4 Seasons

Every Calendar Year, it's common to experience four seasonal changes. Each brings with it new weather patterns, forcing us to prepare accordingly through wardrobes and activities. Baseball is no different. It can be segmented into four individual seasons, each with different goals, and each calling for its own unique approach to the process.

- PRE-SEASON -

What are our expectations for the upcoming season? What do we know about our team? What do we still need to find out? What are our strengths? What are the areas we can improve? These are all questions that are asked before and during the pre-season...our goal is to answer each of these questions as soon as possible.

From a team perspective, we install plays and strategies, we establish roles, pitching rotations, and a whole lot more. Our general goal as individuals, is to prepare our bodies for the grind of a long season. Sharpen skills, improve where needed, and cultivate relationships with your teammates.

- REGULAR SEASON -

The Regular Season is full of ups and downs from game to game, week to week. The focus continues to be on process rather than results, though that mindset is starting to shift as we start our real games. Typically, our view of the regular season starts from a high level. A lot of times, we are still trying to validate our answers to the pre-season questions while evaluating how our individuals work collectively, and we continue to see a number of adjustments.

After the initial phase of our regular season, we start to settle into who we are as a group. We start to see more-established roles and everyone starts to get a little more comfortable within the unit. As individuals, we should be seeing things come together by way of results. Any early-season struggles should have wavered, helping our low metrics to climb back up. Playing well and trending up is where we want to be mid-season. This sets us up to be playing our best baseball at the end of the season, rolling right into playoffs.

- POST SEASON -

During the post-season, each individual pitch carries much more weight. Winning each pitch is the goal and achieving optimal results requires a crisp process. Our hitters should be disciplined and on time, pitchers should have more in-depth gameplans, our defenders should know exactly where to be in any given situation, and our focus needs to be at it's highest level. Win EVERY PITCH.

- OFF SEASON -

I may have cheated here to create the "4 Seasons" title...

Off-Season can be a variety of things and for student-athletes, it can be segmented into a couple of different seasons. I don't consider the Summer to be off-season for baseball players, but rather an extension of their Spring season. Game reps are still really important for those High School players that look to prepare themselves for Collegiate Baseball.

The Fall, however, is a bit different...and I like to pair it with the Winter. Fall can be Research & Development, where we simply test different people in different situations to evaluate strengths and "weaknesses." Our goal for the Fall is to develop the individuals physically and mentally. Limited game reps combined with a high volume of skill-related repetition can help athletes improve in the areas they choose.

If Fall is R&D, Winter is the optimization period. After identifying strengths and "weaknesses", we set some objectives and develop a plan to attack our main areas of improvement. The weight room and our "Bigger, Faster, Stronger" mentality receives more attention in the Winter months, before starting our next pre-season.

The goal is to win...every day, every activity...win. Set goals, define your own success, and go win. No matter the season, student-athletes should be holding themselves accountable to being uncommon people and exceptional students.