First Team Meeting For My 17U Antonelli Baseball Team

All right, so I'm getting ready to head out to Georgia. Uh, we're starting up our summer season now. So I'm coaching our 17U team. We're going to start this week, um, flying down to Georgia tomorrow. And so our high school season in Massachusetts has been pushed back. Uh, well, it got pushed back about a month. Usually we start our summer season beginning in June. Now we're starting at the beginning of July because of that delay. So our first tournament is going to be down in Georgia. It's at the WWBA 17U national championship is what I believe they call it. It's a really long name. It's a, it's a perfect game tournament. It's a very good tournament. We've gone through this the past, you know, five or six years. There's over 400 teams in it. And, uh, I'll show you guys our bracket. We've been matched up with a lot of really solid teams. The best team we'll play is the East Club Astros. They've got 43 guys on their roster. They've got a bigger roster than basically a college team. I think 23 division one commits already to basically all the top conferences in the country, a bunch of SEC, ACC guys. And I'm sure the guys that aren't committed, eventually we'll go to those schools once they do commit. So it'll be a fun game. And what I'm going to do this year is, uh, and we've done this in the past, but I'm going to document not only our trip to Georgia, but also the entire season. So this is kind of the first video and what I want to start. I want to give you some insight into what it's like to play for us, what it's like to play travel ball. Um, and so what we're starting off with is just my message to our team. And so we were going to do this yesterday. We had a little scrimmage, um, but it started to rain. It was really rain the entire time. Um, but we were planning on meeting with the team afterwards and going over just basically our expectations for the year, how we do things, how we expect players to do things because a lot of players, uh, we've had a lot of these players in the past, but we have some new players and so we want to make sure that we're all on the same page before we start the season. So I'm going to give you insight here. Um, I just made this, uh, before I got on here. So I'm going to show you what it looked like, the message that we sent to, or I should say I sent to our players getting ready to go down to Georgia. So here you go. All right, fellas. So I wanted to do this yesterday after the scrimmage, but, uh, the rain didn't really allow us to do it. So before we get to Georgia, hopefully you guys are able to watch this, um, either on your way down there before you get down there or after you get down there. Um, but definitely take a peek at it before tomorrow, uh, tomorrow night. So we will plan to meet tomorrow night once we do officially get into Georgia, but, uh, I want to take a couple of minutes. These are just kind of our expectations. What to expect. I know we have a lot of players that have played with us before. Um, but we also have players that have never played with us before. So kind of how we're going to do things this summer. And, uh, I want to be really specific with what we expect as a coaching staff. And this isn't just for the 17 level. This is for basically every level in our organization. Um, but I want to be specific so that you know what we expect of you. So the first thing that we should talk about is just playing time. And this is both again, the 16 and 17 year level, those teams are put together for recruiting purposes, right? It's, it's our job to put you in the best position possible so that you are able to move from the high school level to the college level. That's what the teams are put together for. Um, but we are also put together to win games, right? And so I want you to approach, to approach the season, just like you approach your high school season, right? We're trying to win. So what I don't want this to become is showcase ball where it's basically just all about me, me, me. It's not about playing the game the right way. It's not about pulling for your teammates to be successful, right? So we're playing to win. That's part of it, but we're also playing for recruiting purposes. So really you should approach every game essentially like it's a playoff game. A lot of you just finish up with the playoffs. That's how I want you to, to approach the games. There's only going to be both 30 of them during the summer. So it's not a really long season and it's condensed even more this year. So we've got to play every game with a sense of urgency and a lot of other teams aren't going to approach it like that over the years, right? A lot of teams kind of get sucked into this thought that it's all about me. It's all about recruiting. It's not about the team. It's not about winning games. So let's not allow how the other teams approach the season to affect the way that, that we approach the season. Um, with playing time again, playing time is not equal, right? Everyone's going to play, but, um, if you think that you can just kind of go through the motions and not really give a crap, then you are not going to play as much as players that are busting their butt, they're doing everything the right way. Um, it's, it's not going to happen. So we do a really good job over the years of making sure that everyone gets in the game, making sure that everyone has the ability to display to college coaches what they can do, but don't take that for granted. Um, game preparation. I made some notes here about how we prepare for the game. So arrive an hour before every game, unless you're told to do otherwise. Okay. Um, we will do a full team stretch. It's not just, you know, it's not a pickup game where you just show up and, uh, you know, we throw the balls on the field and we just start the game. Uh, everyone's going to do a full team stretch, um, full team throw. So same thing. It's not get a ball, throw the ball 10 feet. Yeah, I feel pretty good. Let's just go. We'll use the game to warm up. So I expect us to do everything the same way we did in winter workout. So we did a full team stretch. We did a full team throw. All right. And so I want you when the game starts, you feel completely prepared. Your body feels ready to go. Your arm feels ready to go. And don't forget that we, we play about 30 games in a short period of time. So you have to take care of your body, right? There shouldn't be, um, injuries that could be prevented if we just go through a full team stretch and get our body ready to go. So, and also keep in mind that that college coaches are going to watch you from the time you get to the stadium to the time you leave. And so they're going to watch how you warm up. How do you interact with your teammates? How do you go through your throwing program? Right? All of that stuff is really, really important. So, uh, someone is always watching. Keep that in mind between innings. This is a big two between innings. What I want personally is I want three hitters ready to hit. Okay. And so we should always have when the pitcher is getting loose, right? We should always have the guy that's up. He should be getting his timing down. We should have the on deck hitter also getting his timing down out in front of the dugout and the guy in the hole, the third hitter to hit should also have his helmet, batting gloves and batting hand. And he should be outside the dugout getting his timing down. Okay. So this is, this is before the game starts and this is in between innings, right? Once the game starts, we can't do that. We only have one, one hitter in the on deck circle, but between innings before the game, we can have, you can really have as many as you want, but I want at least three guys up there getting your timing down now, once, once the inning starts, we have the hitter that's obviously hitting, we have the on deck hitter that's getting their timing down, right? So you're watching the pitcher. You're mimicking the pitcher. You're figuring out, you know, when do I get my foot off the ground? When do I get loaded? So that's your job on the on deck circle. Make sure you're ready to go. Make sure you are there. You're not getting there late. You should be ready to go. When the pitcher gets on the mound, the pitch of the hitter that's up, you should be on the on deck circle, ready to go. Okay. Now, how do we do that? That means the third hitter, the guy that's in the hole, you have to have your helmet on, your batting gloves on, your bat in hand, you should be sitting down the end of the bench, right near the on deck circle, and you should be watching the pitcher, really, really everyone should be studying the pitcher, but I want the guy in the hole ready to go. If you're not ready to go, then you're going to be late to the on deck circle. Right? So have your helmet on, batting gloves on, whatever you need to hit with, make sure you have that on and you're ready to go so that you can quickly get to the on deck circle. So now starting pitchers, right? You're going to know the starting rotation before the game. So we do a good job of letting everybody know who's up for that game, who's available, what the starting rotation is. So you guys will know all that. As a starting pitcher, you have to know, are we home or away? How long does it take you to get ready? Right? Are you a guy that has to do, you know, a lot of J bands, you got to do weighted balls, you got to do all that stuff. If you are, you've got to be there early and ready to go. We don't want anyone to not be ready to go. We shouldn't be rushing. We've had over the years, some guys take forever to get ready and we're throwing in the bullpen still before the game and the umpires are saying, Hey, let's go, let's go, let's go. And so then they've got to run down, get a quick drink of water and sprint out of the field. Now they're tired. They haven't had a chance to relax. Right. And they feel rushed. So I'd rather you be early than late. So make sure if it takes you 40 minutes to get ready for a game to pitch, you better be there early and ready to go. All right. So number three on this is we play the game hard all the time. So it doesn't matter if we're winning or for losing. Doesn't matter if you're over 20 or 20 for 20, it doesn't matter. One, that's just the way we should play the game. But two, you never know who's watching you play, right? There's going to be games that we play where there could be, you know, 50 college scouts in the stands, right? 50 college coaches that are there to recruit. There could be games where it looks like nobody is there, right? But in my experience, every game we've played, there's been somebody there. Now there might be some games where there's only one, two, three coaches there, but don't think just because you don't see college coaches standing behind the backstop with radar guns, that there's no one there, right? There's been plenty of times where coaches come to watch games, especially if they're watching position players and they're going to mix in with parents. You're not going to be able to tell their college coaches. Why? Because they don't want you to know that they're there. So they're able to see how do you interact? Like we said earlier, how do you interact with your teammates? How do you play the game, right? Do you throw helmets? Do you yell and scream? Do you throw bats when you're not doing well? Do you dog it down the line? Do you not run hard to second base on a fly ball? Do you not get on and off the field? Like all of those things. What's your body language? Like all that stuff matters. And sometimes coaches want to see, you know, if this guy doesn't know there's people here, is he going to act the same way, right? It's easy when there's 25, 30 college coaches watching. It's easy to be on that game, but can you do it every game, especially when you don't think someone's watching? That's really, really important. So you never know who's watching. So I just mentioned a few things. Running on and off the field before and after innings, right? There's never, ever walking on the field. So we run off, we run on. It doesn't have to be a sprint, but it should be a pretty fast paced jog. Okay. I'm running hard on any batted ball. One of my pet peeves is when guys don't run hard down the line and run through the bag. You hit a ground ball, run through the bag. You never know what's going to happen. The guy might pull his foot, right? So we don't ever jog down the line and we don't just stop and peel off on a routine ground ball. Now you hit a rocket to the pitcher and he catches it right away. You don't have to run down the line. Okay. But when in doubt, run through the bag. You hit a fly ball. I don't care if it's to the infield, wherever. You hit a fly ball, bust your butt around first base, try to get to second base. When he catches the ball, then you can stop. All right. But there should be no hitting fly balls and just jogging to first base. Run hard. You get four at bats a game. Let's run hard all four times. Your best speed. That's the key. Run your best speed, which is just your fastest speed all the time. After an out, get the ball around the infield quickly. We get a strikeout, let's snap it around. We get on our first base, get the ball around quickly. Okay. Last couple of things here. Respectful to all umpires, right? Respectful to the other teams, coaches, obviously respectful to our coaches, respectful to our teammates and the other team's players. All right. Number one, again, just the right thing to do. Let the coaches handle the umpire. So we're never going to talk to the umpire. You don't like a call. Just let us talk to the umpire. So you just focus on playing the game as hard as you can. Number two reason for this. Again, college coaches are watching and you might not think they are, but they are watching and there's been times where the opposing coach is a college coach, right? So you never know who's watching and no coach. I guarantee no college coach wants a player that is going to be disrespectful to umpires, opposing team coaches, your coaches, like that's an easy way, probably the easiest way to just get crossed off the list. So we're not going to do it. So communication. I've already told you guys yesterday. Everyone's got to give me your cell phone. I need everyone's cell phone number. You are old enough to take care of this yourselves, right? I don't want your parents texting me and asking questions. Oh, what jersey are you wearing today? You're responsible. I'm, we have a team chat. I'm going to text everyone in the team chat. Make sure you have your phone on you. You all have it on you 24 seven. Anyway, make sure that you take responsibility. If a parent asked me what uniforms are we going to wear? I'm going to say, check with your son. I already told him. Okay. So that's part of it. We have to make sure we do a good job with that when it comes to schedules. I'm going to let you guys know again, where we're playing, what time we're playing, when to get there, be there an hour early, unless I say otherwise. Um, all that stuff. I'm going to give you all the information. I'm also going to, I'm going to email the schedule to your parents. Okay. But please you take charge. Don't ask your parents where you're playing and when you're playing, you know, it's on your phone now, especially down in Georgia, um, or Jersey or wherever we're playing where we're not at home, right? Things can happen quickly. I'm going to text you. If, if a game gets pushed back a half an hour, I'm going to text you, right? I'm not going to run to my computer and email your parents every time. So check the team chat. I will let you know, Hey, games pushed back a half an hour. Hey, the game's pushed up a half an hour. We've got to get there. Hey, we've got to wear a different uniform, whatever it is. I'm going to text you. So make sure you're paying attention to your phone while you're down there. All right. If you can't attend the game and this doesn't really matter for Georgia. I already know who's coming and who's not, but if for any reason you can't attend the game, you get sick, your car breaks down, something you must let us know and let us know as early as possible because a lot of times we read out the lineup, like pretty far in advance, uh, Brian and I have already wrote out the lineup pretty much for every game in Georgia. We have the pitching staff done. Now, do we make adjustments during, during the tournament? Yes. But we have a really good idea already who's going to play in every game. So let us know early and not for Georgia. I know who's going, we're talking about other parts of the season. And last thing, recruiting, make sure we're staying up to date on all of our recruiting stuff when it comes to video, we're going to video all the games. We're going to put it up on sports recruits, but you have to do a good job of taking that video and cutting it down, right? If you start that game and you throw the first three innings, we're just going to keep the video rolling. I'm going to videotape the whole game. And when I put it up there, you take your three innings and you cut that out and you put it up on your sports recruit. Okay. I'm not going to do that for every single player. We've got a lot of players. So you've got to really be on top of that. Uh, pitcher only, you guys are going to be in charge of the recording. So make sure that the recording is set up, that it's always going. When our pitchers on the mound, we've got a radar gun or a pocket radar. We're filming and we're using the radar and then we're putting it into the video screen. Make sure it is on the screen and that we can see it. We've had in the past where guys will just flash it in front of the screen and you can't see the radar reading. Okay. That's really important. That's going to be your job. If you see a camera sitting there and we're playing a game, someone has done something wrong. Someone take the camera, go get it set up behind the backstop for pitchers. As long as we can get back there. And when we're hitting, uh, we can usually use it in a dugout on a side angle. Okay. Um, so that is what pitcher only have to make sure you're doing now. Sometimes the camera runs out of battery, right? Maybe somebody forgets the camera somewhere. If that's the case, grab somebody's cell phone, grab the starting pitcher cell phone and make sure you're videotaping. Okay. It is paramount that we have as much video as possible because not every college coach can get to every game. It's physically impossible. We need to make sure that we can get the video to the coaches. Okay. And now I'll finally end with this bottom line. When I think about our team and our organization, um, when somebody watches us play, it's a college coach, it's the opposing team. It doesn't really matter. It's an umpire. I really don't care. I want them to walk away from the game saying, wow, that team right there, they play the game differently than everybody else, right? That is different than what I've seen from the other hundred programs I've seen this year. So that's really important. They play differently. They act differently. Uh, they compete differently. It should be a different experience when they see us play. It doesn't mean we're going to win every single game, right? But the way we approach the game, the way we play the game should be different. That should stand out and people remember that. So that is, is really important. I want to make sure if, if you're not playing the game the right way, if you're not doing the things that we talked about, then we're going to let you know, if you continue to do it, then you're out and, uh, and you won't play. And so, um, I don't think that's going to happen, but it has happened in the past. So just be aware of that. That's all I got. I will see you guys down in Georgia soon. If you've enjoyed this video and want to learn more about building the elite swing, check out our new course. We have over two hours of content, almost 30 hitting drills. We break down the exact mechanics that you're going to want to implement into your swing. I've put the link in the description. If you want to go check it out.