Elliot Glynn is in his second season with the Fordham University baseball coaching staff as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator. Elliot joined Fordham’s baseball program after five seasons as an assistant coach at the University of Hartford, where he assisted with recruiting, oversaw Hartford's pitching staff, and helped the Hawks break a handful of records during his time with the team. Prior to Hartford, Glynn was an assistant coach at Siena College.
Glynn played collegiately at the University of Connecticut, where he was a two-time captain for the Huskies. In 2011, he helped lead the squad to the NCAA Super Regionals and, one year prior to that, he helped the Huskies to a school-record 48 wins. He is still among the Huskies’ leaders in all-time innings pitched, games started, wins, and strikeouts. Elliot spent two seasons in the Milwaukee Brewers farm system and played one year professionally in Germany before entering the coaching profession.
In this episode, Elliot discusses how he chose UConn despite being a Southern California native. Elliot also discusses the attributes he looks for in prospective recruits as Fordham's recruiting coordinator. Finally, Elliot and I also dive into the mental game of baseball and how Major League Baseball sport psychology pioneer Ken Ravizza has influenced his time in baseball.
Listeners will hear first-hand from a former college and professional baseball player and current assistant coach regarding the challenges associated with transitioning up the ladder to higher levels of baseball from high school to the professional game.
>> Mike Huber: Hey, welcome, everybody. I'm Mike Huber, Founder and CEO of the Freshman Foundation, and you are listening to the Freshman Foundation Podcast, a podcast specifically geared towards understanding how athletes prepare mentally and emotionally for the transition from high school to college athletics. Today, my guest is Elliot. Glenn Elliott is an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Fordham University in their baseball program. Elliot and I met each other first, probably a little over a year ago, when I was doing some work, mental performance coaching work up at Fordham. And I'm just super happy Elliott is agreed to join me here today, on the podcast. Hey, Elliot. What's going on, man? How you doing?
>> Elliot Glenn: Doing well. Thanks for having me, Mike.
>> Mike Huber: Yeah. So, what's happening, in your world now that, we're still under the kind of haze of coronavirus?
>> Elliot Glenn: well, I think we've actually probably been on, the luckier end of the spectrum. Our, iron tire team and coaching staff have been on campus, you know, since around Labor Day, beginning of September. And we are actually right at the end of our competitive practice schedule. So we've been going about almost 20 hours a week here. So six days a week, 20 hours, since October 6th, so about a month of team practice. We've played, you know, almost 10 inner squads, and it's been refreshing to be back on the field and, and playing some baseball. And everyone stayed healthy, which is, the most important part right now.
>> Mike Huber: Definitely. That's great to hear. and it's been a great fall in the northeast to play baseball for the most part, so you, you never know what you're going toa get. now, I mean, for the guests who are on, Elliot not only is a coach at Fordham, but he's also an ex professional baseball player, a pitcher, and was a pitcher and also a hit or two.
>> Elliot Glenn: Right.
>> Mike Huber: At UConn. Is that right?
>> Elliot Glenn: That is correct. I played, played the outfield and hit for, my first two years at UConn and transitioned, transitioned to being the vaunted picter. Only got, the picture only title my junior. My junior year at UConn. So, Yes.
>> Mike Huber: Okay. So Po.
>> Elliot Glenn: Yeah, dreaded. Those dreaded words that every, every coach and player to, hate to hear. Po. Yes.
>> Mike Huber: Yeah. Well, so I'm just curious now. I'm gonna kind of go off track a little bit. Cause you said transition, but like, what was it like when you had to lose the bat and just go strictly to being a pitcher?
>> Elliot Glenn: well, I think my, I'd like to think that my, my transition was a little different, than most. I transitioned to being a pitcher only because, you know, mainly we had, we had some other, other talent on the team at the time that could play the outfield and swing the bat and my, My career had kind of, you know, turned to where my chance of play professionally was. I had a better chance to to pitch professionally than I did to hit and play the outfield. So I made a I made a business decision to to move to the mound only.
>> Mike Huber: So that was your choice?
>> Elliot Glenn: That was my choice. And as, as we you know continue to talk throughout this most two way guys, it usually is their choice one way or the other. Whether it is, you know, for professional or for development in hopes of playing professionally or playing time, or physically. You know usually the, the player comes to that aha, moment of you know, I'm more suited to be a hitter or I'm more suited to be a pitcher and I want to focus most of my know, most of my practice time, you know, developing that specific area.
>> Mike Huber: Yeah, yeah. And so you mentioned that there was some talent on that team. I know one of those players is a pretty, is a pretty recognizable name. You're willing to share who that was that was in the outfield there with you?
>> Elliot Glenn: well, yes, we, in 2009, we were graced with George Springer in that freshman class. And George was a pretty raw but extremely talented energetic player that we had. And he didn't take my job. I won't say he took my job. I kind of transitioned into being a designated hitter and a pitcher at that point. but you know, George and another big leader by the name of John Andre oi, who came in in the same class and another super athletic kid, Billy Ferrireter. We had three guys in the outfield who were much, much more talented than I was. So my my you know, my expertise I guess was needed on the mound much more than it was needed in the outfields and in the lineup.
>> Mike Huber: Well, it's pretty self aware when you're 19, 20 years old to know like hey, maybe this is what's goingna be best for my long term career. So I give you credit for that. It probably wasn't the easiest thing to volunteer to do.
>> Elliot Glenn: It was better, I will say it was better for the team too. Guys were, those guys helped us win. You know, we set school records for wins and those guys were very deserving of playing over me in those positions. And they worked very hard at it and they helped us win a lot.
>> Mike Huber: Excellent.
Elliot Revisa credits Ken Revisa with helping shape baseball's mental game
So I know you're from Southern California and we had, I think for those of you who don't know the name Ken Revisa, but Ken was one of the fourrunners of Sports psychology and baseball. he's gotten more publicity, I think now, but he's since passed, recently. But, Elliot and I have that connection as well as I got to meet Ken through my training. and you also get to know Ken when you're in high school. That's right. Right.
>> Elliot Glenn: Yeah. So I was fortunate enough to. I went to Long Beach Wilson High School. And if you pull up the school on Google, Maps or Google Earth, what. Wherever you want to pull it up. Were. We are located right across the street from Blairf Field in Long beach, and Blairfield is the home of the Long, Beach State, dirt bags, as they're known in the college baseball world. And, my coaches in high school were you former college players. And we had our pitching coach played at Long Beach State. And, you know, new Ken in those early, you know, early 2000, early to mid-2000s, where, you know, Ken was, you know, working with Long Beach. Stad is working with Cal State Fullerton, you know, in the dugout with the. With those programs. And those programs, you know, work with Ken on a daily basis. And a lot those players, those. Those skill sets that can. Ken teaches and. And uses were instilled in these guys in their playing days. And, when they went into coaching, they kind of instilled those things as us and players. So I would say, you know, extremely lucky to have played for guys who were under Ken's tutelage. And Ken actually came and spoke to our high school team, I think in 2005 or 2006. I can't remember the year exactly, but really opened our eyes to, you know, that. That area, you know, especially in baseball, where, you know, the men. The mental game is, you know, relevant on every single pitch. it's. You have time in between pitches, and that's one of the things that can use to preach all the time is you have, you know, 10 to 20 seconds between every pitch, and that's where the mental game really lives. and I think being exposed to that at 16, 17 years old, and being able to work on those things were a huge advantage, to our program at Wilson High School in Long Beach. and if you look at some of the players that came out of there during that time, I think it really helped them in their baseball careers and, where they are now in life, whether it's still playing in the big leagues or, in coaching, or, you know, whatever they're doing, now.
>> Mike Huber: M. Yeah. I mean, Ken had a knack for making things really, that were complicated, really simple. And the thing that I kind of always took from him is know when I heard him speak, he would say like, where does the last pitch end and the next pitch begin? Right? Which is basically what you're talking about, right? Like how quickly can we move on from that last pitch and move forward and put ourselves in a position to get ready? So I just, I kind of marvel at that. and I always, you know, in talking to you, the little bit that I know you like, I always like kind of connected with you on that level because I really do feel like that that has a really special place in the game of baseball. And if you can master that, you know you're gonna be so far ahead of the other players. Which is really, frankly what this is about in some ways, right? Is trying to get ahead of where are you going to go next and being prepared for that. So in high school then, so I'm just curious like, were you a baseball only player or did you play other sports?
>> Elliot Glenn: So I actually did play other sports, but not for a long period of time. I actually played basketball as a freshman in high school, was prepared to play basketball again as a sophomore in high school. I went to Long Beach Wilson as a, is a big high school. I graduated with, 1100 kids. It's a high school of, you know, almost 4500 students. at least back in 2007. I'm assuming it's probably about the same size now. so sports were competitive. You know, there wasn't a need for, you know, most of the time players in the northeast play multiple sports because you know, if you graduate with 200 kids, your best at, you might have 10 or 12 really good athletes. You know, we probably had 200 really good athletes. So I was probably going toa play JV basketball as a sophomore and I had an opportunity to compete for a varsity spot in baseball as a sophomore. So I did not play varsity baseball as a freshman in high school. I played freshman baseball as a freshman in high school. and actually was not, you know, guaranteed or promised a spot as a sophomore on the varsity. And I didn't make the varsity team as a sophomore. I actually started out on jv, there are some older guys in front of me on the varsity team and a couple of injuries occurred and I was needed, probably about 10 games into the season and earned a starting spot and never, never really let it go. and I think that'a that's a, that was a lesson within itself for Me is I was giving, given a choice like hey, if you go and play JV basketball, you know, you're going toa miss out on fall baseball and being around the team and competing for a spot or you can come out in the fall and try and win a spot as a sophomore. And I didn't win it, I didn't, I didn't get the spot. And that was, you know, that was devastating for a 15 year old. But the lessons within that challenge probably help me, helped me out down the line. that failure, and dealing with that failure helped me, you know, propel me to success further down the line. So yeah, I know I kind of went off on a tangent there, but I was mainly a one sport athlete in high school, but did play, did play basketball and for a year in high school and actually still love playing basketball now. Probably one of my favorite sports to play. but yeah, mainly one sport.
You see kids specializing in sports at a much younger age, right
>> Mike Huber: But even nowadays, right, you see, you know, you see kids specializing. I guess that's why I asked the question, right? You see kids specializing in sports at a much younger age and they're not even making it to high school and they're only playing one sport. Like could you talk about that just kind of a little bit wearing your coach hat, your recruiting coordinator hat. Do you like, just in general, like, what's the view on that, you know, whether it's a personal opinion or whether it's a professional opinion about specializing?
>> Elliot Glenn: Yeah, it's a very interesting question. I think as coaches, and I'm probably, you know, similar to most, is you want, you want athletic kids. now whether athletic kids play multiple sports or specialized, I don't know if there's any science or stats behind this, but a lot of coaches assume that the more athletic kids play multiple sports, because they're able to, they enjoy playing basketball, they enjoy playing football, they enjoy playing hockey for you know, what the sport really provides for them on a competitive, you know, level. So I would be hard pressed to find any baseball coach in college that doesn't want multi sport athletic kids. but I don't think that's to say that, you know, kids that specialize aren't athletic. there are plenty of kids that specialize at, you know, a young age that, you know, become very good baseball players. I think the fine line is, you know, special specializing shouldn't mean that you, you know, work in a batting cage, you know, seven months out of the year and play only five months out of the year. You Know, I think that playing the sport, you know, having fun playing the sport and I think a lot of that is the, the competitive nature is where that, you know, specialization gets lost. Kind of lost in translation. if a kid specializes, that doesn't mean that they're not going to be able to play at a higher level. so I think it's really case by case. But I think, you know, most, most college coaches would say like, yeah, we want multi sport athletes. And what they really mean is we want athletic kids. We want kids that are, you know, athletic and competitive.
>> Mike Huber: I think that's a great answer. It's a great point, right? Like everybody's different, right? And I'm sure that's one of the challenges and I'll kind of save it for a little bit later, but I'm guessing that's kind of one of the challenges or one of the fun things as somebody who's involved in the recruiting space of really trying to kind of solve that puzzle of like, what are the type of kids'kind of, what's the picture of, you know, a recruit look like and what are the attributes are we looking for? But I'm curious, right? So you said you played JV baseball for a bit, then you got called up to varsity. So you were only a base varsity player for two and a half years. You didn't play like a four year starter. So what was the recruiting process like for, you know, being kind of a mid sophomore season player through the end of your senior year in high school? Like what was that recruiting process? What did that look like for you?
>> Elliot Glenn: Well, I think. Well, two things. I would first preface it by saying that the recruiting process has sped up, you know, tenfold in the last 15 years since I was recruited. so the amount of events and the amount of things that are available to high school baseball players nowadays are not even close to what was available for me back in 2:20 from 2005 to 2007. so I didn't, it wasn't really even on my radar at that point in my career. You know, it wasn't anything that I was, was actually in front of me, anything that I was actually thinking about. I probably started thinking about playing college baseball in the fall of, probably the fall of 2005 as a junior. You know, I was like, yeah, I'd really like to play in college. I think that what that meant for me at the time was try and be really good, try and try and be one of the better players on my team. That's Kind of what that, what that meant for me, if I wanted to get recruited, that meant that I had to be the one of the better players on my team. And I think that something that wasn't out of my control is, or that wasn't in my control as I wasn't the best player on my high school team. we had guys who were more talented than I was and are still more talented than I am. so I really had to compete with those guys on a daily basis to get hits off them, you know, to get them out when they were at the plate. You know, I didn't show up to practice every day and you know, have it handed to me. Like, I, I'm here today, I'm going to be better than everybody. Like we had two first round picks on my team that I had to try and get out and more times than not I failed. But that challenge that was in front of me, I think help propelled me to be, you know, a college, college type player. So in terms of how the recruiting process played out, you know, I really didn't, I didn't really hear from any college coaches until the summer after my junior year of high school. And that was letters sent to my house. Hey, we, we've heard about you. We're interested in you. If you want to come to camp, that'd be great. hope to see you around this summer. That was really the extent and I think, once July 1st, the rule back then was July 1st of a kid junior year you could receive a phone call from them. so I received, I still, I still remember the first coach and school that called me. because I've actually had the opportunity to coach against that coach a couple of times. And that was Andrew Checet, who was the pitch and coach and recruiting coordinator at the time at UC Riverside. he called me I think at 8 in the morning on July 1st. And I'll be quite honest, he woke me up that day. You know, I was 16, 17 years old. He woke me up that day. I probably lied to him on the phone, said, no, I've been up for a while, coach, it's all right, thanks for calling. but since then, Coach Checets went from UC Riverside to the pitch and coach at Oregon and is now the head coach at UC Santa Barbara. who we've actually played my time at the University of Hartford. we played them twice, and then we were re actually supposed to play them this year, at Ford. I mean, unfortunately Covid happened and shut the season down. but, you know, the recruiting process has significantly changed since I was a player. and basically how it played out for me as I started getting offers, you know, around August of my junior, junior summer, going into my senior year, received offers from UC Irvine, Long, Beach State, Southern Cal, Loyala, Marymount, and then UUConn. So all Southern California with UConn involved in. Honestly, the reason that UConn got involved is my dad grew up in Connecticut, and I still have family in the area. And I really enjoy, really, I'd been to the school, loved, love the setup, kind of loved how much. How different it was from, you know, Southern California. wanted to get away from my parents a little bit, and attended a camp there. performed well, and, you know, the rest is kind of history. Decided that I wanted to challenge. Want to go away from. Go away from home to go to college. And honestly was. I still think it was the best decision I ever made.
>> Mike Huber: That's awesome. I Stores as I've been there and my sister went to college there. It is, it is definitely different. It's a different place.
>> Elliot Glenn: It'it's. Look, it's isolated. It's kind of in the middle. Middle of nowhere. But, you know, I would say that athletics at that university and just, you know, how much people care that, you know, the coaches, administration, and how much they care about that place has made it what it is today. you know, Jim Calhoun and Coach Oremma and, you know, starting with De Rowe and Andy Baylock, you know, way back when, you know, they. They wanted to build championship programs, and they didn't care if the school was in the middle of nowhere. They didn't care, you know, that it was a tiny town in the state of Connecticut. They. They put their heart and soul into that place and turned it into. Turn it into the national brand that it is now. So what.
You alluded to the recruiting process changing, and I'm learning about it
What you see now is. Was started, you know, by, you know, Coach Baylock, you know, D. Rowe, Coach Oremma, Coach Calhoun. You know, those people put their blood, sweat and tears into that place and, turn the University of Connecticut into, what you see on ESPN these days.
>> Mike Huber: Very cool. Yes. That's great. I wanted to ask you, too. So, like, you alluded to the recruiting process changing, and I'm, learning about kind of the nuts and bolts of the recruiting process. But what I do know and what I see is that there are kids who are freshmen in high school making commitments to Division 1 colleges, particularly in baseball. So what's can you kind of like, just shed some light on kind of what that process looks like? And also, I'm curious, like, for you, you got offers as an incoming senior, right? You were out of your junior year into senior year. Are there. Do you see that there are kids and parents who start to panic if they don't have offers early on in the process?
>> Elliot Glenn: Yeah, this is a, this is a tough question. absolutely. I can understand that. Families feeling, feeling pressure in that regard. and especially with the amount of information that is available. You know, when I was being recruited in 2006, 2007, you didn't really know who was committing to what schools. And when they were committing, that information wasn't available. There wasn't Twitter, there wasn't. There weren't smartphones really. So the information was not, you know, spreading as quickly as it does now. So the amount of information that is available to these families and these kids is, you know, probably not helpful for them. you know, we. Well, look at this, look at this. 20, 23 grad. He's a year younger than my son. He just committed ex school in the Southeastern Conference. You know, their parents must have gotten him in front of the right coaches and they have, they hired the right people and they must know something that we don't know. so I can definitely understand on the family side and on the player side, know, it looks like that opportunity. Know, every kid that commits to a school is a lost opportunity for myself or from my son or for my daughter. so I can understand the supply and demand aspect of that. On the flip side, on my, on my, in my realm, on the coaching side, you know, you do your best not to, not to recruit kids that are too young, you know, and being a freshman in high school, geez, you haven't even played a year of high school baseball or high school sports, and you're committed somewhere. That's, you know, that's a risk, you know, that's a risk that, you know, personally, I may not be willing to take. so I can understand on the family side kind of the pressure that's presented. and on my end, I try my best not the cave to that pressure and not feel like, well, look at all these kids that are being recruited and committing. Like I need to step into this realm and start doing what other schools are doing. look, if you enjoy playing the game, you are an athletic kid and you are continuing to get better on, on a daily basis, and you put yourself in front of schools that you want to go to? they'll see you, they'll have a chance to evaluate you. and if you're good enough, you'll have an opportunity. I would just ask on the player side to ask the coach to be as honest and open as possible. And my end talking to a player was like, look, if this isn't a place that you want to go, then just tell me that that's okay. but I understand what the information age and the amount of information on Twitter and Instagram and Perfect Game and prep baseball report. You know, it can seem, it can seem like the sky is falling a little bit and I'll just say that it's not falling. I can promise you it's not following. you just have to trust me on that end. And if you're good enough, the schools will find you nice.
So I guess I'll ask you about your transition from high school to college
>> Mike Huber: So I guess I'll ask you then a little bit about your own transition from high school to college. Right. So you talked about, you're from Southern California, most of your offers are Southern California schools. You get an offer from ae, Northeastern school, Yukon and you go there. So can you just kind of talk about what that was like for you? Kind of just that when you land on campus and store, like tell me about kind of some of the things that you went through and trying to get acclimated to that new location and being a college athlete.
>> Elliot Glenn: Sure. well, being across the country, you know, I didn't really have my parents to come scoop me up, you know, when I needed or I couldn't go home, you know, on the weekend. So I was essentially there and I had to rely on myself and my teammates, you know, and I think that was, that was important, you know, creating those relationships with my coaches and teammates.
>> Elliot Glenn: was really important for me. So I would say, you know, my challenge is, you know, I'm also an only child so my parents were really interested in how I was doing and you know, are you all right? Is everything okay? What can we do to help? And I always appreciated, you know, and still appreciate that to this day, but becoming self sufficient, I think that was the number one thing, on, on my list. And I, I would say the number one thing that I want to instill in our players today is be self sufficient. You know, if you need help, if you, if there's something that isn't going well in your life, like I want you to be able to talk to me. But when it comes to going to class, when it comes to, you know, eating three or four Meals a day. When it comes to taking care of yourself, be self sufficient. And I think I, on the flip side'say, like, you know, as a young college athlete, you know, I probably wasn't the best at taking care of myself all the time in terms of, you know, going to bed at a reasonable hour, putting the right food in my body. those are one and two, two things that you can absolutely control on any given day. You know, getting enough sleep and, you know, eating, eating correctly. You know, I probably wasn't very good at that. And it took me some time to learn those two things. you know, getting acclimated in the weight room. I never lifted weights in high school. so that was learning how to do that, took some time. But I think I kept my mouth shut and I watched and I learned before I started making excuses or, you know, asking too many questions. I think questions are good, but you can actually answer a lot of your questions by observing. and those were, those were some lessons early on in my college career. Those were the first things I needed to. Those are the first things I learned in my college career, that I think helped me be successful down the road. but my first year in college was, I'll be honest, it was hard. It was really hard.
>> Mike Huber: Yeah. And you're not the only person to say that.
Mike Murray went from hitting to pitching in his first year at college
So we, you and I have another kind of random, interesting connection. So one of the other guests I'm go goingna have on the podcast is a guy named Mike Murray. Mike played in the Giant system. Mike played at Wake Forest. Mike also coaches high school baseball in New Jersey. And he and I have worked together for a couple of years. I was on his staff and Mike and Elliot, played in the Cape Cod All Star Game. Mike was the catcher, Elliott was the pitcher. And without kind of speaking for Mike, but one of the things he's always told me when we talk about that transition is that first year of college was by far his hardest year. He went from being Allstate, two years in New Jersey, one of the best hitters, kind of statistically all time, to hitting.200 and being like, what the hell am I doing? So just from a competitive standpoint, it's hard because the level of competition steps up. But then you've got all these other life changes that you've got to figure out on your own, which is just not an easy thing to do.
>> Elliot Glenn: Absolutely. I think, and you, those challenges, there's also like your expectations from yourself, you know, and I don't maybe expectations isn't the correct word. Maybe it's, I'm, not sure what the word would be, but kind of how you see your career playing out, you know, it'like oh, I'm gonna, you know, I've committed to State University and, I'm gon toa go there. I'm going toa play as a freshman. I'm going toa be great. You know, it's going to be a lot of fun and we're gonna win a lot of games and, you know, I'mnn. I'm gonna get drafted and move on to pro ball. And in reality, it's, you know, your progression and your career is not a straight line. You know, it, it's not straight up the hill. There's peaks and valleys. and we talk about that too. In the mental game, a lot too, is, you know, a lot of the best players are a little more even keel. They don't have these peaks and valleys. The peaks and valleys come, you know, within the game itself, naturally. and I think a lot of players, and myself included, you go to college and you expect that it's going to be a straight, you know, straight uphill, like this is going. I'm going to get better every single year. I'm go goingna play every single year. And that doesn't happen for anybody. You know, you, you're gonna fail. So the quicker you can wrap your head around the fact like, hey, I'm gonna. There's go going toa be days I'm not very good. There's going toa be days that I fail. that's the, that's the reality. So sometimes our expectations in reality don't, don't line up. And when we aren't prepared for those failures or haven't had that talk with ourself, that failure is going to happen, that's when things really kind of go downhill and we start to question our ability. We start to question, why am I at this school? You start to question the coaches, you know, you start to question everything because what's happening and what you expected to happen aren't lining up with each other.
>> Mike Huber: Right? And you've made reference to it a number of times, you know, controlling the controllables. Right. As a mental performance coach, you know, that's something we talk about all the time. Whether you're, you know, 14 or you're, you know, you know, you're a professional athlete. Like, you know, in your case, right when you were talking about your transition from the outfield to Pitching like you couldn't control who's coming in to the recruiting class. Right. So, e. We can either kind of, linger on that idea, like, why is this happening to me? Or you could kind of look at the situation objectively and say, what can I do differently? And you made a choice. Right. And so a lot of this process, I feel like, as a mental performance coach is helping young people to make good decisions. Right. And part of that process of making good decisions is developing an awareness of what's actually going on around you. and I would venture to guess that. And I think you've said it. I would venture to guess that the adversities you faced even in high school as a player really helped prepare you for that transition into college. Is that a fair statement?
>> Elliot Glenn: Yeah, absolutely. That's fair. And, and that probably wasn't something that was created for me. That was just something that was there. And that's probably, I would say, a challenge for specifically baseball in the Northeast is, you know, it's not a hotbed. I think it's not a hotbed for baseball, although I do think there is. There's a lot of talent in this area, in the Northeastn it's getting better every single year, but the talent's a little more spread out. So, you know, the most guys that are playing Division 1 baseball are the best player on their team, and they may not be challenged within their immediate circle every single day. so I would, you know, and sometimes it's, you know, do you want that challenge to happen organically or do you need to, you know, do you need to create it? And sometimes it needs to be created, creating that challenge for you. Like, hey, I'm gonna go play for this team where I'm not the best player, or, you know, I'm gonna hit eighth today. I'm gonna hit eighth and play second base instead of shortstop. sometimes you need to create that challenge for yourself. and that's really, you know, that's really, I think, where you kind of create those mental. The mental game for yourself is, hey, I'm not the best player on my team, or I'm not the best player on my. On the field today. How am I going toa navigate this game or this practice to have success?
>> Mike Huber: I. I mean, that's. You're preaching. Preaching to the choir here. I believe in that. But I can't imagine that that's something that every kid or every parent for that matter, instinctively thinks. Right? Like, let me make this hard for myself so that I'm struggling on purpose, rather. It's usually. Or you could definitely say it's every now and then you see people who are trying to create the perfect conditions to make myself look as good as I can possibly look. So I'm gonna ask you to kind of put on your recruiting coordinator, assistant college baseball coach hat. So, I mean, I guess before I.
Your job at Fordham is to find student athletes and make them better
Well, before I ask you, in more ad depth, like, can you tell me more about your role at Fordham as a coach? Like, what's your day to day look like?
>> Elliot Glenn: Yeah, so I'm in charge of the pitching staff at Fordham. So really my job is, you know, the two most important aspects of my job are to find student athletes that are good fits for our program, and to make them better when they get the campus. So find the right people to put in our baseball program. And then once they get into our baseball program, make them, you know, better players, better leaders, better people. So those are the two most important aspects of my job now within those realms. I work with the pitchers on the player aspect. So, creating throwing programs, arm care routines, planning out the day for each pitcher, what needs to be accomplished, what we're working on, what we're doing well, what we're struggling with, specifically there and then on the recruiting end, it's, answering emailsing, watching video, communicating with prospective student athletes, and then handling, you know, national letters of intent, making, sure once the signing period has happened, making sure they're taking all the necessary steps to be, ready for the following fall.
>> Mike Huber: I mean, so what you just referenced, I feel like I've heard it a lot because I've started to try to learn more about the way coaches, college coaches view recruiting, particularly in the baseball space. And the thing that I hear almost consistently from coaches at the highest levels of college baseball, I always hear them say, I want a recruit, I want an athlete who takes ownership of the recruiting process versus having a parent do it or having a coach do it or have somebody else do it. They really want the kid to communicate with them. one on one, be honest, write a nice email, send a video clip, be straightforward. Like, is that kind of what you're looking for as well?
>> Elliot Glenn: Absolutely. I mean, you want, you want the student athlete to take control from the get go. So whether that's, you know, communicating, you know, through email or text message, you know, whether it's an introduction, whether it's sending you video, whether it's, you know, calling me with any questions, whether it's, you know, setting Up a visit, whatever it may be, you want the student athlete to be the point of contact. and any coach will say this, you don't want to be dealing, you don't want to talk to the parents about those things. there are, there are times when it is necessary to talk to the parents. You know, if you're logistically setting up an official visit and you know, hotels need to be arrange, you know, travel arrangements, whatever, there may be a time where the parent needs to get involved. but 95% of the time, communication should be done with the student athlete. and because that's a huge, you know, huge way that any college coach learns about somebody. How they communicate, are they easy to talk to? Do they ask any questions? Do they have any idea of how they're trying to get themselves better on the field on a day to day basis? Do they know their own strengths and weaknesses? those are huge questions that the player needs to be asking themselves. A and then B, can they communicate those things to a coach?
>> Mike Huber: Right. So if it's, if 95% of the time the kid, the student athlete should be communicating directly, what's the real number in terms of, you know, what percentage of, you know, what percentages of student athletes are actually communicating versus what your expectations or desires are?
>> Elliot Glenn: I do think it's a little bit higher than people give kids credit for. I probably think it's more like 75, 25. Student athlete to player or to student athlete, to parent. although if you put the coachat, if you put the coaches in there, then you're probably, you know, you can twet that number a little bit more. I would probably say you're hearing from the student athlete one, travel coach two, and parent three. and I think a lot of the times that the reason that you hear from the travel coach is from the parent. So it's parent that travel coach, travel coach to college coach and then student athletes. So if you want to add the coaches in there now, you're probably in the 50, 50 range. so you don't hear from the parents as much. The parents go through, go through the coaches a little bit more because you know, the coach, we have relationships with coaches and you know, some of the travel coaches played for me or some of the travel coaches coached me and some of the travel coaches, you know, we recruited a player from their organization, so we do have a relationship with that coach. so if you want to add that third, that third variable in there now, you're probably close to 60, 60, 40. player to parent, slash coach.
>> Mike Huber: M. So without asking you to be too specific, cause I know this is something you may have to be careful about, but like, what are some of the attributes, right when you're recruiting a kid, like, just what are some of the general attributes you look for in the kid, that athlete, the student athlete, to say, like, hey, like, you know, how much of it is, you know, on field performance and skill versus like intangible stuff. Right? Like what are you looking for in general?
>> Elliot Glenn: It's probably, it's probably same. I'd probably say 60, 40 on field ability, 40%, you know, intangibles and attributes. you have to have the skill set to play, first and foremost. So it can't be 100% intangible is in 0% on field ability. So there has to be an inherent ability to play the game, to begin with. but I do think that those intangibles are, are very important, in terms of being able to communicate with a coach, understanding. You know, I think one of the biggest intangibles is the self awareness. I think self awareness is probably the biggest intangible or the biggest attribute that a player can have. especially a young player. Hey, this is what I'm good at. This is what I struggle at. This is what I'm doing to. This is what I need to get better at. and I think that's, what is being looked at. That's what's being looked at is, hey, is there an ability here? Is there a inherent skill set to play the game? Two, does the player understand their skill set and what works for them or what they're good at and what they're trying to improve.
>> Mike Huber: Yeah, yeah. And I would imagine that when you're recruiting high level kids, high school kids who've been the best player on their team, especially like in the northeast, like you said, that might not always be obvious to them. Right. Because a lot of people in their lives, whether it's travel, coaches, high school coaches, parents, whoever, friends, teammates are telling them all the things that they like to hear because they are performing right. And then they get to college and it's a different, it's a different ballame.
>> Elliot Glenn: Yes. And I think a big, you know, a big reason that she want to see if a player understands what he's good at and what he's trying to improve or get better at is down the line when you may actually coach this player, are you gonna be at odds and ends at, you know, what we need to be working on on a daily basis. If I think that, you know, you need to be throwing your change up more in games, but you think your changeup's not very good, or you don't need to be throwing your change up because your breaking ball is so good, then we're going to always be butting heads on, hey, I want you to try this. Cause this is what the information says. This could be really good for you. And you're saying as a player I don't really need to do that because I'm good at these two things already, then it's going to be a tough, it's gonna be a tough relationship. so being able to be self aware and I think that's really what being coachable is, is understanding your weaknesses and trying to improve those and as a coach identifying weaknesses and understanding, seeing if the player, you know, is on the same page with you. Or do we need to sit down and talk about this and communicate?
>> Mike Huber: Yeah. You, you took the word out of my mouth. Coachability was the word that came to mind when you were talking. And you know what, what I might call it as a mental performance coaches growth mindset, right? Like where can I get better? Rather than focusing on what I'm good at now or what I think I'm good at. because you know, in kind of learning more and listening more about athlete development in general, you know, baseball in particular. It sounds like there's a lot of late bloomers, right? Kids who have great skill but physically might not be, you know, where some other kids are, right, athletes are, but then they start to grow into their bodies, they learn how to lift the weights, they learn how to feed themselves properly, they learn how to sleep and all of a sudden you take ah, maybe an undersized kid or a kid that's not that strong, it doesn't hit for power. And now you have a high level, skill level kid and now he's developing into a man and all of a sudden, you know, the level of plague increases. I mean I would imagine you see that some of that too as well.
>> Elliot Glenn: Yeah, absolutely. I think that you know's, that kind of goes back to players that are self sufficient. You know, there's a, if there's a skill set there or an athletic ability, but it's, you know, raw and it needs to be fine tuned. You know, that's not going to happen. You know, if you just put the minimum amount of work in, if you're self sufficient and you're meticulous about Your work and you understand your weaknesses and work on those things. That's where that, you know, the potential becomes, you know, translates into, you know, on field performance. So being so, you know, going back to being a self sufficient player, whether it's communicating with coaches or doing your, doing your work on a daily basis, you know, that those go hand in hand.
Fordham invests in mental training with their athletes
>> Mike Huber: Definitely. I want to be mindful of time. I mean, I could ask you questions all day, you know, I, I mean, I wouldn't be here if I didn''t love what we were talking about. But I also want to be mindful that we don't have unlimited time. But I did want to ask you about. I almost like I'm obligated to ask this question. Tell me about the mental side of the game, right? With the players that you coach at the college level and maybe some of the incoming players that you have. Like, what are some of the, you know, the mental skills? Like what do you, I mean, I guess I'll keep it open. Like what do you see? I mean, obviously Fordham has a vested interest. Fordham invests in mental training with their athletes. but you know, what does that look like for a high school kid? Inoming. Do you see more kids getting mental training, you know, mental skills training coming in?
>> Elliot Glenn: not really. To be honest, I don't see ton of, a ton of players working on that part of their game. and I think that the thing I always lead with and something that I think is an important mantra, if you want to call it, is, you know, the mental game is you never figure the mental game out. It's never, it's never something that you master. It's constantly evolving, it's constantly changing. it's something that's, it's relevant all the time and that doesn't, and that's not just for athletics. That's for anything that you do in your entire life. You know, whether it from, from schoolwork to video games to, you know, to having a family. You know, men, the mental game is constantly, it's there and it's got toa be worked on and it's got toa be used. and I think number. The number one response that I get from our own players when. And I could actually pull up some messages here. I'm not gonna, you know, I'm not gonna use any names or anything, but we had some, we had some young guys, this past weekend we played the inner squad. We had some young guys who had some tough outings on the mound. For the first time. and when you, you know, give them, I give them some time to kind of think about their performance. I'm not, I don't like being like, hey, it's okay, like 10 minutes after they get off the mound. And some of their responses are, are interesting. had a kid who pitched on, I was like, hey, we got, we're gonna, you know, we're gonna throw a bullpen on Thursday. We have, there's a couple of things that I'd like to work on for you. And his response was, yeah, I think Saturday was a combination of, you know, physical, physical issues and me getting into my own head. So mostly getting into my own head and another kid, like, I'm not really sure what happened. Just lost confidence in the pen, which carried over to the mound. So as you see, the first thing that a lot of these players gravitate towards is here, not. Well, my fastball wasn't, I wasn't throwing hard enough that day, or my breaking ball wasn't good enough. It was here. So if the response is always here, then we need to work on here more than the pitch, more than the f, more than the more than the velocity, more than the breaking ball. We need to work on, on here. So having, having a practice plan or having a routine that identifies and addresses that part of the game on a daily basis, you know, whether it's incorporating the breadth between pitches, whether it's having a focal point in the bullpen, you know, they're simple, you know, and I'm just spitting out some of the simples, simplest terms that are used. But you know, most of the time when young players have failures, they don't talk about, well, I'm just not good enough physically to do this. It's, you know, I was in my own head, I didn't have any confidence. So those are the responses that are always. That you're getting from your players and it needs to be addressed and practiced. Just like playing catches, practice.
>> Mike Huber: I mean, couldn, I couldn't have, I couldn't have made written a better commercial for what it is that I do for a living. That's. I mean, listen, I mean, these are high level, high skilled athletes who wouldn't be at a place like Fordham if they didn't have the physical ability. Right. So at that level, they have so many reps under their belt. It, it can't be about physical. I mean, maybe there's a bad day physically, but most days it's about what's my plan to go out and compete. You know, Revisa always said, you know, like, do you have to have your best stuff every day to compete? And I think that's it, right? And so one of the things that I've. And you mentioned good ones, right? Like, what's my. What's my breathing routine? Right? Like, what am I saying to myself? Right? I have one pitchure that I work with. You know, he wrote something in the brim of his hat, and in between pitches, he'd go to the hat and it had, you know, an acronym to remind him, like, hey, that pitch is gone. Like, let me go out and attack. Let me go attack the next pitch. Versus getting caught up in what just happened. You have to have an approach. And you're right. If you don't have an approach, you don't have a way to reset yourself. You're going to get be. It's going to be quicksand. You're going to just spiral down and you're not going to be able get to get out of it. And I think that's really important. And I think that's one of the biggest challenges I have with athletes in any sport of any age, which is they don't understand as much as you try to tell them that practicing the mental side of sport is important. They only come back to it when something goes wrong versus being proactive about it. And I think that's a real big challenge for coach, any kind of coach, whether it's an athletic coach like yourself, where you're on a team, or a mental performance coach like myself, kind of stressing that you've got to continue to get better at the mental game and invest time and energy in it.
>> Elliot Glenn: Yeah, absolutely. And it's, it's not something that's. That's taught a ton either. You know, it's, you know, when you have a limited amount of time to have practice, a lot of coaches and a lot of players like, well, we got to get through playing catch, we got to get through bunting, we got to get through batting practice. We got to get through these three things, like, we're not going toa have enough time to work on it today. And then when there's a lack of performance, you know, when the lights turn on, you're always like, well, how come he can't do it in the game? How come he can't? Why isn't he performing? And a lot of times when you get into the heat of the moment, you know, you don't have. How do you slow your heart rate down? How do you remind yourself what you've been working on physically all week? and it's the same. It's the same as a student struggling, being a decent student, but being struggling on test.
Is it your confidence or is it your concentration and your preparation
Like, I'm m not a very good test taker. And yes. Are there kids that aren't good at tests? Like, sure there are. But is it, your confidence or is it your concentration? Like, is it your confidence or is it your concentration and your preparation? Most kids who are confident are confident because they're prepared, you know, especially on the field. Great, you know, great quarterbacks, they're confident. You know, Tom Brady's confident because he knows the playbook inside and out. He knows exactly what, what he's going to do when this situation arises. And players that aren't focused during their preparation and they're not prepared, you know, when a variable is thrown at them or, you know, something doesn't go your way, what ends up happening is the heart rate speeds up and now it's just like, you know, fight or flight. And I'm not quite sure what to do. And I'm just gonna keep going down the path I'm going down and hoping for the best. And when you hope for the best, more times than not, you know something's gonna go wrong.
>> Mike Huber: I've heard it said, that more than once, that hope is not a strategy. No, but it's. But you raise a really good point. And one of the things that I'm really, I really stress with my athletes is decision making. Right. So what you just described, we have all these things to do physically. I don't have time for the mental side of things. Right. And I'll say, okay, I'm just like a lot of my athletes, I ask them to meditate, do mindfulness meditation. Five minutes a day. That's it. All you're doing is training that muscle for five minutes a day. It doesn't take very much time at all when you don't do it. All you're telling me is that it's not that important to you, right? So you're go going toa do what you'ren toa text with your friends. You're go going to go on social media, you're gonna, play video games. All that's cool. But don't be surprised when you get into a game and you can't, you can't be mindful and control your thinking or control your breath for 20 seconds between a pitch. Then you wonder what went wrong. There's a consequence to deciding as to how you spend your time. Right. And I think I try to get athletes to understand that they've got to have the motivation to get better. And if they don't want to do it, that's okay, but it's only hurting them. And I think that resonates a lot of times because you're not telling them to do anything. You can do whatever you want. Just understand you're not going to get better at this craft, at this game, if you don't practice the mental side of it. And maybe they don't pick up on that as fast as you like them to. Especially when you're. I mean, listen, your job is predicated on getting results, right? You're there to win games. I mean, you're there to develop young men, but you got to win, right? If you don't win, you're probably not going to have a job in most places at that level. But at the same time, if you tell somebody to do something, it may not be sustainable, Right. You got to get them to understand that, like, hey, this is for your benefit, but you need to figure it out sooner. Sooner rather than later.
>> Elliot Glenn: Yeah. And it's like you're saying it's. It's a qu. It's. You don't have to dedicate a ton of time to it, you know, on a daily basis. But under. If you may not be a mental. A mental game wizard and have, like, all these counters for things that know, this happens on the field, I'm gonna do this. This happens on the field, I'm gonna do that. You may not ever get to that point, but you can. Any. Any player can get to the point where they can take a deep breath, breathe, and say, what is. What is going on right in front of me right now? Anybody can. Anybody can do that. That's a. That's a choice. That's a decision. and there's very simple. Very simple ways to do that. And if that's the extent that you get to in your mental preparation, that may put you ahead of three quarters of your competition, Especially in high school, it probably puts you in front of 90% of your competition in college a little bit. No different than your physical skill set. You know, each level you go, the better the skill set, each level you go, the better the mental game gets, for guys. But if. If this. The most basic step you get to is understanding your breath, what it can do for you physically, and knowing where you're at. You know, the red light, yellow light, green light, cann revisa what is Happening, you know, am I at a green light, like go compete. Am I starting to get a little flustered, a little rattled, you know, yellow light, all right, I need to step off, breathe, regather, make this pitch. Or, am I at the red light? Things have spiraled out of control. I really need to take a deep breath and refocus, call time out, whatever, whatever each guy has. But if that's as simple as you get to the breath, like that can take you a long way.
>> Mike Huber: Yeah. so I'm so happy that you mentioned the traffic light. Cause I stole that right from Ken. I think a lot of people have, but I use that as a way to assess athletes a lot of the time. And what I forced them to do is think about like, what are you thinking and what are you feeling when you're typically going well with the green light? What's happening when you have a yellow light? What's happening when you have a red light? And I really forced them to think about it. And to your point about awareness, a lot of them don't even realize like what's happening when things are going good. A lot of the times, like they don't even know what they're doing when they're going well, it just sort of happens. But they can tell you a thousand things that are happening when they're going bad, which is kind of interesting. Right. But to force them to really think about, like when I find myself in these situations, like what am I thinking, what am I feeling, what am I doing to counteract or get back to the green light? So it's so huge, right?
Elliot Glenn: Take ownership of your career and be self sufficient
There's so many things we could talk about. I want to try to wrap it up though here. And so I'm going to ask you one last question. So if there's one thing that you could say to your student athletes, the potential recruits coming in and to their parents. So maybe it's a two part question. What's one thing you would say for the recruit and what's one thing you would say for the parents of the recruits in terms of what they should be focusing on in this process?
>> Elliot Glenn: The one thing I would say to the student athlete, to the player, is to take ownership and be self sufficient. It's your career, it's your opportunity, to play and to own it. so take control of that, take control of that opportunity, which, that's what it really is at the end of the day, an opportunity and make the best of it. that's as simple as I can make it be self Sufficient and take control of it. and, and for parents and coaches alike, obviously a. Be supportive. my college coach, you know, used to say, like, your parents are the one. The one people, you know, the people in life, in your life, you can have unconditional love for you. They. They'll be there for you no matter what. So, yes, be supportive of their goals and their dreams. and I know this is the hardest one because. And I deal with it with our own players, like, it's okay for them to fail. It's okay. Allow them to. To have a bad game. Allow them to, you know, lose. Allow them to lose. You know, whether it's a. Playing a board game at home or whether it's even in the classroom, which it like, allow them to. To fail every once in a while. same with coaches. Like, if a guy. A guy comes you for a lesson or a guy comes to you for a bullpen and he throws a bad bullpen, like, sometimes the best thing to say is nothing at all. You know, let them fail. Let them struggle. and do your best to create a challenging environment. You know, if you have guys that are on cruise control, you know, tilt the deck against them a little bit, you know, make them, you know, create it. Create a challenging environment. and that's, that's mostly for coaches and, you know, parents as well. Create a challenging environment, for your kids. Allow them to fail. Not to say don't help them at all, but help them. Allow them to fail. Allow them to pick themselves up, and lear, help them learn that you can combat failure through hard work. Most of the time through hard work and good direction.
>> Mike Huber: That's awesome. I love it. I. I love it. So I really appreciate you spending all this time to kind of talk to me about your experiences, both as a player and as a coach. I think this was great. I mean, I loved it. Like, I said I could keep going all day. but you know, I justnna say that I appreciate you taking the time out. do if you want. Can you wanna tell everybody, like, what your social media handle is?
>> Elliot Glenn: Sure. So right now I'm, I'm only on Twitter right now. It's Elliot Glenn 07 so e l l I o t gl l y n n 07 on Twitter. I'm really trying to stay off of social media. I don't know if anyone's seen that Netflix documentary the Social Dilemma's a. That's one thing that I would recommend everyone to watch. it's not a book. I know, but, so I'm on Twitter right now, at at the leastase. So any. I don't tweet a ton of stuff. I retweet a ton of. Ton of mental game stuff. Actually, I try my best to tweet out some. Some mental game stuff. So that's where I'm at on social media. And then if anyone has any questions or wants to reach out, my email is on the fordhamsports.com website, under the baseball tab and roster. So you can, if you click on my link on, on the roster, you could feel free to shoot me an email with any other. Any questions. And, I hope. I hope I helped. I hope I helped some people and hope hopefully I didn't talk too much and hopefully everyone, everyone learned a little bit.
>> Mike Huber: I'm sure of it. It was awesome. Thanks so much, Elliot. I appreciate it.
>> Elliot Glenn: Awesome. Thanks for having me on, Mike. Looking forward to, doing this again.
>> Mike Huber: Absolutely. Be awesome. Take care.
>> Elliot Glenn: All right, thanks.