By Kolten Smith –
Anyone would agree that making adjustments is a critical part of being a baseball player. I remember from my playing days that I would pitch in a game, and I would start doing something my coach would disapprove of. He’d yell something like, “Make an adjustment!”. I am sure any parent or player reading this has heard a coach say something similar. While this statement is almost always good and true, it is not very specific. Sometimes, I would think to myself, “If I knew how to make an adjustment, I would have done it already, Coach.” I reflect on this now and wish I could have been more adaptable, meaning be able to make adjustments more effectively. As players around the country are gearing up for their seasons, I want to write this week about different ways you can truly be more adaptable and, thus, more successful.
The first way to be more adaptable is to truly just be aware of the mistake you are making. Although this may seem obvious, you would be surprised how often I ask athletes what they feel they are doing wrong, and the response I get is, “I’m not sure, Coach.” We say all the time at the Ranch that awareness itself is curative. Being able to recognize common mistakes you are making is super important. A good example of this is knowing where in the strike zone you repeatedly miss. Is it high to your arm side? Low to your glove side? Wherever it is, being conscious of what spots you consistently miss will allow you to work on why you are missing there and be able to correct it in the future.
Another way to be adaptable is to work on making adjustments on the fly during your training. You must avoid getting into the habit of doing the same training routines over and over again (i.e., the same warm-up, arm care, drills, and post-throwing recovery every day of the week). Although it is perfectly alright to have similar warm-ups, drills, etc., that are staples of your training, stagnating your workouts by doing the same thing repeatedly will not allow you to be an adaptable athlete. Instead, have a number of different training tools so you can keep your training varied. For example, during our Summer Program, we have about six different wake-up warm-ups we use weekly to keep our athletes fresh and avoid just going through the motions. We also have a very distinct daily plan so that they do not do the same thing every day.
Basically, having your training plan be diverse and adaptable will, in turn, allow you to be adaptable during a competitive environment.
Lastly, having a strong mindset will give you the mental fortitude to go through the challenges presented to you during games. If you have a weak mindset or low confidence, when things don’t go your way, you will most likely crumble (or, at the very least, not react as effectively as you should). Having the mindset of, “Things aren’t going as planned, but I can fight my way through this” instead of, “Uh oh, everything is going wrong, and I am going to fail” is critical to your success and adaptability. As you can tell, we highly value mindset training and do it every single day during our events here at the Ranch.
In summary, being adaptable rather than rigid is key to your success. Do you think world class pitchers like Justin Verlander, Clayton Kershaw, or Randy Johnson made excuses when things didn’t go exactly as planned? Or do you think they instead pushed through the obstacles and succeeded anyway? You must be able to make adjustments and know how to make these adjustments so you can flourish and ascend in levels.
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Important TBR Updates
- Last chance before summer! Get your spot now for our 3-Day Elite Pitcher’s Bootcamp February 15-17 (President’s Day weekend)! Please CLICK HERE to learn more and reserve your spot.
- Summer Elite Pitchers Bootcamp dates have been set:
May 24-26 (Sat-Mon)
June 6-8 (Fri-Sun)
June 20-22 (Fri-Sun)
July 4-6 (Fri-Sun)
July 18-20 (Fri-Sun)
Aug. 1-3 (Fri-Sun)
Aug. 30-Sept 2 (Sat-Mon)
To sign up or learn more CLICK HERE
- Have you been considering attending one of our 3-Day Elite Pitchers Bootcamp but are still on the fence? To help, we have a detailed information package entitled “What Makes This Boot Camp Different”. If you’d like to receive this package and start making plans for the summer, email Jill@TexasBaseballRanch.com and request a copy.
- Registration for our 2025 “Summer Intensive Development Program” is now open! Check your email for details or visit www.TexasBaseballRanch.com/events to take advantage of our “Early Bird” rates for the summer program.
- Check out this video on our YouTube Channel: “Baseball Pitching Training with the Weighted Forearm Sleeve”. Watch it at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDFYxXiVLgI and share your opinion in the comments.
