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Baseball The Magazine — #3, 2013
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Hard Work Beats Talent When Talent Doesn't Work Hard
Kory Dehaan


WORLDWIDE BASEBALL PROSPECTS MENTOR, HITTING COACH, PITTSBURGH PIRATES, DEHAAN BASEBALL

There are many reasons why kids play .M. high school athletics. Here are a few: they love the sport; they are competitive; their friends are doing it; their parents want them to play; the school needs more numbers to fill the team; and/or they want to get a scholarship to play in college.

Kids that enjoy competing at a sport, are having some success playing it, and are passionate about getting better need to understand that by your junior year in high school, you need to be dedicated full time to that sport or your chances for playing above high school diminish rapidly. If there is still a desire to play multiple sports through high school, expectations for competing for starting positions in college need to be lowered.

Having success at the sport you love is not all about talent. In the end, it all boils down to the time and commitment you put into your practice, and your desire to be the best at the sport. Unfortunately, many athletes are common and will do the minimum amount of work required to play the sport and have some success at it. They will allow other distractions to interfere with their practice and workout time because they want to have fun and want to enjoy the immediate gratification over the future gratification. More often than not, kids who show the uncommon desire and focus for achieving success and getting to the next level oftentimes do. Kids who want to get noticed at try out camps or ravel ball tournaments need to stick out somehow. They need to separate themselves from the herd by doing the extra stuff that normal kids do not. In doing that, their parents, high school coaches, future coaches and scouts see that desire and will oftentimes want to help them achieve their goals.

Personally, as a parent of female athletes, my wife and I do our best to spur on and help support them so they are able to maximize their talents and abilities to their full potential. We know that this does not happen overnight. Together, we set short-term and long-term goals to help guide them down their path of learning and striving to be a little bit better every single day. When young athletes do this, it is preparing them for the next level, whether it is junior high to high school, high school to college, or even high school to professional ball.

Four Hitting Essentials to Work Hard On!
Balance — Balance has become a lost art. Hitters tend to think they need to be in a stance that is just like their favorite major league star to have success. What young hitters do not understand is that the person who hits like that has evolved into that swing. He has probably taken thousands of swings, making small adjustments along the way, to get to where he needs to be to have the most success per their own unique development.

A great starting block for getting balanced is to talk about being athletic. When you get into your hitting stance, a person of equal size should not be able to push you over with a gentle nudge to your upper body. An athletic position is having your feet a little wider than shoulder width apart. Your knees should be bent and inside your feet. Your head should be over your feet, which forces your weight to be towards your toes, not your heels. When a hitter first gets set in the box, he needs to start at this athletic position. Balance should be maintained through the finish of the swing by sinking into your legs as you rotate through the ball. If you feel yourself coming out of your legs, or having your waist rise up during your finish, there will be balance issues.

Rhythm — Rhythm is an important part of hitting because it allows you to move and react quicker as you look to square up the baseball. Usually the more athletic players are able to dance and keep a beat going. If this does not come easy to you, practice doing some dance steps or even playing a musical instrument. This will help develop your rhythm and overall athleticism.

Rhythm can be a small movement in the hands and fingers as the ball is being pitched, or it can be a small controlled sway between the front and back leg. Whatever you choose to do to keep loose going into your swing, aim towards keeping it simple. The more movement you have pre-pitch, the tougher it is to be consistently ready to swing.

Vision — Being able to see the ball is the most important part of hitting. Pitchers are constantly trying to hide the ball and be deceptive in their pitch delivery so it makes it harder for the hitter to see what is coming. Many of the pitchers have a way of hiding the ball until the last moment, which to the hitter turns a 90 mph fastball into a 96 mph fastball. This is a huge difference.

Controlling what you can control, the hitter needs to find the area that the pitcher is releasing the ball in and use their hard focus as he is delivering the pitch. Before pitchers are in their motion, hitters can be in soft focus mode around that release point area, which tends to be the pitcher's head, throwing shoulder, or cap. We tell the hitter to keep their eyes on the ball, but when it is moving 90 mph plus, it is physically impossible to see the ball hit the bat. The main reason coaches tell kids to keep their eyes on the ball is to keep their head still at contact as long as possible. When hitters keep their head still at contact, it develops a great habit that will keep them from pulling off the ball.

For the past 10 years, vision drills have become increasingly popular. Teams are using eye charts, brock strings, high velocity tennis ball machines, and random highlighted dots on electronic boards to help strengthen the player's eye muscles. These are valuable tools to integrate into your practice routine to help maximize your opportunity for success.

Hard Work Beats Talent When Talent Doesn't Work Hard
Timing - Timing is the key to putting together a great swing. You can have the best mechanics and prettiest swing on the team, but it does you no good if you are not on time with the pitch. Pitchers normally throw their fastball in a three-to-five mile per hour range (82-85 or 89-94). The curve ball and change-up will normally be eight to ten miles per hour slower than the fastball. As a hitter, our mindset needs to focus on being ready for the fastball every pitch. If we are ready for the fastball, we can do our best to adjust when an off-speed pitch is on its way. If we are ready for the off-speed pitch, very rarely can we adjust and be ready to hit the fastball. We will be late almost every time.

Most times pitchers want to throw strike one with a fastball on the outer half of the plate. If that is the case, hitters should be looking to hit a fastball on the outer half of the plate. If you think that is not a good pitch to hit because you cannot hit it very well, you need to practice hitting that pitch off the tee, during soft toss, and in batting practice. Good hitters know how to hit the ball to the opposite side of the field and are able to do it consistently. If a hitter gets into pull mode, he is susceptible to the off-speed pitches and will normally strike out frequently.

About the Author
Coach DeHaan was signed during the 1997 amateur draft as a seventh round draft pick by the Pittsburgh Pirates. He then went on to play professionally from 1997-2003 with both the Pirates and Padres organizations and made his major league debut in 2000 with the San Diego Padres. After playing professionally he then went on to coach professionally in 2009 with the Chico Outlaws of the Golden Baseball League. In 2010 and 2011 he was a minor league hitting instructor for the San Diego Padres. He currently is a minor league hitting instructor with the Pittsburgh Pirates, operates DeHaan Baseball out of Bradenton, Florida, (www.dehaanbaseball.com), and is a dedicated baseball mentor for high school players in the Worldwide Baseball Prospects High School to College Baseball Recruiting Program found at www.WorldwideBaseballProspects.com.



Advice to Parents from a Professional Baseball Coach

By Kory DeHaan
Current Hitting Instructor, Pittsburgh Pirates Organization
Worldwide Baseball Prospects Mentor


My parents loved me and I love my kids.  My parents wanted what was best for me and I want what is best for my kids. The old cliché is right, when parenting skills have to be used, we as parents normally revert back to what our parents did or told us.  As my parents raised me to become the man I am today, my wife and I are doing our best to help our girls grow up to realize their dreams through their God-given talents and abilities.

Playing sports was a way of life for me.  I loved competition on the sports field and I loved succeeding.  It came natural to me.  I was very fortunate to be given an opportunity to make a short career out of playing baseball professionally. After having the best job on this earth by spending couple of seasons in the big leagues and seven overall professional years playing in the game, I was given the opportunity to have the 2nd best job in baseball, coaching. Through my experiences on the field and many helpful, selfless people along the way, I am able to share with you some thoughts on where and how you might start to help your kid excel in the game of baseball. 

*Love your kid no matter what.  Encourage them in the interests and their talents.  Help them find or understand their talents if they do not know what they are good at.  Help fuel their passion and desire to do the best they can with what they have available to them.

*Help build your kid’s confidence but not to the point that they are arrogant.  Sports will humble you eventually.  In public, keep your confidence in your thoughts, not trying to show off with your words.  Let your actions on the field speak for who you are and what you can do.

*A point will come when Mom and Dad do not know everything.  When that time comes, search out like-minded coaches that will re-enforce what you are telling them at home.  Finding a coach that has the right perspective on what is important in the game will be vital to your child’s healthy physical and mental development.

*Keep your kids responsible for their words and actions.  They need to take ownership of them and not look to make excuses if things do not go as planned. 

*Besides being a great player, your child needs to know that it is more important to be a great teammate.  What does a great teammate look like?  They pick each other up.  They play hard all the time.  They do all the little things to help the team win.  They build unity, not division.  And they have FUN!

*Let them know that they do not have to be perfect in their performance.  Their pursuit of perfection is a good thing, but if they do not hit that mark, it is okay if they have given it their best.  It is good to share with them that you are not perfect as well and that you are still trying to learn and better yourself every day.


*Communicate constantly with your kids.  Do what you say you are going to do.  Broken promises that happen more often than not will crush your relationship with them.  They will feel like their value is not as great as what you choose to do instead. 

*Keep your kid’s dreams alive and well.  Never say anything to them about not being able to accomplish their dreams if that is what they truly love to do.  Eventually time will tell if their dreams may be able to turn into reality or not, but you do not have to expedite the process by blowing out their dreams. 

*Build work ethic by showing them it can be done if you trust the process and get up each day committed to becoming a tenth of a percent better.  At times, it can become a daily grind to get up and do the right thing.  To accomplish anything big, you need to be mentally tough and resilient about understanding that doing the little mundane things matter just as much as the fun exciting things. 

*Try to learn something from everyone you meet and from every situation you are put in
.  Life can be great at times and it can be very hard at times.  Take the nuggets of information from each situation and put them in your bag for when you come across a similar situation.  You will be ready and prepared to handle it better and more efficient. 

*Set daily, monthly, and yearly goals that focus on practical things they can accomplish.  Do not make the on-field numbers more important than the process.  If they are doing all the right things and preparing correctly, naturally they will realize success often times exceeding what you only thought possible. 

Final thoughts
Living in a world that promotes immediate gratification for minimal effort, some of these words of advice may be a struggle for you to apply.  Trust what I have seen and heard through the years of playing professional baseball and coaching sports, nothing that was built to last was built fast.  Please be willing to put in the extra time and effort with your kids.  Show them how much you love them by giving them attention and putting them first before your own interests.  They will love you and respect you more for it when they are older.  They will also pull from their bag of experiences with you if and when they are fortunate to have kids of their own.  And being able to spoil your grandchildren is much better than spoiling your own child.    

About the Author

Coach DeHaan was signed during the '97 amateur draft as a 7th Round Draft Pick by Pittsburgh Pirates. He then went on to play as a Professional Player from 1997 - 2003 with both the Pirates & Padres organizations making his official Major League debut in 2000 with San Diego Padres. After playing professionally he then went on to Coach Professionally in 2009 with the Chico Outlaws of the Golden Baseball League. In 2010 and 2011 he was a Minor League Hitting Instructor for San Diego Padres. He currently is a Minor League Hitting Instructor with the Pittsburgh Pirates and a Baseball Mentor for players of Worldwide Baseball Prospects High School to College Baseball Recruiting Program.






Making Every Day Count
By Kory DeHaan
Current Hitting Instructor, Pittsburgh Pirates Organization
Worldwide Baseball Prospects Mentor

How many days have you said to yourself, “where did the day go and what did I really accomplish?”  In my life time, I have said that too many times and I am assuming you may have said it as well. Until recently, I would awake each morning with the purpose of allowing the day to dictate my actions. This put me in a reactive state of mind rather than a proactive one.  Once I figured out that I could accomplish more tasks when I intentionally and purposefully planned out what I wanted to do, the day was filled with a pursuit of getting better and ended with greater satisfaction. Do not get me wrong, there are still days where I have to make adjustments to my plans because of unexpected occurrences. Yet, if I was able to learn something from those instances and apply it moving forward, it was still a successful day.
So how do we know what we need to do before each day starts? After we understand what we love to do and how we want to use that in our future, we can break the goals down into daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly focus points so we are able to feel the sense of accomplishment when we achieve them. An important part of becoming the person you want to be tomorrow is finding someone who you can trust and will be completely honest with you about your goals and aspirations. This can be someone like a sibling, relative, or friend, but preferably someone who has experience in the field you are pursuing. If they have been there before and can give you helpful tips on what to do and what not to do, you will be able to save yourself time and energy in accomplishing your goals.
 
Another important trait of the person who will be leading and directing you is that they are doing it with the right heart. They need to show a genuine love and desire for you first.  It is not easy to find these kinds of people, but when you do, keep them close and listen to them.  They need to be able to hold you accountable in how you are pursuing your goals. 
When you set up your goals, take time and think about what possible distractions could or do happen, that would not allow you to accomplish your goals. Look for the distractions that you can control, not the ones that are out of your control. I love the phrase “Control the Controllables”. Do not spend time or energy worrying about what is out of your control. Stay focused on things you can do and what you can control. Do you spend a lot of time on your cell phone, playing video games, or watching television? These are things you can control and if you do not have a plan of attack for them when their desire is greater than your goals, you will fall to the pressure of what feels good. Set up specific times or an allotted amount of time to have fun doing those things. Make it a reward for accomplishing your daily or weekly goals. 
During a long baseball season, it is vital to have good routines.  Create a routine that will allow you to get your work done earlier in the day rather than later so that there is no fear factor looming when the end of the day comes and you have not done your work yet.  Routines create habits and because we are creatures of habit, we want to make sure we are doing correct, beneficial routines that will help us accomplish the goals we have set.  At times, routines can become mundane and boring.  When that occurs, switch it up or change the time or activity of what you are trying to accomplish.  That small change is actually a good thing as long as it does not cause you to lose focus on your end goals.
Focus on the process and journey of reaching your goals. Enjoy every day your Creator has given you to live and grow.  Do not take anything for granted. If you want to succeed, you need to put in the extra time and practice it takes to be one of the best. Like the saying goes, if it were easy, everyone would do it.  When you understand that giving your best effort with the right kind of attitude is more about a mental makeup, you will see that good things can happen no matter where you start from. The determination to succeed starts in your own mind.  Stay positive and learn from every situation you encounter.  No one likes to be around negative people.  Seek the good in all situations, but be honest with yourself and listen to others when they see you swaying from your goals.  Regroup, refocus, and get back to pursuing your goals and dreams.
When I was growing up, my family and I did not have any experience in pursing baseball beyond high school.  We needed help and direction in how we could accomplish our goals and desires.  Thankfully a kind-hearted older gentleman, who had played minor league baseball and who was now a “bird-dog” scout for the Pittsburgh Pirates, took us under his wing and helped me with my desire of playing baseball at the highest possible level.  His help and encouragement along with a selfless desire to see me succeed allowed me the opportunity to be seen on a greater stage which then eventually led to me be drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates.  He has since passed on, but the marks he left in my life have changed me and molded me into who I am today.  I owe him a personal debt of gratitude and hope to use those marks towards others just like he did for me.


About the Author

Coach DeHaan was signed during the '97 amateur draft as a 7th Round Draft Pick by Pittsburgh Pirates. He then went on to play as a Professional Player from 1997 - 2003 with both the Pirates & Padres organizations making his official Major League debut in 2000 with San Diego Padres. After playing professionally he then went on to Coach Professionally in 2009 with the Chico Outlaws of the Golden Baseball League. In 2010 and 2011 he was a Minor League Hitting Instructor for San Diego Padres. He currently is a Minor League Hitting Instructor with the Pittsburgh Pirates and a Baseball Mentor for players in the Worldwide Baseball Prospects High School to College Baseball Recruiting Program.  
www.WorldwideBaseballProspects.com



Link to:  MAKING EVERY DAY COUNT!