50 Recommended Resources
Looking for ways to boost your growth as a coach, parent, player, or just as a person in general? In this post I will provide links to 50 different resources that have challenged and helped me. Many of these I still go to regularly.
I'll share 10 books, 10 podcast episodes, 10 websites, and 20 Twitter accounts to follow. Hopefully you will find one or two resources in each of the four lists that will give you the encouragement and personal growth you are hoping for during the off-season of the fall and winter months.
I also think it's important to add, only some of these resources are baseball specific. The majority of them can (and should) be applied to any person, any situation, any sport, any team, any business, any organization or family.
The most difficult thing for me in putting this list together was narrowing down all the categories to only 10 each. There are SO many fantastic resources out there in addition to the ones I have listed in this post. What I have done is simply select a handful that have particularly impacted me over the past year. I hope you will find these to be valuable for your life and for your coaching as well.
10 BOOKS
Heads Up Baseball by Ken Ravizza and Tom Hanson This was the third book I read on the "mental" game. On this topic, I had first read The Mental Game of Baseball and So What, Next Pitch and they were phenomenal books, which started to open up my mind to the impact of the mental aspect of the game. However, Heads-Up Baseball brought it to life for me because it showed me how to coach the mental game. It is written in a format that provides opportunity to respond and apply the teaching to your team, your players, or yourself.
The Energy Bus by Jon Gordon I could put every book that Jon Gordon has written on this list, but I decided to narrow it down to two. The Energy Bus was the second of his books that I read. Written in parable form and can be read in full in one afternoon.
The Hard Hat: 21 Ways To Be A Great Teammate by Jon Gordon I bought this book in February of 2016, just a couple weeks before the start of the baseball season, because I wanted something to read on a flight to Connecticut for my cousin's wedding. I finished it on the flight home and then a year later I had all of our seniors research one of the "21 Ways" and present it to our team in the preseason. Throughout the season we still quoted and referred to many of the lessons we learned from those men.
Coach Wooden's Pyramid of Success by John Wooden and Jay Carty The principles from this book are so incredibly valuable to me. I have used them on the teams I coach, in my job, in my life, in conversation with people. They just never get old. Implement the building blocks of success and you will see great transformation in the teams you lead. My favorite moment of using this book was with a 4th grade girls basketball team that I coached. At the beginning of the year I gave them each a printout of a blank pyramid. At the end of every practice, we finished with 5 minutes of talking about one of the building blocks. I would give them a small piece of paper that summarized the building block we discussed, and throughout the season they built their pyramids.
The Science of Hitting by Ted Williams In my opinion, this is the best book about hitting that I have ever read, and it was first published in 1971. There have been many great resources produced since 1971, which build upon the principles that Williams discusses in The Science of Hitting and help players to apply them. But if you want hitting advice from arguably the greatest (most consistent) hitter to ever play the game, start here.
Above The Line by Urban Meyer This book is basically the lessons taught by Tim and Brian Kight of Focus3 compiled into a book format... lessons on leadership, culture, behavior, discipline, intention, building skills, and so much more. From my understanding, a few years ago Coach Meyer brought Tim and Brian Kight in to work with The Ohio State football team and share their research and the wisdom of E+R=O. It had such a significant impact on Coach Meyer and the program that they permitted him to use their principles in his book. A result has been an explosion of invitations for Tim and Brian Kight of Focus3 to get their material and training out to the world. For a good overview, start with this book.
9 Innings of Hitting by Troy Silva There are many books about hitting, and most begin with a certain system or mechanical basis and then go through how to teach the swing. Troy Silva's book takes a different approach. In fact, he focuses on the approach to hitting more than the swing mechanics of hitting. Yes, there is mechanical advice and coaching cues for helping players to have the best swing possible. But 9 Innings of Hitting is more about helping the overall player while he (or she) is in the batter's box.
The #GoodBatting Book by Kevin Wilson Here's another book on hitting, written by a much sought-after professional hitting coach, which also focuses more on the approach of hitting than on the mechanics. Neither of these books or authors suggest that focusing on mechanics is inherently wrong, but what they bring to light is the fact that being a good hitter involves SO much more than swinging the bat. Kevin Wilson gets into how to coach the player, not just the swing. What you will find is that this book will teach you a lot more than just about hitting.
The 12 Pillars of Peak Performance by Brian Cain This is another quick read, which provides a great overview of what Brian Cain teaches. He is one of the great pioneers of leading teams, coaches and players in understanding and strengthening their mental game. That's exactly what Coach Cain is, a mental strength coach. He provides practical tools to implement in your life immediately to help you get better at dealing with failure and adversity.
The Baseball Coaching Bible by Jerry Kindall and John Winkin For anyone who is just beginning the journey of coaching baseball, I highly recommend getting this book. Extremely helpful resource! Each chapter is authored by a different coaching legend and deals with a different aspect of the game. It's not a book that you read just once. Rather, it is one that you will go back to again and again. It's one of those books that I've skipped around from chapter to chapter for the past 15 years or so, pulling out a gold nugget of advice here and there, depending on what is needed at the time.
10 PODCAST EPISODES
The links below will take you to a specific episode from podcasts that are filled with so many great episodes. My hope here is to simply get you started, if you are not yet a podcast listener. These are just some of my favorite episodes from my own podcast library. I have roughly 20 podcasts that I regularly listen to while driving, mowing the lawn, walking, working, etc. Replacing mindless talk radio and even TV with podcast listening has been one of the most beneficial changes in my life.
TopCoach Episode #243 (and #244): Mike Deegan, Dennison University
ABCA Episode #5: Youth Baseball and More with Troy Silva and Jose Rijo-Berger
Focus3 Podcast with Tim and Brian Kight Episode #1: Be the Best Version of You
Follow My Lead: Love and Accountability in Leadership with Jon Gordon
The Brian Buffini Show Episode #004: An Interview with Lou Holtz
The Baseball Drive Episode #01: Darren Fenster of the Boston Red Sox and CEO of Coach Your Kids
KWB Radio with Kevin Wilson and Joe Ferraro: 12 Days of Hitting, Day 1 This link is to the first of 12, 5-minute episodes that are absolutely phenomenal. Each day, between Dec 25 and Jan 5, Kevin Wilson discusses a different aspect of hitting.
10 WEBSITES
In no particular order, some of the following are sites that provide coaching instruction, drills and other resources. Some of the sites are are blogs, and others are a combination. The internet can be a big place, and not all instruction on the internet is sound. The following are some sites that have helped me over the years.
20 TWITTER FOLLOWS
Twitter can be an excellent resource and an excellent way to discover people who provide insight and knowledge in the game of baseball or in life in general. All social media comes with both positive and negative aspects. I choose to use it primarily for personal development and growth, and to share what I have learned with others. The accounts below are used in the same way, which is why I recommend following them.
I hope you are able to use one or two of these resources. If you use them all and decide you want more, please feel free to contact me! This is a fraction of the wealth of support and resources that are available to you. Enjoy!