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Summary:

In this episode of Ahead of the Curve, I welcome Matt Kosderka, Head Coach of D3 Lewis and Clark College Baseball team. Matt shares how he keeps his players motivated and successful in the game of baseball and the game of life.

Show Notes:

Guest: Matt Kosderka, professional baseball player who now teaches and coaches college baseball.

What a typical fall training week looks like for Matts team

How Matt recruits key players and strives to get them to the next level

How Matt builds the culture of his problem and what sets his team a part from anyone else

Why Matt uses coaches pillars in his coaching

How competitions can be integrated into practices for the betterment of the team

How to prioritize individual development on a team

Why communication is important and how Matt encourages open communication within his team

What many high school players are doing wrong and how we can improve it

What a typical practice looks like for Matts team

How Matt sets up his BP

Why it is important not to rush practices

How Matt uses data with his team

How to balance data and player relationships

What Matt wishes he knew before he became a head coach

How Matt prepares his assistants to become head coaches if that is in their goals

Why Matt makes changes each year in his programs and how it benefits his players

How Matt learns from his mentors

How using mindful apps daily has made a difference in his life

What are the players favorite aspect of practice

3 Key Points:

    Coaching a D3 school can pose unique issues for baseball players.

    Matt develops intentional training programs, communication, and unique competitions to keep his players engaged.

    Matt emphasizes why it is important not to get stuck in the kids and their different upbringings. It is important to teach baseball but it is even more important to teach life.

Tweetable Quotes:

•       ¨I think of the best ways to help our players is to have a high expectations and hold kids accountable to them.” – Matt. (46:25)
•       “I think that its normal, regardless how old you are, to love to compete. And so there's two things that I think we probably do that they like the most One is we call for spotlight base running. And so we put a base runner at every position we put to first base, just to have an extra guy there. And then we put a defense against them, and in each hitter gets two swings, to get the ball and play.¨ – Matt. (39:09)
•       “My career ended because I couldn't handle the failure. So now I want to help my players with that.¨–Matt (38:20)
•       “Spend your off season studying one element of the game that you want to get better at.¨–Matt (35:50)
•       “Adjust the culture to develop your identity as a program and we use pillars to teach those things to our guys. And I think that definitely helped last year.¨– Matt (34:40)
•       “When I started out as a coach 20 years ago, I would say that I had a different definition of success.¨–Matt (29:36)
  
  Resources Mentioned:

Ahead of the Curve

Headspace

Compound Effect

Above the Line by Urban Meyer

Matt Kosderka

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