What Do You See as Being the Top Two Things When It Comes to Organizational Practice at the High School Level That Maybe is Missing?
Zach Casto Interview Transcription 2021-12-22
[00:00:00] Joey Myers: Hello and welcome to the swing smarter hitting training podcast, it's your host Joey Myers from hittingperformancelab.com.
[00:00:11] With me today, I have a team coach. So, for those out there that are going to be team coaches coming up, or team coaches now, I have Zach Casto.
[00:00:20] So Zach, first I want to welcome you to the show brother.
[00:00:24] Zach Casto: Thank you. It's my honor to be on.
[00:00:27] Joey Myers: A little short bio on coach. Coach Zach, he started his career at West Virginia State University as a student assistant for two years. That was 16 to 18 and is currently the Nitro High School assistant coach outfield base, running analytics first base coach.
[00:00:42] He is also the author of Rounding Third Skills, Drills, and Best Practices in the Game of Baseball, and The Rounding Third Leadership Baseball blog, which he's got and cohost of Classroom Chatter Podcast.
[00:00:54] Again, I wanted to have coach Zach on, because I know I got a lot of team coaches out there that are dealing with how to teach and coach and drill kids.
[00:01:06] It's a totally different monster from the instructor world where I come from. This is going to be what, three or four or five I'm coaching my now nine-year-old son's team. I'm now, four years in now to the team atmosphere rodeo that it tends to be, and in the younger ages, some of you out there listening might be in there too.
[00:01:24] I think coach Zach has a good unique perspective on this. I wanted to have him on plus he's written a book and for those of you who've written books out there, it's grueling, it's tough, they get all the thoughts in your head down into a somewhat organized manner.
[00:01:37] Zach, tell me a little bit about some of the struggles that you had going from. So how old are you first?
[00:01:43] Zach Casto: I am 26.
[00:01:44] Joey Myers: 26. You're almost fresh right off the plane boat. Tell a little bit about, so did you play college ball?
[00:01:50] Zach Casto: Yes. College ball at West Virginia state.
[00:01:52] The one difference now to my bio, would be it's my first year at the University of Charleston, I took a director of [00:02:00] player development role for them, and work with the outfielders. This is my first fall and spring back in the college ball. But yes, college baseball, man.
[00:02:08] There's nothing like it, playing it was just unbelievable experience. D1, D2, D3 doesn't matter. It's an unbelievable experience, and the friends you make there and the experience you gain, just last a lifetime and fantastic memories that will last.
[00:02:22] Joey Myers: You said analytics, so you're doing some of that like player development analytics side of things.
[00:02:27] What analytics are you working on?
[00:02:29] Zach Casto: As of right now, in my role, I help with all facets of our content areas and specifically I am with the outfielders right now, as well in my content. We do have a director of analytics. That's Abby Finch. She came from Olentangy Orange High School and is a sort of first year of Charleston as well.
[00:02:50] She's awesome. She helps me out with some competitions that I create. To get in the meat of your question, some of the technologies we use, we're very blessed at Charleston. We have rapsodo, we have blast.
“...hitting approach, something we've really used this fall to help assess our hitters and swing decisions”
[00:03:02] We also have a hitting approach, something we've really used this fall to help assess our hitters and swing decisions. We gained that from a fellow D2 rival in Milledgeville University, but it's a cool app.
[00:03:16] Abby's on top of things analytics, but to speak a little bit, when I was at trip Nitro, we used blast and not even Charleston was a program.
[00:03:25] I'd go, and watch practices a ton since even before coach Burt was there, even when coach Andrew Wright who's with the Yankees now. When he was there and just blown away with how they collected data and information, but also how they dispersed it.
[00:03:37] Even though we couldn't afford all the technology that Charleston has at Nitro, I sort off gained the idea of what Charleston did at the time and made into a high school version.
[00:03:47] We spray charts, just put them in a Google doc, here's the opponents, what he did, what pitch he had against, what did he do with the pitch? Also kept track of quality at bats and we've [00:04:00] just gone through the raw data and then put up a score. Then based on the scores I'd put up a kind of a leaderboard and guys would see where they're at.
[00:04:07] If they were in green, they were good, yellow, they're average and pink was below average. With those scores, it also allowed us to create lineups. And then it allowed the players to understand, okay, where am I at and why? It helped them reflect.
[00:04:20] I think the reflection piece is super-duper important for them because we live in a world where perhaps reflection isn't sexy enough.
[00:04:30] We want it quick, and we want it now. Whereas reflection is just a trait that young adults need to have success in life.
[00:04:38] Then of course we use blast. I just had a pre, like regular one blast sensor. We'd do a monthly test on blast, and we group them up into where the deficiencies were.
[00:04:49] Maybe let's say 10 to 15 minutes on a warmup drill space work on those deficiencies per month. We do a monthly test and then we retest them. On top of that, we'd also use blast to see where our team hitting issues were as well and we try to diagnose that in the team hitting aspect of practice.
[00:05:07] At some of the analytics and data that we used at Nitro, of course of Charleston, we have an abundance of data and information now, just because we're blessed with the technology that we have.
[00:05:17] Joey Myers: Things come a long way. When I was in college, it was just paper scouting stuff, which was good.
[00:05:23] Usually we had the pitchers that weren't pitching, obviously were on the charts and they were charting all the pitches and the whole thing, and that's at the college level.
[00:05:31] It's interesting that you're talking about some of the high school at Nitro, you guys were using blast and obviously there's an economical thing there because rapsodo is what, eight, nine, $10,000, and hit tracks is like 25, $35,000.
[00:05:46] It's hard for the younger coaches, say in the little league or even junior high to go with that.
[00:05:52] Since you've had a lay of the land of all those, I'm interested in that hitting approach too. I haven't heard of that yet. Maybe we can go into that, but I'm [00:06:00] interested in, you've taken a little bit of all of them, you've tested a lot of them. What would you suggest, to say a little league coach, if you were to pick one of those, what would you say would be the best for 12U?
What would you suggest, to say a little league coach, if you were to pick one of those [Blast, Hitting Approach, Quality At-bats,etc], what would you say would be the best for 12U?
[00:06:12] Zach Casto: Probably for 12 U, I think blast is good.
[00:06:15] Just in reflection of what I did at nitro. I'd get two sensors this time, that's because it'd be a lot easier.
[00:06:25] Joey Myers: Like in a team atmosphere
[00:06:27] Zach Casto: Yes, and a team atmosphere, blast is affordable. You don't have to have all the bells and whistles that blast has. They have the analytics that they have are good.
[00:06:35] Just basic, no add-ons. The add-ons are good.
[00:06:39] Joey Myers: What would you suggest for 12U coaches to focus on, what top two analytics of blast?
[00:06:46] Zach Casto: I think the attack angle is huge. It's not the same as launch angle, but attack angle is important.
[00:06:52] Joey Myers: Right, the barrels angle coming towards the ball.
[00:06:57] Zach Casto: I think exit velocity, because the harder we hit the ball, the better opportunity we must get on base. Those would be the two, but there's other ones as well. But those would be the two that I really focus on. That's two that we found success with and there's other ones too.
[00:07:13] I'm trying to think. There was a vertical, I think, a vertical attack angle and really the name of it is deceiving. What that would tell us is our plate coverage. Which also showed us, okay, what part of the field are we hitting? Hitting the ball?
[00:07:27] For us at Nitro, we were a little too pull happy. Maybe that first couple of weeks of practice, we worked on hitting up the middle opposite way and we retested them a month later and it was a lot better. It's cool.
[00:07:39] Technology, I think it gets a bad rap in our game, and really all it is just an add on to just the fundamentals of baseball we've always done.
[00:07:49] Now, we just get to test it, in our data, and our information that we get from the eyes can either be the truth or not. It helps us prevent [00:08:00] mistakes that could happen a lot quicker and that's good job security and player development.
[00:08:07] Joey Myers: It protects everybody, players, the players don't get upset if their numbers aren't there, at least now they can see where they can improve, but they can also see why maybe they're not in the lineup where they think they need to be or in the lineup in general.
[00:08:19] Zach Casto: That's the one thing I remember talking to coach Wright about it. He said with the quality at bat information they have, the players coming in the office on Monday, it really went down because now they know where they're at and then also opened the conversation, as to which, okay, what do I need to do to improve instead of emotion and emotional discussion, it was more of a rational discussion and improving player development stuff.
[00:08:44] That's a win for all fronts.
[00:08:46] Joey Myers: I love that, and coaches out there that know what they need to be doing quality at bats or hitting approach, that's big to cut down on the number of players coming in your office wondering why they're not playing, it tells them.
[00:08:58] But at the same time you have the coaches that don't really know how to fix some of that stuff. You must learn that system and must learn whether it's quality at bats or hitting approach.
[00:09:08] I have an assumption of what that is. Going go into the hitting approach a little bit, it's a software, I assume that you put the data in.
“...you manually put in where the pitch crossed the strike zone, and it's almost like having a spray chart, but just digitally and the cool aspect of it, from what I've gathered, what I've seen, is that it creates a heat map.”
[00:09:14] Zach Casto: You'd have to manually put the data in, it's kind of like rapsodo a little bit, but you manually put in where the pitch crossed the strike zone, and it's almost like having a spray chart, but just digitally and the cool aspect of it, from what I've gathered, what I've seen, is that it creates a heat map.
[00:09:35] We're going to use it for our pitching and our hitting. We want to know where our guy’s heat maps are hitting wise so that they understand, what pitch they like and where they like it. That just helps them control the strike zone, and on the flip side for pitching allows us to understand the heat maps of our opponents and where they like to hit the ball and where we need to pitch them.
[00:09:54] It's easy. Just, more work, the more times you use it, the easier it gets. I think that's what [00:10:00] Abby and at least talking with Abby this past fall at Charleston, that's what she said, it just took her full time, and then after that it was easy. Hitting approaches is solid.
[00:10:09] I'm trying to, I don't remember how much it costs, but I think it's certainly worth the opportunity to seek out and see what it's like. It's I believe it's both on apple and Android and I suggest using it on a tablet and I'm sure he can use it on.
[00:10:24] Joey Myers: Yeah. And then quality bats too. Those two, would you suggest one of the two or one or both for like high school?
[00:10:30] Zach Casto: For high school, I'd certainly I would always suggest in high school to look out and see what technology you can have. Because it certainly makes it a lot easier. I know for me being a classroom teacher, I like having technology because it allows me to assess where my students are at. I have the same approach with coaching.
[00:10:51] In regard to that if you can't afford it, then try to make something that's similar to that. And that's what I try to do with spray charts and stuff like that. The only issue with that is, getting an angle to view from the dugout, you don't really know exactly where the pitch was.
[00:11:06] So hitting approach, it changes that now in high school, I'd say if you could find maybe an intern in the school and where they could, get a good view of the strike zone and then they can do the sprays and give you that information. Again, it's a totally explore what you can do.
[00:11:24] And I have some schools are more blessed than others, but I think there's always room for at least having a piece of technology per year and then adding onto it if possible. But information is always good, no matter what. And it could be, manually made or it could be an app. And I just think it adds so much benefit.
[00:11:44] Joey Myers: Yeah, I agree. Is Abby question Abby, is she, what's her background? Is she a economics person or is she a softball person? What's her background?
[00:11:53] Zach Casto: She’s a freshman at Charleston [00:12:00] and we're good friends with Tom Marker at Oletangy Orange.
[00:12:04] She was pretty much the intern at that high school for analytics and did a lot of cool things. When it came to analytics. And so, we decided to create this role at Charleston, and she's came in and she's just very sharp. I think the sky's the limit for her.
[00:12:23] She just mastered all kinds of analytics and ideas. Really helped me out with, regarding data collection and making sure that the competitions that I do, and the outfield are feasible sometimes crazy out there. But just making sure, like when we score it, is it reliable data?
[00:12:43] She's awesome. And I just think her future is super-duper bright, especially with the value she brings to our program, because we love having data and information in our program, and she just simplifies the whole process for us. It's truly awesome to have her there.
[00:12:59] Joey Myers: Very cool.
[00:13:00] Yeah. You mentioned competitions in the outfield. Take me through that. What does that look like?
You mentioned competitions in the outfield. Take me through that. What does that look like?
[00:13:04] Zach Casto: Okay. This is really something that was really challenged to do in the fall from coach Britt. And so, what I've decided to do is at least in the late fall, we did a catch competition and a target competition.
[00:13:17] I'd have an L screen for the target competition and then just put up maybe a cone or something to make it to be the target. And so, I'd give our guy’s ground balls, fly balls, all kinds of randomized plays off a pitching machine. Which is our hack attack or off a fungo. And they had a blast. And what helped them was to understand ball flight, what balls they can get behind and what balls they can they have to, just get into second.
[00:13:45] And so it was helpful for them to understand the route efficiency, which is something we're going to work on a little bit more to enhance, but they improve so much on understanding ball flight. What to do on line drives, deep fly [00:14:00] balls, standard fly balls, and then ground ball eyes on how to approach different ground balls.
[00:14:04] And then, get a clean transition out of the glove and get a four-seam grip and then get a strong threat. And on top of that, we had a leader board and they loved it. The catch game, just regular play, just random plays, no throwing component to it, but they really enjoy the competition.
[00:14:21] Joey Myers: You having them dive for balls and doing that?
[00:14:27] Zach Casto: Yeah. Yeah. Like a standard catch would be one point. Two points would be on a catch on the run. Three points on diving catch or a home run rob. They loved it. And there's times where I scored it. There are times where they scored it. And, but all it really did was help them reflect on, why did I have success, why I did not have success and allowed them to think rationally and ask questions to improve.
[00:14:50] And I'm only going to really enhance that more in the spring. We'll probably play it, have a catch play standard game of 21 where it's at your face, it's one after chest two or stuff like that. And we'll enhance that by working on cutting really throws and stuff like that. And my end goal is when we have defensive skill, that everything we do that day will have some component of competition in there.
[00:15:17] We're quantifying. And they can understand how they truly did, because sometimes you can be deceived on how well you did and if we can track it and we can evaluate it, I think it really allows them to have a better picture on what the coaching staff sees so that they can understand where they're truly at.
[00:15:37] And I'm going to add video to that component as well. We'll have videos, watch what they're doing. And then they can see how we evaluated them. They get the full kind of coach's perspective on where they're at. They're not really misled. And if they can create a quality plan for every day, they come into practice or training that they understand what they need to work on, what they improve upon and ask the right questions to lead them [00:16:00] down the right road.
[00:16:01] Joey Myers: Cool. love how you guys use that analytics portion and find being creative and the coaches out there not knowing what that would be. I think you gave a pretty good blueprint of that and how to add a grade, those kinds of games. And that's what you were talking about outfield, but you can do the same for infield, right?
[00:16:17] One of the things that Sammy said, or you said in Sammy's play ball, kid podcast, you talked about throwing and see my nine-year-old and his teammates, the big thing is playing catch. They just don't know how to play catch. One of the things you said it was interesting is I, when I learned it, when I was in high school was, we painted one side of the ball or used a Sharpie marker painted it all black and kept the other side normal.
[00:16:39] And was the be able to throw the ball with the correct spin, right? The four-seam spin and you may just by putting a thin piece of athletic tape on the four-seam, in the middle. Talk a little bit about that. Some coaches haven't heard that, like I did on play ball kid.
The four-seam spin, just by putting a thin piece of athletic tape on the four-seam, in the middle. Talk a little bit about that...
[00:16:53] Zach Casto: Yeah. So, it's in my book as well, but just put like some black or red athletic tape. And so, you can work on a four-seam grip. And the reason why you want a four-seam grip is because a four-seam fastball is pretty much a straight fastball. And it's also important too that when you teach it, the thumb's super important, right?
[00:17:13] Because if you have the thumb, you have to the left or to the right of the foreseen grip that can make it cut or whatnot. That's getting too much into the weeds, but the importance of the electric tape is it shows the proper four seam rotation. If you see the electric tape just stay straight and just, it's moving like that, you're throwing the ball properly and because you don't want your guys to change ups out there too.
[00:17:39] Especially in the infield or in cuts and relays because of that happens, it's just pure disaster. And that's all we realized at nitro with catch play is our guys weren't throwing it. Some of them didn't even know how to hold a four-seam fastball it's didn't know. And it's really, eye-opening like, you just assume that when you've been around the game a little bit, but don't [00:18:00] assume anything and just, Butch Chaffin, Cookeville, Tennessee...
[00:18:03] He's the guy that says I use this even for the college guys is, assume they're all eight-year-olds and don't assume they remember anything you say. And I remember Jonathan Gelnar was still doing a podcast when he was with the Rangers. He said they even used electric tape or Sharpie then baseballs, just so you know, you never know.
[00:18:22] And just reinforced. The values that they, when can catch play. And again, if you can't play catch, you're not going to have much success in the game of baseball. I think it's important that, even if you had an hour of practice catch play is just super important. And I know Augie Garrido, it would get him fired up.
[00:18:40] His guys weren't focused. He could tell what practice would be like, depending on how the quality of their catch play was. And I think in the world we live in today where kids were in an attention span deficit type of world with catch play, just add in competitions for the outfielders to speak to them at Charleston.
[00:19:01] No, we'll have a specific thing they're focused on, which would be ground ball focus foot work, or fly ball focused foot work, balls in the gap foot work. And just even adding in a throwing target competition at the end, when they're coming in on catch play, I think just helps them stay engaged, stay focused, but also understand and remember what they need to do to have success out there.
[00:19:24] So you can do any, anything, even pitching, infield footwork, catchers, pitchers. All facets of the game. You need to be able to have some command of what you're doing when you're throwing in and doing that is just super important and it's just easy to do. It's very affordable. You can use a Sharpie, you can use electric tape for that, but again, four-seam grip.
[00:19:47] That's just a staple of a good throw because again, the ball is going to be going straight.
[00:19:54] Joey Myers: One of the other drills that you mentioned you didn't go into it too deep, but I'd like you to here, from Sammy's podcast [00:20:00] was a bucket drill. You had a bucket drill. I think it had to do with the fly balls at the peak, like seeing the peak.
One of the other drills that you mentioned you didn't go into it too deep, but I'd like you to here, from Sammy's podcast, was a bucket drill. I think it had to do with the fly balls at the peak...
[00:20:04] Yeah. Explain that a little bit
[00:20:07] Zach Casto: bucket journal I got from when we during quarantine time, or I guess you could say peak COVID season time and coaching and my group we decided to do talk about outfield play. We did outfield chatter. And we had a couple Pirate coaches on and one of them discussed the bucket drill and what they use it for is to work on routes and depth perception of fly balls.
[00:20:31] I use the machine at Nitro. I try, I haven't done it yet at Charleston, probably do it in the spring for competition. But for our guys at Nitro, they'd really a hard time getting behind the ball, understanding what balls they need to get behind, but it also worked on their routes. I just shot up fly balls up in the air, just high fly ball, lazy fly balls are, they could get behind.
[00:20:53] And as the ball is at its highest peak, they're going to drop the bucket where they think the ball is going to land. If it lands in the bucket, they get a point. If not, they don't, but it was eye-opening for our guy. We played it maybe three to four times last spring at nitro. And they loved it.
[00:21:10] The one regret I didn't have is I wanted to have been a toy wrestling belt, and just have them be champion for the day. But again, just, it was a lot of fun to see them do that. They really got into it. They cheered for each other and sometimes they got on each other as well. But again, it really helped their routes and they had to get their ready step properly, time everything up properly to get to the spot they need to get to.
[00:21:35] And again, that's just super-duper invaluable for the outfield. Because again, if you're don't have the proper ready step or the proper not set up, you're not going to have success. Same thing with hitting too, if you're not set up for success and not ready to do some damage in the box...
[00:21:54] Joey Myers: I agree. Totally. Yeah. Thank you for clarifying on those. Those are great tips for coaches out [00:22:00] there dealing with the fly balls and things like that. And at the younger ages, I know you're mentioned that's a little bit more geared for outfielders cause we're seeing that we've seen that long, big flyball infielders though at the younger ages, that's going to be big too, and you can do the same thing, easy.
[00:22:13] You've had some experience in the high school practice. Talking about practice organization. What things you're including in a practice, so you've seen the high school side and you've seen the college side. What do you see as being the top two things when it comes to organizational practice at the high school level that maybe is missing?
What do you see as being the top two things when it comes to organizational practice at the high school level that maybe is missing?
[00:22:32] Zach Casto: Okay. At the high school level? I think the one thing that I think is really missing is the mental game. Guided visualization at the beginning of the day. I just want to say being as a schoolteacher, students come into the classroom with more mental issues, bad home lives and just terrible things. They see every single day.
[00:22:53] And to have them come to practice all these issues. And I know the adage is, leave, the issues outside of the field. That's hard when there's a lot of traumatic events going on in these students' lives. Regardless of if they're college or high school or middle school or elementary, it's just going to happen.
[00:23:12] And so just having the opportunity to go to a safe place, just comfortable and lay down and let go of their troubles and focus and be able to focus for practice is just mind blowing. I know coach Sheetinger at Georgia Gwinnett just said the guys at first, when they started doing it were just mocking it a little bit.
[00:23:32] But once they really focused on using this, that 10 to 15 minutes of guided visualization, their practice performance went through the roof. And that was the case for our guys at Charleston as well. There are varying results with it. I know some programs; some players don't like it in programs.
[00:23:51] So, there's that component. Some guys love it. And sometimes they're in between. I know some of our guy’s last year, they didn't particularly like it at practice, [00:24:00] but they loved having it before a game. It really focused them up for a game. And just from what I gathered from last year's team is it really helped them remember what they did and focus and trust on what they've trained for.
[00:24:12] There's varying aspects to it, I think. The mental game is just so untapped in the high school game. I think it's important for players to know their mental routine. When the game speeds up on them, which it always was they needed to have something to where they can have a focal point, take a deep breath, and then do their whole routine so they can focus on going one pitch at a time and winning each pitch.
[00:24:36] Joey Myers: Yeah, I love that. And I agree, and I was on a podcast with Amanda her last name, Amanda Smith, I think it is. And she we're about the same age. We grew up in the same similar generation and we were talking about the differences between boys and girls, and that boys tend to... their performance determines their emotion. And with girls, it's the opposite, their emotion determines their performance.
[00:25:01] It's interesting. I, and I would even argue that's also true for some guys. Like not all guys are performance determines their emotion, but you've probably seen this where I think relationships are a big part of it too, where you're talking about mental side.
[00:25:13] I think that the relationship of the coach and the coaches that are surrounding and the environment that they, the welcoming environment that they bring into that relationship. Because if you have. We're basically mentors. Some of us are the dads of some of these boys and girls that, like you said, with their home life either dad's there, but not there, or dad's not there at all.
[00:25:34] And we become dad basically for and the female coaches become mom kind of sort of but in a mentor type role. The relationship side of it, I think. Is good too. Yeah, I love it a lot of good stuff. And before, before I we sign off Zach, give us a where we can find you, give us a talk about your book Rounding Third and where people can buy it.
Where we can find you, give us a talk about your book Rounding Third and where people can buy it?
[00:25:55] And then I have a question for you about your book after, after you introduce that.
[00:25:59] Zach Casto: [00:26:00] Before I add that, I wanted to add something to what you just said. Drew Saylor he's with the Royals now, but before he joined the Royals, he was in the Pirates organization, and I liked following his career when he was with the Dodgers.
[00:26:13] He was in Morgantown, and I was like, I got to meet this guy. See what he, some interesting things that he does. And one thing that's interesting that I think, little league all the way to college that can be done. And I do it in the classroom is just do a simple love languages quiz.
[00:26:26] And that allows you to understand. And a learning styles quiz. I do a learning styles quiz and a love languages quiz. And the learning styles quiz allows you to understand, what kind of learner that the athlete is, but also the love languages quiz, or I understand how to approach them. An example for that, he told me there was a player in the Pirates organization.
[00:26:47] I think he came from an Arkansas program. And he was pitching, and he got like a zero on touch. He had no clue that was an issue, but always knew something was an issue there. You just, pat on the back or something, he would lose all focus. Yeah. And then one, when he saw the results, it made sense and it's just a game.
[00:27:11] Joey Myers: Good point
[00:27:12] Zach Casto: Yeah. And I'm trying to think as well, like in the classroom, for example I have a bunch of visual learners and tactile learners. Tactile just means they like, doing the activity or doing so that's how I've got it. All my lessons in the classroom. And I do something like that with baseball.
[00:27:29] I might not have done that this year. I may not have done the exact quiz with them. It's probably something I'll do in the future. Cause it's fascinating. But just talking with the players and asking them how they learn best and then just crafting the training plan or lesson plan for them in that way that just they learn quicker, and they feel more engaged because you're actually really focusing on their learning style and they appreciate it. Which adds to the relationship piece as a coach as well.
[00:27:58] Joey Myers: Yeah. I love that. And [00:28:00] just a quick add on that a quick down and dirty. I liked your, I liked the test that you're talking about to do that, because that gives you a little bit more of a solid makeup.
[00:28:08] They're answering the questions and things like that. And just a quick one from neuro-linguistic programming. If you ask them a question and you just watch where their eyes go, typically the visual learners, their eyes go, they'll go up. Or they'll go up and to the side, those are your visuals.
[00:28:23] Typically again, this is a hard and dirty thing. It may or may not be a hundred percent true. The audios, tend to go sideways with their eyes. They go straight to the side and then your kinesthetic your feel learners will go either, still stare straight ahead or they'll look down. Those are just some like ballpark.
[00:28:40] Not one hundred percent certain, but neural neuro-linguistic programming is a pretty big it's a MMA of the pseudo sciences, the psychologies and all that kind of stuff. Yeah. No, I love that. It's a great approach. Great point.
[00:28:51] Zach Casto: And about the book or you can find me on Twitter, my at is @CoachCasto. And on there, you'll typically see a bunch of podcasts notes that I usually do. I try to listen to a podcast every day, write notes for it and my takeaways, and just put it out there for coaching. And then I also have my book Rounding Third: skills, drills, and best practices in the game of baseball.
[00:29:15] I'm working on another book right now on outfield play. It's going to be a lot shorter than the other book, that Rounding Third book covers every content area of baseball including the mental game. I know I want to do a second volume of that and just add in field work. PA announcing stuff like that, you would find in Ron Polk's book, that's the inspiration for it.
[00:29:35] I'm trying to think what else. But the outfield play, I'll just covered, come to my six asks about outfield play, play that game from Perry Hill of the Seattle Mariners. He has an infield one during the pandemic. I asked for his blessing to do the outfield version. There are some similarities with the apps.
[00:29:51] But that's how I've outfield wise. I create kind of a skill calendar and a skill tree on what can we cover and whatnot. But the book [00:30:00] covers all content rounding third, that book covers all content areas of the game. And what I tried to do is use specific coaches.
[00:30:10] And I've learned from my notes and just give them things I've learned from them and things that have helped me. It's a, it was a lot of fun to do and a lot of fun to reflect upon what I've learned and continue to learn. And that's the most important part of the game of baseball is to learn really anything in life.
[00:30:25] The moment you stop learning, you lose a lot of value in your life. I try to learn something every day, so I can be the best version of myself for my students in the classroom and my players on baseball.
[00:30:36] Joey Myers: I love that. Love that. On your book, a couple of questions before we sign off is it on Amazon?
[00:30:42] Zach Casto: It's not on Amazon, but the link is in my Twitter bio it's on the book patch. And just type, if you go to the book patch and just type in rounding third, and it should pop up. It's $28.25 on there, the physical copy, and it's $20 for the ebook. I have links in there. I would suggest to, e-books probably the best value because you can see all the links and all the videos and whatnot that I have in it.
[00:31:06] But I, if you don't want that, you can have the physical copy. But I've a lot of coaches love it and use it. I know coach Savage from Las Vegas loves it. It's one of his books that he carries with him. Just knowing that I've added value to coaches lives and to players, it makes me happy.
[00:31:25] That's my goal just to make the game a better game, better and to make the lives of others better. That's what I want to do.
[00:31:31] Joey Myers: Exactly. Love it. Love it. Thanks coach Zach for coming on today and I'll be respectful of your time. I'm sure we got plenty of content possibly in the future for a part two or anything like that.
[00:31:41] But I appreciate the team coaching, where you bring in. That side to it, both at the high school level and the college level the tactical drills we talked about totally appreciate that. And for those coaches out there, one probably the biggest takeaway, at least from my perspective is the evaluation and analytical [00:32:00] side where you're, when you're doing drills, you got games that are involved where there is, especially if you're at the high school. Even the lower levels to the 12 you on under those games are fun for them to having that competitive game where there's an actual score that gets put on.
[00:32:14] And I think they appreciate that, and it makes it more fun out there than them just doing a drill, taking ground ball after ground ball, to ground ball, which at an older age, they understand you got to put the reps in, but when you make it fun, It's great for all levels. I appreciate you doing that and sharing that you're learning every day.
[00:32:31] That's a big lesson that everybody needs to take from there. Any parting thoughts?
[00:32:36] Zach Casto: If anyone ever wants to say any my Google docs, so the drills I make or anything like that, get an idea. Feel free to message me. My number is 304-395-3048. You can send me a text and I can send you anything that I can help you out.
[00:32:50] Again, yeah. Just trying to be stewards of the game and move the game forward and to help anyone with any question they have with game of baseball, even in leadership as well. Be more than happy to talk coaching and even teaching. And again, I appreciate you having me on your podcast truly an honor.
[00:33:08] Again, the first couple of years I was coaching, I read your books and multiple reads. And it just does the comment about the eyes. I remember a highlight that in the book and I said, I'm going to watch for this in the classroom. So, I'm going to go back and watch it again because it's fascinating.
[00:33:26] And so again, truly an honor to be on your podcast. And I appreciate you giving me this opportunity.
[00:33:32] Joey Myers: Thank you again, Zach. Yeah. And I'll probably reach out because I possibly could be doing a little bit of helping at a high school. I generally don't like to do the full-time thing on that because I have so much other stuff that I'm doing that's going on, but we got a little bit of a project here I'm interested in.
[00:33:45] I might hit you up on those that Google doc to get some of those drills for. It's been such a long time in the outfield for me, I know some of it, but those coaches out there that are. And you got a guy like coach Zach, that's willing to share and collaborate. Got to take him up on the offer.
[00:33:59] [00:34:00] Again, thanks Zach for being on the show and we'll have to do a part two at some point. Have yourself a Merry Christmas brother. Hope you guys in the family. Have a good one.
