With our winter training sessions wrapped up in mid-April, it is time for us to dig into our data!

While we have been sending our data to individual campers and their families throughout the winter, we've also been keeping our test in/test out in a handy spreadsheet.

In my experience as a parent and web surfer, it's been hard to find "real" data for what a group of hitters and throwers looks like.

There's a few reasons for this I can think of. The one that sticks out to me is that it's not in our best business interests to share? If you look at our aggregate data, you'll see that not every one of our winter campers posted an "improvement" in their numbers over six weeks. Hot take alert: any training group handing out a 100% improvement guarantee is probably cooking their books.

Here are the trends I am happy to share though from our winter data:

Of 47 hitters, 45 hitters were there to test out on week six. 40 of the 45 (88%) saw improvements in their exit velocity, swing speed, or both. 

Of 43 throwers, 38 were there to test out on week six. 29 of those 38 (76%) saw improvements in their top velocity or average velocity.

What we are trying to do at Big Fish is create the environment and opportunities for athletes to improve. In the end, we tell our athletes it's their job to take advantage of that.

And most importantly - any data is a snapshot in time. Because an athlete doesn't PR on test out day doesn't mean they aren't improving or didn't PR the week before. Tracking individual data over time - a 3-month period, a 6-month period, a year - that will give an individual athlete a more accurate picture.

For what's it's worth - here is a link to our aggregate data for the '23-24 winter with names removed for confidentiality. The data is sorted by age level so you can see where kids are falling so far.

It was a great winter season and start to what Big Fish is all about. We're working hard on plans to open a small facility in September, which should allow us to serve even more athletes and add more opportunity to Western Wisconsin baseball and softball. The future looks bright for both our Big Fish Athletes!

Here is another good resource for sizing from justbats.com where you can put in your players’ height and weight and it will give you a recommendation. In the type category, put in "youth" for baseball and "fastpitch" for softball..

So you don’t need the most expensive bat, but at least go mid-level…

The Kids Want to Compete - A Good Craftsman Never Blames His Tools but He Also Doesn’t Buy Tool Shop Brand

Here’s the deal - we could tell you a hot bat can’t replace a good swing. That’s true, but that’s why your kids are working on their swings all the time and we’re working with them.

The kids want to compete - and that means making sure they don’t have the cheapest tool on their belt. Don't bring a knife to a gun fight, right...So I will reiterate things like the USSSA stamp instead of USA stamp. When I was first coaching kids I thought “Let’s just work on their swings, who cares about what bat they use?” Well…I was wrong and I can admit it.

We can debate where they should all be using USA bats to force them to develop better swings to have success, but that’s just not where the world is right now.

Other Resources - and Good Luck!
If you want to jump down the rabbit hole and learn about bats, there are a ton of resources out there. Here’s a short blog post that will explain the difference between alloy, composite, one piece, and two piece bats.

Maybe my best advice is that it’s more like car buying than not. Do your research before you hit the store. The 17 year old tennis player that is filling in at the baseball/softball department for the day may not be a great resource for you!
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That same link from above for justbats.com has a really buying guide. The good part about the business end of selling an appropriately sized bat is that they want you to have a good experience. That way you come back at Christmas next year when your player hits another growth spurt!

Dick's Sporting Goods has a good buying guide for fastpitch bats too.

As with anything we tell you about here at Big Fish - please don’t hesitate to reach out when you have specific questions. Just like Chad did for me a few years ago, we’re more than happy to help!

"Really, what we're doing here is helping these kids stack blocks," Big Fish coach Weston Lombard said this last week.

"Stacking blocks? What?" I asked. "Sounds cool but tell me what that means." This was one of these stages of life situations. For Weston, a younger guy, on the cutting edge of athlete development, a phrase like that is just about athletic development. For me, turning 43 in a month, it brought me right back about 7-8 years ago, to my kids stacking Duplos as tall as they could reach.

Here's my paraphrase, but I wasn't actually too far off. Think about building a tower, he said.

Each week the kids come in for their Big Fish session is a block. What each of those kids gets as their specific block, each week, is going to be a little different. Our coaches are hands on - this athlete needs this adjustment, this athlete needs that adjustment - rather than just supervisors of drills. For our drill work, one athlete will really remember and connect with one drill and skill, another athlete remembers that other drill and skill.

I walked away from our quick conversation thinking about what a great analogy that is, stacking blocks. If you think of training for athletes as different blocks, you can really see training for youth athletes as different intersecting towers too. The blocks our kids are stacking at hockey, basketball, volleyball, or wrestling practice this winter too... those are going to help them next summer in baseball and softball. Strength blocks, agility blocks, competition blocks.

We can't promise that all our athletes will jump 5 miles an hour in exit velocity or throwing velocity in a single two month span. Some mechanical adjustments make a big difference, so yes, some of them will. (Anyone out there promising this... make sure you ask them some good questions!) But gains in consistency and understanding, and especially for kids coming in with some solid mechanics, that won't always show up on a radar gun.

What we can promise for all of our athletes is that our focus is on long-lasting routines and understanding. As we help them build their towers, the job of coaches is to give them the individual feedback - that's like the cement mortar - to keep those blocks together.

It turns out that people who are 25 and 43 - they aren't that far apart!

​-Josh

We are so grateful for the opportunity to work with your sons and daughters this winter!

Today our winter registration opened up at 9:00am. 90% of the spots were filled by 10:30am. We were completely full by 3:30pm. We had a feeling the need was there in our community. But we are just so humbled to provide this opportunity to our first group of Big Fishers.

A special thank you to our pilot group for September and October. This group has given us a chance to refine our processes, figure out what works best in our allotted time and space, and be prepared to really deliver a great experience for athletes and families the rest of the year.

We know the limited space and training spots are an issue you may hear about. We are trying hard not be an exclusive group while still protecting the time of our coaches and their families. We have some ideas in the works for future years, as well as starting to plan for summer programming. Stay tuned - exciting times ahead for Big Fish and helping coach up our local athletes.

A big part of what we'll be asking for this year is feedback. Our model is truly service and athlete focused rather than profit. We know, everyone probably says that. But truly our goal here is to bring something locally to River Falls to fill a need. There are great programs around us - the folks at Great Lakes in Woodbury and up at ISA West in Somerset include friends of ours and we know they do a great job. So, in order to provide your athlete the best service we can, please don't hesitate to reach out to us. We plan to send mid-session and end-of-session feedback surveys. Your honest feedback, no matter how critical, is really important to us.

Again, thank you so much for joining us this winter!

-Josh, Brian, and Weston