2019-2020 WINTER HITTING ACADEMY PROGRAM
Important Information
- Start Date: Monday NOV 18, 2019
- End Date: Thursday FEB 27, 2020
- Days: Monday-Thursday. (Group A will hit on Monday’s and Wednesdays, and lift on Tuesday’s and Thursday’s. Group B will be the opposite)
- Time: 4:00pm-5:30pm
- Price: Two plans available:
1. $495/month (Only $16/hour)
2. Pay in full $1,550 (Only $14/hour) – Save 10% - Commitment Date: Friday OCT 25, 2019
- Initial Payment due: Thursday NOV 1, 2019
About the Program
The Catalyst Winter Academy is an elite level baseball training program. Participants will be exposed to the best baseball training techniques around. The program is made up of specific phases that strategically build upon one another, to help ensure positive muscle memory changes that last throughout the spring and summer seasons.
This program incorporates the most cutting edge technology and most advanced coaching techniques around.
The program runs from December to February for this academy group.
The training sessions will take place at Catalyst Sports Indoor Training Facility based out of Golden, Colorado. With access to first class facilities and professional coaching insight that players will not find anywhere else, the Catalyst Academy Program is one of a kind.
Please note: This is our premiere winter training program is not designed for the casual player, which is why this program is INVITE ONLY. Players who have demonstrated exceptional work ethic, coachability, and passion for the game will be invited.
Area of Focus: Hitting
They say hitting a baseball is one of the hardest things to do in all of sports. What makes it so challenging is not only trying to hit a round ball with a round bat “square”, but its the absolute precision of timing necessary to hit the ball. Hitting is extremely reactionary. When you’re at the plate you do not have time to think about different mechanics, how to load your hands, your swing plane etc. You need the muscle memory to be so deeply ingrained that by the time you are enter the batters box, you are able to focus on reading pitches and hitting the ball hard and square.
In order to program your body and your brain to move in a way that best suits hitting a baseball, we will have to do a swing reconstruction. This reconstruction is going to take place through four different phases. Each player will be moving at their own pace, some faster than others, players will not be allowed to move from one phase to the next without properly demonstrating knowledge in a specific area and/or the correct mechanics.
Assessments will also use the most cutting edge technology. Players will all be put through a baseline assessment report session that will capture important quantifiable analytics. Things such as exit velocity, average launch angle, line drive %, ground ball %, fly ball %, and several others. When cross referenced and truly understood, these measurable give great insight into what is happening mechanically. Each athlete will receive an detailed report about their baseline statistics.
However, those measurable will not tell the entire story. The other critically important piece will be the constant and in-depth video analysis. Not just your typical video analysis where a coach tells you what you are doing wrong, simply because they say so. Instead we use comparative video analysis with our athletes put up next to a huge sample size of the best hitters throughout history to tease out the common traits.
Additionally, we also do the video analysis in a measurable & quantifiable fashion. We will be using body geometry to gain greater insight into where the body is in space. It is not an arbitrary number or technique that has been pulled out of thin air. Everything we go over will have substantial evidence and coherent logic backing it up. This gives players confidence in what they are learning, and also helps them understand what adjustments they are actually being asked to make, rather than throwing them front toss and just saying “down and through it.”
During this phase athletes are going to be required to demonstrate a perfect major league swing consistently before being allowed to move to the next step in the program. This phase will take most students between 1-3 weeks.
This is also the portion of the program during which we will introduce part practice. This will give each player a much deeper understanding of the fundamental movements of the swing. It also helps players get to a point where they are much more capable of “self-coaching.”
In this phase, we will be doing tee work, front toss, live bp, and the use of a pitching machine. The student needs to be able to demonstrate full implementation of major league mechanics while hitting the baseball. On the front end of phase 3 the coaching staff will focus more on proper demostration of mechanics, but as the students muscle memory gets more ingrained the results will begin to matter more.
By the end of this phase a student should be able to swing with major league mechanics, while hitting the center of the ball consistently. This phase will take most students between 4-8 weeks.
This is also when we will introduce players to differential training. This is an advanced way of helping the body self-organize and create the most explosive and efficient swing pattern possible.
Bat speed training will be done by using three different bats: one for underload (light bat) working on quickness, overload (heavy bat) working on strength, and game bat. Students will be completely exhausted and fatigued after every session, accelerating their game to a new level.
This part of the program will take 4-6 weeks for most students.
We have a proven bat speed training program that each player will be immersed in. Athletes typically peak around 5 weeks into the program, therefore we will aim to begin this phase about 5 weeks away from day 1 of high-school practice.
Each phase builds upon the previous one and is vary carefully formatted in such a way to maximize athletes potential as hitters. Big time bat speed is absolutely crucial to realizing that potential. However, that bat speed needs to be added to a mechanically correct swing.
Coaching Staff
The Catalyst Cardinals coaching staff (From left to right):
– Kevin Kouzmanoff (6 year MLB veteran)
– Corey Slinkard (General Manager)
– JT Putt (Cardinals Coach)
– Scott Payne (Cardinals Coach)
– Rob Herman (Cardinals Coach)
[Not pictured: Troy Slinkard aka. The Guru & George Hurlbert]
J.T. Putt
Since 2013, Coach Putt has been the head baseball coach for both the Colorado Academy Mustangs (CA) and the Catalyst Cardinals 16U teams. He brings his well-organized college-level coaching skills to both programs.
At CA, Coach Putt has turned the program over the last 5 years. In 2017, Coach Putt led CA to the program’s most successful year, finishing 3rd in Colorado High School playoffs while compiling a school record of 20-6, both school records. Coach Scott Payne and Rob Herrmann were significant contributors to this success as key members of the coaching staff. CA continued its winning ways in 2018, finishing 17-4 in 2018.
The Catalyst Cardinals 16U team earned the 2016 Colorado Classic State Championship under Coach Putt’s leadership. He has also assisted with the Catalyst Cardinals 18U team since 2018.Prior to joining Catalyst, Coach Putt coached with the Lightning baseball club of Parker, as well as coached privately in Evergreen, Colorado.
Playing Experience –
High School: Coach Putt played his high school ball at Mullen High School where he was 1st team All Conference, 1st team All-State (5A), and 1st team All-Colorado (all classifications). He was also voted Varsity MVP his senior season, leading the Mustangs in batting average, home runs, RBI, and OBP. He was also honored to be selected to play in the Top 40 All-Star game, held at Coors Field. Keeping academics as a priority he earned first team academic all-state honors.
College: Coach Putt attended Central Arizona College. He helped lead the Vaqueros to a 43-21 record and the District II Championship, and was invited to play in the ACCAC all-star game. Continuing his academic achievements, Coach Putt was also named the Student of the Year in the Accounting Program, and for the entire 2nd year class. He then played atUNLV for a year before accepting a scholarship to play closer to home at Regis University in Denver, Colorado
At Regis University, he was voted team captain while also receiving NCBWA All-American and Academic All-American honors. He tied the program’s single season doubles record his junior year, when he led the Rangers in batting avg. (.426), doubles (23), total bases (149), slugging pct. (.756), on-base pct. (.491), and stolen bases (17). He also earned All-RMAC First Team, Daktronics All-Central Region Second Team, and American Baseball Coaches Association All-Central Region First Team honors. He graduated Summa Cum Laude with a B.S. in Business Administrative Sciences, and was distinguished as the most outstanding student in that program.
Professional: Post college, Coach Putt was fortunate enough to play professionally in the United States, Australia, and Europe. He played for the Las Cruces Vaqueros along side fellow Catalyst coach, Rob Herrmann. He played both 3B and OF for the Vaqueros, hitting .296 and slugging .507 to give him an OPS of .939. He also had a .432 on-base percentage. In Australia he played for the Henley & Grange Rams. He would then move to a suburb of Paris, France to play for the Templiers de Senart, helping lead the team to the league championship tournament.
Scott Payne
Coach Payne has led the top Catalyst 18U team to success with his disciplined, fundamentals-focused coaching strategy. Over the past 4 summer seasons, Coach Payne has amassed a 110-44-1 record, giving the Cardinals a .710 win percentage.
In 2016 the Cardinals 18u squad finished the year with a 1.909 Team ERA, a .315 Team Batting AVG., and a .933 Team Fielding Percentage.
With Payne at the helm, 28 seniors have advanced to play college baseball in competitive programs over the past 4 summers. Prior to joining Catalyst, Coach Payne worked as the roving infield instructor with the highly regarded Post Six squad in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and was part of 4 consecutive Legion State Championships.
Playing Experience –
High School: Coach Payne was a 4 year starter and senior captain for Cheyenne Post 6, and was part of 4 consecutive State Championships and 2 regional runner-up teams. He was honored by being selected to the All State team in both his Junior and Senior years.
College Mesa CC: Coach Payne signed with Mesa CC in Phoenix, AZ, and played multiple positions in the infield for the Thunderbirds, accumulating only 8 errors in 2 seasons. In his sophomore year Payne hit .327 and was selected as the team MVP, invited to the ACCAC all-star game, and was named a team captain before being offered a scholarship to attend Regis University.
College Regis University: Payne finished his college playing career at Regis University, graduating with a Health and Exercise Science degree with a Thematic Emphasis on Kinesiology. Payne played second base for the Rangers finishing with a .308 batting AVG.
Corey Slinkard
Corey grew up in the small mountain town of Evergreen, Colorado, where he picked up his first baseball at 5 and learned to play catch in the front yard with his dad. At the age of 10 Corey was an all-star hitter and standout pitcher on his team Lakewood Destroyers. The next three seasons on Lakewood they placed, 3rd in league, then 2nd, and then 1st. Before club teams existed, there was one all-star select team in the state called Colorado Thunder. The head coach, Gary Stehle, approached Corey during his 12-year-old season and offered him a spot on their team. With a combination of the 12 best players in the state, the Colorado Thunder dominated the competition in Colorado for several years losing only one game in the state during a two-year reign.
The summer going into 8th grade was a magical year for the boys. Not only is finishing the season with an 80-12 record impressive enough, but winning the Super Series National Championships in Tulsa, Oklahoma was icing on the cake. There were 60 teams from around country that qualified for this tournament, in the last inning of the game Corey threw out a game saving play at the plate from center field! After the 3-2 victory, the Colorado Thunder was announced as being the first Colorado team to ever win a Super Series national tournament, as well as having played the longest winning series ever by a team in super series history.
Building on that baseball experience, Corey later became a 4-year varsity player at Mullen High School, where he received three perennial all-conference awards and went on to play baseball at the collegiate level in Arizona at Cochise Community College. Corey ended up graduating from the University of Colorado at Boulder where he received his Bachelors of Arts and Sciences with a degree in Environmental Science with a specialization in water.
With college under his belt it was time to take his knowledge of baseball and fitness to the next level along side partner JT Putt. Together they open Catalyst Sports during November of 2013, and have been successfully running the business together ever since.
Rob Herrmann
Coach Herrmann joined the Catalyst Cardinals as an assistant coach for the 18u summer program in 2016 and was absolutely instrumental in the overall success of the program. He was a welcome addition bringing a wealth of knowledge acquired from catching at the professional level all over the world.
Under Coach Herrmann’s instruction the 2016 Catalyst Cardinals team only gave up 21 stolen bases in 308 innings of play. In addition, as a team the Cardinals only allowed an impressive 8 past balls all season. Rob has focused on developing high quality catchers for both Catalyst and CA with his hands-on, patient approach that has proven to work well with High School athletes.
Prior to starting with Catalyst, Coach Herrmann skippered multiple international high school squads, including the 18u Australian Capitol Territory National Team, the 18u French National Team, the 16u Tuggeranong Vikings, the 1st Division Tuggeranong Vikings, the Languedoc Rousillon All-Stars, and the Montpellior French Baseball Academy.
Playing Experience –
College: Rob earned a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Fredonia State University, specializing in Sport Management. As the starting catcher with the Blue Devil baseball team, he was honored as an All-Conference selection all four years of his career, as well as a two-time ABCA All-New York Region pick.
Professional: After graduating, Rob spent five years playing pro baseball in the US, Australia, and Europe. His career included two All-Star seasons of independent professional baseball in the US, while playing in the winter for the Tuggeranong Vikings in Canberra, Australia.
He spent the next season playing for the Paderborn Untouchables in the German Bundesliga, followed by two seasons with the Montpellier Barracudas of the French Elite League.
He was an All-Star in all three European seasons, and was invited to catch for the International Stars team at Prague Baseball Week in 2012 and 2013, leading his team to back-to-back championship titles.
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