Greg Olsen Talks with Cal Ripken Jr. on Youth Sports, Sports Specialization and more | Youth Inc.

[Music] what's up everybody Greg olssen here and I am fired up to welcome you back to you think after a successful first season back in 2022 23 we are ready to share new content every week this summer as we prepare for an expansion of our platform in the fall and then a major new website release in quarter 1 of 20 2 to kick things off here at the new you think our first new interview is with the legendary Cal Ripken Jr who recently joined me at the project play Summit in Baltimore we talked about a variety of things uh why he started Ripken baseball the company values what it's like to be a coach and a youth Sport parent and his take on Sports specialization take a look at the screen here to see future content schedule we have coming out over the next few weeks this is only the start of what we have coming down the line with youth Inc stay tuned for more content that we capture down at teu in Nashville season one of best ofs and much more thank you guys so much for following along here at you think make sure you guys subscribe and continue to follow for all the exciting news coming down the line here at youth think and now I am honored a man who obviously needs no introduction here in the city of Baltimore um we're gonna cover a lot of topics here today but the legendary Cal Ripken Jr Cal I I can't thank you enough for taking a couple minutes here at project play to sit down and talk all things Youth Sports it's my pleasure uh you know when I had a long career in baseball Billy and I decided uh what do we do now yeah and one of that was to try to um help kids learn how to be the best baseball players they could be we had we had a u an encyclopedia of baseball as a dad and we realized that most kids don't have that encyclopedia baseball so our mission was to uh to help them out and try to give them some instruction some skills some experiences that will uh will make them the best bball players they can and we've enjoyed doing it yeah and I want to jump into a lot of that because as I was telling you before we started filming I've taken my my younger son's team that I coach we based out of Charlotte North Carolina and we went and did the Ripken Experience down in Pigeon Forge and had a blast I mean you talk about a place that was built to bring young kids for a weekend or a long week to play baseball it that's up there we're going to get to that here in a second I just want to touch real quick just so we're here at project play as we're recording this obviously what the city of Baltimore means to you growing up playing 21 years here just how great is it to see Youth Sports be highlighted have the Aspen Institute in their project play Summit choose Baltimore as the summit of bringing all the best top Minds The Big thinkers around this to try to improve the Youth Sports Experience not only here in Baltimore and you know but throughout the whole country yeah I mean uh we're delighted that uh that that they've chosen Baltimore I mean I always uh had a a special affinity for Baltimore I live I grew up in a small town called Aberdine about 30 miles north played my whole career here in Baltimore I always thought it has a small town feel family sort of based uh you know a lot of great uh sport Sports uh stars or whatever and other sports have come out of this this area um so I always thought it was a really good uh good place and and celebrating uh us Sports sharing ideas trying to to uh make things better the way around is always a good idea yeah but how unique I mean do do you ever wish I mean I'm sure it was amazing to play so close to home and like you said you played 35 years of baseball in the Baltimore you know greater Baltimore do you ever wish that you got an opportunity to play for a team somewhere else no you're you're good well I mean uh my dad was in the oal organization he managed in the minor Leakes for the first 14 years and when it came time for me to be drafted there was a part of me that says I want to do it on my own you and not that uh my dad didn't play for me didn't get me drafted didn't uh didn't do anything else uh maybe I I got noticed a little bit more because of my last name in the beginning but being able to play in your hometown um definitely brought some stability to your life uh you know outside the actual uh game and I really enjoyed that I bet well I think it all worked out I think uh I think it all worked out so let's let's get back to the Ripkin experience you talked about when you were done playing how how you wanted to impact the game of baseball you wanted to improve it all the way down to the to the Youth Level you started the Ripkin experience you have six locations now obviously the first one here in the Baltimore area just when you look back on it aside from just wanting to improve baseball your baseball family baseball guys like what about the youth landscape maybe at the time did you want to improve or now looking back do you feel like you've made the biggest impact on the Players Association gave me a gift in 1995 to go back and build a Field of Dreams you know I think it was a $75,000 gift and I thought it was really cool until you try to spend 75,000 it doesn't go very far and uh so we started saying how do I leverage that one field into a complex and we wanted to bring some of the real cool things about being a big league player down to the uh to the the youngest age groups and one of those cool things were playing in a place like Fenway Park or uh the dimensions are different you can celebrate those dimensions and the game can be played a little differently against two different teams in that so the idea was that you know it was sort of a dream and uh Billy and I had sort of a teaching background because of Dad yep and so we uh we started out uh you know trying to give instruction do do uh CDs uh DVDs you know then all of a sudden the technology started to take off um and then we really settled in more into to an experience to uh because it it's not good to say that um kids don't want to practice they just want to play games parents want to go to games and uh and there is something to to be said about that because you become really game Savvy you know you understand how to how to perform in clutch because you've been up with the bases loaded a whole bunch of times but there are times when you need to back off a little bit and say okay I didn't make that play in the field on the backhand let me work on my backhand for a little while and then then then we'll play a game so uh you know we settled into the the uh experience model the uh the tournament business um and um I went through that whole thing just like you're going through it now where you uh you travel around I retire my kid was eight my boy was eight he was uh playing so I understand that and in some ways I kept thinking this is too much for them there too many games too many games but when you look back on it you know U as a parent now that filled a void in your life that was was very fulfilling oh it's so true and it it's funny so you mentioned eight so that was around the time where when I retired how old my oldest was and we went through the Cal Ripken Trail so like growing up in well the kids growing up in North Carolina they didn't do little league we did the cat Ripken baseball so we so that was like Machine Pitch the dads on the field with that like blue flame machine and there was a trail if you won your area you went to States you went you won States you would go to Regionals that's as far as U would go and we went down to Tennessee and I remember thinking back they're seven eight years old this is the great like at the time looking back it was such a big deal like I I would take off days of like practice so we could go like get extra work in and whatnot Cal I had to coach first base in a full uniform in 8-year-old Machine Pitch because of Cal Ripken baseball so we have a lot of we have a lot of things to cover off topic here but that's maybe one rule we have to change maybe re-explore imagine me a 65 coaching 8-year-old Machine Pitch baseball full uni in in a and a uniform was too small for you probably well fortunately I was able to order myself a new uniform so it actually fit but I'll tell you what that trail you guys set up our kids the reason our kids play so much baseball I got two boys that they still play so much baseball now at 12 and 11 is because of how good that young experience was through Cal Ripken baseball I want to touch on something you just brought up and and I think it's it's it's really at the at the Crux of all what parents are going through and the conversations that are being had amongst my family and and our friends is what is that balance in your mind you mentioned that kids are playing so many games and there's less time for development and here in America in all sports this isn't unique to baseball we have a very different model where it's very G G Centric vers maybe in in Europe and overseas it's a lot more developmental it's a lot more you practice more than you actually play like as you look at the landscape of Youth Sports back when you started Ripken Experience and now all the way till today where do you see that going and good or bad um I think there's good and bad if you ever played an instrument I don't know in school I played the drums for a little while the majority of the time you were actually practicing on the drums and then you had a concert uh if you look at baseball it's the model you're having a concert every single day uh and you're not getting a chance to practice in between so the right model would be uh to have a balance there but I think uh it's almost uh too far along is that everybody's enjoying the uh the tournament models and the and the fun and the competition that you get that you're you're trying to develop and practice in between those moments and and I don't know whether I can judge that negatively or not the concern I have when you do it too much that there's you know there's burnout mentally that happens and there's burnout physically too if you're doing the same thing and you're playing all these games your arm is not really uh you need sometime during the year where you can rest your arm if you're a pitcher or even a regular player and so sometimes I worry about that but the mental burnout is more concerning because if you have the talent to do it and you're forced to do that all these years when it comes time for you to go out on your own and uh and try to solve a problem or when things go bad you got to dig down deep inside and usually it's the love of what you do do that will help you get through those moments now if you've killed that little seed if you killed that love what you do and it just seems you know like work then you're not you're not going to be able to call on that when you need it the most so I I'm a little concerned I'm a big advocate of playing other sports I think when you develop your athleticism other sports challenges you in ways that you know baseball might not y I played basketball I played soccer soccer if you think about it you don't use your hands you know most of the time I mean throw the ball in the goalie Ed his hands but you're moving in all different directions changing your balance kicking off your right foot and your left foot and so it's at a higher speed so you're you're you're getting your overall balance uh and your ail uh your agility down you know and we also ran Hills so you built your lower you built a lot of stuff basketball was this one this quick movements all the time you're quick jumping quick moving side to side you know I always thought that translated really well you know to baseball so if you're trying to develop uh the better athlete you want to encourage them to play more Sports um and then then there's a time when you have to have to look at it and say okay I'm good at this one I really want to put this but I think that's happening a little earlier um where where it's yeah it's happening more early where you're starting to specialize in the sport and then I worry about the burnout either physically or mentally the the issue we're seeing boots on the ground it used to not be until High School like even when I was coming up in the early 2000s graduating high school we played three Sports all the way throughout and then towards the end of high school you started getting I started getting recruited for football you start making decisions okay you I knew my days as a pitcher or my days as a basketball player were coming to an end let's you know we got to spend spend time where it matters the issue is now that decision is getting younger and younger and younger to the age of where at 10 years old you have parents saying okay my kid's only a baseball player my kid's only a basketball player and what we're seeing again locally like boots on the ground living it with our kids is everybody wants to be on a good team because you get really good coaching but in order to be on the really good team unless you are the outlier athlete you're just the kid that walks onto the baseball field he's the shortstop you walk into the basketball gym after that you're the point guard and you're the you're an elite athlete for the rest of us for everybody else the best way to make the top level travel baseball team where you're going to get the best coaching play against the best competition go to all the big tournaments is to only specialize playing baseball because you can develop the skill through the repetition to keep up with maybe kids who are bigger than you faster than you or just naturally more gifted and parents are making those decisions if you're going to be a three- sport athlete now and you want to play at a top level of all of them you better have hit the genetic jackpot or else you're not going to keep up and that is what I think I don't think parents want to do it I feel like they're forced to do it and I think it's a huge issue yeah it's uh you're forced to make a commitment and most parents don't know that that's why I think that if you're the son of a professional player you kind of understand the journey and then you understand the importance of not or of of doing things not so much at an early age many times I think parents don't realize that you're not gaining that huge Advantage by doing that and they are pressured because if if you want to be on that team that good team you have to commit not only to that season but in Fall Ball and the practice sessions and all that kind of stuff in between what I would say to the parents that have a really gifted child and all the sports want him to play you know I would test the system you know say they say well you can't Johnny you can't be on this team unless you commit the whole time and then you could say okay then then we'll uh we'll go someplace else and normally you know the uh if the team if if you're good enough that team is going to want of you and they're going to make some concessions in the rules so there's all kinds of angles and way to look at at it but I would prefer less pressure more development more understanding of uh their Concepts at each level and then really you get serious when you get you know more in in the high school and your and your and then uh my high school um it resulted in me being drafted I went away to play pro ball at 17 years old yeah it it's we have a thing with our teams where yes we want to win right we're not spending all this time out there and practicing all week yes we want to be competitive these kids are in Middle School the the idea of winning and losing the idea of outcomes the idea of having an end result for your hard work and seeing okay I had success this weekend because of all the things leading up to this all week or the lack thereof success or when we come back to work on Monday how do we improve but our approach is always we're going to win as a result of the development right and I think something else that we see a ton right now in the youth baseball scene is I can make my team good by just acquiring as many new players every single weekend as humanly possible and I go and I make the lineup and I roll it out and these kids are putting on different hats different uniforms and I haven't coached them I've never done a batting session with them I've never taught them how to play their backhand I've never taught them how to do first and third defense I've never tght but we can win because I just bring them in when winning is at the expense of the development and development is not driving the winning that's kind of where we are though right now in the highly competitive Youth Sports space across all sports we see it a lot in baseball because we do a ton of baseball so at the highest level of baseball if we want to examine this for a minute um Talent rules I mean absolute Talent rules you you could want want it so bad but you don't if you can't throw the ball hard enough or you can't get people out it doesn't matter how much you want it so you don't will yourself to win you talent talent rules but the better teams combine that Talent with playing as a team and that's when you're talking about you're developing team Concepts and you're developing the smaller things that will help you win the tools within the game that you want to teach them that give them a chance to win close ball games because it gets harder and harder as you get up because the talent level becomes more even um and you can't overachieve and you can't want it more than the other team so much when you get to the highest level so those concepts are really good um and um if you if you look at my brother Billy and me Billy played 12 years in the big leags I played 21 years in the big leags and Billy wasn't as big as I was he wasn't as strong as I was he was a different type player my dad said that's okay you be the best that you can be Y and so Billy's contribution many times was he had the ability to handle the bat really well he he could hit and run really well he could move a runner from second to third he could lay a bunt down at the right time and he could play all four defensive infield positions really really well so um his value equated his talent um he maximized the talent he got all the way you know uh and if you look at trying to develop an All-Star team and put all people in all the positions like you said earlier you you just grab the best talent you would win but then you wouldn't develop somebody like um Billy um my brother Billy developed you want to make each kid as good as they can be and we're all different we all have different skills some have power some have speed some have the combination of those two um and you and you need need to look at each individual player how I can develop them to me you Sports is all Developmental and uh there is a a winning um because winning is fun competition is fun um but if you place way too much emphasis on that you lose you lose the ability to develop and you lose sight of of why why you're playing yeah and winning gets the kids to keep coming back right so no one wants to go every weekend and put all this work in and lose right so there is that element to it but again if winning is a byproduct of the development I think you're doing it the right way that's my personal opinion on this I want to change hands before I let you go just change gears for one quick second something you were obviously well known for with the streak and how long you played was just your competitive Spirit you were on the field you winning matter to you it it wasn't just something hey how do you teach that whether it's as a father whether it's as just someone who works with youth someone who's created their own baseball experience how do you teach that what would you say to parents they say Okay I want my kid to learn hard work I want my kid to be pushed I want my kid to be held accountable but I don't want to burn them out I do what is that balance between teaching kids yes this is hard hard is good the grind is good but on the other end it doesn't comes so overboard that to you said earlier it's mentally burn mental burnout physically burned out they get injured they don't want to play anymore they want to quit like what would you say in your experience as a dad as a player now involved how have you handled that good or bad so I'm thinking a good dose of Common Sense should be should be with you at all times because when you're talking about a 12-year-old kid physically they don't have if you're teaching them um like they're a high school team and you're expecting them to uh to stay out there for 2 hours or two and a half hours or take so many swings or run the bases or you're penalizing them you know for not playing well if you're doing those kind of things some of those techniques are reserved for like much older when you're trying to motivate a team um I just think a good dose of common sense um and uh and have and have the big picture in mind um if if you if you focus on what I'd like to teach the athletes if if you go out in the field and you do the best you can and you play uh the the the best game you you you can and you and your team teammates do the same thing and you end up on the short end you know okay you can actually come in and say there's a new game tomorrow and we'll uh we'll apply ourselves or we'll try to get a little better and conversely if you get blown out and you're not playing well then you have things to actually focus on if you're looking at winning that Championship or that trophy is the most important thing I think you're it's a little bit off I'd put the trophy aside and think of each kid as the individual trophy that you're trying to to to develop and you really want them to know that they have the power to get better so where does a work e it come from does it come from your words to uh to the to you have you give a speech to him and say the importance of work ethic work ethic comes from an example and I think I learn my work ethic because my dad was a doer he uh he talked about certain things but then he got down on it uh and got got into the dirt and he started uh practicing and then you discover through practicing is that you can make yourself better um you have the power to make better without anybody else's help I can throw the ball off the wall 100 times and work on feeling ground balls once you realize that you have that power then it just becomes you know how bad do you want it uh if you know I can get better by practice then uh I practice more and then have better results in the game love it last thing I have for and I'm going to let you go this has been awesome just we made you the Youth Sports Zar for the day where would you like to see the Youth Sports scene move whether it's specifically baseball or just in general like where would you see it going from where you see it now that you think would be for the better so I'd like to see you know an environment where more kids get the opportunity more patience in in that whole area and and the parents and the coaches try to figure out okay how do I take pressure off as opposed to applying pressure how do I teach the game or have them learn the game without that pressure let them develop let them learn how to play and then they learn how to compete when uh when they have all the tools to compete and then they learn the lessons of winning and losing you know later on so I don't know what that answer would be I don't know how you could have your magic wand and say um patience less pressure more opportunity well that's what we're trying to do here and I think that's a big part of project play I think that's a big part of my journey here with our you think project where I'm trying to have conversations and listen when you say patience I'm sitting here saying I probably don't check that box all the time I'll be honest right that's right probably not my uh my greatest asset as a youth coach but I I think you know how we do it we do it like you you just made me think about something real quick when my dad was in the minor leagues um he didn't teach during the game so that the the pitcher started the next day would have the the pitching chart and they'd be keep keeping track of the pitches and all that kind of stuff and when something happened on the field situational he would come over and say put a Red Dot in that box and then he would go over the scorecard or the pitching thing at the end of the game and see all the Red Dot and he would make lesson plans and he would wait till the next day because if you try to talk teach in the moment then uh the kids emotions aren't feeling good because they made a mistake or Something's Happened the emotions are high from the parent they can't articulate their message really as clearly as they want to give yourself 24 hours or overnight think about what you want to say the player would come in the next day and the person would walk out of the office feeling really good about himself but then he would have the lesson of the night before so when you when you uh there's been many managers in the Big leags Joe Madden had a 24-hour rule I think what he had a 30-minute rule I think larusa had 24-hour rule if you had uh if you lost a tough game and you had all this emotion penned up you can do anything you want for 30 minutes but after the 30 minutes we're talking about tomorrow's game and so it gave them an outlet to put it someplace yeah and so those sort of teaching techniques and and that and that's using patience and and Common Sense and understanding of what's happening to know when the best time to teach is so so when I think about things don't try to teach during the game don't don't have a postgame analysis on the way home in the car you know make your notes figure out what you want to say and then wait till the next day at lunchtime or wait till totally I think that's well said and a good way to end and uh thank you so much this was a pleasure great wisdom great guidance you're a perfect uh Ambassador for the future of Youth Sports so I appreciate that thank you my pleasure thank you [Music]