Our next stop in the Coach Spotlight Series is Daniel Flores, one of our excellent baseball coaches in California! If that name sounds familiar, it’s because we’ve featured Coach Flores in one of our incredible success stories — if you need a refresher on that, you can find his video right here. Either way, Coach Flores offers some insights on his craft and trade, so try to take these suggestions to heart. No matter where you’re at, you can be a better coach, athlete, and parent in the process. Enjoy our interview with Coach Flores and if you’re lucky enough to live nearby, shoot him a message, and get training!
CoachUp: What is your coaching style or philosophy?
Daniel Flores: My coaching style and philosophy is to make sure my athlete works extremely hard, but has fun at the same time. I also focus specifics in each sport as well — for example, position player in softball and baseball would focus on the five tools. The five tools are hitting for a high batting average, hitting for power, defense, arm strength, and speed. It’s a typical misconception, but playing baseball or softball is not just about hitting.
CU: What can a client expect from private lessons with you?
DF: A client can expect greatness. Learning what it takes to be as great as they can possibly be. I pass on my experience, wisdom, and learnings from greats, both current and former, involved with the MLB.
CU: Can you describe any big or little “wins” that you’ve had with the athletes that you train?
DF: I’ve been on CoachUp for about 2 years total now and have actually surprised myself. One thing of note is having the most five-star reviews in all of California — that is huge. Yet, my biggest “win” of all is being featured on CoachUp’s homepage with my baseball Success Story video. This is truly humbling, and an honor to me after all my hard work in baseball in my life which can’t be out into words. CoachUp flew out all the way from their headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts to feature me! Not just that, but I’m up on CoachUp’s homepage with big time current professionals like Stephen Curry, Julian Edelman, and Nerlens Noel! Also, accumulating 2191 points to a high level at ‘Superstar’ is another huge ‘win’ for me. I need 5,000 to Hall of Famer, and 10,000to Legend, so just two levels away from the highest possible level on CoachUp!
CU: What do you enjoy most about coaching?
DF: What I enjoy most about coaching is doing something I love every day and helping other athletes get better in the process. I love hearing how I helped my athletes accomplish big things like winning a game ball, making the varsity team, hitting home runs, or striking out a really tough batter.
CU: Do you have any specialties within the sport that you coach?
DF: One specialty I feel I have as a coach is that I experienced baseball as both a position player and pitcher professionally. So, I can pass my experience in both of these on to my athletes. Not only that, but I often workout with my athletes as opposed to just sitting back and doing nothing physically. I also have lots of equipment as well such as a radar gun, L-Screen, hitting screen, top of the line tee, tons of baseballs & whiffle balls, Speed Sac, Speed Ladders, bands, and much more. Also, I track my athletes arm speed/velocity (off my radar gun), their distance throwing (roll out measuring tape), and speed running the bases (stop watch) to say the least — so it is truly breaking the game down to it’s most simplest aspects.
CU: What is your favorite moment in your athletic career?
DF: My favorite most moment in my athletic career is winning the batting title overseas in Europe, as I batted .484 at the age of 24 as well. I also had a .710 slugging %, and a .590 ob% that season as well. Furthermore, as a 38 year-old, I was selected to my adult league’s All-Star team and started the game as the #3 hitter. We won the game by a bunch of runs and I had a great game at the plate, even closing out the game on the mound to boot. Also, hitting 89mph before at a pro baseball tryout and getting signed out of pro baseball tryouts before is right up there as well.
CU: What’s the most important advice you give to your athletes?
DF: The most important advice I give athletes is to work hard and give it your all! Eat healthy, do well in school, stay out of trouble, and your hard work will pay off! Even if they’re just small wins at first, those incremental steps are just part of the stepping stones towards success!
CU: What’s the most important advice you’d give to other coaches? To athlete’s parents?
DF: To other coaches and parents, do all you can to help support your athlete or child. Keep them on track to keep doing what they love to do because it’s truly not possible without your support at every corner. Some inspiring advice from Coach Flores, surely! We were really excited to feature him on our blog this week because he’s been grinding out there for CoachUp for a long, long time. If you want to see him in action, check out his Success Story and don’t be afraid to reach out and chat with Coach if you’re looking for advice, training, or overall improvement! As always, thanks for taking the time to read our Spotlights — together, we’re building a massively impressive environment for athletes of all sports and levels to build themselves up and Coach Flores is a huge part of that. Thanks again, Daniel!
