D1 Skill Set For College Baseball

Hey, how you doing? Alex Swenson here. I'm excited that you're here and I'm excited to go over this topic with you. Honestly, it's been one of the most requested topics to cover, so I'm excited to bring it to you and to cover this and to really answer any questions that you may have that I might have missed during this video and this content that I'm sharing with you and to understand where I'm coming from. This is coming from where I was a Division 1 player and honestly I wasn't a great Division 1 player. I was really just an average Division 1 player. But I've been around a lot of great Division 1 players as a player and I also coached and recruited at the Division 1 level. So this is coming from a scouter, a scouter's view, a player's view, and just my experience in talking with scouts and recruiters and coaches at the Division 1 level. And I need to say this, there are many, many great levels. All of the levels are great. And at the college level, okay? Of course we've got Division 1, which we're going to cover today. Division 2, Division 3, Junior College and NAI. All of them are amazing. Okay? But I just know that most of you all are going for Division one and that honestly, you guys have requested this and I'd be happy to go Division 2, Division 3, Junior College and NIA. I'd be happy to cover that if that's what you guys want. Please comment down below with any questions, any comments that you guys have, and if you like this video, select like thumbs up and subscribe. I put up a weekly video every week about recruiting, about self development and just continue to try to improve ourselves. With that said, let's dive into today's topic. Alright guys, let's get into it. So I want to start with the mind because it really does start with that. Everything kind of follows from there because if we don't have a good mindset of about what we're doing, how we're going about things, the physical stuff is not really just going to work out or really we're just not giving ourselves the best chances. So a Division 1 skill set or one that you should be striving for, especially going through this recruiting process is having a really disciplined mind, okay? And a disciplined routine and disciplined habits. So what does really discipline mean? To me, it means doing something consistently even when you do not want to do it. Okay? You hear motivation a lot. And again, motivation. Motivation is great to get things going, but Motivation is fleeting, it doesn't last. Discipline is actually what keeps you going. Okay? So have a discipline mind. Be disciplined with your practices, with your training and doing things when you don't feel like doing. Because there's going to be days where you're tired, okay. And just where you rather go do something else. Maybe it's with a friend, but you know, you need to get your training in you, you stay disciplined to your routine because you have that long term picture and long term goal and yet you know how to get to that end goal. You have to stay disciplined. Okay? Plays when down. Okay, I should say knows how to play when down. There's too many players in the high school level that when they're down and when I mean down, you could be losing or you could be having a bad game and they, they fold, right? They kind of collapse. Their body language is not good, just goes all down here. But when you start learning how to play when you're down and continue to be good at what you do in your position and be a good teammate and be a good leader, that is a Division 1 skill set and especially a great Division 1 skill set, because I'm going to be real with you. Not everybody at the Division 1 level does this, right? There are some players that get really down and have bad mindsets, but we don't want to be like that, right? So we need to start this right now in high school, especially through this recruiting process. So learn how to play when down, whether it's losing or if you're having a bad game. Okay? Sense of urgency. Hey, have a sense of urgency to know that somebody's always coming for your position. Okay? Somebody's hungry out there. To take your position, you need to have a sense of urgency. Continue to work and to train and to practice and to play and to help others around you. Okay? Leads by example, being a leader. And there's all different forms of leaders, but what successful people do, if you. And there's all different types of successful people, whether it's in baseball or just life in general. But if you kind of come down to it, of what's something very common amongst them, even though there's many different successes and many different leaders, it's action. They take action, right? Lead by example, by just taking action, doing what you're supposed to be doing, being a good person, being a good teammate, and again, going back to doing what you're supposed to be doing, which is training, practicing, working on your skill set. Awareness has really good body awareness, and body awareness is so important, because you can make adjustments as you go. There's going to be times and there will be times that you need to make adjustments on the fly, okay? Whether it's at bat, whether it's going through your motion, that you need to have good body awareness so you can make adjustments as needed. That goes with your mind and mindset. If you feel like your ego is getting too involved or you're about to get really upset and it's not a good situation, you're aware of that and situational. Reading the situation around you, reading the people around you and going off, making the best judgment, making the best decision that you can, and this gets to the next one. Make good decisions on and off the field. This is a skill set, okay, that the great ones have and that we should be striving to have. You're not going to be perfect at this, but you need to be striving to get to these bullet points here all the way through, okay? Make good decisions off the field and make the decisions on the field. Let's get into physical, okay? Actually, before we get into physical, I want to go into how you practice. Okay, guys, if I were to give you the same training and practice things that the big leaguers do, right? But you go at it just kind of nonchalant, it doesn't really matter. It's not going to really do much for you. So my point is, it's not about what you practice. It's about how you practice. Are you bringing focus, effort, and intention to it? So anytime you're doing something, anytime a coach tells you to do something or something that you're doing on your own, you need to have full focus, full effort, and full intention. And that's really where you're going to get better and improve your skillset, especially on the physical side, because I know that's what a lot of us want to know. The physical side, to have full focus, full effort, full intention, and do not go through the motions, okay? Too many guys go through the motions of great drills, but they don't get anything out of it because they didn't have those three components, okay? On the physical side. So this needs to. You guys need to understand that, hey, we should be striving to get to this point, whether it depends on what year you are. Now. If you're a senior in high school, you need to be at the measurables that I'm about to talk about, okay? If you're a freshman or sophomore, you don't need to be there quite yet, okay? So I'm going over these measurables right here of what a Division 1 skill set looks like for a pitcher of all the positions. Okay. So for a pitcher's standpoint. And we're going to go at really all the levels. So really just the power fives. Okay. The highest level, division one and then the mid major. So I'm going to stick with this to keep it simple. So right handed pictures from a miles per hour. We have to have vlo. Okay. It is important. Okay. Especially at a high level, the power five. We want to be 8,788 going into there at least. Okay, 8,788. When I was at Ole Miss, we had 10 guys throw over 92. And this is consistently. Okay. So you can't just pop 87 once and then you're consistently 83, 84, 85, 86. Okay. You need to be consistently to be at a power five. Okay. You need to be consistently there. Are there exceptions to this? Yes, there's exceptions to all this. But the majority is this left handed pitcher. Okay. Left handed pitcher. Hey, around 85, 86, right in that range for mid major again consistently. And then they're popping maybe 88, 89 as we go. Okay. Has very good command. Pitchers have very good command. At least two pitches that they can throw for a strike. Good breaking ball, slider and a developing changeup. Okay. As far as skill set, may you have good. A good repeatable mechanics. Okay. That helps you throw strikes. So you need to have velo. You need to throw strikes and make repeatable. Excuse me, Repeatable mechanics as you go. Okay? So from a, from a pitcher's perspective, that is a skill set that Division 1 players have or Division 1 players that are going into it have. And if you're not, if you're a sophomore, you don't have that yet. Hey, that's okay. You're working to that. Okay, you're working to that. From a catcher standpoint, ooh, this is. This hits my heart right here because I was a catcher. So pop time is important. Okay. It is flashy. I was never a huge pop dime guy. I was just kind of consistent. Average. I told you guys earlier I was just an average player. But I did everything kind of well, just not great. And that contributed. You know, I wasn't really high in one level and really low in one level. I was just kind of really good or not really good. Just average at everything and contribute where I needed to contribute. But for a catcher standpoint, 2, 0 and below is really kind of what we need, of course, there's exceptions to that. If you got a really good hitting catcher that hits, you know, like close to 4 to.500, with a lot of home runs, a lot of doubles, they'll take a.205, maybe two one, and hopefully develop them. Again, there's exceptions to this, but what we want as a catcher is 2, 0 right around there and is able to really, really, really receive really well and can handle arms, okay? And that it just has a leader Persona about them. Walks around like a leader, but can handle pitchers really well. Okay? And then we got to be able to block as well. Okay? But we got to be able to hand velo. And especially at a high level, we got to be able to handle 90, 92 with movement, okay? And handle those really well and help be again, be a leader behind the plate. Middle infielders, hey, we need to have good feet. We need to have good hands, smooth hands, working through the ball. Again, some of this stuff is subjective to the scout. I'm trying to be as foundational as I can, but really good feet, really good hands, good range in the middle infield, has a good arm and can run, like, run six, nine or below. If we're looking at arm strength, you know, at a high level, you know, you're 85, 86, 87 and above easily. And then mid major division ones, you're still kind of around there, honestly. Okay? Middle infielders do need to hit, okay? They need to hit well for average and for some pop. Go back real quick. For catchers, hey, you still need to hit, okay? Defense is number one, no doubt about it. But at the Division 1 level, you still got a hit, okay? I was like a.280 hitter in college, okay? Trust me, I wish I was better and I wish I would have been more. But that, hey, I got it, I got it done. But I was a really good defensive catcher and that kept me in the game, okay? And I was able to handle pitchers well. Okay? But you got to be able to hit at all positions. I don't really care what you, what you, what you've heard, you got to be able to hit a little bit, okay? So middle infielders, you really got to hit, got to hit better than really the catchers, okay? Or you have to be absolutely superb middle infield, like on another world. Corners, hey, we need some power. Corners, we need some power, especially at the highest level in the power fives. Third baseman got to have a good reaction being over there at the hot corner. And footwork and hands somewhat. Doesn't have to be the middle infielder's level, but hey, reaction. Quick first step to get to that ball that's down the line or in the hole. And then, hey, we got to be able to hit. Okay, Running, not much of a big deal. First baseman, hey, have good footwork at first base around the bag, be able to pick it. And again, hey, mash, mash, mash, mash. Okay. Outfielders need to go get it in the outfield. Okay? Try your best to play center as much as you can if you're in the outfield in high school and summer ball because it helps you with reads. It helps to see if you can go get balls in your range out there. You got to be able to hit a little bit. Average and power, not like the corners, but still hitting really, really helps. Arm needs to be pretty good and you got to be able to run. Got to be able to run. Okay, but as far as the skill set, I covered a lot there and I try to condense it, but let me know what questions you have down in the comments. I hope this helps. Use this as goals and things to reach for going through your high school career and moving forward again. Go on and comment down below like and subscribe if you haven't already and I'll see you in the next video.