By Jason Daniels.
The Dutch have a way with athletics – and their culture at large: they get a deep squeeze out of their talents, cherish consensus, and maximize precious resources. Such is life in a pint-sized nation fraught with chronic flooding and threatening climates. In baseball, we see a game that tells the distinct Dutch story – from the people, processes, and progressive actions that fuel Dutch ingenuity and sustain its culture.
“I think about sport. It has to be fun for the public. I always said professional thinking costs no money.” – Karel Crouwel
Martijn Nijhoff oversees motor learning as the Director of Baseball Development and Performance Enhancement for the Federation. In his MLB role, he doubles as the Skills Acquisition Coordinator for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Through motor learning, he teaches the process of acquiring and refining motor skills to optimize performance. The Dutch have used this approach to efficiently train their athletes while equipping them with new skills that transfer to better play on the field.
Motor learning begins with cognitive development as athletes are exposed to new environments and a variety of baseball contexts. Players are challenged to find their own solutions, whether in hitting, fielding, or pitching drills. In doing so, they are uncovering and establishing skills — and, over time — polishing them. By repeating drills, motions then become second nature. In its truest form, this approach serves as an antidote to hyper-specialized and rigid training programs that too often limit athlete development and in-game adaptability.
Nijhoff conducts movement analysis for players, beginning with stability points. He looks at the hips and core to assess balance. He identifies which muscles are creating or transferring energy, which he then uses to establish strength and conditioning programs. Every several weeks he performs individual analysis and develops tailored training plans for each player. For example, a player might focus on his proper load while pitching, or the weight on his front foot when batting, to maximize energy transfer from the lower to upper body. Nijhoff is equipping players with both mental awareness and physical muscle so the next time they play, they are better prepared to transfer functional skills to the game and respond to situations as they arise.
Total Football
The idea of motor learning is familiar in Dutch sport. “Total Football,” a term popularized by Dutch soccer coach Rinus Michels in the 1970s, refers to a system where players are interchangeable with one another (except for the goalkeeper). Players move about the pitch freely, relying on cues and careful coordination with teammates to switch positions and fill in for one another to maintain the team’s formation. Players must be highly technical, proactive, adaptable, and spatially aware, otherwise the system breaks down.
Michels applied the system with soccer club Ajax and the Dutch national team. The poster child of Total Football was one-time baseball catcher Johan Cruyff. Under Michels, Cruyff was given license to roam the field, which enabled him to use his high soccer IQ to create space and generate scoring opportunities. The two saw unrivaled success, together claiming the 1971 UEFA Champions League title. Individually, Cruyff is perhaps the finest-ever European soccer player, while FIFA named Michels the Coach of the Century.
In the 1994 soccer odyssey, Football Against the Enemy, author Simon Kuper put it simply: “It is precisely because the Dutch talk so much that they can play the way they do.” Players need to communicate and know their roles. In Dutch locker rooms, it is not so much the coaches who offer strategies and tactics, but the players. Ultimately, it worked. Noted Kuper: “Over the last 20 years, no other small nation has won as much as Holland.”

Crouwel Effect
As the baseball game between Neptunus and the Pirates finally began, a familiar voice leaned in from my left. It was Peter Kwakernaak, welcoming me to the Netherlands. It is worth noting that he has an approachable and friendly disposition that many executives lack. I should not have been surprised to see him — the Dutch baseball community is small and tight-knit. He is wondering if my article from our first interview has already hit the press. I later gathered that Dutch media can be pessimistic and cynical – even for baseball.
Kwakernaak played in nine Hoofdklasse seasons, making his debut in 1988 with the Amsterdam Pirates before representing the Dutch national team the following year. Later he coached and served on the Pirates’ sponsor committee. He admitted he is a bit partial to the club.
As we shared a view atop the terrace, he pointed out the game was being played several meters below sea level. Halfway into our conversation, a volunteer fundraiser circled our way, asking for donations to help the club. Kwakernaak told me he already gives tens of thousands of dollars each year to support the facilities and youth academy.
Across the street is the academy training facility. Housing for promising young Dutch ballplayers lies a little further away. The academy includes schooling and daily practice — just like the professional academy system that MLB clubs use in the Dominican Republic, as I profiled last year [Link to Part I of series]. Leading those efforts is long-time baseball veteran, Karel Crouwel.
A couple weeks after my Dutch trip, Crouwel and I spoke about his work, or as he put it: “It’s no business, it’s a hobby.” Bespectacled, with greying hair wrapped around the sides of his head, he spoke to me with directness. This year marks the 30th since he began his academy, Playball Europe. “It’s internationally well known,” he remarked. “Half [the players] come from all over Europe, some even from Ghana.”
Crouwel had a promising career as a catcher in Amsterdam and Haarlem, and played five years for the national team until finger and shoulder injuries sidelined him. He transitioned to coaching, winning the 1978 Dutch championship with Kinheim, which prompted him to look for a new challenge. “If you’re at the top you have to stop,” he said wryly. Eventually, he founded Playball Europe.
When the Amsterdam Pirates completed its current complex, complete with four fields, an indoor hall, and restaurant, Crouwel entered to create his academy. He welcomes between 60 and 70 players each summer, with 16 to 18 instructors who come from the Dutch national team. Players from the academy have gone on to sign professional contracts, with the headliner MLB veteran and international star Roger Bernadina.
Crouwel is clear on his intentions and methods. He ditches playbooks in favor of each instructor’s experience; they bring their own story and way of working. It is honest and the young players love it. “If you start telling them how to work, they have to think too much and that doesn’t work.” He emphasizes personal attention and just one rule: “two instructors, one is talking. Simplified.”
He involves the parents, too, taking them aside to share his approach. “That makes it a family situation,” he said. With his typically Dutch approach, he is out to counter small-minded thinking and ensure cooperation: “I think about sport. It has to be fun for the public,” he clarified. “I always said professional thinking costs no money.”
Playball Europe Academy.
Crouwel is a true sports professional. From 1971 to 1981, he served as a physical trainer with the Dutch national hockey team; in 1980, he traveled with the team to the Lake Placid Olympics. He also trained a basketball squad in the Netherlands’ top division for three years, winning two championships. “That’s my sports career,” he said, extending his list of hobbies. “Besides, I do some work to make money.”
When his baseball team won the Hoofdklasse in 1978, fitness levels initially were unimpressive. The team held just two practices a week and played two games on the weekend. “The conditioning level was not so good,” he admitted.
He quickly moved to build the team’s fitness levels. By season’s end, outfielders and infielders had ramped up their speed and range in the field, while baserunners stretched out extra bags. “We probably had the best conditioning level of all teams in Holland,” he claimed.
Thinking back to the Holland Series, I asked him why ‘Curaçao’ was written on the front of Neptunus jerseys. Were they all from the small Caribbean nation? “They’re one of the biggest shipping companies in the world,” he explained. “They sponsored the Rolling Stones to Cuba [in 2016]. Cost a couple million euros. In Rotterdam they have a lot of contacts in the harbor.”
Neptunus is the most successful Dutch club in large part due to its generous resources and loyal players. Though the Curaçao name might be coincidental to the roster, Neptunus always carry top players from the island. Many other clubs, including the Pirates, cannot compete for players at the same financial level. Few expected the Pirates would make the Holland Series. Surprisingly, they beat Neptunus, though this was an exception. Financial gaps harm competitive balance, making title pursuits more predictable and less compelling for fans.
Tune in tomorrow for Part IV.
Other articles in this series:
Part I: Making Sense of Europe’s Top Baseball Power [Link]
Part II: Polder Work [Link]