Jay and Ken take a deep dive into the ins and outs of getting recruited to play in college with Brian Chidester and Brian May of College Bound Jocks. The Brians talk about what college coaches look for in a recruiting video, the persistence required to build and maintain a connection to college coaches, and the importance of "fishing in the right pond," i.e., understanding the level of play that best suits your skills and focusing your time there. They share some success stories, the importance of attending the right recruitment camps, some of the ways college coaches "test" prospective student athletes to see if they'll be a good fit, and key advice for those who want to make the leap.

If you're interested in getting help with this process, you can check out their website at: https://collegeboundjocks.com/

This week Jay and Ken share some of their favorite coaching tools for hitting and pitching, as well as some of the must-haves for every coach's personal coaching bag. It's a rapid-fire discussion that covers plenty of ground.

For those interested, here are links to a few of them:

OnForm: https://onform.com/

Pocket Radar: https://www.pocketradar.com/

PitchLogic Softball: https://pitchlogic.com/softball

Insider Bat: https://www.insiderbat.com/

BamBooBat: https://bamboobat.com/

Hack Attack Pitching Machine: https://sportsattack.com/hack-2/

4D Motion: https://4dmotionsports.com/

PantherTec KAT: https://panthertec.net/

SpinForm Softball: https://spinformsoftball.com/

Spin Right Spinner: https://bit.ly/4apOc3b

PitchSqueak: support@pitchsqueak.com (mention From the Coach's Mouth for a 10% discount)

Legendary men's fastpitch pitcher and private instructor Bill Hillhouse joins Jay and Ken for a discussion about his approach to teaching pitching, how the men's game has changed (and the lack of support it receives from USA Softball), why he doesn't take credit for or even talk much about the many high-level women's pitchers he's coached, and some of his experiences playing around the world. Bill also talks openly about his cancer journey, his good days and bad days, and how teaching lessons, even on a limited basis, brings him a sense of normalcy.

For those who would like to help Bill out with the day-to-day expenses he mentions, you can contribute to his GoFundMe by following this link: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-bill-hillhouse-through-his-cancer-battle

Western Illinois University head coach Alisa Goler joins Jay and Ken to talk about her days playing at the University of Georgia, where she still holds many hitting records, her time as a player in the National Pro Fastpitch league, how she got started coaching, and what it was like to coach the Blaze in the inaugural season of the AUSL. She shares how her coaching has changed over the years, the effect coaching professional athletes had on her college coaching career, times when she struggled and how she managed it, and why she thinks some great, highly qualified coaches are often overlooked for bigger jobs.

With the softball season beginning to ramp up again, it's important to take steps to prevent injuries, especially those to joints such as knees and shoulders, as much as we can. This week Jay and Ken speak with Dr. Chelsea Martin, PT, DPT, SCS, a doctoral student and researcher at the University of North Carolina, about her contributions to research projects at the Injury Prevention Research Center and the National Catastrophic Center for Sport Injury Surveillance as well as her work with the Wake Forest Pitching Lab. She talks to Jay and Ken about her career as a 3-time North Carolina state champion pitcher and pitcher at the University of Louisville, what got her interested in becoming a physical therapist, and her work in the area of injury prevention for adolescent and collegiate overhead athletes (including softball players).

Jay and Ken welcome Roman Foore, assistant coach for Bethel University in Minnesota, to the From the Coach's Mouth studio to talk about his career as a men's fastpitch player, assistant coach for the USA Softball Men's National Team, and both assistant and head coach for teams in the National Pro Fastpitch League. Roman shares his thoughts on why he feels he's a better assistant than head coach, what it's like coaching with his wife Penny, the differences between coaching men's and women's teams, his approach to recruiting and developing athletes at the collegiate level and more.

Pitching coach extraordinaire Rick Pauly helps Jay and Ken kick off the new year right with a return visit to the podcast. Rick covers a wide variety of topics, from his recent presentation at the NFCA 2025 convention to the need to move to a "pitching staff" approach v. riding one arm all the way to some of his favorite tools for teaching to some of the new things he has learned and incorporated in the last year to some updates on his High Performance Pitching certification program. It's always a good time when Rick stops by for a visit.

Jay and Ken wrap up 2025 with a look back on some of their favorite episodes and guests, as well as an overview of their impressions of the first year of the From the Coach's Mouth podcast as a whole. As always, they do divert into a couple of pet topics too. The guys will be back in the new year with more great guests and insights into the game of fastpitch softball and how to coach it overall. Until then, happy whatever you celebrate and stay safe out there!