Reggie Christiansen- Head Baseball Coach, Sacramento State (CA)

During this episode of Ahead of the Curve, I interviewed Reggie Christiansen, Head Coach of the Sacramento State Hornets college baseball team. Reggie Christiansen talks about the important balance between developing players individually and as a collective team, how a typical week of training unfolds, how he goes about getting to know his players better, and recommendations for building a productive team culture.    Episode Highlights:  How did Reggie Christiansen get involved in baseball and as a coach?    What were the first steps Reggie took as a head coach?  What did his team do last fall when his players started to report?  What are they doing on a daily basis to build the team culture?  How does he get players to buy into the individual player concept and the collective team concept?  What ways does Reggie Christiansen get to know his players better?  Does he have a process to help his assistant coaches to grow?  What are some different competitions that he loves to use with his players?   What are some important rules and standards that his team organization has?  Reggie Christiansen talks about what they are doing this spring and making practices more efficient.  What advice does he have for guys getting into their first year of head coaching?  What are things his players get excited about doing during practice?    What is something done during practice that his players really love?  Is there anything that Reggie Christiansen believes that other coaches might disagree with? Which things that typically happen during practice would we notice?  Are there any resources that Reggie Christiansen would recommend?  Remember why we all got into baseball to begin with.     3 Key Points: Put players in training situations where they have to overcome fears and to evolve as a team.   Take ownership of your performance and be honest about your mistakes.  Balance routine training elements with switching things up.     Tweetable Quotes: “When I was in high school I coached middle school basketball and I actually coached little league baseball when  I was in high school my senior year. I just fell in love with the organization of putting practices together.” – Reggie Christiansen (00:40) “I think you are probably short-changing your players if you are trying to do everything.” – Reggie Christiansen (06:09) “I think that my job as a head coach is to really allow these guys to chase their dreams individually, and obviously we have team goals as well. So there is a balance.” – Reggie Christiansen (10:00) “Mondays and Wednesdays are very individual skill-based. The focus is on the player...We built Tuesday and Thursday night practices where the focus would be on the team...Friday would be a very short practice.” – Reggie Christiansen (10:50) “I think our players understand that I do care about them individually. But, we also need to make sure that the team component is at the forefront.” – Reggie Christiansen (11:27) “We do some other things that I would call, ‘shared diversity.’ Some might call it ‘shared suffering.’ We try to have as much competition or put them in some experiences that allow them to grow together.” – Reggie Christiansen (11:37) “Give the new guys more of an opportunity to talk a little bit more, to ask questions, to open a little bit, because I think those guys are somewhat pleasers, right? They want to say and do what they think we want.” – Reggie Christiansen (16:04) “I want their best effort all the time. I think that it is simple as that. There is nothing that frustrates you more than seeing a guy not run hard. Just do what you are supposed to do.” – Reggie Christiansen (23:27)   Resources Mentioned:  Ahead of the Curve Podcast Twitter: @AOTC_podcast Reggie Christiansen: Twitter Reggie Christiansen’s Email: Christra@CSUS.edu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices