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Summary:

I welcome Robert Woodard, pitching coach for the University of North Carolina. Robert walks us through what the training program at UNC looks like while sharing some of his best practices and he also shares what they look for on the recruiting trail.

Show Notes:

 

Guest: Robert Woodard, Professional Player turned Coach

Robert reveals how he develops his players and what a typical week looks like for his team

How Robert shuts-down pitching players

The analytics Robert is using to measure players against one another as well as themselves

Why the culture is important in a program and how you can build the leadership, team, and culture to be in alignment

How Robert recruits players to play in college

Important factors for a player to have: Time management, Responsibility of themselves, and Knowing how to fail.

Why Robert ¨messes with timing¨ with his pitching players

How Robert structures his recovery program

The importance of conditioning and how you need to structure it around your season

The best ways to develop ball command

Changes that are being incorporated into Robert´s program

Fun practices incorporated into each practice for the players

 

3 Key Points:

  Robert´s experience with professional baseball and later coaching enables him to share baseball best practice with us.

 When recruiting players for college, the soft skill like time management, being able to failure, and responsibility are just as important as skill.

  It is always important to implement change into a program and reinvigorate players with new ideas and methodologies.

 

Tweetable Quotes:

¨I don't really draw any hard lines. I keep an open mind and communicate with each pitcher. We need to communicate with each pitcher in terms of what his vision for his personal processes are.” – Robert (11:00)

•       “We trust our players. We give them a lot of leeway in terms of policing themselves, and maintaining our team standards, and maintaining that culture.¨ – Robert (20:40)
•      “The most successful players are the ones that look at failure as an opportunity to grow. They look at challenges as another opportunity to grow and they are open to trying new things as opposed to just getting somewhere and being stuck.
• Every player is going to fail or be challenged at some point in their career and you have to you have to be equipped to to handle it and embrace it.¨–Robert (24:14)
•    “[Messing with pitching timing] It's just another weapon that guys can use to get hitters out.¨–Robert (29:06)
•       “(On bullpens) It's not necessarily scripted, but it is it is ironed out. Whether it's establishing the fastball or their primary off speed pitch. Then we’ll finish with simulating counts.¨– Robert (36:50)
•    Command is a daily mindset. Every single throwing session our guys have they to throw targets, or to the glove, or it's checkpoints on the body.¨–Robert (44:18)
  
  Resources Mentioned:
  
  Ahead of the Curve
  
  Robert Woodard
  
  Twitter: @rwoodard20
  
  Email: rwoodard@unc.edu

Reading Resources

Sabermetrics Article

Ahead of the Curve by Brian Kenny

Website and Social Media sites for the show 

www.aotcpodcast.com

Twitter

@aotc_podcast

Facebook

Ahead of the Curve Coaches Facebook group

Instagram

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