From Little League to MLB: Why Empathy Still Wins

Athletic Intelligence Episode 7 Transcript

From Little League to MLB: Why Empathy Still Wins

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[00:00] Pete Fatse: The ability to press pause and meet the player where they're at in that moment. Like you have to do that very quickly. It's no different than how we manage the cage, right? You have a a kid, 22-year-old rookie, first time in the big leagues, and then the next guy in the cage is Rafael Devers, right? And you have to be able to flip the switch quickly and understand where that player's at, what they need.

[00:21] Pete Fatse: Those things don't really change from those two environments as much as I think we like to think they change. 

From Indie Ball to Red Sox Hitting Coach

[00:27] Narration: That's Pete Fatse. The current hitting coach for the Boston Red Sox, he climbed the rinks quickly and has been coaching at the top of the sport for years. In this episode Aman Loomba, GameChanger's, SVP of Product, and Alex Trezza, Senior Manager of Baseball, go deep with Pete on what he's learned throughout his coaching career and why youth baseball and the big leagues might have more in common than you think.

[00:52] Narration: They explore how tech can provide an objective lens and why instincts, empathy, and trust are just as essential to player development at every level of the game.

[01:06] Narration: This is Athletic Intelligence from GameChanger, a show where we go deep inside the world of baseball and softball, uncovering the tech that's shaping the game.

[01:20] Alex Trezza: Before we dive into this episode, it'll become pretty clear that Pete and I go way back. We met competing against each other in Indy Ball in the Can-Am League, where we also played against previous guests Chris and Bobby from Pelotero.

[01:34] Narration: Pete's ball career began at the University of Connecticut under Coach Jim Pender. Penders is a five-time coach of the year now, entering his 22nd season as head coach, one of the most respected leaders in college baseball. Penders has helped build the Huskies into a national force. 

The Importance of Team Culture 

[01:53] Pete Fatse: Coach Penders really sold me on this idea of being part of something bigger than yourself and an opportunity to contribute to, um, a program moving forward, chance to compete.

[02:04] Pete Fatse: And I thought that my personal value system, my, my family's value system really aligned with Coach, you know, and it was the place I wanted to be since day one. I visited the campus quite a bit and, and again, the culture for me was the most important piece. So then going there, I was fortunate to start all three years.

[02:19] Pete Fatse: I learned a lot through the process through summer baseball, getting exposure to different coaches, playing with kids throughout the country. I learned a lot about myself in a very short period of time. I actually think, and we talked about our hockey careers coming up Trezz, I felt like hockey was probably my, what prepared me the most for college baseball and preparation for the kind of the grind I learned to take care of my body.

[02:38] Pete Fatse: Uh, what it meant to prepare physically and mentally. And I just think, you know, my career was just in college specifically was just I wanted to win every game. I took a lot of pride in competing and I wanted to put myself in the best possible position to help the team win, whatever that meant. So yeah, I was fortunate to get drafted by the Brewers in 2009. 

[02:56] Narration: Pete played a few years in the minor leagues before being released.

When Playing Baseball Turned into Coaching Baseball

[03:00] Narration: He then signed with an independent ball club with hopes of earning another affiliate contract. Here he met other players who shared his mindset, guys who cared deeply about the craft, about getting better and about rethinking what player development could look like. These conversations would go on to shape the way he approaches coaching to this day. 

[03:20] Pete Fatse: It was this constant pursuit of trying to learn, taking as much information as possible, and then the application to my own swing. I, I mean, I could feel, I felt like I was learning more about myself, but also I was, I was just observing more. I was seeing things I never really saw before, and that kind of opened my eyes to

[03:35] Pete Fatse: probably a broader coaching lens. And then I got to this point after a years of in, of independent ball where I started to get more gratification in the off seasons coaching and giving my information back and seeing players kind of evolve, that started to trigger me more than when I would get a hit.

[03:50] Pete Fatse: You know, I, I mean, I love the game and I just, I felt like impacting others and using the potential gifts I had as a coach was probably, uh, best suited for me. 

Coaching While Competing: Learning in Real Time

[03:59] Alex Trezza: What's really cool is that like the longer we played, the more we, we were in coaching mode while we were playing, right? Because, not that we saw the end in sight, but we knew we were gonna do something other than playing soon.

[04:10] Alex Trezza: Right? And we were like honing our craft as like coaches and players at the same time, which especially in independent ball, like you get to do, right? You're trying to figure it out. We're in the cage before the game. Even as opponents, right? We played against each other. We're like taking swings and kind of riffing on like, Hey, what worked for you?

[04:27] Alex Trezza: What are you feeling? Like, what'd you work on this off season? 

[04:29] Pete Fatse: Yeah, that's a great point. And honestly I think it's the one thing I think we as coaches, this is more of a broader concept, but I think we really we're really responsible for the environment and the information that we give players. And the cool thing about what you said was like we were constantly coaching each other as much as we were coaching ourselves or working through our own feels.

[04:47] Pete Fatse: Like I use the term observation a lot, and that's something I think. Really good offense is in general, if we're talking about the team level, right? Like you're paying attention to the things going on around you, whether that's the game state. Whether that's somebody's swing, you're just constantly observing and then constantly communicating, and I think that's ultimately the most effective style of coaching or or environment that we can create.

Building an Academy Around Sports Tech and Feedback

[05:11] Narration: After his time in independent ball, Pete stepped off the field and into coaching, opening his own training academy in Western Massachusetts. From day one, tech played a central role. He used tools like bat sensors and video analysis as a way to give players real, objective, actionable feedback.

[05:34] Pete Fatse: I certainly think technology obviously has allowed us to move forward and objectively assess faster. I remember the first purchase I made and 'cause at the time it felt like jumping off a cliff, right? I bought a a two camera, Right View Pro system. It was on this wheeled cart. It was like, 

[05:50] Alex Trezza: Yes. 

[05:51] Pete Fatse: two of these like cameras and it's, you're doing side by sides and

[05:54] Pete Fatse: Right View Pro at the time had that you could compare your swing to any like major leaguers. So I remember when I first started the Academy, my thought was like, I wanna start to create as much objective feedback for players as possible. And early on I remember like the first sensors we ever used was like the Zepp sensor, right?

[06:11] Pete Fatse: It was just giving us some basic bat metrics, bat speed. And then I remember my, what I would consider my second largest purchase was when I got a HitTrax. And that's when, you know, we were, I think we were the one of the first 200 units. Uh, to be sold. And I remember at the time one of my business partners asking me, you know, how is this going to generate revenue?

[06:30] Pete Fatse: And I was like, I, not that I didn't care, but my thought was we need to stay ahead of the technology infrastructure. We have to be able to continue to provide objective information, track if our players are getting better. Because that's ultimately what our business is, is we want to help these kids develop.

[06:45] Pete Fatse: We want to give these kids tools, uh, throughout the course of their career. And honestly, things that they can carry over after their baseball playing days are over. And I think that's ultimately what led to what I felt like were some good results. I mean, we were able to take a, you know, Western Massachusetts has never really been a major baseball hotbed, and I'm really proud of the players and the families that came through and trusted us.

[07:06] Pete Fatse: And, and then as you know, that kind of spreads. And the next thing you know, we were working at the time with a college summer baseball program. I was on the hitting staff there. And we would have kids from all over the country come in and work at the facility on the on game days. And then that transcended into, they were started to fly back with friends in the off season.

[07:23] Pete Fatse: That's kind of how some of the remote clientele began to build. 

[07:26] Aman Loomba: Who were the players, especially at the beginning, who, who started at the academy? Like what kind of ages were you coaching and sort of what level of play were these, were these players playing at? 

‍From 9u to Pro — Coaching Players of All Ages

[07:36] Pete Fatse: So when we began, it was everybody. That's probably been the most important part of my journey.

[07:40] Pete Fatse: Like if it was a 10-year-old kid, 9-year-old kid coming in at the very base level of their development and obviously their, what we were doing with them was very different than what we would do with our high school population. We had a high school academy. Where we had, obviously there were summer prep programs that we would run, but our off seasons were more geared towards, if you're a part of our academy, you had open access to the cages.

[08:01] Pete Fatse: There were structured, uh, twice a week hitting development sessions. And you'd also have two to three times of S&C. During the morning sessions, we would have a lot, that's when our professional hitters would come in.

The Role of Strength and Conditioning in Player Development

[08:16] Narration: At his facility, Pete was coaching players across all age levels and experience. His approach had multiple layers, and one of those, as we heard, is S&C, short for strength and conditioning. Let's go drive through. Drive through. It's the off field work that helps build a well-rounded player. Strength, mobility, recovery. But for Pete, building a complete player wasn't just about what happened in the weight room or the cage,

[08:42] Narration: tt was about knowing the person in front of him, and over time he found that certain tools could help him do that more objectively. So Aman asked him, 

[08:51] Aman Loomba: You mentioned that you thought the technology was an important part of the coaching process because it allowed you to gather objective information. Is that the same philosophy that you would've had in the era before the technology?

[09:04] Aman Loomba: Is it really just about observation of the player? 

Coaching Before Technology: Why Observation Still Matters‍

[09:07] Pete Fatse: Well, I think before some of this technology came into existence, and I still think this is very true, I go back to the observation like our eyes were the most important piece, right? So if, if Trezz was watching me hit in the cage. What he sees is kind of what we would use to validate, Hey, your, your hands are coming forward a little better.

[09:23] Pete Fatse: You're sliding forward off your backside. Obviously I trusted guys like Trezz to give me feedback and I would have to, you know, work off of my feels that way. I remember being in college, we would use a video system and we would record swings, but like, to be honest, I really didn't know what I was looking at.

[09:38] Pete Fatse: So I think the way technology has evolved is it's kind of created a value system of checks and balances. You know, so now we can more objectively say like, yeah, you're under rotated with your hips, or you're over rotated with your torso. Like you can, you can more objectively measure these things, but the key is in the feedback that you give.

[09:54] Pete Fatse: It's one thing to have the information and to have the data, but it's how that resonates with the player and the cuing process that separates what I feel like really efficient coaching, because you have to know what type of feedback resonates with each guy. There are some guys that really embrace

[10:07] Pete Fatse: the data and technology and there's some guys that just need a feel or an external thought, which is obviously the best way to go. So it's, it's how you take the bits of information that you have and deliver that to the player that I think separates. I guess coaching strategy. 

How Technology Improves Communication

[10:19] Alex Trezza: Yeah. And to be clear, I didn't give him any tips about his swing that would help him until after the final game of the series.

[10:25] Alex Trezza: 'cause I didn't want him to beat us at all. So. 

[10:28] Pete Fatse: Yeah. Yeah. Yes. 

[10:29] Alex Trezza: I never really told you that, Pete, but, uh, I would give you fake tips during the series and then the real tips on the way out. That's good. 

[10:35] Pete Fatse: That's good.

[10:39] Narration: That approach, blending instinct with information became Pete's signature. Beyond helping hitters develop their mechanics, it helped them think differently about the game. By the time he joined the Red Sox, his toolkit had expanded not just in terms of tech, but in how to use it strategically.

Game Planning in the Big Leagues: Not Just Mechanics

[11:01] Pete Fatse: As much as it is about the mechanics and the mechanical like interventions and stuff. A lot of the data, the pitch data is really important to me on a and how we observe opposing pitchers, tendencies, things like that, that help shape the game plan. Because at the end of the day, it's about execution, right?

[11:14] Pete Fatse: We have to go out and we have to try and beat a starter. We have to have a process for how we want to attack each bullpen arm. And that can be individualized based on the routine or the role that player has in the team. Like if there's a high leverage lefty matchup and there's something that we think we can exploit, like data and technology helps us with that as well.

[11:31] Pete Fatse: But I think what technology and, and our systems have allowed me and my staff to do is, you know, especially in game, right? Like your eyes are the most important feature. And if you think you see something, one of the habits that I have right now, I carry a notebook every single day. And I write notes constantly.

[11:45] Pete Fatse: So if I see something that comes up or I see something that on video in the middle of the game that I feel like, you know, maybe somebody's hips aren't loading the same way, I'll make a note, cross reference that with our S&C. Hey, I think there might be some restrictions going on here. You know, tell me what you guys are seeing in the weight room.

[12:02] Pete Fatse: If there's been any modifications, then I'll follow that up with like a lot of our sports science or like systems that we have and I'll put together maybe it's comparative views of, okay, the last. 10 days versus maybe this guy was hot for three weeks. And I'll look and just validate what my eyes are seeing.

[12:19] Pete Fatse: And if, you know, typically those things line up, right? But if they don't, that's when we have to create an action plan. And it goes back to, okay, well what drills, what fields do we know this guy needs? And then how do we wanna solve the problem? Like I said, I think the most important piece and the most effective thing that we've done is create processes.

[12:35] Pete Fatse: We have, you know, 13, 14 hitters at a time. We have 13, 14 processes. Right. And then we kind of divide and conquer amongst the staff. But at the end of the day, we're trying to create a uniform message like, this is the most important thing for this player at this moment. So the technology really helps me just kind of reinforce or reaffirm what my eyes are, seeing, what our eyes are seeing.

[12:53] Aman Loomba: How do you get to know, you said you know it, 10 different players might have 10 different plans. 

[12:57] Pete Fatse: Yeah. 

[12:58] Aman Loomba:How do you get to know someone? Is there a process for getting to understand them so you can start working on a, a plan that works for them individually? 

Personalized Player Plans: Building Trust from Spring Training

[13:05] Pete Fatse: Yeah, 100%. That's where spring training is extremely valuable.

[13:08] Pete Fatse: Um, Trezz can speak to this obviously as a player too, but I ask a lot of questions. I spend a lot of time observing, and that's part of the relationship building. Like there's no substitute for good relationships in my opinion. As a coach, I think you really have to understand what makes a player tick.

[13:22] Pete Fatse: And then you ask a lot of questions. You know, when a guy takes a certain swing or has a certain miss that you see, Hey, what do you feel there? Tell me about what you feel, you know? And again, you're constantly, I think early on in your, your, when you're building relationships, you're asking a lot of questions.

[13:35] Pete Fatse: And you're gonna get a lot of answers that kind of reveal thought processes. And then from there you start to understand how a player thinks about what they're doing. And that's where you have an opportunity to impact with, like I said, with cuing and different coaching strategies. But it really starts with listening and asking a lot of really good questions.

[13:52] Narration: All the data in the world doesn't matter if a player can't do anything with it. That's where cuing comes in. The way a coach translates information into something a player can actually feel and apply to their swing. And sometimes the most effective cues aren't complex at all. They're short and simple phrases that stick.

The Power of a Cue: Translating Data into Feel

[14:11] Pete Fatse: So a cue is basically like a, a coaching phrase. So something you would say like, Hey, but you need to go forward more. Or, Hey, uh, you're missing underneath. You need to be more direct. Aim for the top of the ball. It's a directive that a coach would give. To achieve something. And again, sometimes it can be very specific, like your hands need to go up and back.

[14:30] Pete Fatse: Other times it may be the external component, which would be something, you know, focusing more out towards the field. Like, Hey, I want you to think about hitting a as a lefty, hitting a low line drive at the shortstop shoes because this guy's fastball really takes off. And if you try and get underneath him to hit the ball in the air, you're gonna miss underneath by a baseball.

[14:48] Pete Fatse: So you need to think about trying to stay on top and hit, hit a low line drive. So those would kind of be bucketed into more like an external cue, which is the objective out in front of you. And then the internal cue would be something more generated towards your body. 

Trust Over Tactics: Why Buy-In Matters More Than Buzzwords

[15:00] Alex Trezza: Yeah. For me, like I remember in college we had a hitting coach and you just used to say, Terezz, stay tall.

[15:05] Alex Trezza: Like that was the, it was very simple, right? It was just like, stay tall through my swing. Like no one really knew what it meant, but I knew what it, what it meant and how it made me feel. So like these little tiny things that coaches say and I think, um. Pete, and you can hit on this too, uh, as a extension of this question, but it's like that trust factor, like the person when you look down at them in the box, right, or in the dugout, the trust factor of like looking in your eyes and him knowing that what you say is only meant to help him and I really know what you're feeling and, and how to make you feel better.

[15:37] Alex Trezza: Talk about the trust factor. 'cause that's, you know, you talk about relationships, which is an extension of that, but the trust thing for me was huge. I've, I've had coaches that said the right cue and it doesn't sound the same. Mm-hmm. Right. As the guy, you put his arm around me, you know, on the couch, in the clubhouse at 2:00 a.m. after a struggling game.

[15:51] Pete Fatse: Yeah. Yeah. Well, the trust piece for me comes down to like, when you're at your academy, players are coming to you because they think you're good at what you do and you can help them. So there's an inherent buy-in because they're coming you to you and they're seeking you out. Right? But as a professional coach, a major league coach, you're inheriting players.

[16:12] Pete Fatse: These players have taken hundreds of thousands of swings before they get to you. It's your job to understand those swings before you make suggestions. So like I spend a lot of time before we acquire player, I even spend time when we have pre-existing players like studying their old habits, their old moves.

[16:29] Pete Fatse: Because players can sniff out when you're not prepared, or players can sniff out if you're just throwing something to the wind because like I don't really know what's going on. So I try and be very intentional with the information that I give. And I think that inherently helps buy-in and trust because players need to know that you are in the fight with them.

[16:47] Pete Fatse: You're there for them to vent when they're feeling terrible. You're there to celebrate when it's good. But I think you have to appreciate both ends of the spectrum. It's also something that doesn't happen overnight too, right? Like I think really good coaches ask other coaches really good questions too.

[17:01] Pete Fatse: You know, you can't be afraid to feel like you're vulnerable in that way, you know, like, Hey, I've had this problem before. Like, how have you helped guys with similar issues get out of this? 

[17:10] Alex Trezza: I was just gonna hit on that too, like I think it's okay, and correct me if I'm wrong here, I know I, I've done this as a coach to say like.

[17:15] Alex Trezza: I don't know. 

[17:16] Pete Fatse: Yep. 

[17:17] Alex Trezza: I'm looking at it, it looks good. Like, I don't know. Let me talk to someone else on the staff. Or maybe, maybe they have some nugget of information that I'm not seeing. I'm around you every day. Maybe we're just missing it. It's okay to say that. Right. And I, I actually feel like that breeds even more trust because they know you're not just making something up 

[17:33] Pete Fatse: 100%.

[17:35] Pete Fatse: Like 100%. And I think two, it's important to understand when you don't know, and even when you have all the information, the data, like, you know what I mean? You might feel like, you know, but it is okay to un to admit, I guess, if maybe admits the wrong word, but acknowledge like, Hey, I'm gonna, I'm gonna think on this and I'm gonna get back to you with a really good answer.

[17:54] Aman Loomba: This process seems so based around, you know, empathy and really getting to know the player you're trying to coach. Does the technology or, or even just having the data in general, ever get in the way of that? Does it sometimes make it harder to make a relationship with somebody? 

[18:08] Pete Fatse: I would say no. I think the technology enhances the way you,

[18:12] Pete Fatse: and the information enhances the relationship because there's objective truth too, right? Like at the end of the day, you may feel certain things, you may think certain things. And I think what the data has really done for me, it just creates kind of a goalpost for us. You know, like it is, this is what we're working towards and are we achieving it?

[18:31] Pete Fatse: Are we not? And can we hold ourselves accountable to those things? Because otherwise, you know, as players you can kind of chase the ghost a little bit. You, one day it might be your hips, and one day it might be your hands and one day day it's your path, and then it's your ti and it's, yes, all those things are extremely important, but what are we trying to achieve?

[18:46] Pete Fatse: Like, you have to have that established so that you have a a point of reference throughout the season.

[18:55] Narration: Great coaching goes beyond the data. It's about understanding the player, how they think, how they learn, and what makes them tick. That takes empathy, trust, and above all, curiosity. And that means asking questions to help uncover a player's true strengths. 

[19:11] Pete Fatse: Why are you a big leaguer? You're a big leaguer because you do X, Y, and z really, really well.

[19:16] Pete Fatse: Now how do we tap into those things to continue to drive value? You know, your value to the organization, to baseball, to winning baseball games? How can we build a process for you to kind of manage your current role? Understanding that we're trying to drive as much value for the player as possible over time.

[19:33] Narration: You might think that the hardest part of playing the game of baseball is hitting a 95-mile-an-hour fastball, or tracking a slider that disappears at the last second. Or maybe it's the grind, the weight room, the travel, the back-to-back games. But the truth is baseball is a deeply emotional game, and for many players, that's the hardest part.

[19:59] Narration: Managing the pressure, the doubt, the failure — it can all get in the way. 

Managing Emotions — Theirs and Yours

[20:06] Pete Fatse: Like this game is so emotional because to your point, you can do everything right and you score one run, right, because you lined out four times. Runners in scoring position. You can hit a bunch of flares, seven flares, score five runs, and it's like, yep, okay.

[20:19] Pete Fatse: We accomplished the task today. And that's one thing I've continued to work on over my career is like managing the emotional responses. Like when is it time to be upset or like, Hey, we need to really make a change here. Versus like, Hey, this is a tough game. We have to continue with our processes that we believe in.

[20:36] Pete Fatse: And I think that speaks to the players as well, right? Like the game is so emotional because every, you know, we play 162 dates plus the playoffs. You're getting 600 plate appearances. Managing emotions throughout the course of a season is really important and obviously like it's harder when you're in high school and you're, you know, you play 20 games, so it's like every game feels like the World Series.

[20:56] Pete Fatse: But emotional response is, is a really important thing for me. 

[21:00] Aman Loomba: Sounds like you, you do some amount of emotional coaching for your players as well. Does does an organization like 

[21:07] Pete Fatse: and myself and myself, emotional, and myself, yes 

[21:10] Aman Loomba: just keep, keep yourself on the level. Does, does an organization like the Red Sox also give

Inside the Red Sox Mental Skills Program

[21:14] Aman Loomba: any like psychological coaching to their players? 

[21:18] Pete Fatse: Yeah, we have a really great staff. I mean, we were fortunate to have, we've been fortunate to have, uh, mental skills coaches in the dugout. They empower us and, and give us resources so that not only we, you know, we're the ones that are closest to the action of the player.

[21:31] Pete Fatse: And players are really, you know, we're in the fight with these guys giving us the tools to help manage the processes. They've been great in terms of like giving us strategy. Some players have, um, external resources and like another big part of my job is kind of connecting with the, let's call it the team outside the team, the people that impact these guys, whether it's in, uh, private hitting coach, mental skills coach, so that I can be more equipped to help these guys.

[21:55] Pete Fatse: So I think it's the internal, it's the infrastructure that we have, but it's also kind of getting involved as much as the player feels comfortable with their own external team. 

[22:04] Narration: The emotional side of the game doesn't exist in a vacuum. It lives alongside all the data, all the tools, and all the pressure to perform.

[22:13] Narration: And with so much information now at the player's fingertips, the real challenge and the real opportunity is knowing how to use it. 

The Pendulum Is Swinging Back: From Data to Delivery

[22:21] Pete Fatse: Over the last five years specifically, there's been so many new products in the industry that we've been exposed to. I really think the game is a pendulum for me. It swings one way, it swings back.

[22:33] Pete Fatse: I personally think there's so many tech advancements. We know more about the swing, the body. We're able to analyze opposing starters. We can just do so many things that I think the pendulum is swinging back to the communication and how you drive change with your players. Not necessarily the soft skills, although a lot of it is soft skills, but I think it's.

[22:54] Pete Fatse: Okay, who can make the most of the current information right now has the competitive advantage. You know, I talk to people across the league and it's like we all have access to a lot of the same things, but I think what drives change is your ability to identify what the most important lever is to pull, and then being able to get the player to understand that through your relationship, through buy-in, through objective processes.

[23:16] Pete Fatse: And then work on course correction from there, I really think it's like we've reached this point of like, and the saturation's not the right word, but we have so much available to us. It's about distilling it down to the most important piece for that player. With an objective benchmark that we're trying to hit, and then how we attack those goals is like the most important.

[23:40] Narration: So much of what we've heard today goes beyond the big leagues and maybe matters just as much on the youth field. Beyond his work with the Red Sox. Pete also coaches his 8-year-old son who plays on both 9u and 10u teams. And working with kids has only sharpened his perspective on what really matters.

Youth Baseball Lessons from Coaching the Big Leagues

[24:00] Pete Fatse: It is funny because everybody asks me about how I coach my son. I'm trying to encourage him to, to learn as much as possible. I use a very simple cue with him. It's always about being ready to hit. I don't wanna say swing, I say swing at everything, but I want him to learn what pitches he can and can't hit.

[24:14] Pete Fatse: My whole thing has just been getting him to fall in love with baseball. I just want him to love every facet, kind of be a sponge, enjoy watching the game. And I think early on when kids observe more and they see things and they watch their favorite players. You know, I always joke about, you know, these kids that wear, you know, he's got the elbow guard and the shin, like he's, he's got all that stuff, right?

[24:34] Pete Fatse: And some people are like, oh man, you know, he's got all the swag. And I'm like, well, he's just really paying attention. You know, he sees Trevor Story, who he loves, right? He's, he's like his idol, you know? He's trying to emulate the things that they do because he's really invested in paying attention. Now, whether that's a leg guard or their stance or whatever, like I, I just.

[24:52] Pete Fatse: I just really encourage his curiosity. I try not to overcoach him. I try and give him simple cues. I also think that baseball's something that, especially with all the failure, you have to love, you know, Trezz. I feel like that's really important. Like you have to really love it and you gotta love the good and the bad, and you gotta love the struggle and the grind.

[25:11] Pete Fatse: And I think at a young age, the more you can encourage players to observe and watch the game and learn like, and fall in love with the game. I think that's ultimately at a young age, what feeds kind of those middle tiers of development. When you're 12 to 14 and you're transitioning to bigger fields and more competition, just trying to foster the love for the game, 

[25:29] Narration: Fostering a love of the game is something that needs to persist at every level of baseball.

[25:34] Narration: But what might surprise you is how many lessons Pete has learned from coaching 10-year-olds that apply just as much to big leaguers. It turns out they're not so different after all.

What Coaches at All Levels Can Learn from Each Other

[25:46] Pete Fatse: A lot of the things in the way I, I try and influence our players really is actually extremely similar to players that are just beginning their careers.

[25:55] Pete Fatse: Like patience is one for me. That's really important when you're dealing with a 10-year-old you have to be patient, right? These kids are, they're at the beginning of their journey. They're learning a lot. You know, we want to solve all these problems, but the reality is there's a lot of self understanding, like, these kids have to learn themselves.

[26:10] Pete Fatse: They have to learn the game, right? I think about my son. Patience is really important when you're, you know, thinking about how that replicates to like a big leaguer. These guys have taken, like I said, a hundred thousand swings without you. You have to be patient in terms of the process to learn how you can influence

[26:25] Pete Fatse: maybe the next 10,000 that they take. Um, being deliberate is really important. Like if I want to talk to a 10-year-old, I need to explicitly tell them in a, in the simplest form, the things that I want them to achieve. Again, with these big leaguers, these super athletic profiles, elite engines, I need to be very deliberate with the information that I want to give.

[26:44] Pete Fatse: What it really comes down to is you're operating at both ends of the spectrum, but the way you're, what you're trying to elicit is very, very similar. The other one was managing emotions. Like young kids get really frustrated really quick. A lot of big leaders get really frustrated really quick too. So how do we manage the emotional space?

[27:02] Pete Fatse: Right? And I think some of that is just knowing when to like step back and, and call a time and say, Hey, look it, number one, are you having fun? You're enjoying what you do, right? You like to compete. How do we slow this whole thing down for you in the moment to get you to execute whatever it is? You know, maybe the 10-year-old is really upset and starts to cry when they, you know, when they get out, right?

[27:20] Pete Fatse: Like, big leaguer is not, isn't necessarily crying, but inside they're, they're really frustrated. So how do we manage the emotional response? I think communication kind of falls into that bucket as well. But I think just sometimes people think that, that those two groups are so far apart when in reality there's a lot of simple elements

[27:37] Pete Fatse: to coaching that are effective to both groups. For me, having been able to coach eight and 10 year olds, you know when you're doing 50 hours a week in the cage, you know, you get a 10-year-old at four o'clock and then you have an elite high school prospect at five o'clock. The ability to press pause and meet the player where they're at in that moment, like you have to do that very quickly.

[27:57] Pete Fatse: It's no different than how we manage the cage. Right? You have a, a kid, 22-year-old rookie, first time in the big leagues. And then the next guy in the cage is Rafael Devers. Right? And you have to be able to flip the switch quickly and understand where that player's at, what they need. Those things don't really change from those two environments as much as I think we like to think they change. 

Where to Start with Tech as a Youth Coach

[28:17] Aman Loomba: For youth coaches, parents, you know, the dad who got suckered into coaching his kids little league team who go out there and they look at all the

[28:25] Aman Loomba: tech that's available and they're just wondering where to start, what would you tell them? What should a new, you know, youth coach focus on? 

[28:32] Pete Fatse: Yeah. I would say the, the place to start, if you are going to invest in some sort of technology. I think one, there's no substitute for having the ability to watch yourself.

[28:43] Pete Fatse: Like I still think watching. So being able to reflect on a game. If you can go back and you have the ability to record a game and like, hey, like, let's watch your bat here. I used this with my son yesterday. I'm talking about timing and like, hey. When are you getting me on time? I use the GameChanger App with him.

[28:57] Pete Fatse: We rewatch some of the at bats and I'm like, Hey, look where the ball is when it's [29:00] coming outta the pitcher's hand. You still haven't moved yet. You know, that means you're late. We literally just walked through and I said, Hey, look it like the ball's out of his hand and you haven't gotten started yet.

[29:09] Pete Fatse: Let's start from there. So reflection is really important, but if you're talking about like one piece of technology. I think a bat sensor is a really easy place to start. You can get a Blast bat sensor, put it on your knob, Hey, I feel like I'm missing under a lot of pitches. Well, like, let's just look at your attack angle really quick.

[29:25] Pete Fatse: Or you know, maybe it's the kid that's like, Hey, I wanna, I wanna learn to swing the bat faster. Right? Okay. Let's work on swinging your bat faster. What are you doing to help you do that? And then like, can we just see, yeah, on the balls that I hit really well. I noticed my bat speed is X, Y, or Z. You know, I notice when I try and swing too hard, my bad speed's here, but I'm not hitting the ball well, you know, and just start to correlate like, you know, where the player is relative to some of that objective information.

[29:50] Pete Fatse: That's just a really easy place to start. And I think by now too, the third would be, you know, HitTrax is great. Any, like, the launch monitors are great. I think there's no substitute for understanding what a good line drive is in the cage, right? So when I go to the field with my dad and I'm hitting like, I know this is where I want the ball to go.

[30:06] Pete Fatse: Right. So it's like just understanding why the ball flight's important is, is a reasonable place to start.

Why Strength Training Is the Next Big Opportunity

[30:16] Alex Trezza: So, looking ahead for you, where do you think the biggest gains in a player's development will come from, and do you think it's like tech or something else, or kind of a mix of, of the tech and maybe strength and conditioning or just. The level of play and talk about where do you see the biggest gains coming in the, in the next, uh, couple years?

[30:34] Pete Fatse: Yeah. I think my reference is more to what I'm seeing at the big league level. Like these kids are coming up and they are so athletic and strong and fast. I think about this with my son, my daughter a lot. It's preparing to maximize your body as best as you can, taking care of your body. Learning, I think at an appropriate age, how to get involved with strength and conditioning, how to prioritize moving explosively and fast, spending time understanding how valuable that is will set you up for your more advanced amateur stages when you know, 'cause there's, you know, young kids right now that are dragging the bat and they want to go fix their swing.

[31:12] Pete Fatse: And I look at it as this kid is eght years old and weighs 60 pounds and the bat's swinging him. Right? So it's like understanding when the physical development needs to happen and then when to advance the physical development. Because like I said, a lot of these kids are coming to the big leagues with, you know, advanced swings and, and they've been exposed to a lot of this technology for a while.

[31:32] Pete Fatse: I see the biggest gains with the physical development space, right? Like there's just building the best engine that you can. And if we're referencing like high schoolers, like spending time, getting in the weight room I think is an important thing. And just understanding your body. I think that's a really important facet of development and I think like we typically see that with kids that go from high school to college, right?

[31:50] Pete Fatse: Maybe a kid's never really had a formal development plan physically. And they get to college and all of a sudden they're moving the bat faster. They're hitting the ball harder by nature of they're just getting stronger and in the weight room more. So I think like any way to advance that is, is probably your best bet

Tech, Trust, and What Really Drives Change

[32:08] Narration: As we've heard throughout this season so far ,and in today's conversation with Pete, tech is just one piece of the puzzle in baseball and softball. It gives players an objective lens, a way to see their game more clearly, but to actually create change, it has to be paired with emotional intelligence, trust, and empathy.

[32:27] Narration: And that applies at every level from the big leagues to the backyard. The real value of tech comes when it helps players and coaches better understand the game and each other. This has been Athletic Intelligence from GameChanger. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to follow, rate, and share it. I hope you'll join us next time as we uncover the tech that's shaping the game.