Today we’re joined by UCLA Head Baseball Coach John Savage. Through 15 seasons as UCLA’s head coach, John has established the Bruins as a consistent national championship contender. Savage helped UCLA reach college baseball’s pinnacle in 2013, as the Bruins won their first-ever NCAA baseball title. Under his guidance, UCLA has advanced to the postseason in 11 of the last 15 seasons, hosting an NCAA Regional in six of the last 10, including four-straight from 2010 through 2013. On the show, we talk about steps he and his staff have taken to build the culture, we get into staff development, we talk about competitive situations in practice and much, much more. Here is John Savage!
Ahead of the Curve Live: John Savage (Head Coach UCLA)
When you develop your beliefs and become a head coach, trust yourself and be yourself.
Players will notice if you aren’t being your authentic self.
As a head coach, be organized and delegate duties to assistants and trust them.
Be present in the moment as a head coach.
That allows for you to be the most helpful.
Good pitching and catching will determine how good your team is at the end of the day.
Organization, communication, and being a true team are crucial for the success of a program.
Keep in mind that you need to know your players.
This will allow for you to not go in and take away repetitions from the players.
Hire coaches due to needs and allow for them to do their job and trust them to do it.
Ensure that your coaching staff isn’t saying the weaknesses out loud to the team during practice.
Also stay away from saying this because it could cause a wall to go up between you and the other coach. (Essentially be a professional).
It takes time to become a good program.
Different teams each year have different strengths and character.
You want every single thing that you do to have a championship look.
The more you can teach guys to be part of that culture, the quicker the progress will happen.
Good teams have good leadership.
The players in quality programs know how to keep the culture where it needs to be.
As a coach it is important to model how the culture should be in order for the players to recognize what to do.
Through time, the players will start to respond how the coaching staff will and how the culture wants the response to be.
As a coach you want your players to be mentally tough and not focus on things they cannot control.
You need to work on the individuals first before you can focus on the team.
This helps you learn the players first, and then focus on the team and players after that.
Loyalty and trust of the coaching staff is crucial to have for a successful team.
As a high school coach it is important to teach your players how to act, compete, and respond to adversity. (College coaches look for this along with academics and off the field character).
“Good character makes great teams.”
At the end of the day, the best teams and athletes are consistent.
“The game is supposed to be played a certain way.”
It comes down to how do you want your players to look and respond?
When you see something good or bad let the players know, but handle both situations in a respectful way in order for the athletes to not feel put down.
“Timing has to be right for a coaching staff to give messages.”
You want rational messages, not emotional messages.
“You want to keep building success not tear down success.”
“The game can flip on you quickly.”
Make sure every player on your team feels like they matter to the team.
Example: Bullpen catcher helps the pitchers gain feedback before or during a game.
“Players need to be ready when they get called upon.”
You want your players to walk with a sense of confidence.
One negative player can feed upon to the rest of the team and hurt the culture.
“Unless you help the player to make a change, they won’t do it.”
Treat and care for others the best you can possible.
The more we get to know our players, the more we can help improve their life.
Make sure when you are working on improving mechanics, focus on one mechanic at a time.
This allows for the player to not be confused and to have a clear understanding of what needs to be changed.
“Present things to the player in order to build confidence.”
Talking to players and investing in relationships will allow for you and the coaching staff to understand how to handle each player in order to coach them the best way possible.
You learn about how much to talk with players through experience.
It is important to lead rationally and not let emotion take over decisions.
“You can’t get wrapped up in the results in a game. You are taking blows in a game, so how you respond is important.”
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