You’ve gotta be excited about something or you’ll never be good at it.

Parents always want a quick fix, I want to throw 90 in one month.

Just because a coach has had success doesn’t mean they’ve got a great ability to explain why they had success, or know other ways to succeed.

Son Jack is commited to GT and sits at 95

Rob charted his son from early age (part of his obsession)

You’ve seen your son at his best and use that as their benchmark, can be unfair to the kid.

Kids are right now minded, parents have longer range view (spenders vs savers)

As a parent you have to let them enjoy your day while also keeping them on track.

Biggest mistake people do is take pitching lessons too early.

They throw great in OF or INF, then on mound they get robotic (step 1, 2, 3)

Be an athlete on the mound, not one way to do it. Don’t change YOUR mechanics because you’re now on a mound.

If you’re 5’5” you shouldn’t try to emulate Randy Johnson

Biggest thing to work on was intent, and also geting a lot of force derived from lower half, explode off back leg really well.

Sometimes radar gun is your best coach. This worked and made you throw harder, this didn’t work…

There’s not 1 way to do it. A bunch of different pitchers throw a bunch of different ways and there are very few common threads between them. If you try to move like someone who you’re not, more often then not it’s not going to work out for you.

Cory Kluber vs Max mindset.

Universal: Having a more efficient arm action pivot pickoffs. Segment, rather than spin upper body. Joe Kelly does a good job. Throwing heavier objects tends to make your arm efficient...it has to in order to move the object well. A little shorter arm action is better, although Verlander has long arm action and you’d never change it.

There’s not such thing as get MPH quick, 5MPH in 30 days style.

Tread athletics helped Jack put on a lot of weight. Most people - MASS EQUALS GAS

Not being fat, being strong and heavier. Most don’t eat enough. Son went from 135 to 208 (three year span from 15 to 18)

If you’re passionate and want this goal, eating becomes a job.

Rob’s philosophy as a coach, get a little better every day. Same for your son.

They made mistakes with son growing up, and had some bad pitching lessons that set them back.

“Don’t worry about velocity, it’ll come” drives Rob nuts. Not focusing on velocity is such a disservice to kids who say they want to play at a high level.

Can’t wait for velocity fairy to touch you. You CAN improve velocity. Not everyone can throw 95 but you can throw harder. You’ll never know your ceiling until you do all the work.

Work on maximum effort for velocity gains as early as possible.

Just like a great painter wouldn’t do well with a painting coach, a pitcher must use what comes natural to them in order to be their best self.

“Just throw strikes” is a killer. It’s a way to have success *now* but longer range view kids who develop.

No one cares if you throw 90% strikes if you throw 70.

Velocity is the floor. It’s not fair, so what. Stats don’t matter, velocity does.

One regret: Overdoing video.

Comparing too much video side by side removes natural movements and athleticism. Gets kid thinking too much

It’s more about big movements instead of “10 degree back leg angle vs 15 degree angle”

Early on they focused more on mechanics than feel. Impossible to see on video.

Doing good is better than looking good.

Year round throwing: individualized, they took off about a month and a half in between seasons, didn’t throw for 3 months a year. Scherzer says he only feels bad when he *doesn’t* throw year round. Keep in the arm in shape even when you’re not “competitively” throwing. If arm is getting pretty sore then take time off.

No magic, single solution. Important to do arm strengthening care (i.e. J Bands). If you take time off the muscle will weak some, so if you ramp back up too quickly is when you see guys get injured. MLB pitchers tend to get hurt early in the season because they want to throw their mid season fastball in April.

Parting advice: Keep it fun. Keep learning. Keep kids focused on long term goal while they have fun on a daily basis.