BBE Head Varsity Baseball Coach. Teacher at BBE. Saint John’s University Alum
Joined January 2013
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Ben Klaphake retweeted
"The standard creates the culture." @ChristianYelich
When coaches enforce it, it's a rule.
When players own it, it's a standard.
When everyone lives it, it's a culture.
Culture isn't built by what you preach.
It's built by what you practice.
Props to Melrose for this!! I’ve been preaching this for years at the school I work with! This would be amazing!! Gets young kids interested in sports, creates an opportunity for young kids to see a sporting event if they don’t get this luxury, and creates great school buy in!
Ben Klaphake retweeted
BUNTING MANIPULATES PITCHER APPROACH AND SETS THE TABLE FOR FUTURE MOMENTS
With 2 outs and no body on in the 3rd inning, losing 4-0, @Brewers Manager Pat Murphy told #9 hitter David Hamilton to lay down a bunt in a seemingly unimportant at bat.
Why?
Because Murphy knew Hamilton was known for bunting and they could set the table for a future at bat and big moment later in the game where he’d get a pitch to hit.
And that’s exactly what happened.
Hamilton bunted.
Hamilton got out.
But in the 5th, in Hamilton’s next at bat, he got a pitch in the heart of the plate and singled scoring a run and bringing the Brewers within 1.
And in the 9th, Hamilton did it again, homering on a get me over slider and extending the Brewers lead to 6-4.
You bunt to create future moments, and the Brewers did just that.
#BuntLife
Ben Klaphake retweeted
Bad speed warm-up = injury
Good speed warm-up = sprint PR
Save this sprint warm-up thread!
This is the sprint warm up I use with my athletes who want to stay healthy & sprint FAST
👇 High level sprint warm-up
Ben Klaphake retweeted
𝗖𝗢𝗠𝗠𝗜𝗧𝗠𝗘𝗡𝗧 𝗪𝗔𝗧𝗖𝗛 🎓
Aiden Mueller (2027, RHP/SS, Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa) commits to Alexandria Technical College
Mueller attended the Summer-ID Central Minnesota in June.
ᴘʀᴏꜰɪʟᴇ
bit.ly/4yZz2wa
@ATCCBaseball
Ben Klaphake retweeted
Stretching before exercise does not prevent injuries. A 2014 meta-analysis of 26,610 participants in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that stretching had no effect on injury rates at all. Strength training cut injuries by a third.
The study was led by Jeppe Bo Lauersen at the University of Copenhagen. His team pooled every randomised trial that tested whether exercise-based programmes could prevent sports injuries, and compared the results by type: stretching, strength training, balance work, and combinations. Stretching reduced nothing. Strength training reduced injuries by 33 percent and cut overuse injuries, the ones that build up slowly over weeks, by nearly half.
The reason stretching fails is that it addresses the wrong problem. A muscle tear happens when a muscle is asked to produce more force than it can handle. Making a muscle longer does not make it stronger. Strength training does, and it also thickens tendons and stiffens the connective tissue around joints, all of which protect against the sudden loads that cause tears and sprains.
The finding goes against what every gym teacher, track coach, and physical therapist has said for fifty years. But the data is not close. Across every trial, every sport, and every injury type, stretching before exercise had zero detectable effect on whether the person got hurt.
This does not mean flexibility has no value. It means the five-minute hamstring stretch before a run is doing nothing for injury prevention, and replacing it with five minutes of bodyweight squats and lunges would be measurably better. The body does not need to be looser before it works. It needs to be ready to handle load, and that is a strength problem, not a flexibility problem. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2410…
Ben Klaphake retweeted
A hero and a Johnnie.
Twenty-four years apart, Tom Burnett ’85 and his nephew Devin O’Brien ’05 each faced an unimaginable moment and made the choice to act for others.
Their stories are connected by family, Saint John’s and shared commitment to service when it mattered most: csbsju.edu/news/from-9-11-to…
Ben Klaphake retweeted
"The catcher is choosing where the middle of that cloud sits, which means he’s subtly choosing how often his pitcher throws strikes."
jrod20033.substack.com/p/the…
Love this. We started preaching this “cloud” method 3 years ago and have noticed a huge upward spike in strikes thrown. This is money 👌
"The catcher is choosing where the middle of that cloud sits, which means he’s subtly choosing how often his pitcher throws strikes."
jrod20033.substack.com/p/the…
Ben Klaphake retweeted
@AIDENMUELLER12 dicing in the Championship game. Not surprising whatsoever. Dudes built for the big moment💪
Preach🙏👏
Today, one of my players attended a college camp.
Afterward, I asked her a simple question:
“How did it go? Who showed interest?”
She told me she had interest and communication with three college coaches and gave me their names.
I went to work.
Texts were sent.
Phone calls were made.
Emails went out.
I didn’t wait until tomorrow.
I didn’t tell the player, “Good luck, keep me posted.”
I advocated for her.
And from those conversations, she is very close to receiving an offer. Will it materialize that is a family /player decision my job to start dialogue
That is what I want athletes and parents to understand about Coach Joe Alba.
I cannot promise a scholarship.
I cannot promise a particular college or division.
But I can promise effort.
When a player creates an opportunity, I will do everything I can to help her turn that opportunity into something real.
Development. Relationships. Communication. Advocacy.
The player does the work.
The player creates the interest.
My job is to help open the door wider.
That is what coaching means to me.
Ben Klaphake retweeted
Today, one of my players attended a college camp.
Afterward, I asked her a simple question:
“How did it go? Who showed interest?”
She told me she had interest and communication with three college coaches and gave me their names.
I went to work.
Texts were sent.
Phone calls were made.
Emails went out.
I didn’t wait until tomorrow.
I didn’t tell the player, “Good luck, keep me posted.”
I advocated for her.
And from those conversations, she is very close to receiving an offer. Will it materialize that is a family /player decision my job to start dialogue
That is what I want athletes and parents to understand about Coach Joe Alba.
I cannot promise a scholarship.
I cannot promise a particular college or division.
But I can promise effort.
When a player creates an opportunity, I will do everything I can to help her turn that opportunity into something real.
Development. Relationships. Communication. Advocacy.
The player does the work.
The player creates the interest.
My job is to help open the door wider.
That is what coaching means to me.
