Determined Society with Shawn French | Adversity & Mindset - Taking on the title of coach with Duke Baxter

Episode Date: June 6, 2023

Welcome to the  The Determined Society podcast, where today we have the privilege of introducing Coach Duke Baxter. With over four decades of baseball experience, Duke's knowledge is deeply rooted in all aspects of the game. He is a former professional baseball player who has received numerous awards and accolades both as a collegiate and professional athlete. Today, Coach Duke dedicates his career to developing athletes at the Zoned Sports Academy, the training facility he founded, and through his books and videos with 'Dominate the Diamond ®'. His approach to coaching is inspiring, motivating, fun, and humble. In this podcast, we will delve into Duke's experience, his positive coaching approach, and how he has coached and trained over 50,000 baseball and softball players for over two decades. Let's all take a moment to listen to Duke as he shares his knowledge and tips to help every baseball and softball player, coach, and parent get educated, motivated, and then dominate on and off the field. Welcome, Coach Duke Baxter.   Key Points: How to develop athletes Being a positive influence on the youth  Player development The importance of being a coachable athlete Creative ways to keep athletes engaged in practice Taking on the title of coach Empowering young athletes within practice Creating the environment that allows failure Coaches and parents needing to do better The issues in youth development Connect with Duke: Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/dukebaxter/?hl=en Website- https://zonedinc.com/staff/duke-baxter/ Buy his book- https://www.amazon.com/stores/Duke-Baxter/author/B074N38HPW?ref=ap_rdr&store_ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true Connect with Shawn: Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/theshawnfrench/?hl=en Twitter- https://twitter.com/theshawnmfrench?lang=en Website- https://theshawnfrench.com/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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Here we go. Here's how you grip a four seat. Here's how you get into a fielding triangle. Here's how you catch the ball with two hands. Here's how you get on a baseball knee. Here's how you talk about the game, like a warm-up. And next thing I was like, dude, this is, we got something here. So then we wrote the book taken on the title of coach.

What is up, everybody? Welcome back to the show, The Determined Society, where today I have the privilege of introducing coach Duke Baxter. He has over four decades. of baseball experience, his knowledge is deeply rooted in all aspects of the game. He is a former professional baseball player who has received numerous awards and accolades, both as a collegiate and professional athlete. Today, Coach Duke dedicates his career to developing athletes at the Zone Sports Academy,

the training facility he founded and through his books and videos with Dominate the Diamond. His approach to coaching is inspiring, motivating, and fun, and humble, which, in my humble opinion. It is what the youth and sports need today. Everybody welcome my new friend Duke backs for the show. What's up, homie? Sean, thanks so much, man. So excited. I see so much of your stuff on social media. Love the conversations that you're having and figured, man, this is, this is going to be a blast. Dude, I got goosebumps right now. I haven't talked to another baseball guy on the show in so long. And I'm like, literally goosebumps. It's so exciting because before we were recording, this is for the audience, I asked him, you know, where do you play his college ball?

And he told me University of North Florida right away, we knew the same people. Good old dusty road, smoke LaValle, my boy, Judd Loveland. So man, just like, what a small world. It's like, and when you do with talking about baseball, it's like it's like a fraternity, right? It's like once you're in, you're in. You know, but it's almost like once you're out of playing, you feel like it's like your boys are gone until you go somewhere and you're like, holy cow, everybody knows everybody. It's just so, it's such a, it's such a small, but yet. big world, right?

It's, it's, dude, it is, it is, it's a big world, but a very small circle. And it's funny because I'm sitting here in the first minute and

48 seconds having this conversation with you. And I'm like, holy shit, my audience is going to feel a different fucking energy from me. And then they're going to really get to know who I am, right? Because they think they know, right?

But they haven't seen me talk to another high energy baseball guy. It's been a lot of, you know, online celebrity entrepreneurs, you know, big people. But, you know, when I'm able to get down to my roots, this is what really excites me.

And the one thing that I love about your content is even before you and I started, I think I found you through my boy, Vic Ferranti. And, you know, he and I connected randomly. He just saw a post of mine. And then we realized, like, dude, we grew up in the same backyard. You know, he's from the Bay Area. I'm from the Bay Area. And, you know, then you come along.

And I love your instructional videos. You know, the first one I saw is how to. get through a ground ball pre-step movement how to break down all that good stuff and what i realize is like man this guy's just not talking platitudes out there like a lot of like a lot of people do right um you really dive into the development at the aspect of these athletes and dude it fires me up so you know that set you apart so talk to me about that man talk to me about your business and what you're seeing out there with young athlete development these days you know i think it's really interesting because when we first started it in 2002, I was still playing ball, just got finished.

And I'm like, man, like, what am I going to do? Like, what I want to do for living? Right? I always wanted to be in the big leagues and be like, oh, I want to be a big league or I want to. And then all of a sudden, you get, you play professional baseball and you're like, you're already looking to level up. It's like everything that we do, we're always like looking to get to the next level. And for me, only making it to the big leagues was my next level. And then all of a sudden, baseball is over and you're like, who am I? Right. like, who am I now? Duke Baxter, the baseball player.

But now of a sudden you're taking the word baseball player out. Now it's like, okay, now who's Duke Baxter? Right. And so I knew I loved playing. I knew I loved coaching every summer. You know, we'd come back and I would do camps and clinics and help kids. And I'm like, this is what I love doing. So how can I take what I know and have a passionate about and in the game and can continue

and give back? So we created zoned to the, 28,000 square foot place in Bridgewater, New Jersey. The Somerset Patriots are two miles away. So a bunch of my buddies, we all came here and started giving lessons, doing classes, just like so many people do out there. And then it just kept on growing. So this year's our 20th year that we've been here.

No, now we have scholarships. We have teams. We have, you know, but in the process, I realized how many coaches are coaching, but they don't know how to coach. You know, you'd be shocked that last. Last winter, we had 110 guys at our coaches clinic. And I'm like, oh, how many of you played high school ball? How many of you played Little League?

And I'm like, how come the ones raised in their hands? Like, there's like half of the coaches. And I'm like, how many guys? And I never asked this question. How many guys never coached before or played before? Half of the guys raised their hands. They've never touched a baseball before. And I'm like, okay, at the grassroots of the game,

If we're trying to get these five, six, seven-year-old tee ballers to love the game of baseball, how are we doing it with people that have never touched a baseball? Well, that's where you come in. And we know as baseball guys, it's hard enough to coach the game. If you know what you're doing when you have 12, 6-year-olds, how is a person that's never even touched a ball going to do it? So we started doing coaches because I'm like, okay, guys, guess what? No pads on the ground. Here's a bunch of gloves.

Put your sneakers on. No pads. Here we go. here's how you grip a four scene here's how you get into the fielding triangle here's how you catch the ball with two hands here's how you get on a baseball knee here's how you talk about the game like a warm up a next you know i was like dude this is we got something here so then we wrote the book taken on the title of coach because it's like a step by step guide to how to talk about the game how to wear the uniform different words to say how to give a post game speech right how to how to create a practice plan so

All those things that coaches didn't even know. Like, these are just moms and dads. They don't even call themselves coaches yet because they're not coaches. Their moms or dads coaching T-ball, right? So they don't know where to get a resource because they don't, if you were to say, hey, all you coaches out there, they're not even raising their hand as a coach yet, right? Like, no, I'm a dad that's coaching my six-year-old how to play T-ball. You know, these are a lot of good points, man, because I see it all the time.

You know, I stepped away from high-level coaching a long time ago, got into my my sales career once I have my first child, wanted to be home more. Right now I have three kids. Right now I'm home a lot. You know, I'm a medical device sales rep, but then I run the show. And so I'm here. But the one thing that I noticed, and I think I attribute it to this. And I want to know what you think the major issue is when it comes to how many people here have coached and nobody raises their hands. How many people are just dads and they, I'm here though. I'm here for my kid. First of all, it takes a shit ton of courage. Okay. And I and I respect it. But. For me, I'm wondering is the lack of qualified coaches due to this game has evolved in such a way that sometimes can bring negative light to the little league field that, you know, baseball dudes like me sometimes are just embarrassed to be on the field by what kind of the shit that goes on in the stands, what goes on with the other coaches? They don't know the fucking game and they're yelling.

Was it you that posted that, um, that third base coach and I go, that dude's an ass hat, period. Was that, was that you? I posted that. There was something else that happened the other day. Like, what this happened this summer with our 13 new team? There was a guy coaching third. And in between games was doing a little drinking some beverages. Jesus Christ.

The impor makes a call. And the guy punches him right in the jaw, blows his jaw up. The guy was like 75-year-old umpire who's umpiring because he loves umping. I mean, the, the ambulance had to come take the guy out. And I was like, you saw this. Your kids saw this. Oh. See, see, this is this.

I'm goosebumps again. This is why I'm so happy you're on the show because these are real life accounts. You see shit on social media all the time about these coaches going after umpires and in parents going after umpires yada yada yada all this shit. And then all of a sudden you see, you know, a kid dropping that bomb at an umpire. Guilty is charged before. Sorry. But I struck out three times with bases load in one game. I was telling somebody to fuck off.

I didn't care. I was terrible that game. Right? So I threw my bat across the field. But the bottom line is this. those children on that field, whether they were on the side fields, just observing the ambulance coming, probably the police, right, and all this stuff. And the kids that were on the field, your team and the other team, they're going to be

impacted by that, the rest of their lives. And there is no place on a baseball field. Listen, it is highly competitive. But what the fuck have we come to, man? You know, and it's crazy because you're like, you know, we back in like 2005, we bought Brian Canaan. Awesome. Oh, he's all like mental performance coach. Dude.

Digital conditioning. Top of the line. Nobody came. Nobody came. And I'm like, I had to pay people to come listen to him. They're like, we don't need that. But then on the same breath, they're like, I don't know why my son throws his stuff all over the place after.

I'm like, that's what we're talking about. Dude. Right. Like, I hope some of you guys are listening. I hope some of you guys are listening because I'm calling you guys out right now. if you ever say I don't need to listen to Brian Kane you're an ass hat and it's like the same dad that's in this thing's like I don't know why my kids gets all frustrated meanwhile the kid strikes out the dad's taking his hat off he slamming on the guard like dude look in the mirror bro your modeling

behavior like there's your mini me all the time and we're like okay parents you're wondering why your kid does X Y and Z you know because the apple doesn't fall far from the tree that's the bottom line of it you know and it's like So the kids, like you said, they watch the coaches. They see what they're doing. How do they react to the umpires? How do they react? And then they just do the same thing.

Like, they don't know any different. And then we want to pitch and moan when they are doing the same things that we're doing. So it's like coaches, respect the game, respect each other, respect like what's going on. Because that's what is teaching the kids. So that's why we feel it's so important to work with the grassroots coaches. Not the guy that's coaching 14. And you're like, he already knows what he's doing. And the kid already loves to him.

That eight-year-old doesn't know what he's doing. He can't have a coach that's just going to scream and yell and why you're missing the ball. Keep your head. Like that kid's like, there's way too many other things to do out there, like playing video games or other sports that are way more active than. TikToking. TikTok. You mean blogging. Yes.

Fucking TikTok. Yeah, I know that's interesting. Like, what do you think this comes from, man? What is your, what is your guest? estimation of why we're here. Why are we here in athletics like this right now with people fighting each other? Where do you think the pressures come from? I think it's almost like you were asking before what's why does the guy that doesn't even play the game? Why does he coach? And it's like, well, think about this. If you were asked to go do something in front of 12 kids in front of 12

parents with cameras. They're judging you. They're going to have an opinion. They're going to wonder why their kids aren't playing and you don't really know what you're doing. Why in the world would you raise your hand to do that? Nobody's doing that. No one's going to go somewhere and put themselves out there when they have no tools to succeed. Right. So, but then you do get the guy that Johnny's like, come on, daddy. Will you please coach? We need a coach. So of course you're like, okay, I'll try to figure it out. You know, so it's like, it's stressful, though. You know, like, you're not just coaching the game. You're coaching the other 12 parents of how come Johnny's not pitching? Why isn't he playing shortstop? Why did he sit out two innings? And these coaches are like, I don't know. I'm just trying

to figure this out as I go. So getting them the tools for that, I think, is so important. And that's how we created all these online courses to help tee ball coaches and first time coaches. And here, download these free practice plans and field utilization. charts and you know we have over a thousand drills all over you know TikTok, Instagram Facebook like here free stuff like just go love it. Our stuff and just learn. So that's kind of how we're like giving back to it, you know? Yeah, no, I think that's a great thing, man.

Too many people want something, right? They want they want something from people. And what I've noticed is you're putting a lot of free content out there. Like you said, practice plans, you know, field utilizations, anything that you can possibly think of. Like to me, that's all valuable information. If you want to learn how to coach, right, go go look at these types of things because, you know, it is hard. And anybody in the right mind is going to be very anxious about hopping on a baseball field and being responsible for coaching the youth, especially these six and eight-year-olds, you're literally the first, you're the first line for them to see like, okay, do I like this game or not, right?

And then parents are the second line. Like, what am I, what's my experience? Is it high level stress? What is it? The one thing that I see, and let's get into it, okay? I see back in the day when I played and when you played, maybe we had American Legion. Maybe we might play summer ball. We definitely weren't playing fall ball, right?

And but now, you know, and again, like Ben Ford, don't hate me for this. I love you, man. Like, your organization is genius. You have a, you and your family are amazing entrepreneurs. What's happening is all these players are going to perfect game showcases. and maybe they go to a showcase with maybe there's not maybe all the dudes aren't there and they get this email or they go on the website and they see they're ranked fifth in this showcase now all of a sudden johnny's dad thinks he can go play at fucking lSU well your kids a five o'clock hitter when the disco lights are on he can't do it i see that right now as a big problem what are your thoughts big because there's so many rankings everywhere. You can figure out a ranking system that your son might look good in.

Right. If there's one that you're not, then you're going to keep on going. And I tell guys all the time, listen, if you throw 78 miles an hour today, you're still going to throw 78 miles next weekend. So to pay 500 bucks to go to a showcase and I'm all for going to things and doing stuff like all for it. But there's also something that has to be said about putting in the work to get to 82 or 83, putting in the time, putting in, you know, doing other things than just, well, me, let me just, I have to just, you know, what's my exit velo?

You know, what's my arm velo? What am I? It's like, bro, like there's training that has to go involved in it. Not just what are my numbers. Okay, that's great. But now how do I improve my numbers? What do I do to improve it? And that's the word work.

I have to take action. Yeah. I have to put something into it to get something more out of it. It doesn't just happen. the more events I go to, some people will raise ranks just, oh, wait, this is just fifth event. We got to throw them a little bit of a bone. Hey, this guy's got to, well, then the kids, then what? Yeah, I mean, the reality is, the reality is it's marketing, okay?

And it's, and it's great and genius. I think it gives, you know, kids a great opportunity to play a lot of baseball, which I love. And I love it for that. But I think there's also a fine line of exposure and being exposed, right? So when, you know, to me, and this is something that I go through, my, son is nine and he's very raw but dude the kid the kid gets in the slot his bat path is flat through the zone it's there a long time but he hasn't figured it out yet right he's nine i'm not putting him on travel in travel ball yet i'm not burying him in lessons yet he's nine let's continue to let him

love the game i'm going to teach him as much as i can right um as long as he'll let me you know teach him because i'm dad i don't know shit right and and then from that point we we turn up the dial a little bit, right? But I'm just seeing so much pressure on these young kids to be perfect, to go to these showcases. And it's almost like in these poor parents, I don't think it's keeping up with the Joneses or anything like that. You know what I think it is?

I think they truly believe that they have to do it or their child will not go to college and play baseball. A hundred percent. That's fucking heavy dog. It's almost like when we were growing up, it's like, okay, we had a bat and five kids shared the bat. Nowadays, oh, you have a bat. It's a $500 bat.

If I got to give you the edge, here's a $500 bat and, oh, Johnny just got the $600 bat. So I'm going to, so it almost like there is a piece that's keeping up with the Joneses. Right? Like we didn't get those elements. It was like, hey, you just played. Now it's like, oh, you have to have the top equipment in order to play. Oh, you have to. It's like, why?

And kids love still playing with their friends. I don't care how old you are. When a kid's eight or nine, like your son, Like, it is a thing that they're playing with their buddies and they're getting, they don't need to go on being the best travel team. The mom or dad want them to be on the best travel team, but that kid doesn't even care about being on the best travel team. He wants to be on a team that Johnny's on and Matties on it. When they go in the hallway, they're talking and high five and like, you know, there's a time and a place for that to happen. Or there's some towns maybe that there are no rec ball and you have to play travel in order just to play baseball.

Yeah. But so many people are taking the kids off of. teams and they're on five teams in four years and you're like, okay, maybe it's not the teams that are the problem. Yeah. It's like someone that's in their fifth job in three years. You're like, okay, did they all think they all had the same issue or is it the family or the like, what's going on here? And I think parents don't think that's a real thing. And it's so is a real thing. And coaches look at that and they ask those questions. What team are on? Well, last year I was on this team And this year I'm going to, oh, okay, never mind.

Well, I mean, it can go that way into like when you get to be 14, 15 years old. And the recruiter start coming out, right? And they're at these tournaments. So they start to notice, hey, you can play a little bit. You're scrappy, kind of a baseball rat, you know, gap to gap power, whatever. Maybe you can hit a backside double and repeat it. Not a lot of power. Great arm.

Decent speed. This is your fifth travel ball team in two years. I mean, kids and parents, listen to this. Please. Listen to this. What that shows them is that you are going to leave their school the moment you do not get the favorable reaction from a coach. Because guess what, guys, when you get on the field, it is going to be completely different than when they recruited you. These college coaches are going to be like the nicest guys.

Like, dude, when I was recruited by LSU is the most pleasant experience. And it was just like, this is great. I made it. I got there and Total Thomas has played long toss with no fucking glove. and I'm like, what is going on here? Like, this is the worst pain I've ever been in. And right away, you know, I didn't have the best mindset, right? I went completely sideways.

And, you know, I got injured and it took me two years to get back on the field, you know. And it just was what it was. But, you know, kids and parents, you need to listen that what you do right now is going to follow you and it's going to follow your son. Yeah. You know, you got to be better. You know what I think is a good point to that. it's like parents want to create such a perfect environment, right? A perfect environment.

Then all of a sudden when something doesn't go right, now what happens? You know, like you just said, you go to LSU. You're like loving it. The guys are, you don't have the white gloves on and treating you perfect until something isn't. How do you even deal with that afterwards? Yeah. Like, you know, a kid that when he strikes out, the parents going like this,

they're like, oh, my, why are you giving up a home run? How did you strike out? it's like, dude, like you're teaching them to deal with adversity like that. They should stress out over it and it's wrong and it's bad. Well, you better not play the game or do anything in life because you're going to get these all day long. And it's okay. Hey, buddy, get them next time. Hey, buddy, let's go.

Get your glove and let's go play some defense. Like that's how you have to teach them how to just bounce back. Right. Everyone wants a kid, a player that has the bounce back factor. You have to have short mindset like a goldfish. So what next bitch. Oh, I already forgot what happened. Boom, let's go.

Next ball. Or you have that kid that's just, you know, the worst teammate. Oh, you can tell that he struck out all over his sleeve and he's going to go for three the entire game because he's already, you know what's going to happen. He's crying. Those guys a million times. Yeah.

It's trying to re-teach that in the kids as a coach like, hey, you know, I do things you'll see in my drills like, I'm challenging these guys. I know I'm doing things that they can't do. I'm doing velocities on a machine that that kid can't hit. And all I want to do is foul it off to be like, okay, I fouled one off. Oh, that time I barreled it a little bit. Oh, that time. And now you're like, look.

So when we face that guy at 12 years old throwing 70, at least we've seen it before. And we know we can figure it out. Right. So it's like trying to build that into the kids to where it's like, man, there's nothing that I can't do. It's not going to be easy, but I know how to attack it. And I think I love that because, you know, as a baseball player, when you're growing up, you're always exaggerating in drills, right? And I don't think, I don't think, you know, velocity is mutually exclusive.

I don't think, you know, a nasty hammer on a pitching machine is mutually exclusive. I think you challenge them in practice and make it fun to the point where when they get in the game, they're able to do the one thing that we always ask our players, slow the game down. If you don't put them in pressure field situations in practice, how do you expect them? And this all goes back down to practice planning. can get into that is if you are having a practice where you do indie defense, you know, pitches are doing PFPs and filters are maybe flipping some DPs, maybe they're, you know, doing some bunties and you got catchers doing receiving.

And then you go into maybe a quick team D and then a BP for the rest of the time. Where's the pressure? Where's the pressure? And again, like I'm not saying pressure has to be a bad thing. So the people that are watching and listening, like pressure is a great thing. It is a blessing. Diamonds aren't formed without pressure. So on a baseball field in a practice, in a controlled setting, you need to apply as much appropriate pressure as you possibly can.

So that way, when the game comes, man, you can just let it fly. Where is that now? It's like the instincts, right? It's like, I remember Coach Rojy's big, okay, infield. It's youros Suzuki's running. So you knew as an infielder, okay, he's getting down the line in 3.3 seconds. and all of a sudden you saw guys bobbling balls. They're trying to go so fast,

but he trained us at a certain time. Like these are the different time clocks that need to happen. Okay, now you got the number four hitter and he's a 4.8. Now let's get our feet underneath us. Let's field the ball. Let's get our shuffle in. Let's now let's. So there was always something that had that pressure involved.

So you're doing your routine. Okay, now we're going to put the pressure on it. Now we're going to kick it back to routine. now we're going to put right so that you can have fun during the game. Yeah. Practice was training. Yes. Practice was work.

I always say practice is my time as a coach to get you guys to where you need to be. And then the game is for you going to ho have fun. And I'm just giving you high fives and doing whatever. And whatever you don't do well, I'm going to drill you hard in practice next week. But it's not going to be, ah, come on, Johnny. Let's get like. You didn't do it. You didn't get it done.

It doesn't matter. It's funny because I talked to my son. He, you know, he struck out one of the very last games. It was a playoff game. You know, he's nine. Like I said, he's nine. He comes up and he's like wanting to cry so bad. And he comes to me because I was coach on first base.

I said, son, you got to get him dug out. It wasn't a strike. It was a ball. I go, what about the first two? I'm just asking, right? Here's what I want you to understand, son. I go, you're not going to do it every time. What I expect you to do is to go in there and cheer on your teammates and then go out

in the field, whether you're, that third base, second base or left field, make a play, man. Contribute some other sort of way. And to go back to your issue row comment, it's funny because you're painting this storytelling picture of what, you know, Dusty Rhodes would do. And guys, if you don't know who Dusty Rhodes is he's, you know, an old time, University of North Florida coach, guys, awesome. One of the nicest dudes I know.

Bob Shepard is one of my best friends, by the way. Really? Yes, Shep. Yes. I used to do camps with him. my boy Josh Corr down in the Keys like every summer anyway I digress so um you're talking about each row in my mind I'm thinking okay is there a trail runner is there is there is there a lead runner now he's a trail runner if I bobble the ball can I can I do an arm pump and can I go backside

play right there's always other things to really work on in these practice field situations that if you just do it there like the game is just easier and I mean the the things that I see, you know, in Little League development now, you know, Duke, it just really concerns me. Yeah. You know what I liked about what you said about, you know, your son struck out. You know, I'm, when I first started coaching, you know, my son was nine years old. He was eight, but, you know, the team was nine and they're playing, right? And I'm like, the tears was just a thing. And I was like, it got me so far up, like, stop crying. Like, don't. And then I would watch a game. The other team, they're two best guys.

the number three guys smokes a rocket at the third base when he catches it, tears start coming down. The number four hitter gets up, rips a ball, tears are going. I'm like, wait a second. There's something to this. All the best guys are the ones that are showing the emotion. And since they're so young, they don't know how to, because they feel like they let their team down.

They feel like they're so intense that tears were the only way that a young kid saw. I was like, you know what? I'm going to stop saying, stop crying because nobody ever stopped crying. by saying stop crying. Nobody better by saying, stop, get out of a bad attitude, like, or, you know what I mean? Smile.

Yeah. Like, so I said, listen, you can cry all you want. I said, but you better be on the fence, shaking it and cheering on a teammate. Yeah, crying. You better be open in the corner while you're crying. That's not okay. But if you're going to cry and cheer on your friend

because you can't help it, I don't care. You can cry all you want. I'm not going to stop you from having those feelings because you're a bulldog and you're a stud play. like but I'm going to teach you how to go how to just you know the second part but like you just said grab your glove and go steal what do you do like like yeah go steal some hits man like go cover some ground but the thing is like to your point like the crying doesn't bother me like I my son can cry all day when he strikes out or whatever whatever he you know something bad happens he doesn't

do well cry but what I cannot stand and to your point I think is where you're going with it too I can't stand the player that is crying mid-ed mid-in-a-endid mid-endian and shuts down on his team and doesn't make plays. Like, and then all of a sudden, like, one jam job behind the dish and he's crawled by all right. You're going to come out of the game. No, motherfucker, you're hiding now. Now you're hiding because you're weak-minded.

And I don't care what age, you know, the problem lies, though, that you can't blame the kids. You know, these children act this way because they're afraid of disappointing their parents. Dude, you're going to love this story. So now my son's 10, my other son. I have four kids, three boys. So Tyler's on deck. And one of the kids gets hit.

And I'm coaching third base. Gets hit, goes in the ground. And you would have thought that he got shot by a gun. The coaches came flying out like ice packs. The kid's balling. Like the coach's like, do you want to come out of the game? Do you want? I was like, like, what is going on here?

So the game was over. I said to the coach, I said, listen, if another kid gets hit, we are not going to say a word. We're going to say hustle down to first. The first base one's going to check them out. And we're going to continue. There's no somebody's running for you where you're coming out of the game because you got hit by a baseball. Because then they're going to think that it's a bad thing that just happens happen all the time.

So my son's up, gets freaking smoked in the chin, right? Get smoked in the chin. Goes down like a rocket. I as a dad wanted to go like run the check on him, right? Can you do a word? I stop. I'm like, let's go, tie, hustle down. He got up, dusted himself.

off, ran to first base. Like, nothing happened. Everyone's like, yeah. And I'm like, no, that's what you need to do in anything. And like, like, you dust yourself off. You get back up. You hustle down.

And, you know, like, you, right? So, you know, like, or the kid's going to be scarred forever. The first kid goes down. The coach's almost caught him before he fell on the floor. It was so fast. It's so funny, dude. Like, you're going to love this one, too. So, like, you ever seen the movie?

meet the parents where she gets smoked the fucking volleyball and the mom runs in and like pretty much walks on the water and she flails around everywhere so dude like my wife

my son learned he has an absolute rocket this year okay he's playing center field and this kid hits a ground you know a base hit and a kid was slow he comes up on it and chuches it on a line to first base.

And I'm like, holy shit, what was that? I was like, okay, you got your daddy's arm. And he just buckled, bro. He buckled like his back. I mean, like, it was a lot of exertion, right? I mean, you're not, he wasn't used to that type of exertion with his body. And I see my wife sprint to the sprint to the, um, snack shack to get ice.

I looked at the guy who's coaching with him. I'm like, you keep my wife off this fucking field. I'm going to go check on him. He's fine. I get five steps out. She's got the bad guys. And she's like trying to climb the fence.

I go, do your job, man. And like, it's just so funny because like, dude, if you, if you go out there for a little,

like, you said like every little thing. Like you, as a baseball guy, you know if someone's really hurt. Right. Like you know. Like if a ball jumps off a bat,

and hits a picture in the face, I'm out there in two seconds because I could end his life, right? But yeah, he ended up, you know, it was hurting him. You're right? But, you know, we threw some, some, uh, some all natural tiger bomb on him that night. And he was fine. He didn't come out of the game. It wasn't even an arm that he hurt. It was his back.

He just fucking hosed it, dude. So, I mean, but to your point, man, like, we got to make sure that when we're training these athletes and coaching these young baseball players that were creating strong kids because if you take that tool out of their tool belt to deal with that injury adversity they're not going to be shit in life they're going to get hit in the mouth when they're adults and they're going to buckle and they're going to be homeless i mean that's an extreme right but the point is like when when when things get tough you have to dial in and you have to work through the pain definitely definitely And our latest course that we did is our mental performance course.

And it's, again, all the courses that we're designing are for the coaches to help them with the players, right? So if you have a nine-year-old, like, you're trying to teach them how to rip the wrapper off the bat on a bad swing so it cleans it up and it's almost like ready to go again, right? Or, you know, flush it when something bad happens so they can kind of reset themselves or, you know, talking to a kid about the mental side to help them overcome something that happens. And so it's like creating that environment of like the mental side. So the parents need to to kind of buy into that too, though, because them, you know, shaking the fence and doing this after a bad strikeout or, you know, coaches throwing clipboards. It's like the kid's going to, you know, it's just going to totally crumble like you're saying when those situations happen. So creating that environment to help them teach the kids, hey, no problem, let's go. or, you know, just trying to really reinforce the positive things.

So what good happened today? You're robbed two play. Yeah, you went 0 for three today. But, you know, you tagged up. You got a runner over. You made that sick diving play at shortstop. You're so much more to the game than you. How many hits did you get?

You know, how about did the team win, right? How about that one? When we played, it was like, how was the day? Oh, we lost. You never said, oh, it was great. I went over, I went three for three with two dubs. Well, how'd your team do? Yeah, we lost.

But nowadays kids just say what they did. We used to be, if we lost, it was a bad game. Why do you think it is? Where does that come from? I think it comes from like you were saying, like stats. Everybody has game changer now. Oh, Johnny's batting 3.30 and, you know, Sean's only batting 310. Why is Sean batting third and my son's batting sixth?

Yeah. It's like everyone has data supporting instead of saying, yeah, but Sean's hitting balls on the screws and little Johnny's getting these little dinker hits. Like, there's a difference. It's not just. stats. It's not just numbers, but kids see the numbers everywhere. Yeah. You know, we didn't worry about the numbers.

So we just, we just did everything we could to get the team to win and we won. Oh, what are you hitting? I have no idea. Nowadays, it's like, oh, if I go over three today, I'm going to go down to 290. Oh, if like everything's already calculated. Yeah, they're like, they calculate the batting average. Yeah. You know, dude, like I think there's a lot of that. And then also, too, it's like the showcase mentality. Yeah.

You know, it's, it's no longer, it's no longer, you know, team. It's, yeah. I, I, me, and fill in the blank after that. We know what that means, right? Baseball people listening know what I was about to say. But, you know, it's just, it's a thing where I think the showcases are good. I'll keep going back to it. I think they're great if you're a player.

But if you're walking around the halls of your high school, you're not the best player in your high school, much less the best player in your tri-county area. Why are you flying to Florida to go to the BCS? Like, why? Like, you're just going to get exposed. and then, you know, what's going to happen, you know, your team's going to get boat raced, right? And the pool play, you're not going to give a shit. Fuck, man, I went two for two with a bomb. I'm the guy.

No, you're just creating distance between yourself and the rest of the team. But, like, to me, I just think that, I just think it's, as good as it is for the game for these kids to play and those things, I think it also hurts them if they are given the wrong mentality. A hundred percent. And I think it's, there's so much, I always have three rules. We always, it's hustle, attitude, and effort, right? Like, you got to give what you can control.

But then there's the whining and complaining and the excuses. I'm like, there's no whining. There's no making an excuse. I don't want to hear, ah, I thought it was a ball. Well, guess what? You're out. Like, he called you out. It's a strike.

It was close enough. There's two strikes. But you're not blaming. Everyone wants to blame everybody else for, so we had a rule that we did this year. And that is, if anyone goes like this, we have to drop and get five pushups. the coaches do it, the kids do it. Because what does this mean? It wasn't my fault.

I don't know. I didn't do it. So that's automatically a negative, like, for everybody else, like, this means like, it's not my. So now we all do it. If a coach does it, five pushups, the whole team drops down. So it's like, you know what? We're going to figure out that we got to think accountability for ourselves for whatever it is. You know, like, no matter what we're doing, look in the mirror, coaches.

Like, if your kids are all doing something and you don't like it and everyone's going like you're doing something wrong. You're not, you're not teaching it. You're not, you know, I always have a not pad and it's like, like all the coaches, all the coach out there, you know, you have a game, you're writing down many notes. That's my practice plan. These are the things we did wrong in the game. These are the things that we did well.

So I'm going to, we'll talk about those, but these things that we didn't do well, our practice plans already set up for us. We're going to grind it out, guys, and here's what we're going to do. It's my job as a coach to prepare you for what we need to do. If you're not doing run downs, I'm not yelling at the kids. kids. I'm yelling on my stuff to go. I'm not doing it enough. Yeah. It's on me. It's on me. And then you do this and you got to do five pushups. Right. It's like, I mean, here's the thing. It's like that's a great point. Dude, because there's a lot of coaches out there that'll yell and scream post game about the things that the players did shitty. And this is, you know, you know, high school level. And then, you know, some of the 15, 16 use stuff. And it gets a little aggressive. But, you know, but then there's no follow up on working with the things that they need to work on. So I,

I think it's important. And you talk a lot, about building a good culture and environment and player development. So walk the audience through that and some coaches that may be listening and struggling to implement that in their program. Because to me, a program that is disciplined, a program that has coaches that hold themselves accountable to good practice and preparation for the players wins.

Yeah. Period. So how have you been able, you and the people that you surround yourself with, been able to implement that within your organization and your business. I think it all started with with Coach Rhodes and with these coaches that that taught us that culture starts with the coach, right? When you go out there, if it was six o'clock in the morning, Coach Rhodes was already on the

field, manicure in the field, making sure there wasn't a sunflower seat in the dugout, making sure. So you, when you went on to that field, he would always say, I want it just as clean when you leave as you found it when you got here. So you already knew like that's the standard. There was no, well, I didn't know, no, the standard said already. Yeah. You know, like, so I think that coaches need to communicate with their players what they expect. What are the rules? What are their standards? Right. Like, we're going to respect the game. We're going to respect the other team. So if you respect the game, there's no jogging down to first base on a ball. Drive. Drive me, Kate, you're crossing down the line as fast as you can. There's no. So all, so every

aspects. So we don't have a thousand rules. We just have standards that make their own rules, right? Like, you know what those are. And the kids would know. If that kid jogged down and I took him out of the game, he knew why and so did the mom and dad. Like it wasn't like, how can you took Johnny out? Okay, ask Johnny. He'll tell you why. Yeah. Well, I hit the fly ball on it. So, so I think that creating a culture starts with a coach and it starts with upholding to, to those standards. Right. I call it dropping the mic. Because it's easy when, the number four hitter comes five minutes late and you're like turning your eyes to the other side. Oh, hey, I'm glad everybody's here.

Yeah, I didn't see. But then the number 12 hitter comes in late and you're trying to make an example of him. Okay, you're going to sit the first three innings because you came late to the. So many coaches do it backwards. You've got to make the example of the best kid so that they all have to do the same exact thing. You have to, you know, so I think that over time I've created an environment in these, and these standards that, hey, if you're going to play, this is what we're going to do. You know, and we always take two leaders a week that lead everything.

They lead the warmups. They lead the stretching. They lead the BP. They make sure all the balls come out of the of the cages. They lead the warmup in between infield outfield. Then they come get me when they want infield outfield. They make sure that when we're done with the game, they're picking up the dugout and making sure all the other guys are doing it.

So now it's like you're building leaders, right? So now everyone's listening because when they're the two leaders next week, they're going to want everybody to listen to them with what they're doing. And now you'd be amazing to be like, wow, so-and-so, Johnny's a damn good leader out there. I didn't think he was going to be. Or you see something that you thought was and no one's listening to him. And you're wondering why, like, there's so many cool things to that. And instead of so many coaches want to, everything's my way.

It's my rules. You're going to do it this way. This is, I always go, listen, you guys, you're the team. and I'm helping create you so that when you are in middle school and you're hustling and doing all these things, that coach is going, dude, this guy's a baller. Like, I need this guy. Not a guy that needs, okay, what am I supposed to do, coach? Okay, coach, where am I supposed?

Who wants that? Who wants that in the workplace? Who wants that on the baseball field? Like, you want guys that are like, okay, guys, here's what we're going to do. Communicating, talking, listening to the players. Right. The other day, we did a sick practice. And I was like, okay, we didn't do, we didn't tag up well.

we didn't do run downs well and our pickoffs were eh so i said you guys are going to run the stations today here's what i want to have done though three of you guys are going to be here one guy's taking the tennis racket and hitting the fly ball so the outfielder and the other guy's going to tag up and you guys are going to work it you hit the fly ball he catches it the other guy runs back tags and goes at second base i had two guys in the middle and one guy saying go the shore stop would run the kid would throw the ball he would catch and tag and they'd rotate around at first base i had one guy in the mound. One guy is the runner and the other guy was the first baseman. So he was working on pickoffs. And so I had all 12 kids were running their own stations and it was sick. And I told the coach,

I said, listen, this isn't going to be perfect. Right. Like don't even talk to them if they're doing things wrong, but let them watch what happens. And now it was like, do we're working on pickoffs. We were working on running, tagging. We were working on so many things. But so many coaches want to like, you're doing it like this instead of giving the kids. Listen to what the kids want to do. And that's how they're going to have fun. And we got tons of working. Yeah, it got a little, you know, they didn't do everything perfect.

But it was messy. That was the best practice ever, Dad. That was so fun. We like, okay, maybe I need to do that once every other week, you know, mix in some of that stuff, you know? So I think we need to listen more to our players instead of dictating what happens. That's huge, man. I respect that so much because you're giving them that extreme ownership and autonomy. to run their own program.

And with that comes the great pride. And with that great pride comes, you know, dynamic performances. You know, there's no question. And I always say this. And people think I'm crazy. I don't think there's another sport on the face of this earth. And I'll argue it to I'm blue in the face that parallels life as much as baseball does. Because, you know, in football, if you're 30% success, success rate, like, you're done.

You suck. If you're a goalie, you only block, you know, three out of ten, you're done. You know, if you're a baseball player, you are taught at an early age that failure is your path. And too many kids now and adults, for that matter, in corporate America or, you know, the online space or whatever it is, this F word failure scares the shit out of them. And to me, like if you're in the gym and you're lifting, you know, and Will Smith said this amazing on a YouTube video about eight years ago, fail early, fail off and fail forward. And when you're lifting weights, you are shooting for failure. Like you want the last three to be so hard. You need somebody to help you and pull you along.

And that's the same thing with baseball. It's the same thing in life when you're building a business, when you're in a marriage. You're you're teaching your kids how to be great kids. And also you're teaching yourself how to be a great parent and adult and professionals. Like you have to fail. Let them have the autonomy to fail a little bit and find out what works better. Do you want kids that are empowered or do you want robots? 100%.

Yeah. I mean, that's perfect right there. That's, bro shit, man. We should be running. We should be running a team together, man. that'd be sick. Could you imagine?

These kids would melt down from all the positivity and the high energy. They're like, there can only be one of these motherfuckers. Like, I can't have, I can't have French along here. They got to coach on separate teams. Oh, man, dude. Listen,

dude, we got to lay in the plane, but I really enjoyed having you on the show and giving a peek into your philosophy, your coaching style. You talked a lot about your programs and things. I'm going to make sure that I provide the audience with all the links,

involved so they can go check you out, purchase your courses. Because for those baseball people listening, even if you're a mom and you have no, and this is not even if you're a mom, it sounded so bad. I'm sorry. If you're a mom and you have no desire to coach, but you want to understand the game better, you want to understand how Johnny should be wearing his uniform. You want to understand all the ends and outs by the book. By the book. What was it called again? taking on the title of coach I mean, how empowered are you going to feel when you roll up to the baseball park

and you know what the hell is going on? My wife, you know, she's from South America and soccer, she understands completely. But, you know, baseball, it takes a lot for her to understand, you know, and just because it's not, wasn't a part of her culture. So I do the best I can, but I'm probably going to have to pick up your book and give it to her, you know, so that way, you know, she always wants to learn, you know,

why is this happening? Well, if there's two strikes, if it's a foul ball, shouldn't you be out? Like, just normal things that you think are self-explanatory because you've been around the game so long aren't necessarily so self-explanatory for everybody. But my main point is I just want people that love this game

to truly dive in to Duke's content, to dive into his courses and, you know, create a movement. Can I get a commitment from you guys to help create a movement of positivity of good culture and respectful athletes and respectful parents. No one should go to the field scared that they're going to get hit the jaw off their umpiring. Guys, we have got to do better. We have got to do better, man.

Let's go, man. I'm fired up. I appreciate you and everything that you're doing, Sean. It's awesome, man. Like I said, every time you pop up on the feet, I have to stop me like, something good's getting ready to happen right here. Something good is you. Some stuff he just keep going to let me see what Sean's up to today. Who's he got on now?

I'm like, dude, that's good content. I appreciate it, man. You know, that's a thing. You know, it's a process, right? I have my process. I know what I'm doing.

I'm not that I know everything. I know what I'm doing as far as my process. I know what I need to do. And you know your audience. You know your audience. You know what people are looking for that are watching you in and out of like what's going on, you know? Some things have just eye candy and people will just stop.

And then there's people that know that there's content. and education that's leading into it. So. And I try, man. I appreciate that because, you know, again, you know, I don't get as much hits or likes or comments or shares as some of the eye candy, right? But the bottom line is I have value just as you do. We're providing educational content for the masses.

And to me, the more that we can continue to empower people and support each other in that journey is just vital to everybody's success and the success of young athletes. and just online creators in general and coaches. So, dude, many thanks to you. And I know you and I will be chatting again. So until next time, guys, go check out my boy, Duke. And if you're out there coaching, thinking about coaching, I want you to think about one thing.

It being your responsibility to give some young boy or some young girl the most positive experience in their life. Because guess what? That might be their only experience. Think of that. and I'll talk to you guys soon.