What's up coach Dan Blewett here and today's video is actually from a viewer
comment so Thank You Stephen for asking Dan what do you do when a pitcher has a
really bad pregame bullpen or maybe they're really nervous or in general
they just don't look very good so that's a good question and my answer to this
and lots of other things are often the same which is the following don't look
into it too much mental toughness is key suck it up and go compete so let me
backtrack so number one when you have a less than stellar pregame bullpen and
believe me I've had tons of them throughout my pitching career
you can't psych yourself out and think oh I had a bad bullpen I'm gonna have a
bad game now as a coach obviously you're trying to hedge your bets and be
prepared so the kid looks terrible in the pan maybe get a kid ready a little
faster because hey little Johnny is not doing very well today it looks kind of
terrible but I don't know that I've seen huge correlations between the pregame
bullpen and in-game performance now establishing a excellent pregame routine
with your pitchers is paramount that's really really important every day they
should have a set routine that date fine-tune and improve over time because
routine gives you structure it helps isolate variables and prevent all those
extraneous variables that might make your performance poor so I was like oh I
I ran a ton extra in pregame today where I threw 30 pitches in pregame instead of
50 when my pregame bullpen was all out of the windup instead of half and half
windup and stretch you don't want to have do different things every time you
want to do the same thing every time and slightly improve it over time so it
becomes your routine but again you want to make sure that the only variable is
the team or I don't know a little personal factors you don't want to say
maybe I pitched crappy today because I threw 60 pitches in the pen versus 40 in
my normal amount or whatever it is so again the pregame routine helps to
control extra variables and keep everything as the same there's similar
as we can okay so that's number one number two if you just have a bad
premium bullpen the goal is to remember that you didn't
forget how to pitch just because you had a bad 20 pitches in the bullpen and you
have to be mentally tough when you go out between the lines and just say look
I had a bad pregame but that was warmups now I get eight more warm-ups out here
on the field number one number two it's go time let's like let's do this so
let's get my adrenaline going let's compete let's have some fun and remember
that I didn't forget how to pitch so as a as a from the player point of view you
just need to not look into it if you have a bad pregame bullpen again I've
done I've thrown ten of the worst curveballs ever then jog down to the
game I've had times where I could not get my fastball down to save my life
in the bullpen jog out between lines pitch fine I've had times I'm just
dotting the ball on the bullpen then I go out there and I can throw a strike I
don't know there's always been great correlation between the two and I know a
lot of my teammates from the past felt a similar way so again you can't just
freak out about it and when you freak out about it it becomes the old
self-fulfilling prophecy where now because you think you're gonna have a
bad game you do so make sure you don't do it that way and again I think just
going back to your own mental toughness and saying I didn't forget how to pitch
this crappy pregame bullpen today does not define me I'm gonna go out there and
compete and have a great day anyway that's the attitude you need to have and
so as a coach if you can help foster that mindset I think that's the thing to
do now if you need to get someone else just hay on the backburner okay I just
just so you know I might need to send you down the pen if he starts to get
into trouble I might go a little faster because I'm a little worried about John
that's fine as a coach you had your bets whatever it is if you feel like you need
to have a safety net then do it but again I think as a coach your job is to
foster that attitude that your pregame bullpen if it was bad
doesn't matter doesn't define you doesn't change the fact you're gonna go
out there and have a great day on the mound you didn't forget how to pitch
you're still a stud go out there and shove it as a pitcher that same mindset
as your own to own so no matter how your pregame bullpen is
go out there prepare to dominate the other team rain or shine
good Mound crappy mount high amount low mount good umpire baton fire good
pregame bad pregame it doesn't matter you're gonna go out there and dominate
no matter what okay so hopefully that was helpful thanks again for the
question be sure to subscribe check out the links to both of my books there in
the description below all my online courses and thanks for watching I'll see
you here in the next video