Advertise on podcast: Play Ball Kid Baseball Podcast

This episode was recorded live on Twitter Spaces with Colter Bostick, Javi DeJesus and Corey Gardner.  Colter Bostick is the former pitching coach at Rice University. He is the co-author of Play Ball Kid: How to develop baseball players from middle school dreamers through committed college recruits. As both a coach and as the director of his baseball performance program, Maximized Baseball, Bostick has worked with professional and collegiate pitchers to accelerate their abilities and talents. He has also consulted with major league organizations in their talent evaluation and acquisition. Bostick developed and refined a program focusing on mechanical diagnostics, pitch design and individualized throwing programs resulting in maximized player development.  Maximized Baseball’s focus on guidance and pitching development produced over 30 all-state selections and 100+ pitchers committed to college programs or drafted as top-rated prospects. As an area scout for Prep Baseball Report, Bostick built an extensive network of coaches throughout the region while evaluating and scouting talent. He pitched collegiately at Midland College and St. Mary’s University in San Antonio where he graduated Magna Cum Laude with a B.A. in English Communications. He launched his post-playing baseball career with the Glens Falls Dragons of the Perfect Game Collegiate League in 2015. Later that same year he founded Maximized Baseball in San Antonio. Bostick grew up in the northwest region of the country, primarily residing in Cody, Wyoming before he moved to Texas to pitch collegiately. He and wife, Lauren make their home in Houston. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/playballkid/message

Corey Gardner is currently the Assistant Coach and Recruiting Coordinator at Southern Wesleyan University, where he coaches hitters & infielders. Corey had previous stops at The University of Rio Grande and Kentucky Christian Univeristy. He previously owned a travel baseball program as well. In this episode we talk about how student athletes can project confidence when speaking to college coaches on the phone or in person. Corey shares the 1 question he would ask over 10,000 student athletes every year on the recruiting trail. Corey shares advice on how to connect with coaches on email and social media. We also answer a few audience questions since this was recorded live on Twitter Spaces. How coaches evaluate hitters through social media videos What are the best ways and angles to capture video of your hitters The 3 things you must capture in video Should you show only your best swings or also ones where you are fooled Why showcases videos may not be enough to get coaches attention The key things Corey wants hitters to understand about their swing How he enjoys using a flat bat to help hitters Some of the best drills for hitters What gets kids crossed off his list when he is out recruiting What are 2 key things he looks for in hitters on the recruiting trails Why even if you go 0 for X in his at bats, you can grab a coaches attention The 3 character traits a coach wants for their recruit --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/playballkid/message

Tracy Hayes, aka “MobilityChick” is the founder of Amplified Movement and a Movement + Mobility Specialist most known for her 12-Week Baseball Mobility Series launched within the MLB community in 2020 that has garnered the attention of players and strength coaches from 24 of the 30 MLB organizations, from A-ball to All-Star. In less than 2 years since her mobility series’ launch, Tracy has had nearly 1k enrollments in her various mobility routines and programs within pro and non-pro baseball. Tracy has been featured on MLB.com for her work with the Orioles and for personally mentoring their Strength Coach, Liz Pardo. Tracy has been a featured guest on several podcasts.  Tracy has a unique perspective as a former “baseball wife”, is a mama to 4 young children, two of whom currently play Little League, and she has made it her mission to create a healthy, fun, and effective youth sports experience for all of her children and the millions of other kids who love to get outside and play the game of baseball. Make sure to check out her Youth Warm Up series. Tracy’s vast background includes Neuroscience, Cognitive Science, and Linguistics during her studies at Northwestern University, a professional career in Research at McKinsey & Company in addition to advanced studies in biomechanics for athletes. Her methods incorporate fundamentals from PRI, FRC, ELDOA, Physical Therapy-based functional yoga (LYT), in addition to Classical Pilates, and over 1,000 hours of specialized yoga training. Tracy is a Master Pilates instructor and published author, an NLP Practitioner, trained in EFT (Tapping), and is a regular with Vipassana meditation. Please share this episode with every baseball mom and dad that you know. Let's help our kids move better. The payoffs will be amplified. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/playballkid/message

Javi DeJesus was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico where he learned to love the game of baseball.  His parents moved to Beaumont, TX where he had a lucrative high school career throwing the schools first two no-hitters, District 22-5A MVP and earned a scholarship to the University of Louisiana-Lafayette. From 1990-1992, Javi amassed a record of 23-1 (22-0 as a starter), with a 13-0 junior season which earned him  1st Team All-American Teams Coach’s Poll, 2nd Team All American Collegiate Weekly, and 3rd Team All America Baseball America. He also earned 1st All Louisiana and Sun Belt Co-Pitcher of the Year award. In 1992, he was invited to represent Puerto Rico in the Summer Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain. His junior season helped capture the attention of the Minnesota Twins who drafted him in the 17th round.  He played 10 years in the minors with a record of 54-33 and a 3.99 ERA earning 4 All Star appearances and Minnesota Twins Pitcher of the Month in 1994. After retirement, Javi began coaching and working with young men throughout the Northeast Indiana and Northwest Ohio area.  He along with the late Charly Butcher founded the Fort Wayne Cubs, nka FW Diamondbacks, which has helped over 300+ young men of playing at the collegiate level with over dozen drafter to play professionally and two current MLB players, Kevin Keirmaier and Zack McKinstry. Currently, Javi is the Pitching Coach at Ivy Tech CC where helped lead his staff finish 30th in the country in Pitching.  His passion for teaching the game and developing pitchers has led mat Peters to be considered as an MLB Draft prospects taking him from 89-93 mph to touching 103 and sitting 96-98mph over the course of the spring season.  His work ethic and constant use of video analysis apps has helped transform his pitchers into formidable prospects for 4 year schools. In this episode we discuss: What he is looking for when recruiting pitchers What parents and student athletes should look for in a program when evaluating how will they develop players Some of the tools Javi brought into his pitching lab at Ivy Tech (PitchAI, The Kinetic Arm and the PitchLogic Smart baseball). What he is doing with the 16 year old pitchers he coaches this summer to help their development and recruiting. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/playballkid/message

Corey Gardner is currently the Assistant Coach and Recruiting Coordinator at Southern Wesleyan University, where he coaches hitters & infielders. Corey had previous stops at The University of Rio Grande and Kentucky Christian Univeristy. He previously owned a travel baseball program as well.  In this episode we talk about how student athletes can project confidence when speaking to college coaches on the phone or in person. Corey shares the 1 question he would ask over 10,000 student athletes every year on the recruiting trail. Corey shares advice on how to connect with coaches on email and social media. We also answer a few audience questions since this was recorded live on Twitter Spaces on May 27th, 2022. Question include: "If you get an introduction email from a player and you are not allowed to respond due to age restrictions. How does player know if you are interested or not." and  "As Corey mentioned, parents aren’t around their child when in college….  With the surge of student athletes who have taken their own lives, what are some things a parent/athletes can ask when looking for a program in regards to supporting your athletes mentally or safeguarding the athletes whole self?   Second- how do college coaches makes sure their athletes are mentally and emotionally balanced/ being supported with the pressures of being a college athlete?" --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/playballkid/message

Patrick Jones is the host of the Patrick Jones Baseball podcast, a private hitting coach, as well as a former MilB coach & high school coach. Patrick is the first guest on this podcast to be interviewed by both Sammy (3 years ago) and Bryan. Patrick has been spending a lot of time speaking to college coaches, travel ball coaches on his podcast recently and is also helping families with the college baseball recruiting process.   --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/playballkid/message

Kirk Cabana is the founder of Pursuit 4 Purpose and the recruiting coordinator and assistant coach at Carolina University. The Pursuit 4 Purpose podcast brings together the world’s most passionate athletes together to encourage our goals and aspirations. By using the principles of the greatest minds before us, our athletes will become champions of character. Kirk is also the head coach of the Carolina Disco Turkeys independent baseball team. Kirk has a remarkable baseball journey returning to play when he was 30 years old and now coaching just a few short years later. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/playballkid/message

Sarah Howard, is the founder of Elite Mobility Training (EMT). We spend time talking about how to incorporate recovery routines, why they are so important, why Yoga seems to be taboo, what are the benefits of mobility training and her use of the inexpensive Yoga Tune Up and Coregeous balls with baseball players from youth to MLB players like Jack Flaherty. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/playballkid/message

Rick Saggese, XFS, CSAC, played his collegiate baseball at the University of Miami; one of the top collegiate baseball programs in the nation.  At Miami, Rick battled back from his third knee injury while getting hurt in Honolulu, Hawaii to open the season.  He kept his goals in sight once again and became a three-year starter, played in three College World Series, was a Collegiate All-American, and accumulated a career .302 batting average with 21 home runs and 101 RBI’s.  In 1996 Rick played in the National Championship game against LSU which was arguably the best College World Series title game in history, as LSU won in the ninth inning on a walk off home run.  During the 1997 & 1998 summers Rick started for the Hyannis Mets (now Harbor Hawks) in the Cape Cod Amateur Collegiate Wooden Bat League and played with former MLB stars Eric Hinske, Eric Byrnes & J.J. Putz. In 1999 Rick transferred to FIU (Florida International University) for his senior season.  He finished his collegiate career by hitting a game winning homerun against South Alabama at the Houston Astros AAA stadium.  He played with Alex Cora (Boston Red Sox Head Coach), Pat Burrell (Phillies/Giants), Aubrey Huff (Rays/Giants) and Jason Michaels (Phillies/Indians) during his playing days at Miami.  Rick was coached and trained by some of the finest coaches in the country including Walter Hriniak (former Red Sox/White Sox batting coach), Jim Morris (Miami) and Mark Calvi (South Alabama)!  Rick has trained athletes in core/strength training with the same exercises that are used at world renown athlete’s performance centers and uses the Mattes Method (AIS) to help increase flexibility and explosiveness.  Rick was an associate scout for the Cleveland Indians for 5 seasons and knows what scouts look for in players to excel at the professional level. Rick is an EXOS Certified Fitness Specialist as well as being certified to perform the Functional Movement Screen (FMS) and Y-Balance Test (YBT).  He uses FMS prior to the majority of strength and agility training to assess the athlete for possible “weak links” associated with their movement patterns.  He also not only goes over past injury history with the athlete on the initial session, but does a postural analysis as necessary to find deeper related movement limitations.  He has participated in some of the top speed/quickness camps in the country and is an Certified Speed and Agility Coach by the National Sports Performance Association.  Rick has attended and learned from events taught by various top success and peak performance coaches including Tony Robbins, Dan Lier, and Jim Fannin. Take your game to another level on and off the field as Rick will help you remove any barriers that may be holding you back to get the success you want.  Rick has helped many of his clients play at the collegiate and professional levels (view testimonials tab). He offers personal consulting services to coaches, parents and players on the methodologies he has successfully implemented in his training the past 19 years with over 15k athletes he has trained. Rick is the author of "Baseball For Building Boys To Men"  and owner of Think Outside the Diamond training center. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/playballkid/message

Will Carroll writes about sports science, sports medicine, and sports. We chat about his latest book "The Science of Baseball." His “Under The Knife” column was called “essential reading” by Hall of Famer Peter Gammons. Author of two award-winning books (Saving The Pitcher and The Juice), Carroll currently writes about injuries for his own newsletter and consults with several professional teams and players on sports science. His work has been seen on ESPN, Sports Illustrated, Baseball Prospectus, and the New York Times. He lives in Indianapolis and is @injuryexpert on most platforms. Will and I discuss how our athletes could benefit from data and using science to develop and reduce injury. He offers a great tip for anyone evaluating programs to choose in their collegiate journey. We explore what the future might look like with his NorthStarr.ai project as well.  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/playballkid/message

Juan Palacios is a professional baseball trainer with over 30 years of experience working with pitchers, catchers and hitters.  He has worked with some of today’s most talented MLB players such as Carlos Correa, Francisco Lindor, Edwin Diaz, Jesmuel Valentin and Yadiel Rivera.   Juan was born and raised in Caguas Puerto Rico and graduated from the Eloisa Pascual High School in 1988. He went on to play baseball his first two years at George Fox College in Oregon, a NAIA Division I program. There he lettered both years. He then transferred and finished out his collegiate baseball career at Turabo University in PR.  Juan was named to the NAIA Div 1 All-American Team.    Juan played for the World Champions Puerto Rican National Team in 1993. During his Semi pro career, Juan was the Rookie of the Year in 1988, MVP in 1993 with the Coamo PR Double AA team and National Pitcher of the year with a 8-0 record, and a .063 ERA in 102 innings pitched (1993).  After a short stint in the business world, Juan decided to return to his passion of teaching and coaching baseball. Juan became an assistant coach at Archbishop Spaulding High school in Maryland,  a baseball coordinator and head baseball coach at Notre Dame High school in Caguas PR. He also served as a volunteer assistant coach and baseball coordinator with several organizations in Maryland.   Over the past 10 years, Juan has been a part of programs that have made it to at least the MIAA Division 1 playoff in Maryland.  Juan is the also the former National coach for the 5 star team National mid Atlantic taking Maryland baseball to levels that haven’t been seen before in the state.    He is a former International Pitching Association Coach (2002) with a reputation for turning pitching staffs around.  In 1996, got his first job as a pitching Coach with Halcones de Gurabo semi pro league in PR and took the pitching staff from a 2-8 record at the time with 6.13 ERA to an impressive 12-2 turn around and .082 ERA after starting his role.  He developed two of his former pitchers to become part of the National team that year.     He has also had the honor to work with some local Maryland talent such as Tyler Blohm and Zach Thompson from the University of Maryland, Jordan Carr from North Carolina and Jordan Geber at ST. Marys University., Josh Moylan’s at ECU and Jackson Merrill, a first round pick by the SD Padres 2021.  Juan’s diverse background includes being an IFA certified Personal Trainer and a Massage Therapist  who graduated in 2008 in Caguas PR.     Juan is extremely excited about the opportunity to work with kids of all levels and is building his Palacios Clinics baseball program from the ground up. He sets very high expectations for each of his players both indoors and on the field. He and his beautiful wife Evelyn have been married for 12  years. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/playballkid/message

Baseball players need to understand how to see the ball in order to hit the ball. We discuss how to train those skills for best results with Dr Peter Fadde from GameSense Sports. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/playballkid/message