A Case Against Lessons

When I entered the world of coaching after my playing career, I remember hearing stories about guys who would clear 6 figures in cash from doing baseball lessons. I was in awe of this - I couldn’t believe it. When you break down the math, it isn’t terribly infeasible. In some parts of the country, the going rate for an hour lesson is $100. 1000 lessons in a year is only 18 lessons a week. BOOM! You’ve got yourself $100K in cash.

This is the moment where you are probably thinking that I may be crazy for rejecting this concept - and there are nights where I wonder if my life might be easier if I “just did lessons” - but I’m not looking for easier, I am looking for excellence.

Before I go any further, I do want to acknowledge 3 things.

1. I know many coaches who give lessons and do an awesome job.

2. Lessons can help a ton! I am not bashing the lesson world. I wish to explain why lessons do not work for ME or my training.

3. I performed lessons as a coach for over 2 years. The flaws that I found in the lesson world are what shaped Lights Out Performance today.

There are 2 main reasons why the lesson model does not work for me, and why I have decided to completely change my training model.

The first reason is consistency and accountability. I had consistent clients who I would meet with 1, maybe 2 times a week. During the 1-3 hours these athletes would spend with me each week, I would provide them with the best instruction I could. I always strive to educate my athletes while also giving them the tools to continue to get better.

The problem I would run into was constantly needing to reteach routines, reteach drills, and re-emphasising cues that all should have become habit after 3 or 4 lessons. It didn’t matter how much I stressed consistency because the fact was, working with me once a week was not consistent.

The question would always come up, sometimes lightheartedly, sometimes out of frustration, “what are you doing the other 6 days of the week? When was the last time you threw?” Too often, the player hadn’t thrown since the last time we met. Too often this player was doing the minimal between sessions.

I DO NOT blame the athlete for this. On the surface, it can look like laziness, but more times than not it is not a lack of motivation, but a lack of knowledge. I have found that most athletes want to put the work in, but they do not have the guidance or direction needed to do so.

So problem 1 boiled down to this:

Seeing me once a week was not enough to effect lasting change.

There weren’t built-in channels of accountability to ensure “extra” work was being done.

1 session a week was not enough guidance/direction to motivate the athletes.

The second reason the lesson model was not working for me was the “seasonality effect”.

If a player was super diligent, they would see me for a lesson probably 12-20 times between the end of the fall season and the beginning of the school season. During the months of March to the beginning of August - which is the most taxing and turbulent time of the year for a high school aged pitcher - I might see that same athlete 2-3 times.

This was a major issue. Even if this player WANTED to see me more often, it was near impossible. School ball typically takes up 6 days a week and summer ball is typically 5-8 weeks of tournaments and traveling. Parents have work to catch up on, athletes have jobs and social lives, and no one wants to spend MORE time in the car.

I’ve seen too many players, both ones I have trained and ones who I have not trained, trend downwards throughout the season. Increasing arm tiredness throughout the season. Steadily decreasing velocity. Declining results on the mound after a stellar school season.

More times than not, this is caused due to the inability to conduct proper “maintenance cycling”. This is a simple physiological concept that can be simply explained as this:

The more you do, the more you have to keep doing to keep what you’ve gained.

For example - if you do 30 pushups a day for 30 days, on day 31, it’s going to be really easy to bang out 30 pushups. Then, if you don’t do a single pushup for another 30 days, it’s going to be difficult to squeeze out those reps.

For a pitcher, this translates to:

If you spend the off season gaining in the weight room and on the mound, you need to maintain your workload in order to keep what you have gained, otherwise you risk depreciating results and/or injury.

So, problem 2 boiled down is that the nature of the season makes it very difficult to keep a regular in person training schedule. Building workload throughout the winter without proper maintenance through the spring and summer can risk injury and depreciating performance.

So what do I do now? Lights Out operates as a holistic, remote first training option that is designed to help our athletes 365 days a year.

After assessment, each of our athletes receive a fully individualized strength and conditioning program - updated monthly. Comprehensive arm care / prehab routines to maintain arm health and strength. Weekly throwing instruction conducted via video analysis, phone calls, and face times from the gym!

Let's look back at “Problem 1” from earlier: consistency and accountability.

Consistency - our athletes have their routines mapped out for them. Warm ups, throwing drills, arm care, workout, etc. This is all built in and mapped out.

Accountability - our athletes have (at minimum) weekly communication with their coach who is available via text every day of the week coupled with regular phone calls/facetimes. We can also track our athletes progress in the weight room by analyzing their digital workout sheets!

Problem 2: “Seasonality Effect”

Lights Out builds relationships and training regimens for 365 days of the athlete’s year. It doesn’t matter if the athlete is in Georgia for a tournament, or California for vacation. Hotels all have a semblance of a weight room in order to get their workouts in. Everyone has a smart phone with a camera to capture throwing/pitching film during games for their Lights Out coach to look at and unpack their performance.

We ensure our athletes maintain the gains they worked so hard for throughout the season.

Long story short, I loved lessons because it allowed me to pass along knowledge in the sport that I love so much. But more importantly, I HATED lessons because I felt like I could be doing so much more to help these athletes develop and improve.

From this frustration was born Lights Out Performance. I am so proud of the athletes I get to work with and I can’t wait to help more of them!

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