Tips for Strengthening Your Pitching Motion from Coach Sean Taunt

Tristan: Alright, welcome in everyone! We have with us on the line, a very special guest, his name is Sean Taunt. He's hailing from the West Coast today. He is a pitching coordinator and head of marketing for Big League Edge, which is a baseball training facility and baseball league facility out there on the West Coast. He's also the associate head coach for Pacific Lutheran University. Excited to get some insight from him tonight. Coach, how are we doing?

Sean: We're doing great guys, thanks so much for having me.

Tristan: Absolutely. Thank you for joining us. We want to get into the nitty gritty, want to hear about Big League Edge and the VPX Harness that you folks are working on and how it might be able to help some of our young athletes out there as well. But of course, we want to start at square one where we start with all of our guests and hear a little bit of your story. We want to know how you got to where you're at right now, where you grew up, you were playing baseball. At what point did you say, "I'm going to take the coaching route" and try and go coach at Pacific Lutheran? I know that you started at Big League Edge prior to that. Give us the roadmap for you.

Sean: Yeah. When I was a senior in high school I was a pitcher/first baseman and back then, I don't want to say training was nonexistent, but the landscape of it was certainly different than it is today. It was more like, just see what you can figure out on your own. And we all just kind of emulated who we saw on TV. And then we kinda went out and did our thing. And so my senior year I had some offers from some community colleges. And then one day I threw a pitch in the bullpen getting ready to go on a game and I felt the sharp pain. And it ended up being that I tore my labrum.

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At the time I went to a couple of different doctors and they were a little iffy cause I was so young on doing it back then. It wasn't like it is now where everybody's seems surgeries are prominent now. Right? So they didn't really want to do anything cause there was a chance I could come out worse. And so I just let it heal on its own. By the time it did, it was too late. And so my baseball playing career ended sooner than I wanted it to. So I was pretty bitter and hated baseball for about a good year, year and a half. And then my old high school coach that I played for, who's a really, really good friend of mine to this day, he called me when I was just turning 20 and asked me to come on staff and start coaching.

And so I did. I found it was kind of a calling of mine and I was pretty good at it. And so I coached there for nine years and in the process when I was 20, 21, I obviously knew who Jim Parque was. At the time, he was throwing for the White Sox. And it was before he got hurt.

And then when he got hurt, his brother lived here in Washington. He still does actually. And so Jim came up here just to kind of hang out and be near family and, and rehab his shoulder after he got hurt. And he happened to, out of all places, pick the trainer that worked out in the gym that was part of the facility I worked at at the time I was in college. And so I heard he was next door. So I went over there and sort of BSing with him and he kind of shared with me his plans of what he wanted to do after baseball and start an academy. And I was all about it. And so once he retired, I kinda, you know, we started talking again and, I helped him start Big League Edge. You know, shoot,and that was... Gosh, 17 years ago.

And then, you know, along the way, I coached at the high school level for nine years. And one of the pitchers that I had, you know, that I, didn't play for me in high school, but he played for me in the summer, ended up getting pretty good and it was a kid I'd worked with since he was really little.

And PLU came along, the former head coach there that's at Portland now, came along and recruited him and he committed to PLU and then he kept showing up to watch him play in the summer. And then when they ended up with an opening on staff for a pitching coach, you know, they started coming out to more summer games as it turns out, to watch me to see if I was somebody they wanted on staff. And they hired me and I went to PLU and shoot, man, the rest is history and, and I moved up and now I'm the associate head coach and now my eighth year there. And yeah, that's how that happened.

Tristan: Sure. So now I want to know a little bit. Obviously Jim Parque talked to you about his plans for Big League Edge. And I can go blue in the face talking about it just based off maybe what I've read online and following you folks on social media, but give us the 10,000 foot view of BLE and what you folks are all about. I know you have some leagues going. You have some teams going. You're a training facility as well. Give us the 10,000 foot view there.

Sean: Yeah, so Big League Edge, we are, you know, we're not for everybody. I mean, we're very forthcoming about that. We wanted to start a place where it was all about teaching kids, you know, what it actually takes. What it actually takes to climb in baseball. Not necessarily, you know, professionally for everybody. Because obviously we all know that's a small percentage, but what it takes to just get better and get to the next level, whatever that ends up being. Whether it's your high school team or college or whatever. You know, what does matter, what doesn't matter. We tend to, we obviously are a very good teaching program, but we want it to be very much about player development and helping kids see exactly... You know, you have to face some honesty at times, and you have to be willing to change, and you have to be willing to work hard. And, you know, and we definitely don't sugarcoat everything for everybody. We're going to be honest with you, but we're also going to help you with what it takes to get the next level.

So what we do is we are a player development facility. We have a training program for our in-house travel program, which is Prospect United, which has locations across the country now. And we train twice a week in there and they train. We have a very senior resume group of instructors from former pro scouts, college coaches, current college coaches, former professional players, current ones that maybe are at home for the winter break or whatever. They train twice a week. They have a strength component to it. And then we also, you know, obviously offer camps and private instruction. And then we'd go out and offer support to those teams during the summer. Whether it's helping out the coaches in the dugout or helping give pointers during games, things like that. So we're a player development facility that's grown over the years and now we do stuff... I mean, Jim and I go all over the country, and train programs now. Washington actually is a small portion of what we do now. We do a lot all across the country.

Craig: Just a little more about Big League Edge. You know, you mentioned it's not for everybody, but then you told us a lot of these really great features about it. Maybe another way to describe it is, you know, what is Big League Edge not? You know, what makes it not a right fit for everybody?

Sean: Yeah. So there's a lot. I mean, if you're looking for a place that you can just come in and, you know, regardless of how you are, we're going to tell you that you know, all you gotta do is do this and this and you can get to pro ball. Or if you want someone to just tell you that everything you're doing is right all the time, or you don't need to change anything, probably not a good fit for you. I mean, we're very good at what we do. It's a very good program, which is why it's utilized all over the country now. But, we are going to tell you what you might not be very good at at that point in time and what you need to be willing to change. You know, and a lot of times that's hard for people to hear because it's just not the way the world so much anymore.

But you know, it's a matter of, "Hey, if you truly want to come in and get better and you truly want to take that next step as a baseball player, then, I mean, you know, you're going to have to hear maybe what you need to get a little bit better at."

And that's kind of where, you know, when I say we're not for everybody, that's what I mean is not everybody's into it for that. They just kind of want to go do their thing and have a good time and that's it. That's all. And we're more about the more serious career minded baseball player that wants to really make a run at it and see if the, how far they can go. And so they're willing to change things and do what they need to do mold their game to excel more.

Tristan: Sure. I love that. Being forthright, I think is obviously the way to do it. If you want to better your game, sounds like Big League Edge would be a great place to do that as well. Now I want to ask you, you were playing in high school, you staved off baseball for a year, eventually got onto the coaching realm. Now, in addition to the young players listening to this podcast who hopefully will check out Big League Edge, we do have some coaches. Youth baseball coaches, youth sports coaches that are training their kids out there. When you made that transition, is there something that you pointed out or that you maybe figured out early on? A couple of tips, to become a better coach as opposed to a better player that you can give to our listeners out there?

Sean: You know, one of the things I found early on that I still hold with me that has really... You have to be if you're going to be a guy... First and foremost for me is I've never been a guy that, I'm not a yeller, like I'm not a screamer. Like I don't, I mean I can probably count on one hand in a season at the college or even in the summer when I coach teams, the amount of times I've actually like yelled at somebody, like that's just not my way. I mean, I understand it works for some guys. It's just not me. However, one thing I've always been is I've always treated players like very to the point and matter of fact. And I've found that for me if, regardless of the age, because I mean, I've had 13 year old groups all the way up to obviously college. And I found that if you're able to go up to players and say, for example, like if you want to be in the lineup, you have to be able to do this. This is where our shortcomings are. Now we have to be able to do this. You know, this is why you're struggling to handle the ball on the inside half. You have to be able to do this to better do that. You know, for, hey, if we're going to go ahead and, you know, swing at this pitch here, then we have to lay off of this pitch. And I found that if you're just matter of fact and you just explain, you know, Hey, if your goal is to be in the lineup and play this position, then you have to be able to do this.

I found that if you're just upfront and honest and very matter of fact about it, I mean, it does two things. One, it clearly communicates as a coach what you want, so it saves you hassles and frustration on the back end because there's no confusion. And two, just that there's no confusion on the player's end and players know exactly where they stand and what they need to do, and it sets clear expectations. I've been around some coaches that don't always set the groundwork like that. It just comes unglued when things maybe don't go so well. And a lot of times, I mean, of course nobody wants to screw up and nobody wants to suck at anything or whatever, but if there's no clear understanding as to what's going to get you into or keep you out of a lineup, then a lot of times it just leads to frustration and players leave and quit and miscommunicate with the coach and it's not good for either end. So one of the first things I learned was if you just are very to the point and very calm, but to the point of clearly state expectations as to what you want and what it's going to take for them to get what they want, it really clears the air and makes it much easier on both ends. And the other thing that I really make it a point is if you're going to be that guy and you could, you know, of course, I mean, there's going to be times where you need to not necessarily come down on somebody, but I mean, tough love is part of coaching, right? I mean, you have to get in somebody's ear at times. I mean, it is what it is. And I've always found that it's fine to do that as long as you have the other side. And when they do things well, the first voice they hear is yours. If that's the case, and your players really believe that you've got their back and you're going to be there when they go 0-4, just like you are when they're 4-4, then they're less likely to tune you out and just check out when you do come down on them. It's almost like they almost feel the same way you do when you're coming down on them, like they feel like they're pissed just as much as you are about it if you have the other side. If players feel like you're going to be there for them all the time, then they're going to wear that correctly rather than just being like, you know what, the only time he ever talks to me is when he's pissed, you know?

So I found that if you're going to be the guy that has high expectations and comes down on guys when they don't meet them, then you also need to be the guy that's the first voice they hear building them up when they do things well.

Craig: Yeah. Really good advice for our coaches out there. Setting expectations, communicating those expectations, and making sure that, if they don't meet the expectations, they know. And if they do meet the expectations, they know it. So that's really great to hear. So a question that I have related to how you communicate expectations and how you set expectations. Is there something that's common you see early on when you're working with players that doesn't meet your expectations or that's maybe like a bad habit that a lot of players struggle with? Something that you see often?

Sean: So, for me, you know, when I get players new, most times they're like freshmen in college, right? So they've come from, they're usually the best, if not one of the best players around on their high school team or in their league or what have you. And so a lot of times, I mean, I don't know how it is in the rest of the country, but a lot of times in Washington here, or the surrounding Pacific Northwest, a lot of times you know, when they've come from high school, they're not... They're good athletes, but they're not good baseball players. So for example, the thing I see that's lacking today that we have to touch on most times with kids is how to play the game. For example, you cannot cover both sides of the plate all the time as a hitter.

So if you're, for example, if you ask a kid what their "600" pitch is, so what their favorite pitch to hit out of the yard is, a lot of them won't have any clue what to tell you as far as where it is. I just say, I don't know. I just swing and I mean, that doesn't really get it done. So a lot of times what it is, is making kids understand that, hey, if you really want to be good, you can't cover the whole plate. So, if you're willing to swing at a pitch, you know, one thing, I'll give you an example, one thing we say to kids all the time. "Hey, if you're willing to swing at a pitch down and away at your knees when you're 2-0 or 1-0, then you're not a threat to me as a pitcher." Like you're not a threat to me if I know that pretty soon you're just going to get impatient and wave at that and flip it into the ground, you're not a threat to me. But if you take that pitch and wait until I miss, and then you hammer that pitch, that's a threat to me because that puts the pressure on me that I can't miss. That's a tough thing, but if I know that I can literally bowl it up there and you'll swing eventually, that's not a threat to me.

So, or players learning when it's time to take risks on the base path and when it's not time to take risks on the base path. The big thing now in high school with pitchers is they want to come in and they all want to tell you how good their breaking ball is, and they all want to tell you how good their off-speed stuff is or whatever, but yet they can't take the fast ball and throw it for strikes whenever they need to or throw it, you know what I mean?

And so it's like teaching them that, hey, if you really want to dominate on the mound, if you really want to win the mental battle, you take your fastball when you're behind in the count and throw a pitch that they don't want to swing at. That's how you win the mental battle. You throw a pitch that's a strike, but they don't want to swing at it cause it's a good pitch. That's having, that's how you win it. And it's not about how good your breaking ball is or anything. It's about if you can take your fast ball and throw it, you know, wherever you want to throw it, whenever you need to throw it there.

And so it's, for me, the thing we find with players a lot is it's more like teaching them the game. And I don't know if maybe it's because kids don't necessarily watch the game. I know they don't watch the game as much as like we used to when we were kids, like on TV. But, I feel like nowadays the shortcoming is kids, you know, like we always refer to it as not having a whole lot of sav, right? Like not having a whole lot of understanding the game and being able to play the game. So we have to... It's not so much technique-wise or fundamentals-wise when they get to us. It's more like, hey, you need to learn how to, you need to learn how to play the game a little bit because now everybody's good. And so you need to learn how you can better fit your role and maximize your ability.

Tristan: No doubt. You need to have the talent, but also you need the fundamentals. You also need to continue to work your way past it because you know the guy next to you is definitely going to be doing that too. Now let me ask you, at Big League Edge you go on your website there and you see all these posts about the VPX baseball harness. Tell us a little bit about that harness. What it does for your players and do you use that to try and help them break some of those bad habits that you were just talking about there?

Sean: Yeah, so it was funny because about, I don't know, eight years ago now, Jim and I were sitting one night after training was done, and we're like, we spend every night down here talking to all these players and all these kids saying, hey, you need to stay loaded longer. You need to get connected to the ground. You're not staying back, you know, all that stuff that we all say. And they would look at us and be like, "Okay, yeah, no, I understand." But then they just do it wrong again. And so, and then they'd look at us and be like, "Hey, was that right?" And we're like, "Well, no, it's not. It's wrong again." You know? And so we were talking and we're like, either we really suck at this and we're not very good at teaching this or there's something missing here. Like there's a piece that's not connecting. And we finally realized that what was missing was their ability to feel what we were saying.
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So like we can tell a kid over and over again, "Hey, you need to stay back. You're not staying back right here." And they can do it wrong and then come and watch video, for example, and see it. But unless they could feel as it was happening, there's no way for them to fix it. Because they wouldn't find out until after and then you do it wrong again. So we realized that we needed a way to give them the ability to feel exactly what we were seeing and what we were telling them. So we invented the VPX harness as a way originally just for us to help with our players. And then one night, I threw it up on social media while we were working with some kids with it. And, man, we got flooded with calls from major Division One programs that we know that follow us. And they were like, man, you know, what is that thing? Like, this is the same problem our guys have! You know? And then we got some calls from some pro guys and what it does is it teaches your body how to move correctly. So like, we all inherently are losing power at some point by leaking forward too early or rotating to get our front foot down, flying open too early. You know, all this stuff we all know happens. But what this does is it gives you feedback that you feel, so you know the split second that that is occurring.

So you know exactly when it's happening and you also know when it doesn't happen, so you don't get any feedback if you move correctly. So, it's like the guy that I go out to recruit and he's, you know, 83, 85 [MPH] and then all of a sudden there's an 87, 88 and then it goes right back to 83, 85. Well, that's because the 87, 88 is in his arm. He's just not moving correctly. So when he peaks his movement and he gets connected to the ground first and he's loaded, that's when the 87, 88 comes out. So it's in his arm. He's just not moving efficiently to get it. So what this does is it takes all that power that's essentially dormant in you because you're not using it and it trains you to move on time and it trains your heels to get connected first and you to stay loaded longer so that you can bring out all that power every single time. And so, I mean, it just, you know, I mean it's a problem that athletes from 11, 12 years old all the way to the big leagues. I mean, it happens. I mean, it's just a problem with movement. It's just natural. People drift forward. And, there's never been a way to feel exactly when it's happening. And so that's what this gives. And so now it's everywhere. I mean, it's in 22 big league organizations and tons of universities across the country. And I mean, it's on the softball side as well. And, that's what it does, is it trains you to peak. It trains you to peak your movement. So you know, if you drift forward too early, it picks your back foot up so you know exactly that it's happening right then. And when you don't move, when you don't drift too early and you move correctly, you don't get anything. You just, you don't feel anything.

Tristan: Heck of a success story there, that's for sure. Obviously, it could be a problem with listening, but like you said, once you get that sensation in there, it changes the game. So how long has the product been around now? How many years?

Sean: Yeah. So this is our, jeez. So there are, I believe it's our fourth year on the market.

Tristan: Okay. And so from that...

Sean: Third year on the market. Yeah.

Tristan: Okay, so then from that first prototype or first harness that you came out with, has there been any advancements that you made to the product? Are there different kinds of maybe one for off-speed pitches, one for nailing down that fast ball or on the hitting side? Is there any kind of different product advancements you've made on it?

Sean: So there's no differences for the hitting and pitching side or for like different kinds of pitches. It's one harness, but we've redesigned the bungees a little bit. Just to give you a little bit easier feel, but still give you the feedback you need. And we've kind of reinforced the buckle on it a little bit, just to be a little bit more comfortable and, yeah. But, but as far as the, it's the same product for hitting and pitching and it gives you the exact same feedback. So, I mean, it's been awesome. You know, I've literally, I mean, I have a pitcher that's at our place that, he came to our place and good, loose, live arm, but he had no, literally had no idea how to throw a breaking ball. And he got to our place. And so we worked on it, but he was so far forward all the time that he just couldn't spin a breaking ball. And I would sit there and I would tell him, and I would tell him, and I'd tell him. I mean, this is a private school kid, right? So this is an intelligent kid. And he couldn't figure it out. So I threw the harness on him. And all I said to him was, "Hey, we're going to throw sliders right here. But don't let this harness pull your back foot up. Fall like this." And then I let him go. And the first pitch he threw, he literally almost fell on his face because he drifted forward so early that his back foot came up so early.

And I had always seen that. But until that happens, he had no idea, like no idea. And then all of a sudden a light bulb went on. And then about, the next five or six pitches, it became not about what, not about throwing the breaking ball, but it became about, "Okay, hey, I don't want my foot to get pulled up so I gotta stay loaded longer."

And then pretty soon the slider started coming out. And shoot, he was all-conference that year with a good little slider and it wasn't because of anything I told him, it was literally because he could finally feel the difference. And so he would play long toss and throw bullpens with that harness on, do drill work. And pretty soon he totally, he got the idea and he stayed loaded longer. Now he's an all-conference guy and big time, big time career guy for us.

Craig: That's great. Let's get into the drills in a little bit more detail here. You know, at Hustle, we're all about these types of drills. So it sounds like there's drills that are better with the harness. Can you talk about any kind of drills that are made for or designed around the harness or anything that is better with the harness on?

Sean: Yeah. So you're saying like pitching drills or just drills in general?

Craig: Yeah. Yeah. Pitching drills, maybe even hitting drills. You mentioned the back leg during hitting.

Sean: Yeah. So the harness itself is, I mean, it works with any drill you can imagine. I mean, it helps every single drill because it helps you train to stay loaded during it. But as far as drills go, one of my favorite pitching drills... I'm really big on, you know, being able to get from the top of your lift and what your move from there is. What you do from the top of your lift when you pitch is critical to having success. Because what a lot of people do is they go right from the top of their lift and they just begin to tip forward. When what should happen is your hands break, but that should all happen over the rubber and you separate down and then you know your back hip starts to push.

So one of my favorite drills, I'll have guys just kind of pause a couple times. We call it a separation drill and we'll start at the top of our lift. And then I'll have them separate down and break their hands. So the glove, the glove hand just goes, thumbs down and flips over. So it's still up high, but it flips over and then the ball drops down kind of by your hip. And so you'll pause and you know your front leg moves down a little bit. So you start at your lift and then you separate and drop the leg down and you pause there. And a lot of times what happens is when kids do that the first few times their front foot is going to touch the ground or they're going to lean forward because their brain says, "Hey, it's time to go." And they drift forward because that's what they've always done.

So what this does is the first step is getting them to do that move without falling down the mound. And so what I'll do is I'll have them come set and then go start about half game speed and lift. And then separate down and hold. And once I can do it, half game speed, I'll move to full game speed and they'll come set and then it's lift, separate until they can do that. And you know, pause without touching the ground or drifting forward. And then once you can do that, you go do that same spot, go into the same position, and then you go right into the ground and land. And what you're doing is you're teaching your body that before it lunges out into your stride, into your foot strike, you have to have that downward move first so that you can work into the slope of the mound, not just be top heavy and fall down into it. So the separation drill for pitchers, I mean we do that at the school every day. We have a station for that and it's great. It's such a beneficial drill because that is the part of the delivery, in my opinion, where most pitchers lose it is right there from the top of the lift cause they just begin to fall down the mound. And once you can learn to move downward first just for a little tick before you start to push, man, you give your arm time to get up into position, your head stays back, everything gets better.

Tristan: I love that, especially when you're working with them every day. You said that's part of a station circuit of some sorts. Is that what it is?

Sean: Yeah. So, you know, at the school we have staff of, you know, 14, 15 pitchers a year. So, you know, what we do is I'll do a circuit where I'll have three different stations of drill work going on. So like I'll have a station where guys are doing that drill with the VPX harness on.

And then I'll have another one where guys are starting in their landing, so in their foot strikes. So like they just landed in the mound, they've got their glove up and the ball up and they're way back. They'll start in that position and they'll just have a partner at short distance. And they'll rotate through and easy throw to their partner. Because what it does is it teaches you to correctly get your back hip around. Because most people when they do that drill, like if you go and you start in that position, like you just landed, most people, especially younger kids when they first and you say, okay, now we're here, now rotate and throw. Their back leg won't even come around and it's because their body is so used to recruiting their chest and their head and all that, and just their arm to throw that that is what rotates and their lower body doesn't do anything.

And so obviously that's not correct. And so what that drill does is it teaches you how to recruit that muscle and get your hip around from the ground. And so it teaches you inherently, your body knows how to throw a baseball. You just have to teach it how to recruit the right parts of your body to get it to home plate.

So I'll have a group doing that. I'll have a group doing the separation drill. I'll have a group that's at like 25 feet just doing like 20% fastball in, breaking ball away sequences. Just one. And then the other for about 20. And then I'll have a group actually that throws footballs. So if you, one of my favorite tools to teach getting out in front is to throw a football because the best throwing mechanics in my opinion are quarterbacks. Because there's no way... The quarterbacks that can really spin it have just unbelievable throwing mechanics and stay back so well on the ball and they get such good extension.

So we will literally have guys come set from the stretch with a football and they will lift and go through their delivery just like normal, but they're throwing a football. And the goal is to get the nose of the football on point, like on line, or tilted down a little bit. Because if you can do that, that means you're getting out in front and you're speeding up your hand late. That's the thing I love about quarterbacks is their hand acceleration is so late. It's out in front of the head and speeds up late just like it should with pitchers. And so if you're early and you speed up too early, that's when you see like the wounded duck throws, right, and the bad spirals and it wobbles. But if you're on time, it'll spiral and it'll be nose straight or nose down. So we have a group doing that and we just rotate through, and if we have 15 minutes of individual time at practice that day with our position groups, that's what we'll do. 15 minutes. And we'll rotate through and go through all this stuff just to reinforce habits.

Tristan: I love that. That's incorporating some other sports there. Coach, well appreciate your time here today. I want to ask you, here at Hustle, you know we're all about technology in our sports training. Want to know with Big League Edge, is there any kind of tech that you get involved there with your academy outside of the harness itself?

Sean: Yeah. We use a Rapsodo with both sides, with the hitting and pitching. Just to kind of help guys see spin. My favorite part about it on the hitting side is it's a great tool cause it shows you barrel angle through contact. I love that because it's a great way, you know, you can, again, it's that feedback thing, right? So you can take the barrel speed, the exit speed that it shows you, and you can couple it with the barrel angle. I mean, I'm not a huge launch angle guy myself. I don't really get into that very much. I believe that. I mean, everybody's different and there's definitely a piece in the game for it and I think it's great for certain aspects, but for me personally, I feel like the baseball is going to tell you what you need to know. But with Rapsodo, the things I love about it are the two pieces I love about it is that it shows you that speed and the angle of your barrel through the zones so you can look at it and how it correlates. And the steeper your barrel gets, and the worse angle it is, you could just look at the angle of it and the worse the angle is, the lower your barrel speed is, your exit speed is. And that's because you're totally dropping your backside and flying open. And so you're essentially, you know, all the weight is at the end of the bat, right? So you're essentially dragging like a cinderblock through the zone. So the more you're dragging and swinging up, the slower your speed because your body has to drag that weight through.

But the more your barrel stays on plane and, you know, it gets a little bit of lift, but the more it's on plane and not extreme like that, the higher your exit speed because you can use your biceps and your upper body to support the barrel and fire it through.

So I love that piece of it. And we also use the King of the Hills. You know, we have a partnership, with King of the Hill through the VPX harness. And Rich does a great job, the King of the Hill's an awesome product. And I love the feedback it gives you, cause it's same kind of idea as ours. It gives you feedback, but it's audio and you hear it click and that's how you know you're staying loaded. And so we use that for hitters and pitchers as well. And that's a great tool.

Tristan: Got it. King of the Hill and Rapsodo. Well Coach, appreciate your time here again today. Before we let you go, want to do something we do with all of our coaches. It's a little rapid fire round. We're just going to throw some questions at you. You come back with the first word or first words that come into mind. We'll keep it real, real brief, real quick, real easy. Sound good?

Sean: You got it.

Tristan: Alright. So I always start off with this one. What is your favorite sports movie of all time?

Sean: Major League.
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Craig: Good one. I know lots of players are pretty loyal to their batting glove brand. What do you think is kind of your favorite batting gloves?

Sean: Well, when I was a kid, it was Franklin, right. Everybody had Franklin. Now I see everybody with Under Armor batting gloves, but I'm going to have to stay old school and go with Franklin.

Craig: That would be my answer too.

Tristan: Exactly. Go with what got you there. Nothing wrong with that. Coach, if you were not playing baseball, what sport would you be playing?

Sean: I would be playing basketball. I had to give up basketball because it was at the same time as baseball. So my first original goal is to go play college basketball. But then I had to stop cause at the same time, I grew to 6'3" and I could throw pretty hard.

Craig: Nice. You know, a lot of people say, what's your favorite pregame meal? But I want to know what's your favorite post game meal?

Sean: Oh man, that depends. If we played like crap that day, it's like some kind of comfort food like KFC or something like that. If it's good, oh man, if it's good, there's a really good sports bar in Oregon that's right by a lot of our road games that we always go to and have some steak afterward if it's a good day.

Craig: Nice.

Tristan: I like that. Yeah. Load up on the protein afterwards. Myself, I think you can never go wrong, can never go wrong with a little pizza, of course.

Sean: Yeah, I mean, absolutely. But yeah, if we played like crap that day, nobody cares what we're eating anyway, so it's just, you know, just go make us feel, make ourselves feel good.

Tristan: Yeah, exactly. Get something in us here. Well Coach, appreciate your time here again. You guys have been listening to Coach Sean Taunt. He's the associate head coach at Pacific Lutheran University, also the director of marketing and a pitching coordinator for Big League Edge. Make sure you check them out on all the social channels, @BigLeagueEdge, and on their website, www.BigLeagueEdge.com. Coach, appreciate your time here again today and like I said, we'll talk soon.

Sean: All right, man. Have a good night guys.