trust yourself. Never let negative thoughts or regrets linger. Once you have done your analysis, let it go and move on! Daily/Practice Routine: Your practice is probably the most difficult routine to which you consistently commit yourself. Because each practice differs (from varying drills, conditions and expectations), your practice routine is far less rigid or predictable than your other more defined routines (such as pre-game). While certain individual drills or drill sets have you working within a detail-oriented environment, other drills or activities may leave much of the results up to you. You must hold yourself accountable for completing those. For your practice routine, you should prepare yourself each day by setting goals or targets specifically for that day s drills and activities. If it is a conditioning drill, set a goal on when you finish or how you finish, for example. If it is a hitting or pitching drill, focus on recognizing how the drill affects you individually and how it can help you improve. When working within each drill, if there are things the coaching staff shows you or explains to you but don t make sense or that your body isn t recognizing, ask for help and make time to work on those areas later. Your routine is especially important on game days when you are not playing certain innings. Whether it is keeping game charts or doing your mid-week workout, you should have a goal to identify or learn something that you can recognize, take with you and improve upon later. No day, whether it is a practice day, game day, or conditioning day should be spent without setting a goal and striving to improve your mental and physical abilities. Ultimately, everything you do on the field over a the course of a season or year will be directly affected by the amount of preparation and focus you have put into it. Having an individual

routine that covers the mental, physical and mechanical aspects of the game will reduce the margin of error that exists in Baseball. Hold yourself accountable and have fun doing it! Catchers Signs to Pitchers (for pitches): Regular signs o One = Fastball o Two = Curveball o Three = Slider or other breaking pitch o Four (wiggle) = Changeup o Five = Step off the rubber o Thumb = Pick off o Fist = Pitch out o Hand flick = Slide step Location signs o Point with finger = on the corner o Tap on leg = off the plate o Touch on ground in the dirt o Touch the chest/adjust chest protector = above the hands (FB only) If there are men on base, catchers will do multiple signs, but the pitch and location will be the second sign the catcher gives. Pitching Objectives: 1) Starting Pitchers Goals: a. Be mentally and physically focused for every pitch of every start b. Allow 3 or fewer runs per start c. Leave the game with a lead d. Be a positive catalyst for the team from the mound and the bench (lead by example) 2) Relieve Pitchers Goals: a. Get mentally and physically focused prior to entering the game b. Retire the first batter faced every outing c. Work not to allow any inherited runners to score d. Maintain every inherited lead e. Pitch a scoreless inning whenever our team is trailing

Be a complete pitcher Focus, confidence and composure Situational execution Pitch execution Defensive execution Leadership Accountability Aggressiveness Have fun and be passionate Bulldog Pitching, continued: Develop your own pre-pitch routine see the routine section earlier in this packet. Repeating good habits and good behaviors is very important. It is important to your success on and off the field, in life and in Baseball. Take pride in this. Be a leader and be the most confident player on the field. Know you are the best player on the field. As a pitcher, your job is to disrupt the hitter s timing, and keep them guessing every single pitch! We will be preaching this in the program. Very important! Be mentally and physically strong. Portola Bulldog Baseball Defense: Everyone on defense needs to be focused before every single pitch. Overall team defense goals: o clean defense, no errors Before every pitch: o Know what the situation is o How many runners are on base o How many outs there are o If the ball is hit to you, know what you need to do o If the ball is hit to someone else, know what you need to do (backup, cutoff, etc.) o Support your pitcher and constantly communicating with your teammates o Look ready, and be on your toes every single play If the ball is hit to you: o Call it = I GOT IT, I GOT IT, I GOT IT

Portola Bulldog Baseball Runners: Be alert, be ready, don t get yourself out, and 110% speed all the time! Have the mindset that if you are on base, you are going to score! Get a good lead and a good secondary lead Read the pitcher and his leg movements and speed to the plate Have the goal to disrupt the pitcher and his timing Advance yourself on a ground ball Always go half way on a fly ball with less than 2 outs Always find the 3 rd base coach on a base hit Make sure the bunt is on the ground before you run Always freeze on a line drive with less than 2 outs Always round the bases aggressively Hitters General understanding of expectations for each hitter in lineup: Patience, patience, patience See the ball path, react, if you like it, attack 110% If you commit, don t hold back and be aggressive General rolls of each hitter in the lineup: o 1 Leadoff hitter: In general, the leadoff hitter is fast and is a good base runner. The job of the leadoff hitter needs to be to get on base every time and should do whatever is needed to do that. His job is to be fast on the bases and advance and score. The leadoff hitter should be patient and make the pitcher throw a lot of pitches. o 2 Batting second: Is a solid contact hitter, and is really good at getting the runners on base to advance. Like the leadoff hitter, the second batter is usually pretty fast and can cause trouble for the defense. One of the goals of the second hitter is not stranding the runners on base. o 3 Batting third: Most often, the third batter is generally considered a power hitter. He will be tasked with moving runners over, having good contact, getting runners into scoring position or scoring. o 4 Cleanup hitter: Like the third hitter, the cleanup hitter will be asked to drive in runs and to get on base. o 5 Batting fifth: We will be asking the 5 th hitter in the lineup to get a lot of sacrifices and RBI s. The 5 th man in the order should have the goal to get someone to score and to do anything in order to make that happen.

Bulldog Hitters: o 6 Batting sixth: Will be asked to be a good contact hitter and have good opportunities for RBI s and sacrifices, like the 5 th batter. Our main goal for the 6 th hitter is to have them focus on any and all ways to just get on base. o 7 Batting seventh: We will need the 7 th hitter to be patient and see a lot of pitches. The 7 th hitter will be relied upon to perform a number of tasks such as bunts, sacrifices, solid base hits, steals and be patient enough to get walks. This is the hitting position where we need to start turning the lineup back up to the leadoff spot, and this hitter is vital to making that happen. o 8 Batting eighth: The 8 th hitter will be considered a #2 hitter in the lineup, just in a different spot in the order. The 8 th hitter is a good contact hitter, good at getting on base, and good at moving runners over. o 9 Batting ninth: The 9 th hitter will be asked to be a second leadoff hitter. We will refer to this part of the lineup as the second leadoff and will be a fast runner. 1) Read the pitcher a. This starts during warm-ups. See what he does and his tendencies, and pickup his release point b. What are his pitches? Where does he like to pitch? What does he like to throw? c. Where is his release point? d. Does he slow his motion for off-speed pitches? e. Look at his glove while he grips the ball does he tip his pitches? 2) Before you step into the batter s box a. Read the fielders. How are they playing you? Where are the gaps? b. Are there runners on base? What is the situation? 3) Develop your own hitters routine a. One example of a mental routine to your approach: i. Analyze the umpires strike zone ii. Understand the type of hitter you are iii. Visualize the types of pitches and locations you hit best iv. Know the pitcher you are facing v. Read the pitcher and what his best pitch is and location vi. Know the situation before you step into the box vii. Anticipate the pitch viii. Reach and attack ix. Be aggressive 4) As a Bulldog hitter, practice and repetition are very important. Some things to work on regularly in practice, and execute in games are: a. How to take a pitch (patience, only hit what you like)

b. Work on bunting and the fundamentals c. Know how to hit an outside pitch, inside pitch, low pitch d. How to hit up the middle, opposite field, and pulling it e. Hitting while you are ahead in the count. You are in charge, be patient, hit only what you like) f. Hitting behind in the count. Anything close swing. Find a way to get on base and don t get yourself out. Protect the plate. g. How to hit and run. Try not to leave your teammates stranded on base. No popups. h. How to sacrifice. Moving runners over with bunts, grounders, line drives, or long fly balls. i. Learn how to adjust your swing with off speed/breaking pitches. Be aggressive, but be patent and stay back. Wait for the pitch to come to you. j. Connect with good contact every time you swing. Motivational Quotes: "Baseball is 90% mental, and the other half is physical." - Yogi Berra "Baseball is about talent, hard work, and strategy. But at the deepest level, it's about love, integrity, and respect." - Pat Gillick You owe it to yourself to be the best you can possibly be in Baseball and in Life. Pete Rose It shows the way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don t play together, the team won t be worth a dime. Babe Ruth In order to excel, you must be completely dedicated. You must also be prepared to work hard and be willing to accept constructive criticism. Without 100% dedication, you will have a hard time at succeeding in both life and Baseball. Ty Cobb