Outwork Your Fears: What Top College Baseball Recruits Do Differently with Jake Valentine

Matt Cundill  0:01  
This is the mental approach, where we discuss mindfulness, mental performance, and the tools available for coping in a high-performance world. Here's Todd Arkell.

Todd Arkell  0:11  
Today, I'm thrilled to introduce my guest, Jake Valentine, from the University of Michigan Baseball Program, where he serves as assistant head coach and recruiting coordinator. And since joining the Wolverines, Jake's been, we'll say, instrumental. We won't tell the head coach that instrumental in shaping Michigan's recruiting strategy and developing young talent. So today we're lucky to have Jake with us to dig into what I want to talk about: is the mental side of recruiting, what it really takes to be recruited and recruit at the highest level, how you build relationships with athletes, and you know how you help players navigate the transition from high school to college baseball. Hey, Jake, how are you doing?

Jake Valentine  0:49  
I'm I'm great. I'm excited to be on here. Obviously, strong connections up in Canada, so it's fun to talk to a to another Canadian. So let's get after it.

Todd Arkell  0:59  
One would think that you know you don't go very far to have to recruit all your arms. That's for sure.

Jake Valentine  1:05  
Yeah, it's it's we've been we've been lucky up in Canada. We've had some good ones with all the bars and the carries and the Brenhams. It's been a it's been a good relationship.

Todd Arkell  1:16  
Well, like a lot of people say, you know, get hitters from the south and arms from the north less miles or whatever-that's usually kind of what they talk about. I don't know if it's entirely true, but it is true. There's definitely less miles than some of these Canadian arms. There's no question about it. So, you know, one of the things that I found, you know, kind of about recruiting having a having a kid who is in the process as well is I think it's really dangerous to compare your recruiting process to anybody else's. So, what do you what do you say to families going through the process? Like, how how should they sort of manage that piece? Because I think it's got to be hard, especially in today's age of of Instagram and X and everybody. I got. I think it's a football thing where I see a lot of guys going, "Hey, blessed to be offered. I'm like, "What is that? I mean, I'm not a big on that, but I mean, it creates a lot of noise. So maybe explain what you think people should kind of how they should treat all that.

Jake Valentine  2:15  
Well, I think first things first is everybody's recruiting story is unique to them, so I don't think comparing to others is a healthy practice. I think everybody has a completely unique timeline. There's some of the best players I've ever had have been. You know, we've ended up recruiting them two weeks before school started. Some of the best players I've ever had. It's two years before they ever step on campus, so I think everybody's story is completely different. I think every player peaks at a certain point, and I think some are early, some are late, and it's just making sure you're getting yourself in front of the eyes that you want to get in front of. And I think leading into that, it's trying to play the best competition you can, and then narrowing it down to the universities that you legitimately have interest in and feel like you would have the opportunity to compete at, and trying to get in front of those schools as often as possible, whether that's through a team camp or a prospect camp or or going to the events that you know that they're going to be at, and then just having communication, if possible, with the recruiting coordinator at that university. I think, and we we talk about this all the time on the recruiting front, whether it's Michigan or another university. I don't think you'll make a bad decision if you base it with four key principles, and one being the university itself. Like, is that a place that you're going to be happy to have a degree from? Are you going to be proud to have that label next to your name when you're all done playing baseball? Because no matter if you play 20 years in the big leagues, at some point your jersey is getting taken off. Two, do you believe in the people that would be surrounding yourself with? Like, do you believe in the coaches? Do you believe in the development plan? Do you believe in the type of players that you know are committed there or are currently there because you are who you surround yourself with? Three, the opportunity to play at a relatively early stage in your career at that university. Do they have a track record of allowing young players to play? And I think the fourth one, which is, and this is the one that people are like, "How's that fourth? But the fourth one is the financial piece, right?

Todd Arkell  4:42  
Sure.

Jake Valentine  4:42  
But I think I think you put that forth because if you got a full ride and NIL on top, but you didn't appreciate the university and you didn't trust the people that are in the building, and there wasn't an opportunity to play, it doesn't matter how much money. They throw at you, you're not going to enjoy your time there. So that's why I put it in the fourth. Because if the first three check, then it's the adults in the room, whether it's the coaching staff or the parents, to figure out the fourth part on the financial side. But I think if you make a decision based on those four, you're going to make a good decision no matter where you're at. And then there's obviously other things that you can slide into those four that maybe are important to you. Whether it's you know weather, location, gear, it kind of all depends. It's across the board, but I think if you boil it down to those four, you're going to make a good decision at the end of the day.

Todd Arkell  5:39  
Oh, a big trunk full of swag always swoons a 17 year old's heart. Yeah, it

Jake Valentine  5:44  
it shouldn't be the reason you go somewhere, but it definitely helps. I

Todd Arkell  5:50  
even go back years ago. I remember my son was playing hockey as well, and he was on this team there. I think there were like nine or 10 or whatever, and the organization itself was a really old guy, and he had like hideous uniforms. And I said to him, "I said, hey, you know what? Like, I think if you updated this and had a really fresh look, you'd attract better players. And he's like, "I muttered around. So I literally gave him a design, and he showed up two weeks later to one of our practices with the jerseys made and they looked stellar. He changed all of their all of their merch the next year and all of a sudden started to attract all these better players. It was hysterical, and I was like, "I go, I told you, they're kids, man. They're kind of swag. They want to look good.

Jake Valentine  6:37  
I mean, they're on Instagram and TikTok all the time, and again, it shouldn't base the decision, but that's important to you. It's something you should put in your top list. But I think those top four are the reasons you should choose a university.

Todd Arkell  6:50  
Sure, I mean, look, it it it is what it is. But again, I I think part of that when I think about swag and gear and everything else, it really comes down to what you said though about you know what do you think about that school? What does that M mean to you? Right, like does it mean more than than other things? Like I'm all in on Michigan baseball and Michigan hockey, but when it comes to football, I have another blue and yellow team that I like with different initials. So

Jake Valentine  7:15  
yeah,

Todd Arkell  7:15  
you know, like if I was a kid coming up football, I would want to try to play at the school that you know whatever resonated with me, I think it. I think it comes down to that. That's for sure. So you know, you talked about camps and and different things and way people get on the radar. What about recruitment services? Do you guys pay any attention to that stuff? I know there's a lot of them out there, and I'm not trying to rag on that because I think I think some cases I kind of look at it from an advisory perspective. I think it's a a good piece where they can advise parents that feel like it's a black box and they don't know what to do. But like, do you guys take tips from some of those guys? Say, hey, look at these kids. Does that play into anything you guys do as well when you're looking for players?

Jake Valentine  7:58  
I think we'd be stupid not to utilize all our relationships, and I think recruiting, as much as it's about analytics and stuff like that, I still think at the core value it's about the people, right? So you're gonna you're gonna trust the people that you have relationships with, and there's a lot of guys that do a really good job of the advisory piece that we trust, and then there's guys that don't do a good job of it, and we don't necessarily trust what they say because it becomes a little bit of a cattle call for some of those guys. But so I think it's just like anything in life. I think there's guys that do it right, and I think there's guys that don't. So just doing your research, I do think I think those those companies are beneficial for people that just maybe haven't got their name out, or are hard to be seen, or you know stuff like that. So yeah, I think there's positives and negatives to to to it, just like anything. And I'm sorry for you know not giving you a definitive answer on that, but I think

Todd Arkell  8:58  
no, it's totally a fair answer. Look, if if there's somebody out there that's you know a college recruiting advisor and they're always sending you high caliber quality kids,

Jake Valentine  9:10  
yeah, then you're gonna trust those guys.

Todd Arkell  9:12  
Sure, 100% right? And and I think that that is part of it. I think you you have to kind of I I I do agree. You have to kind of look at what their track record is what that company's track record is, and I think listen to what you're being told as well. So, what can pivot that just a little bit? What are things that you've seen that parents do in the process that hinder their kids' recruiting process?

Jake Valentine  9:38  
There's a couple. I think whether it's an email or a text or a DM or something like that, make sure it's the kid writing it. I think most parents have understood that, but there's definitely rare cases where I'll get an email or a DM or something like that, like, "Hey, my son's interested in Michigan. Well, is he really or are you interested? Because I got the note from you." The other part is, and this is something maybe when it when the recruiting gets a little bit further on, and you actually come on campus, and there's you know one-on-one interaction, allow them to to run the visit a little bit because I think one thing that sends up a red flag for us is when the kid doesn't say a word on the visit, and the mom or the dad runs the entire visit with questions and stuff like that. Now I get it. They're they're they've been in this life longer than than the recruit, so like they they do have a little bit more definitive questions. And at the same time, like if I'm asking the kid a question, I would I would hope that he's the one answering, not the.

Todd Arkell  10:39  
Yeah, I I I would agree with that. I I can I can get behind that. It's you know, and it's interesting. It's like trying to prepare your kids. It's like a job interview. You know, when my son was going through it in the last year, it was like this coach has reached out to me. I'm not sure I like that school. I go meet with everybody.

Jake Valentine  10:57  
Yeah,

Todd Arkell  10:58  
you never know. You never know.

Jake Valentine  11:00  
You never know because the other part is like the baseball world is such a small fraternity on the coaching side that say say it's a place that maybe you don't know if you have interest or not, and as opposed to big leaguing them and not responding or something, like be cordial, have the conversation. I mean, don't waste somebody's time. Like if you don't have interest, make sure you let them know, but at the same time, like if you're big leading them, you know I might be, you know, at an event with that guy down the road, and he's like, "Yeah, did you hear about that dude? He didn't even return my call, and like that gets implanted in our heads as well. I think it's just like anything in life, right? Like first and last impressions are the most important, so just make sure you're taking care of those situations.

Todd Arkell  11:44  
Yeah, no, that that's good advice. I mean, quick story. My son, one of the first JUCOs that reached out to him was, you know, interested in him, and we had lots of conversation. The guy said, "I'll see you in the summer. And then when we were, he was down in Texas. My son texted him, said, "Hey, you know, going to be down. He goes, "Oh, I'm sorry, man. I'm not at that school anymore, but I'm at this d1. Can we continue our continue? Can we continue our recruiting process? My son goes

Jake Valentine  12:07  
absolutely,

Todd Arkell  12:09  
absolutely. You know, like it was just funny, right? Like, just came out of nowhere that you know he was somewhere, and then he went somewhere else, and that just goes to show you, and it would just happen that way, right? And ultimately, that didn't end up panning out, but it was still it was an opportunity you would have closed the door on going forward on that. That that makes sense.

Jake Valentine  12:29  
I think about like real life situations where I've been at different universities and I've tried to recruit people out of high school and they were really respectable, but we didn't get them. And then you know, come full circle, and I'm at Michigan, and they are hop in the portal at that university that they choose, they chose over us, and now they're here because the relationship was left on a good note.

Todd Arkell  12:52  
Yeah, interesting. No, absolutely. So, what do you think an athlete can do to sort of? I mean, I would say talent is talent, right? But what can they do to kind of separate themselves for you guys when they're going through the process?

Jake Valentine  13:06  
I think ultimately we're you know it's a talent acquisition business, right? Like we're trying to get the best person at that position. But I think a couple things that can help the recruitment piece is making sure you're crushing the academic side because if you're if you're looking at a person head to head, and there's a similar skill set between two individuals, and one's a three zero and one's a three seven, there's a no brainer of who I'm gonna go a little bit heavier into, because we're looking at everything that they do. Are they you know checking every single box. The other piece is, it kind of goes back to your first question on you know how you treat people that can't help you. Like even if it's a university that you're not interested in, like we're going to do our research on the back end with high school coaches, travel coaches, trying to find somebody that doesn't have any skin in the game that's going to give us an honest evaluation of what kind of human being that kid is. So just be a good person. And the other part is like you never know who's watching. So at these events or these team camps or whatever, yeah, like at a prospect camp, we know they're gonna bust their tail because they know we're all watching. But is that how they is that how they go about their business when they're in just a regular conference game, you know, at their high school or their travel ball team, like because we're going to be watching. Sometimes we like to go to games not wearing any of our Michigan stuff, so that we see exactly how they're interacting with their teammates. Like, are they? I'll be honest. There was a very high level recruit, and I won't go into details, but there was a high level recruit that we were pretty hot and heavy on, and then we found out, you know, down at Futures that some of the interactions he had with the coaches and the players were not positive reviews from those people, and they didn't have any skin in the game because they're just there showcasing. But they were really honest with, yeah, maybe the makeup isn't exactly. What we're looking for, it's hard because nowadays with social media and everything, those kids are under a microscope from the time their phone gets turned on. And do I think it's fair? No, but is it a thing that's actually happening? Yeah,

Todd Arkell  15:18  
yeah, no, 100% Well, you know, it is interesting. I also, you know, I also know of a player that had a scholarship to a rather large school, and they came out to watch him play one more time. And something happened on the field. He came into the dugout and he whipped his helmet down the end of the dugout, and they pulled his offer.

Jake Valentine  15:34  
Yeah, I mean,

Todd Arkell  15:35  
that stuff happened. And you go, that seems like you go like, oh, but yeah, but but that's they would say we don't want to deal with that. That's you know, there's a lot of people that want to play. There's a lot of talent out there, and we don't need to deal with that kind of behavior.

Jake Valentine  15:48  
Well, it's funny. Like if you had this, if we came up with a sentence that every single parent and the recruiting process says every single time when we sit on the couch, it's just just just you wait. He's the hardest worker you've ever seen. Well, we have 34 of those guys, and so it's more trying to see how they're going to react when they're surrounded by players that are as good or better than them. Are they going to shell up, or are they going to take that next step and outwork those guys? Because at the end of the day, at especially at our level, your locker room-it's iron sharpens iron, right? And the health of the locker room is the most important piece because if you have a bunch of guys that fold under competition, then it's not going to work. Because ultimately, I mean, we took our team down to the Dominican Republic last year for an international trip, and you know, one it was to give them perspective on how good they have it, but two, showing them like if you want to play at the next level, these are the people that you're competing against, and these guys live and breathe, and they don't make excuses. If they're using a milk carton to field ground balls, then they'll use a milk carton to fill ground balls, and I think when you get good perspective from that from a national level, because I think we get so ingrained in our little bubble, like, hey, I'm the best in this region or whatever. Well, there's there's literally millions of players across the world that are trying to play at this level. So, what are you doing to separate them? Like, just make sure your your output on the work standpoint is matching your goals. Like if you want to if you want to play at the professional level, why are you sitting on the Xbox at 10 p.m. when you should either be asleep or in the cages or in the weight room? Like your your actions have to match your dreams.

Todd Arkell  17:38  
Yeah, no, absolutely. I mean, I can I can attest. I had one of your former players, Will Rogers, on on my show a long time ago, and we happened to be in Michigan for a hockey tournament, and hooked up with him. and He gave us a quick little tour of the facilities, and it was I don't know, it was 8o'clock at night, and there was a kid in the cage with one of the coaches. I don't remember who it was, but anyways, taking hacks, working on things, right? Will had just come from lifting and was was headed home to to go do some homework, right? And it's like, as a you know, you could just see there was things going on. There was different people doing different things based on their schedule. Yeah, it's a it's

Jake Valentine  18:17  
a separation. Everybody's equal. Like, how are you gonna how are you gonna beat that guy if your skill set at the current level at the current time is the same, right? Like

Todd Arkell  18:26  
you

Jake Valentine  18:27  
have to outwork those guys.

Matt Cundill  18:32  
Now more of the mental approach with Todd Arkell.

Todd Arkell  18:37  
So do you ever see athletes their their their kind of confidence dip a little bit when maybe things aren't moving as quickly as as they think in a recruiting process, where their belief, I guess, you know, like their market

Jake Valentine  18:50  
isn't what they thought it was going to be.

Todd Arkell  18:52  
Exactly. Yeah.

Jake Valentine  18:54  
Yeah. Absolutely. I think it. I think it happens more than the other way.

Todd Arkell  18:57  
I mean, it's it's interesting to me. Like, I mean, even just I think a lot of people, and you hear all the time, you know, okay, only 7% of kids playing high school baseball play college baseball, and all all these different things. And then there's a lot of parents who just believe their kids are going to play college baseball. But again, you know, you say you put them in an environment, and you kind of see where they're going to stand out. I want to go back to camps because I have an interesting example that kind of a lot of people talk about camps. They go, ah, should I really go to the camp? I mean, we get all these we get all these emails. Hey, come to our camp, and that's a bit of a cash grab. Or is the coach directly asking you to come to all these different things, right? And I'll ask you to talk about that in a while. But like three years ago, we brought my son. We came to a camp at Michigan because we said, "Hey, you want to see where you stack up against kids your own age? He was like 15, just turning 16. You want to see where you are? Like that's. It wasn't about you know. Oh, would he love to go to Michigan and play baseball? Sure. Did we think he was on that? Path no, but it was like, hey, why don't we? It's not that expensive. It's a reasonably short drive for us. We can go see what it's all about. You know, sadly, it went from a 70 degree Friday to a 43 degree Saturday when the camp was, and I see all these kids couldn't hold their hold a baseball in their hands. But anyways, was interesting about that was later on after the camp, you know, an evaluation comes out, and I don't know if all schools do this, but you guys did, and you kind of just rated it as, "Hey, we think if you continue playing, you're going to be, you know, 25% chance of being at a d1 level. You're going to be, you know, 50 to 70. I think it was 75 or something, d2, d3, and you know, 100% C playing JUCO. So, what that did, you know, I think some parents would look at that and go, "Oh yeah, but I think my kid can play d1. And you know what? That's that's quite possible, right? So let's fast forward a couple of years. But what that did for us at that time was go, you know what? Maybe it's possible. Maybe it's possible you can play college baseball. Like they're saying, they see something. You could at least play JUCO, and honestly, a lot of Canadian kids-that's the place they start, right? It is a little bit lower and behind in development from say some of the southern kids. It's a good place to start, and I think it's a good place to start for for a lot of kids.

Jake Valentine  21:18  
I play JUCO.

Todd Arkell  21:20  
Yeah, there you go. Right, so it it just it gave us that sense of okay, it's possible, and then that allowed him to kind of put in the work and the effort and everything else to kind of get that way. Yeah, and we had a bunch of different offers, and you know he committed to a Texas JUCO, and and he's excited, right? And that all stemmed from coming to that camp. So, you know what? What is your comment on that? I mean, I'm I'm obviously saying to me it was positive. I think if you go into it for the right reason, I think some people think I'm going to go spend 150, 200, and I'm going to get a four year full ride scholarship.

Jake Valentine  21:56  
Yeah.

Todd Arkell  21:57  
How do you how do you approach the camps? Like, what do you see from that?

Jake Valentine  22:00  
I can only speak from our, you know, the way that we run it. Obviously, other people perhaps do it differently, but we use it. We use it as a recruiting base, the especially with the new rules in place, like with the age restrictions and everything. I think it's a great way for, like for instance, right now the 2028. Like it's a it's a great way to create the relationship with them in a competitive environment legally, because we you know we can't have any interaction with them besides in a camp setting. The other part too, and we we tell all the campers at the end is no matter who comes to that camp, we're we're gonna give a very honest evaluation. We sit in after the camp and we go through every single individual, and we create that that system that you were talking about, and we try to put in a percentage standpoint as best as we can, based on what we saw in a one day period of what they potentially could do. But I think what you get in those situations, one, you're going to get eyes on you. You know, there's the recruiting coordinator, the head coach, people that are actually you know making decisions on the recruiting side are going to be in there, and then the other piece too is like you said, you're going to see how you stack up against other people your age, but for us, whether it's getting one last look at a guy or getting our first look at a guy, like we, and there's a reason that we price it the way we price it. It's not a money grab. Like we use it for recruiting, and you just have to do your research, just like anything else. Maybe it's on the price point. Maybe it's asking whoever sent you that email who's going to be there. Like, is the head coach and the recruiting coordinator going to be in attendance? Because if so, then that tells you right there that there's going to be people that, on the recruiting side, can make decisions. Again, without sounding too much like Switzerland, there's there's going to be people that you know probably do use it for a little bit of a monetary to help supplement their staff while also doing some recruiting, and then there's people that you know price it and have the people there to make it just a recruiting event.

Todd Arkell  24:06  
Yeah,

Jake Valentine  24:06  
I know over the last five years, I mean, there's probably 20 something dudes from different camps at different universities that I've been at that we've gotten because of the camp experience. Because the other part is you get them in a one-on-one situation, you can mess with them a little bit and jab with them a little bit and see, you know what kind of their personality is. Because, and I say this too, and this is not to brag because it's not something to brag about. But if somebody does come to our university, I'm going to spend more time with that human being than I do my own children, and so I need to I need to make sure that the interaction is genuine and that we're going to enjoy working together, and that he's cut from the similar cloth of the of myself, so that or our coaching staff, so that they're going to work well together. Because the other part, and I think this is the magic in it, is you're trying to find the best players. But you have to find the best players that work with your personality and your coaching style, and I think that's the magic pill is finding. And I again, this is kind of a buzzword in recruiting, but you're trying to find the best fit, and it should be both sides. Though we're trying to do our research, and they should be trying to do their research as well.

Todd Arkell  25:21  
One one thing I follow Coach Tracy on social media because I I like his little I just like his way that he goes about things in his instructional videos. He's just you know it's real interesting. But lately,

Jake Valentine  25:34  
genuine as it gets.

Todd Arkell  25:35  
Yeah, no kidding. And actually, at that camp, I found that part. He spent probably half an hour, 40 minutes talking to parents, taking questions. I think when you're trying to understand things, I mean, it's one person's perspective, but somebody who's been around a long time. But you know, my advice sometimes to parents is like, there's clues out there. People talk, you know, listen to what they're telling you because that okay, they got that person their experience. Oh, they got that from this other person. Their experience, and you can kind of piece together some of those things. But I think the other thing is everybody's like, "Oh yeah, I want to play college baseball. It's so sexy. It's whatever. And then I saw a video you guys put out the other day with your guys running and lifting and competition, and guys were like gassed and dying and puking, and I'm going. Is that what you want? I find it's it's refreshing for people to show what the actual what's behind everything else too. The work, the effort that goes into it, because it's it's not for everyone.

Jake Valentine  26:37  
Just like anything, right? Like to play at the highest level, there's things that you have to sacrifice. I think about it. I actually was listening to a podcast the other day, and I can't remember the individual that said it, but it really struck a chord with me. Is high achievers? There's only about 4% of the time where they feel like they've done

Todd Arkell  27:03  
it right.

Jake Valentine  27:03  
The other 90% of the time, they feel like they're behind. They feel like they're being outworked. They feel like, and so there's that constant sense of having to do more, and you know, then there's a little bit of percentage time where you're just lost, and I think not enough people understand that the product that gets put out there and the success they have-that is the most minimal piece of their day. Like it's-it's the constant failing, the constant betterment, the constant overworking their fears, we talk about it a lot on the offensive side. Like anxiety comes from being unprepared, but the other part is like if you fail seven out of 10 times, you're a Hall of Famer, right? So like learning to deal with the failures in a positive standpoint. So we talk about as hitters outwork your fears, like get lost in the process. The Hall of Famers, the best ones, they take it personal and they get lost in the process, and they love the suck. And I think that's the part that separates people.

Todd Arkell  28:15  
Yeah, I have a have a guest, Coach Curtis Curtis Peltier, out of Vancouver, and our episode was called "Embrace the Suck" because that was his. You know, he played JUCO ball in Texas and whatever you know, coached with Canada and stuff like that. And he's like, "That's his whole motto: Embrace the suck.

Jake Valentine  28:32  
And you know, like if you flash forward 20 years after you get done playing or whatever, you don't remember. I mean, maybe you do remember a couple of the times where you got the big hit or whatever, but the memories you actually like cherish, and you know you're sitting around a bonfire with a bunch of your buddies having a beer. Like you remember, man, remember the six a.m.s when we're pushing those boxes and we're you can like that's the time, that's the special time.

Todd Arkell  28:59  
Yeah, I know people listening will probably go like, "Come on, really? But yeah, I mean, I think if you've played sports, you know, like that hard stuff. I still think about, you know, rugby was probably my best sport, and we had one coach that he pushed us in training. He said, "You guys are an undersized team. You're going to be fitter than everybody else. You're going to outlast everybody. And he wasn't wrong, but we would literally run two and a half miles to a park. We'd train at the park, and then we'd run six hills with a guy, and the last one with a guy on your back, and then you'd run the two and a half miles back to the back to the school, right? And I remember that

Jake Valentine  29:38  
there's an interview with Kirby Smart. I think it was last week.

Todd Arkell  29:42  
Remember him?

Jake Valentine  29:43  
And with Georgia football, and he, they were the the question. The line of questioning was, your guys's practices are so hard, so physical, and in the day and age of the transfer portal and everything, like, how do you balance? It being so hard and physical, like because if somebody you know this is too hard or too physical, I'm gonna transfer. How do you deal with that? And his his his response was amazing. He said, "We schedule those guys, and the guy was kind of like, "What? He goes, "Yeah, if they transfer to a place because it's too physical here, I want to schedule wherever they're transferring to because obviously it's not physical and hard over there. So I thought that was a great way to to bridge the gap of that conversation.

Todd Arkell  30:31  
Yeah, that's that's quite interesting. Well, it you know it it is it it isn't it isn't for everyone, and I tell you you know at at any level in any sport, I mean, there is there is a lot going on. I mean, I I appreciate you saying, "Hey, I spend more time with you as a player than I do with my own family. There is a lot that's sacrificed by coaches, so you know, I think kids need to understand that what they're being given, I think, is is important. That people do give up a lot of their lives to to put into them, and they need to give back as well. Jake, thanks for the time. Oh, appreciate

Jake Valentine  31:08  
it. I appreciate you having me on here. This has been great.

Todd Arkell  31:11  
You know, as we try to, you know, as I put this series together, try to help the parents unlock the mysteries of recruiting.

Jake Valentine  31:17  
Yeah, absolutely. Thanks.

Todd Arkell  31:18  
Have a good day, and look forward to seeing all those Canadian arms on the mound next year.

Jake Valentine  31:23  
Yeah, we're gonna have to get a maple leaf on our hat pretty quick.

Matt Cundill  31:26  
Thanks for listening. For more, including resources and more about the show, go to thementalapproach.com. A

Tara Sands (Voiceover)  31:34  
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