‘Total Reading Time: 8 minutes

Happy Monday! There’s only one more Monday left in July before we head into August if you can believe that! And that means back-to-school for most of you and Fall ball. It’s time you got your season plan together - and I’ve got your covered there. Along with why keeping your eyes peeled for the cracks will matter.

So Let’s Go!

It’s a New Season, So What’s Your PLAN…

With the exception of the Texas Longhorns, everybody would probably like to have a better outcome this coming year. That makes sense and seems logical, until we dig deeper and explore the details of your PLAN. What specific things are you going to do to ensure this season is more successful than last year?

Your Plan might have been to get some great transfers. OK, now what? How are they going to positively blend into the team you already have? Or maybe you bypassed the portal and are banking on your younger class being a year older and more experienced.

Those things describe your reality, not your Plan.

Mapping out a Plan for your upcoming season might seem daunting. It might be something you know you need to have but have no clue where to start. I get that! I suck when I get stuck.

But let me try and walk you through the steps for creating a Plan for Your Season:

1. STEP 1 - GO BACK & TEAR APART THE 2 D’s:

   • Your Decisions…go back through some of your BEST and your WORST games last year. Honestly look at the decisions you made and how they impacted the outcome. Go back and look at the game film and pull out the charts. You’ll want to deep-dive into your decisions. Scrutinize things like your pitch calls, when you changed pitchers and who you changed to. Do this for the BEST and the WORST games you played. Hidden within these things are roadmaps to follow again this year, and warning signs that you need to heed to make better decisions going forward.

     Also, were there times you could have better communicated your overall pitching gameplan to your head coach? I’ll bet there were, so learn from them and PLAN accordingly this year!

   • Your Development…now review how each of your pitchers developed through the season. Did they get better or worse? Stronger or weaker? Same for your staff in general. If you know you’re going to have a “horse” this season that will throw all games in conference tournament and postseason then PLAN for that in the pre-season and let your other pitchers throw the bulk. You don’t win your conference in the pre-season, but you do find out who can throw in which situation, and you help your pitchers have fresh, healthy arms - or not.

2. STEP 2 - SCOUR THROUGH LAST YEAR’S NUMBERS:

   In a previous issue I wrote an article on Some Great Pitching Metrics to Consider that outlines some key stats you can use to grade the job that your staff did as a whole, and each pitcher did specifically. If you don’t have a set of specific metrics you rely on then this is a great starting point to see some specific areas to target for improvement.

   

   You’ll notice in these stats that they’re separated into two different types of pitchers: Strikeout Pitcher and Command Pitcher. The numbers for each type will be different based on the way they pitch, so make sure you add this detail into your plan for the coming season.

3. STEP 3 - MAP OUT THE T.T.W.H.T: (this was another article I wrote you can read here)

   • The THING (what you need to develop)

   • The TIME (how much actual practice time do you have to do this)

   • The WHAT (what is the key to making this change)

   • The HOW (how will you go about accomplishing the WHAT)

   • The TEST (how you will objectively determine your progress).

This is where the “magic” of your plan starts to come together. Without these specifics mapped out you’re just living in hope, and as the book title says, “Hope is Not a Method.”

You can just write it out like I did the example below or log it into n Excel sheet, but the more specific you can be the more likely you’ll achieve your plan.

Is this a lot of work on your part? Yes, of course it is. But that’s your job, to help each of your pitchers develop into their best selves and to help your staff win games. All this work is worth it if it leads to more wins.

We ask our pitchers to put in the work so we need to as well. Trust me, if you put in the work to develop a thorough plan for this season you’ll reap the rewards on the field!!!

Keeping Your Eyes Peeled for the Cracks

This is a terrific quote that I think directly ties into your PLAN for the upcoming season. Instead of scouring through last year’s details looking for “open doors” - those big things that will make a huge difference this season - look for the “tiny cracks”.

And like Sahil says, finding them is one part awareness - which simply means you were looking for them, and ten parts courage - which means you’re brave enough to do something with what you noticed.

Thanks for reading this week’s Curveball Chronicles. I hope it helped give you some insight to help your pitchers, and to give yourself some encouragement, knowledge and grace.

Go make this a Great week!

Missed some previous issues? Don’t worry, I’ve got them all for you on my website: https://pitchingcoachcentral.com/curveball-newsletter/