Book Private Baseball Lessons with Coach Gabe

I currently play at the University of Delaware, where I have been playing since 2020. I am a catcher and am going into my 4th year of college, but 3rd year of college baseball due to the Covid shutdown in 2020. Prior to my time at Delaware I spent a year at Utica College, which was shortened by Covid-19. I spent the past two summers playing in the South Florida Collegiate Baseball League (SFCBL) as well. In high school I was a 3 year member of the varsity team at Appoquinimink High School, and I was a member of the 2019 Appoquinimink state championship team. I played travel baseball from the age of 10 until my senior year of high school, and I played little league up until the age of 12. I have played at almost every level in my career, played with many different types of teams and had many different types of coaches.

Growing up, I never really had any hitting or catching instruction and this had a great impact on my development. Everything I learned about catching or hitting had pretty much been self taught until my later years in high school. Because of this, I did not truly turn in to the player I am today until it was seemingly too late, but luckily I was able to secure a division 1 offer shortly after my senior year had ended. I want to provide young players with all of the knowledge I have gained through my own personal experiences and through coaches that I have worked with so that any player with good potential can be sent down the right path early and have the best career trajectory possible. I have very good knowledge of what makes an elite hitter and catcher, and I am very good at communicating and teaching these details to young athletes so they are not forced to teach themselves. However, I am looking to work with players who are willing to put in a lot of work. At the end of the day, I can tell you everything I know about hitting or catching, but if a player does not have the drive to get better, there is not much that can be done.

A hitting session with me typically focuses on direction, bat path, timing mechanisms, and confidence, as I believe that these are the most important aspects of hitting. Obviously not every hitter will have the same strengths and weaknesses, so there are many different drills and exercises that could be used in an individual training session. However, to give an example, MY personal routine includes the following: for direction and bat path; split hand swings, staggered stance drills, and one handed swings off of a tee or front toss with a short bat. For timing mechanism; vertical drop drills, walk up swings, and front toss with simulated off speed. For confidence, game like simulations, mental approach conversations, and honest feedback. These are just examples of some drills that an athlete may do while working with me, but there are many more possibilities depending on what I believe will improve your swing and your approach. A catching session with me will mainly focus on the three most important aspects of the catcher position: receiving, throwing, and blocking (in that order). As catchers get older, receiving and framing becomes the most important aspect of the position, so we may do drills such as high velocity simulation, advanced off speed simulation, and most importantly, progressions that teach the correct way to get under the ball. To develop players in their throws to bases, we would work on transfer progressions, footwork and agility, timing, and arm path primarily. Blocking drills would also include footwork and agility, with emphasis on the correct anticipation and results of the actual block, also including simulated game situations. While receiving, blocking, and throwing are the main focus of a catching session, there also may be a small amount of time reserved for other smaller aspects of the position. These include plays at the plate, catcher pop ups, bunt plays, first and third plays, conditioning, and being able to command your defense.

I have had two coaches that truly stuck out to me and made a major difference in my career, and they both have very different coaching styles. The first one is Billy Cunningham, who was my coach for my freshman, sophomore, and junior year at Appo. He was the first coach that I had that made me feel like I wasn't taking the game seriously enough. He was very hard on all of his players, to where I thought at some points it was too extreme for a high school coach, but he made me a much better player and person, and turned Appo baseball into a program that produces one of the best teams in the state every year regardless of talent. He pushed all of the players in the program to get into lifting early, and to work harder in all aspects of their game, and it created a culture that I loved being a part of, even when he was tough on me. Aside from physical strength and skill, Coach Cunningham preached mental toughness and made all of his players much tougher mentally, which is arguably the most important trait to have as a baseball player, and it made a huge difference in my career and life as a whole. The second coach who I would say made a large impact on my career is Tripp Keister. Tripp never coached a team that I played on, as he is the manager of the double-A affiliate of the Washington Nationals, the Harrisburg Senators. Rather, I spend every winter going to Tripp for hitting lessons, and he is the best coach I have ever worked with in terms of player development. I first started going to Tripp the winter before my senior season. Junior year of high school, I hit around .250 with a few doubles. After spending the winter hitting with Tripp I hit over .400 my senior year with 7 doubles, 2 triples, and 2 home runs my senior year. He made all the difference in my hitting not only in terms of mechanics, but in terms of approach, confidence, and mindset. He always encouraged me to work hard and have faith in myself and those are values that greatly improved my game. He was not a lot like coach Cunningham in terms of aggression and strictness, but both coaching styles had a major impact on my career in a positive way and they are the reason that I am where I am today.

A little bit of a background on me, I am 20 years old, and I am majoring in chemistry at UD, and I am from Middletown Delaware. I am very good at working with young athletes not only because of my knowledge of the game, but because of my understanding that every child is different and every child responds differently. I have played with many different personalities over the years and have learned that there is a way very specific to the athlete that they are most efficiently taught, and even though I am still early into my coaching career, I have learned how to apply different strategies of teaching to different types of young athletes in a way that it is most effective. However, aside from baseball, I look to be a good role model to any young athlete that I am working with above all else. My best coaches helped me develop on the baseball field, but they also helped me develop my character, and I believe that is an important aspect of the way that I work with young athletes.