Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Speaker A: Hey parents and coaches, are your kids using the right glove? The most important skill for youth athletes to learn is how to play proper catch. The problem is most youth gloves are made with bad leather and are too big for small hands. They actually make it harder to play catch. That's why former Major League Baseball shortstop Kevin Smith created Cali Gloves. Cali gloves are crafted from 100% Japanese kip leather and are the perfect size for kids.
All Cali gloves come with palm slits, finger loops and elastic wrist lacing that encourage proper hand placement. The right closing patterns and give kids more confidence to go make plays. Cali Gloves even allow parents to break in the glove without stretching out the fit.
It's the glove Kevin wishes he had growing up and the glove all his teammates want for their kids. Visit caligloves.com to learn more and help your kids play better catch.
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[00:01:10] Speaker B: welcome to this week's edition of in the Clubhouse with EMD Baseball. I'm Andy Kiri Kutis, joined by my Wonderful Co host, Mr. Keith Glasser. How we doing?
[00:01:18] Speaker C: Great. How are you?
[00:01:19] Speaker B: Good. Today I'm going to talk about the word agency.
I was lucky enough to be on a podcast with a rather notable baseball figure recently, Mr. Jeff Passon, who is awesome by the way. He is, is was really enjoyable to be around him. But he, he spoke about his experience as a father with his son who went through the recruiting process and I thought he had some really great points along the way. But I think even more importantly, he brought up the word agency.
So I'm going to read the definition of agency, loose definition of agency here and we can expand upon why it's important and how this plays into the role of the parent. But agen is the capacity of a person or group to make decisions and take actions on their own behalf.
And I think this is a requirement in the recruiting process for young players and being able to take the actions that are necessary. And this isn't just about sending emails or following coaches on Twitter. It's about taking the actions that are necessary to get to where you want to go. Whether it's making sure you get enough calories during the day, making sure you get enough sleep, making sure that you are doing well in in the classroom. Are you going to get a tutor because it's what's going to allow you to get an A minus instead of a B plus?
Are you taking the agency to get yourself to a gym or are you going to make excuses when you're on the road and they've only got 50 pound dumbbells and a lap pull down machine or are you going to find a way to get it done?
Are you going to take action on your behalf to meet your goals? Right. And you know, there's a lot of different ways to put it, but I do think that it's a really important thing that players in this process have agency.
And I'll just, I'll say one other thing before I pass it over to you, Keith. And I think it's also important for, for parents to understand that you can't be the ones with the agency.
Your, your, your kids, your son, your daughter, whoever's who, whoever's trying to pursue college athletics. This isn't just about baseball.
From a parent's perspective. You can't want it more than your kid.
They have to be willing to do the dirty work.
They have to be willing to go to the gym, to eat right, to communicate with college coaches, to put a good foot forward, to do well in the classroom. They have to take those actions and they have to own that.
And sometimes in this process the parents will be pulling the child along to try to do it.
But at the end of the day when you're talking about kids who really want this, they need to be self motivated, they need to be willing to do the things that are necessary. And I think the word agency sums it up really well.
[00:04:13] Speaker D: If you're the parent of a high school baseball player with college aspirations, you already know the recruiting process can feel overwhelming. Endless showcases, non stop emails and big promises with very little clarity.
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Diamond College Showcase camps are built for serious student athletes who value both baseball and academics. If you're looking for transparency, clarity and a recruiting experience that respects your time and your players future, Diamond College Showcase is the place to be. To learn more, visit diamond collegeshowcase.com
[00:05:16] Speaker C: sure.
You know, I think that that's
[00:05:20] Speaker B: a
[00:05:20] Speaker A: very good lesson, you know, not only
[00:05:22] Speaker C: in your recruiting process, but everything that you know you're going to want to do from from college on forward. Right. You know, I, this isn't necessarily the, the, the easiest process to undertake when you're trying to get recruited or you are getting recruited and you're deciding where it is that you want to go to play college baseball and what you want out of your college athlete experience. And I think it's one thing that, you know, we talk about with our clients quite frequently. Like, you know, we need to sit down and have a conversation about what it is you want out of your college athlete experience. And it's going to be different for everybody. But to your point, it has to be, and Jeff's point, I suppose, you
[00:06:04] Speaker D: know, it has to come from the kid.
[00:06:06] Speaker C: And I, I think, you know, parents, you obviously know what your, what makes your kid tick and, and what is probably going to be the best thing for him ultimately. But he has to, or she has to arrive at that conclusion on their own. Right. Like, you need to sit down and go over things that you, what is going to matter to you. And I think, you know, it's, it's a give and take a little bit. You know, most parents, they, you know, if you went to college, you probably have a pretty good idea of, of what it's like. Your son or daughter is never going to college.
[00:06:39] Speaker E: Right.
[00:06:39] Speaker C: Like, they don't know what's going on. So, you know, being able to kind of guide that process, but lead them, you know, you have to lead them in the water, but they have to drink. Right. They have to be the ones that are going to ultimately make the decision on where it is that they want to go, what it is that they want out of their student athlete experience, what is important to them, not only from a baseball standpoint, but from an academic standpoint, from a social standpoint, what type of school major, all of those things. Right. So, you know, I, I think it's, it's definitely something that, you know, I don't know if we've necessarily talked, we probably talk about this for a long time on here, but it's, it's something that has to come from the student athlete. You have to want this bad enough to take agency over what it is that it's going to take to get to that point.
Right. Like, it's, it's the weight room, it's hitting, it's throwing, it's bullpens, it's defensive work, it's in game play. It's, you know, you can do all that stuff, but it's got to show up in game. And when coaches are watching and what people are doing, you have to do the reach out. You have to follow people on Twitter. You have to put stuff on social media. It's a lot of work.
It's not necessarily the easiest thing to do. And I, you know, in some regards, I don't envy these kids. As we talked about before, it's, I think it's probably more difficult now than it was when you and I went through this process where it was just, hey, show up to some games and, and be good when you play. And you have certainly more recruited, certainly
[00:08:08] Speaker B: more stressful, I know that.
[00:08:09] Speaker C: Certainly more stressful where now there, there's a lot more involved and there's a lot more high end baseball being played at, at all of the divisions where there's a lot of, a lot of nuance to this process and especially for what you want, right? Like, and you know, do you want high academics and what does that mean? And what do my grades have to be like? And you know, hey man, you want to go play high academic baseball, you got to take care of it in the classroom too. You know, you have to do all the baseball stuff, but you also have to be really good in the classroom so that you're giving yourself the opportunity to do it. It's not just going to be like, well, I want to play at Harvard and I have a 2 4. Like, yeah, man, good luck. Coach Decker is not going to be able to recruit you. Coach Brady can't recruit you. That's not going to fly.
Right. So, you know, I, I think one of the hardest things as a parent is to, you know, you, you obviously cannot want it more than your, your son or daughter, but you can certainly get to the point where you can guide them through the process of, you know, hey, this is what this looks like and you know, this is how you can potentially do it. And if you don't have those answers, there's people like us out there that you can call to help with those, those types of things. But at some point, you know, we're going to have a conversation with you about what it, what it means to take over this process and the ownership and the agency and all the things it is that it's going to take for you to be able to get yourself to the next level from a baseball standpoint.
[00:09:37] Speaker E: Parents, if you've ever felt overwhelmed trying to navigate youth sports, there's a new resource designed just for you. TeamMatch. Team match is an online platform built to streamline how families find the right youth sports teams by location, location, sport and skill level all in one place. It also provides a safe, organized space for kids to share their accomplishments stats and highlights while giving coaches and teams a clear way to connect with athletes who are the right fit. Less searching, less stress, more confidence in the process. Youth sports just got simpler for families. This is Team Match. Check it out today at team match sports.com.
[00:10:21] Speaker B: Yeah, just.
It sounds simple, but it's not.
These are.
It takes a unique kid to really be able to put themselves out there and take actions like this. And it was pretty poignant what Jeff said. And I think we've, we've tried to get at in a lot of different ways about the importance of the work and the focus and everything, but I, I think agency in, in some ways is just a really crisp and clean way to kind of describe what somebody needs to have inside them. And, and yeah, everybody out here is listening to it. You know, players who are listening to this. I think it kind of starts there. And if you can take responsibility and you can, you can decide to take the actions that are necessary, you're going to be ahead of a lot of people who think that this process is going to come to them because they've got some talent and just having agency in this process, not only as a, as a high school kid who's trying to get recruited to play a college sport, but I think in, you know, broadly. I don't want to get into philosophical talk here. I'm certainly not the person to be out there spewing it, but I do think that agency and being willing to put yourself out there and taking actions that are necessary, like it's a skill that is useful well beyond the recruiting process. And if you can start it now and you can hold yourself accountable to the things that need to be done in order to get to where you want to go, you're going to be ahead of a lot of your competition. So that's all I got, coach.
[00:11:59] Speaker C: Me too.
All right.
[00:12:02] Speaker B: Find yourself some agency.
Get out there and find some agency now. Thanks, everybody, for listening. Tune in. Hopefully that was. That was worth your while.
We'll be back next week. Thanks, everybody.
Thank you for listening this week. If you're watching on YouTube, go ahead and hit that subscribe button and smash that like button for us.
[00:12:22] Speaker E: Check us out on Apple Podcasts, Google
[00:12:25] Speaker B: podcasts, as well as Spotify. You can follow us on Twitter and Instagram MD Baseball.
[00:12:31] Speaker E: If you want to find out what
[00:12:32] Speaker B: me and Keith do to help families and players navigate the recruiting process, go ahead and check us out on emdbaseball.com
[00:12:40] Speaker E: take a few minutes to check out
[00:12:41] Speaker B: our new online academy. I promise you'll get some good information out of that. Thanks again for listening. Check in with you next week.
