← Youth Inc. with Greg Olsen
Youth Inc. with Greg Olsen
Coach RAC and Coach Ballgame talk Youth Baseball, Crashin' Practice and More
00:40:30
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- [00:00]
A
Youth sports in America are at a crossroads and I'm here to help lead the conversation forward. I'm Greg Olson. Each week we're sitting down with top athletes, coaches and more to talk about what's working, what's broken, and what's next. Welcome to you think. Before we dive into this week's episode, here's a special look at our new series and contest Crash in Practice. To learn more or enter, visit Crash in Practice.
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B
This is going to be the best day of your life.
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C
I'm Coach Rack.
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A
Hey, Rack, can we get a backflip catch or no?
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C
I think that's in store.
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B
I'm Coach Ball gang. On your marks, get set.
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C
Today we're crashing practice. We're here to offer coaching tips, new skill development techniques and best practices for.
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B
Parents of young athletes.
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A
The first time that I heard of Coach Rack was actually from my two sons. I reached out to him and I wanted to make practice Fun.
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B
It's a 6 on 6 scrimmage and it will be the fastest paced scrimmage you've ever played in your life.
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C
Okay, behind the back.
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B
Oh, come on.
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C
I like that.
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B
Double plays in the coaches after do 10 push ups.
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C
Yeah, that's some push ups.
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B
Who would have thought what I do would be novel? Prioritize joy and character on a baseball field.
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C
I get to be the coach that I wish that I had growing up.
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A
They're gonna remember this for a long time. And you guys just made a bunch of little 1112 year old boys days very happy and fun for that man. Thank you. All right, well, ball game Rack. I want to tell the origin story of how the three of us have now come together. The exciting project we're about to release here in the next couple weeks called Crash and Practice. It all started my revolution baseball team. You guys came down to Charlotte to test this idea. Like, hey, what if us two guys just like showed up at a youth baseball practice and walked out of the woods and surprised the kids and just like took over a practice? And I was like, well, I got a baseball team with a bunch of kids that would love you guys. Let's do it. And now here we are on the doorstep of releasing this. It's going to be not just in baseball that you guys are doing. We're going to be able to move this to other sports and really build a really cool series. But like, just talk about the origins of us all working together, how fun that day was. And just an idea, what people can.
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B
Expect from Crashing Wreck, lead us off. How about two perfect man, two holes.
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C
Usually where the best hitters go, yeah, man. We. We got the idea, Gosh, around this time last year, maybe a little before that, and the concept was this, like, you know, these kids maybe watch Coach Ball Game on social media or maybe see some. Some of my videos on. On social media. We wanted to get in person with these kids, and we figured it would. Might be kind of fun if we Them and didn't know that. That we were showing up. And sure enough, yeah, ball getting ball game. And I came out of the woods, and, yeah, what would happen next was a mix of music, impromptu, maybe some. Some trick plays. Lots of fun stuff. But I think that this concept is something that can be applied to multiple sports. I think we've even seen shades of this, you know, in. Gosh, was it Eli Manning, you know, doing the undercover at. At his college? So there's. Yeah, there's something special about a surprise. And when you can pair that with some good life lessons and make a real impact in person, I think it. It's a winning idea.
- [03:38]
B
Yeah, it. We did come out of the woods, and. And before we came out of the woods, we were just chatting, going, you know, I know they're gonna know you, Rack, but most of the content I put out is for the parents. So are these kids really gonna know me? And we get out there, and they're like, you know, their mind is blown. Coach Rack. And then they look at me and they're like, and who's that guy? And I'm like, yeah, I'm Rack's dad. Nice to see you guys.
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A
But.
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B
But a handful of kids definitely knew who I was, but they all knew Rack. I. I'm. I'm happy being Uncle Ball Game here in this awesome idea of a show, but I think when you combine the surprise factor of the coolest Savannah Banana player who does backflips and has a handsome mustache, surprising these kids. And then I, in my comfort zone, just love big groups of kids. I love emceeing the event and kind of running point guard on the. On the show. And then you got Greg out there raising his hand, hey, help me be a better coach. It just makes sense because I. I feel like these kids and their parents, when they go home in the car, they have something to connect with. The parents are talking about it, the kids are talking about it. And that's really where I come from when I create content is how can I. How can I get a father and a son talking and connecting on a deeper level because of the message I put out there. So it's just a really cool idea. And, you know, I'm. I'm happy being coach Rack's uncle or a coach Rack's dad.
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A
Let's be honest. I know Rack's the celeb, and he. He obviously gets a lot of attention, and I got to witness it firsthand being with the bananas when they came to Charlotte and how excited. But let's. And Rack, I'm sure, agrees with what I'm about to say. This can't happen without ballgame running the show, boots on the ground. I mean, for anyone who's seen your sandlot tour, we got to see up close and personal when we did the crash and practice episode with my team. Like, you have a gift of entertainment lessons, storytelling. You're beating the drums. You memorize 12 kids nicknames in, like 35 seconds. You have an incredible gift of, like, guiding this, like, very fun, loose and. But at the same time, these kids are getting, like, these incredible life lessons all while doing a baseball practice and, like, racks doing backflips and racks fielding between his legs and Rack signing autographs and telling really cool stories. Like, the dynamic of the two of you allowed me as a coach to just stand back and be like, this is incredible. Like, this is exactly what kids, especially on my team, this is what they need. They need fun. They need light. Because our practices can be intense. Our practices can be like, the world's coming to an end. Like, that's something that is just innate in my being. And seeing you two come with all of your spirit and all of your enthusiasm and pour into these kids, of all the cool that we've done, like, this is up or at near the top for. For our kids experiences.
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B
Well, that's high praise, man. High praise. Yeah. Real quick.
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C
I got a hype ball game up to a little bit. Never in my life have I seen a group of kids be more locked in than when coach Ball game is speaking. He could be talking about anything. He could be talking about John Stamos or one of his million salutes. And the kids are just like, glued. And they're like, I have no idea who John Stamos is, but they're just locked in the whole time, man. Yes. Ball Game, you definitely have a gift. You are the glue that makes it work, man.
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A
Dude, my favorite story, if you not to interrupt, but if you ask my kids what's their biggest memory from that ball games given, like, this really, like, serious thing about, like, bouncing back and dealing with adversity. And he's like one day I was playing and I got up to bat four times and I went over four with four strikeouts. And the kids are like hanging on every word and you're like, you know what I did the next time? And all the kids are like, you hit the game winning home run. It's like a Disney movie story. He's like, I got up again and I struck out and they were like dying laughing. And I was like that. If there was one story that like summarized it like that was it.
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B
Well, golly, you guys have tapped into my love language of words, of affirmation. So I'm going to be riding high all day. Well, I don't know that people understand something exists until they see it anymore, you know, with everybody watching video feed. So what I try to do is go into a town and, and let specifically parents know that this can be a both. And it's not either your win trophies or your soft participation trophy, Fun guy. They can be both. There, there. It should be both. I feel like kids play better when they're feeling joy. I learned that from the bananas and from Rack in our discussions that we've had. So going in to Charlotte where we shot that and letting the parents know that this is a really cool combo platter that can happen, but then encouraging the kids stay on this path right of feel joy, create a freedom to fail and then you're going to fail less, if that makes any sense. So I love bringing that combo. Obviously. My wife many years ago pushed me in this direction of coach Ball game all the way. And she said, well, you love theater arts, you love writing, you love directing, you love music, you love poetry, you love storytelling, and you love baseball. Why don't you just marry all that stuff into this thing? And over 21 years of doing it with really great mentors, I've learned how to get kids to lock in, how to hang on to every, every syllable that, that I speak. But more most importantly, teach love of play and build character. I mean, that's what youth, youth coaching is in my book is creating great humans. And then the wins, the skill development is all byproduct of that. So yeah, you caught me in my comfort zone. Guys love it.
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A
Rack, let me ask you this. So going forward, right, like this was not a one off this spring, you guys are going to go out and do three crash and practice episodes. Teams right now, teams all across the country are submitting. They can go on, they can submit, they can apply, try to be one of the three teams that you guys surprise and Crash and run their practice like you did mine last year. Give us an idea. Like, you've toured the country. You're, you've been on every morning show, everywhere you look. Like you guys yourself and the bananas and all include like all inclusive there. Like, as you guys have traveled the country and the response that you have gotten both individually and with the team, what would you say is like your dream response? You're hoping the first time you go, you guys now go crash one of these practices. But it's not my team, right. It's not someone that at least you know, like, these are going to be people that you probably don't know. Like, what do you want to say to those teams out there that right now are submitting and applying for you and Ball Game to show up to run their practice? Like, what are you hoping to get out of it?
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C
I am hoping that we have the time of our lives. Like, regardless of like what age group these kids are or where they come from, if they're the best team in the nation or there's some thrown together rec ball team, I want to show up and I want to be a kid with those kids and I want to just have a great time. So I think first and foremost that's, that's what I, what I want. If they, they happen to know who Ball Game and I are and they get fired up to see us, awesome. But I think that what Ball Game touched on earlier is where the true magic happens. I think that the beauty of this isn't just what we capture on video and the cool reactions, like that's exciting and memories that maybe the kids will remember for a long time. But what I want the kids to walk away with are potential role models to look at and to be able to see this idea that, that you can have fun while playing baseball and still strive for excellence. That's what I want them to walk away with. And that's something I've seen this year specifically in a way that I've never seen before with the bananas. I feel like especially this last part of our season, we have played some of the best ball I've ever seen anybody play. I mean, we've made it through full games while doing trick plays without making a single error and while batting like, while putting up good at bats, while like playing the fundamentals well. And I've been able to see that. And we are having the most fun we've ever had in our entire life. And no one's putting pressure on each other. We are spurring each other on to get better. We're showing up early to put in early work, but we are firing on all cylinders, and it's such a fun environment to be in. And more than anything, like, when you're growing up, you have all these different, different coaches with some, sometimes maybe good intentions, sometimes maybe not. But when I was growing up, I saw lots of potential different, like, role models that I could potentially grow into.
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A
And.
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C
What I want these kids to be able to see is someone like my dad or coach, ball games dad, or you, Greg, who cares about the game and who loves to have fun and ultimately wants these kids to be the best human being possible. And I want us to show up to whatever park it is that we show up at, and I want these kids to have the time of their life and then look at the way that practice is ran and. And take that on into whatever teams they. They go on from there. And I also want the parents where we show up. I think this is another element that is especially unique about this. I want the parents to see the way the practices are ran, and I want them to get ideas for ways that they can have fun with their kids. I think that baseball and all sports in general is such a unique opportunity for parents to connect and develop relationships with their kids. My dad and I bonded over baseball in a way we couldn't bond over anything else. Him throwing me batting practice after work every day, that was a special, unique connection that my dad and I have and will always have. And so I want parents, in addition to the kids, to be able to see the sport of baseball as a unique opportunity to develop a relationship between them and one that will benefit them for the rest of their life, that actually grows them closer. So, yeah, I mean, yes, there's a lot of things I want out of this, but more than anything, like, yeah, the. The character that it develops and showing people how beautiful baseball can be at uniting people, I think that that's, like, the overall, like, mission and goal with what we're doing.
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A
I love it. Ball game. I want you to talk more about that connection to the parents, because obviously this is about the kids, and it's about growing the game and it's about that. But I think your ability to connect with parents through your storytelling, through your humor, through your anecdotes, like, how are we going to accomplish that when we get out on the road this spring for these next couple episodes of Crash and Practice?
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B
Well, I'll give you two quick stories from the road. Just the past couple weeks, I've been in a bunch of different cities. And this happens in about every city. But it went even further where a dad came up to me and said, hey, I just want to tell you, I used to be that dad. I used to yell. And it was a pretty elite space of travel ball and I was living through my son. And then I, I caught wind of your message and my relationship with my son is now thriving. On top of that, I think you might have saved my marriage too, which is a heavy thing to hear. But it's like if there's tension between father and son, father and daughter when it comes to the field, like that can seep into the marriage too. So you know that that's real stuff. And so I, I, I love seeing a bearded guy on the road who's tearing up saying, thank you for giving me this light bulb moment, that this is their journey, this is my kids sports journey, it's not mine. I think a lot of parents, maybe me, started out this way as well. Like I wasn't exactly happy with how my playing career panned out. So you live through your kid and you hang on to every single pitch and you micromanage and you overbear. Then the car rides are very miserable. And Kirk Gibson calls that a lose lose. The kid's going to lose the love of the game and they're going to lose the love of you. They don't want to go camping with you, they don't want to go fishing with you. It's just tense. So that's a big one. Another story from Virginia was a dad got up in front of all the coaches. We have a coaches and parents conversation after our sand lots. And he said, 10 years ago, my kid, 7 years old, we're in the backyard and he's throwing the ball and we're working on his skill. And he finally got to a point where he was doing it right and he was aiming at the target, he was hitting the target. And I said, son, there you go. We did it. We've been working on this so hard and you did it. And he runs up to me, gives me this huge hug and he says, I'm just so thankful, dad, that you're finally not disappointed in me. And it crushed him, it crushed the dad when he heard that word that. So this whole time when we've been working on this thing, you felt like I was disappointed in you. It was a light bulb moment for him. His son is now 17 years old and they have a great relationship. But he takes the time to tell every sports parent he Knows or meets that story because that hits you in a heavy way. So I think the secret to the secret is really educating, equipping parents and just. Just shining a mirror and saying, hey, let's be self reflective here. We both want our kid to go 3 for 4 with a couple of bombs. What's going to be the most productive way to do that?
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A
Yeah. So. So let me ask you. You both brought this up, and I think it's such. And this is something. Again, hand raised, honest. A blink. I don't know, whatever. The. A.
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B
Honesty salute.
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A
Honesty salute.
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B
Also vulnerability salute. Like, vulnerability.
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A
What's that one? All right, so I gotta learn all these. I gotta learn. I gotta learn. I just do that. What is it? Brad Pitt is. Brad Pitt is that one.
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B
Brad Pitt's the left hand. John Stamos is the right.
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A
Yeah, but you gotta have a hairline like rat with ballgame. Holy, what a hairline you have. That's impressive.
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C
It's better than mine.
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A
Better than mine.
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B
I hear it's your mom's father, so. Thanks, grandpa.
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A
There you go. So the origins of my anxiety and stress watching my kids play sports is not their overall performance. I do not need my kid to be a professional athlete. I don't need to live their life of, like, going to college. Like, I don't. I don't. That is not my motivation. I have a hard time watching people underperform. I tell my kids all the time, there's nothing the most. The. The saddest thing in the world is wasted potential. All I want from everyone, whether it's in school, whether it's in any aspect of life, I have this whole, like, if you're gonna be a bear, be a grizzly. Like, if we're gonna do it, let's do it to the best of our ability. And if we're good, we're good. If we're great, if we're not good, like, whatever it is, I'm not a big, like, participation guy. Like, I'm just doing it for the sake of doing it. That's just not in my brain. It doesn't work. So I've now passed that on to my own kids. Right. So I hear you guys say, like, the fun and all that, like, it was hard for me at practice last year to just step back as we're, like, kissing second base and rubbing our butt on second base. Like, that's hard for me. But then I look, and all of a sudden we get, like, the best in and out of our life because the kids are bouncing around Having fun. So, like, I have a hard time watching my kids underperform because they don't put the work in their attitude. They're not taking coaching. They're not X, Y, and Z. Like, how do we continue to promote excellence? Rack the word you used and say, if we're going to do this, let's be good at it. Because if not, that to me, is not fun. But also realize, let's have fun. We can make this journey of excellence enjoyable. Like, how do we do both?
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C
Get a little something there.
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A
Yeah.
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C
So I love that you're that way, and I'm that way too. And I, I want everybody to be that way. Like, I. I can't do something without giving it my all. And I feel like it's a waste if I do something and I'm not giving it my best shot. And I think there needs to be more of that in everything. I think people settle too easily, and I think that people get too comfortable and are just okay being okay. And for me, like, if I'm doing something, I want to be great. That being said, where I learned that, I don't know if that. I think it was just demonstrated by the actions of my parents more than anything. When my mom would do something, she'd do it to the best of her ability. And when my dad would do something, he would also do it to the best of their ability. And I saw the way that they worked hard, and I think that their actions really motivated me to work hard more than anything. And Greg, I bet your kids could probably say the same thing. They see the way that you strive for excellence in everything that you do, whether that was your playing career, whether that's currently, now, like in broadcasting and everything that you do, you clearly strive for excellence. And I bet they see that and also want to strive to do the same. I think that with my career, my. My parents never pushed me to excellence. I think they kind of knew that I just wanted to be great. And as long as they saw that, like, I was, I guess they always saw me put in the work, like, behind the scenes, like I wanted to. Like, my lifestyle reflected the goals that I had. And so that is a tough question, and I'm not sure I even have the answer to it.
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A
But.
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C
But what happens when the, the goals that kids have maybe don't align with their work ethic?
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A
Because that's, that's where I lose my mind. Yeah, you tell me you want to make this team. I'm going to play two sports in high school, and at times My kids do exercise, like the right motivations, and I'm like, whatever happens this weekend, you go over three, we can live with it, but don't go over three and be mad. And all week you did nothing. And you didn't get in your tee, you didn't do your batting progressions, you didn't do your work, you didn't have a great outing on the mound. Well, did you do your arm care? Did you do all your bullpens? How was your flat ground? Did you focus when you played catch? Or did you just talk and play catch and throw it around and half ass and then you get on the mound and you can't find your fastball? Like that's connecting the work to the outcome. I think is the hardest thing for young kids in today's world because all they see is positive outcomes around them. No one posts I struck out in the bottom of the ninth with runners on second and a one run game. No one posts that they only post I hit the game winning walk off double. But they don't like they not having the work leading up to the highlight. I think is creating a lot of bad habits.
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B
Yeah, I think the secret. This is great. And I think we all want this. We all. That's the holy grail. Can we make it extremely fun for the kid while they strive for excellence? That's the goal of every coach. And I think it starts with connection. Every kid's a little bit different. I learned this from Dusty Baker and Mike Schulte of the Padres. They call it a key. Like you gotta find the key for each lock of each kid. So that building trust factor is huge. Because one of your kids might respond to firm while the other one responds to humor, while the other one needs an assistant coach, Mr. Miyagi, to just go for a walk with him. So the connection part is huge. And then they need to know, the kid needs to know that your joy is detached from their result on the field. The oh for five, the five for five, they're treated pretty equally. But if there was an O for five, how did we respond? Right. What an opportunity we have here to respond to work on this. So as a coach, we need to look through the lens of character development. And one of those aspects is work ethic. So I always award kids that are showing up early, staying late, hustling other choices, like being kind, cheering for their teammate, being brave. There's a lot of. A lot of fear that needs to be overcome. And these life lessons, they're huge down the road. The game the 8U, the 9U, the 10U games, not life or death, but if we can find the key to unlock each different personality and give that kid a tool or a couple tools to overcome failure, adversity, that could be life or death. When they're 18, 19, 20, they're tempted to make some bad choices. So I just, I, I think it's a no brainer. The, the skill development and the wins have to be byproducts of, of that lens of character development and joy. I think it gets a little convoluted when parents are attaching their joy to the win or to the accomplishments. So, yeah, when, when my daughter, when there's something that's creating tension there and I know if I approach her with this, hey, we need to do this with our hands, we need to do this with our knees. You need to do this. I feel like I've been asking her to make her bed for 11 years. So it's going to go in one ear and out the other. But she respects the heck out of Coach Rack. So if I call Rack and say, hey, would you talk to my kid about this thing? I bet she'll jump on board with it. So I call that the professional pass off. Man, it's huge. It really is how they respond. By the way, my daughters, my daughters were like, please tell Rack we love him even with his mustache. So there you go. So that, that professional pass off, Greg, if you haven't used it, it's dynamite.
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C
And real quick, real quick, I got something to add on to that. I, I Bogum, I think you, you struck gold when you say you got to like, learn each kid, because I've noticed that kid, like so many people are different. What I needed to hear is very different than maybe what the guy next to me needed to hear. Like, for me, I needed my parents to really say the side and like, be ready to throw me batting practice. And that was it. And that's how I thrive. Like, that that made me want to go put in extra work. Like, I felt like the results were all in my hands. No one was pushing me towards anything. And I was like, cool, I can run towards this. I've also seen people though, and teammates that I even have now that are like, hey, I, I want you to get on me and say, no, go put some work in. And so some people, like, need that. But if someone did that to me, I would be like, what, you don't see all the work that I'm putting in behind the scenes? No, I am, I'm working on it.
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B
Like, all right.
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C
So every kid, I think, needs, I think the coach needs to learn the kids and know what, what motivates them to success better. But the common denominator is fostering a love for the game and the kids knowing that your joy isn't attached to their results. I think those are the common, common denominators there.
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A
What's up, guys? Do you want custom fanware like this cricket shirt? For Charlotte Christian School, we've got premium apparel from your favorite brands. The best part about it is I don't have to just wear it to Charlotte Christian's events. I can wear it to golf. I can wear it to lunch. It's turned into my uniform. Go right now over to Youth Inc. Sign up for our newsletter. It talks about our podcast for that week, our interview guests, all the breaking news across the landscape of youth sports. And you can win one piece of merch for your school by going to sign up today. And remember, it's not dot com, it's Youth Inc. Now back to our episode. We the word we use with our teams is winning is a byproduct. And that is a. That is a very broad statement. It's going to be a byproduct of how well we practice. It's going to be a byproduct of our attitudes. It's going to be our work ethic. It's going to be our ability to communicate and be organized. It's going to be a byproduct of tension to detail. It's going to be a combination of a million little tiny things from how we get dressed before practice to being on time. We coach the sh. Our football and baseball teams. We coach the hell out of warmups. We coach warm ups. Like, I had an NFL coach, one of our offensive line coaches, John Matzko, and he said offensive line every single day on Saturday before, he'd say, hey, tomorrow we're going to win warmups. I don't know what's going to happen in the game, but we are capable of winning warm ups. And that's always like, struck a nerve with me. So, like, whether it's a practice, a walkthrough, or the championship Sunday game, we warm up the exact same way every single day. So like, that to me is we're gonna, if we add up all these little good habits and we have everybody add them up all together, we're gonna win a lot. We're not gonna win always. And we're not gonna coach the scoreboard and we're not gonna Coach, there's the my hardest post game speeches to some of the kids have been after we've won a football game 30 to nothing. I said, I'm going to coach you harder when we're up 30 than when it's a one score game. Because we can't let the scoreboard tell us whether we're doing things right or wrong. We need to be honest with ourselves. When we're doing it right, we're going to tell you. And when I tell you, you do a good job, you did a good job, but not everything's okay and not everything's right. And just because we won by 30 or lost by 10 doesn't mean we played good or bad. And winning is a byproduct of everything we do. And that is just like the only way my brain works. And it's not for everybod.
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B
And hard to believe. It's a novel idea that we are going to teach these life lessons to make them a well rounded human being when they become an adult. And that is novel because especially in the elite space, winning is held to such a high priority that you lose sight of the joy. You lose sight of the kid being teased because your focus is on winning. You lose sight of the kid that wants to quit because nobody's paying any attention to him. So yeah, it's not, it's not an easy job to be a youth coach, but I would say it's the most impactful job anybody will ever have.
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A
It's my favorite thing I do outside of like my family circle, like husband, father, it's the favor. It's my favorite thing that I do in the world. All right, this last thing before we wrap again. Crash and practice. Coming to a city near you. Super pumped for you guys to go on the road and make bring this thing to life. Super proud to partner with both of you. You both spend a lot of time on the road. I'm gonna start with you, Ballgame. I'll let Rack. I'll let Rack wrap us up. Ballgame, you've been in every city in America. For anyone who follows you on social media, you've seen it all. Different ages, different walks of life, different backgrounds. Give us a big picture view of like evaluate the world of youth baseball. Like, how would you summarize it? The good, the bad, the ugly, everything in between as you go coast to coast, what seems like on a daily basis interacting with communities big and small all around America, on baseball fields, in everyone's backyard.
- [32:59]
B
I don't think kids have changed in the past 50, 100 years, I think kids are the same. They love something that feels like a birthday party, and they love something when they know the coach cares about them as a human. So that's what I try to do in every town and I try to show every parent it's not as difficult as you think to do those two things, to create a joyful vibe that moves and to connect with human beings. So I, what, what I notice is a lot of parents, maybe they haven't been there, done that, they haven't played the game of baseball. So that creates a lot of anxiety or a lot of insecurity. Either way, there's toxicity that, that stems from that. And the other thing that I notice is that there's not enough self reflection, specifically in men to just say, you know what? I overreacted. I took my tough week of work and I just threw up onto a youth baseball field and I need to apologize. We don't see enough of that. So I feel like those are the real secrets is league board members, coaches of all youth baseball leagues, travel, rec, whatever, like, come together once a week and say, you know what, what went right this week? What went wrong? How could I do better to make this kid want to come back next year? Because when me and my staff, we go to. It plays in every city. When you have kids moving and you connect with them on a human level, they. They, they want to play the rest of the night. I also notice that when I break out a volleyball instead of a baseball or a tennis ball or maybe a broomstick instead of a bat, kids jump on that, and there's not enough of that. So it doesn't just have to be the $400 bat and the $600 helmet. Get a broomstick, get a lemon like Roberto Clemente, and play in your cold sack. So, yeah, I, I don't think kids have changed. Maybe parents have changed a bit. So that's my ultimate goal here, is to, Is to shine a light on. We can, we can bring back the golden era of baseball, baby.
- [35:30]
A
I love it. Rack, what say you?
- [35:33]
C
I. I've seen, I've seen the same thing, man. I. Kids love to just play before games. A lot of times, one of our guys, Danny Hasley, will break a. A football out, and we'll just be throwing footballs back and forth with, you know, kids in the crowd. And there's just, there's so many ways to connect with the game of baseball. I'll see some kids who show up and know every single person's stats on the entire team. And I, you know, they know everyone's baseball card, and they know my. They know my origin story better than I know my origin story. And so, like, there's those kids that are just obsessed with the stats, and, like, you could tell, like, they, you know, who knows if they'll play this game at a high level, but they just. They love the game. And then you'll see these kids who are just like, freak athletes that are taller than me and bigger and stronger than me, and they're 13 years old. And, you know, I see all over the map when it comes to the game of baseball. The one cool thing that I've gotten to see is I've gotten to meet several kids and parents who have specifically said, hey, my. My son quit baseball last year, but he wants to play again because he's fallen back in love with the game and loves what. What you're doing here. When I hear stuff like that, it makes me excited and wants to keep doing what we're doing here. I think that by us going and crashing practices and maybe some kid sees that video on. On social media or wherever the video's at and is like, ooh, that looks like fun. Okay. Oh, if that's what baseball is, I want to. I want to get into that a little bit. Like, if we can capture that and just show how fun this game can be, then I think we've won. And I want to. Baseball is such a special, unique sport that more people need to appreciate. And seeing the way that even numbers watching the game have kind of maybe declined a little bit over the past so many years, I would just love to see over the next few years, the game of baseball become bigger and better and a way for not just bigger and better in numbers, but also bigger and better in that it creates better human beings. My ball game would say, no doubt.
- [37:44]
A
I think, you know, as I kind of reflect on this whole journey of crash and practice, I think the coolest thing is we're at dinner in Charlotte. My kids obviously love you guys. My two boys that have played a ton of baseball, watch all your videos, know everything you guys put out before I do. How a random dinner in Charlotte kind of talking. You think? Talking all things youth sports. Hey, would you guys want to come to our practice? Oh, dad. Rack and ball game should coach our practice. How this kind of organic idea over just kind of hanging with a couple young teenage boys and two guys. One guy that they don't want to listen to, but two guys that they do put a lot of value in what they put out and say has turned into what we think is going to be a really special opportunity. The two of you taking it and running with it. Not only doing it with my team as kind of a test pilot, but then following the response to that, now hitting the road this spring to go connect with the community. It's pretty cool how it's all come together from just that random dinner with my two boys. And here we are now a year later about to turn this thing into reality. So I can't thank the two of you enough. Your messaging, what you do not only with you think and not only with our mission, but just individually, your own brands, your own content. And I'm super thankful, I'm super humbled that you guys want to work with us in partnership to bring Crash and practice now to life officially. And I can't wait to see what you guys pull off with it. I think it's going to be amazing.
- [39:11]
B
Oh man. Honored. For a bonafide pro like yourself to get back into this game, it means so much and so many more ears will be opened just because you're passionate about it. So atta boy, atta boy. This is going to be the best day of your life.
- [39:28]
C
I'm coach Rack.
- [39:29]
A
Hey Rack, can we get a backflip catch or no?
- [39:31]
C
I think that's in store.
- [39:32]
B
I'm coach Ball, gang. On your marks, get set.
- [39:35]
C
Today we're crashing practice. We're here to offer coaching tips, new.
- [39:40]
B
Skill development techniques and best practices for parents of young athletes.
- [39:44]
A
The first time that I heard of Coach Rack was actually from my two son. I reached out to him and I wanted to make practice Fun.
- [39:51]
B
It's a 6 on 6 scrimmage and it will be the fastest paced scrimmage you've ever played in your life.
- [39:59]
C
Okay, behind the back.
- [40:00]
B
Oh, come on.
- [40:02]
C
I like that.
- [40:03]
B
Double plays and the coaches have to do 10 push ups.
- [40:06]
C
Yeah, that's some push ups.
- [40:07]
B
Who would have thought what I do would be novel? Prioritize joy and character on a baseball field.
- [40:12]
C
I get to be the coach that I wish that I had growing up.
- [40:16]
A
They're going to remember this for a long time and you guys just made a bunch of little 1112 year old boys days very happy and fun for that man. Thank you. To learn more or enter, visit crashinpractice. Com.