Confused and need help with pitching coach.

[CRAZYFPDAD]

Hello all I have a very confusing deal going on with my DD's pitching coach right now and I'm looking for some help. She has been in pitching lessons for 13 months and she is 9 years old turning 10 in a couple of months. She has progressed nicely over time and having fun doing it. We recently switched pitching coaches due to scheduling conflicts with my DD's team practice and her PC's schedule. The issue now is the new coach is telling us she wants to abandon my DD's fastball and start focusing on a peel drop. Her reasoning is that she says my DD struggles with her snap and spin and a peel drop will be more of a natural release for her and therefore not struggle on location. She is also asking us to slow down and retrain her mechanics. From everything I have read on this website slowing down is not a good thing and not recommended. I'm also not sure about the dropping of her fastball either? My DD does have inconsistent location and spin, but she is still learning also. She is asking us to trust her that it will pay off in the long run for my DD. We are confused and not sure how to proceed with this one. My DD has worked real hard at becoming a pitcher and she is feeling very confused right now with this potential change. Would really like to get all your guys feedback on this and really appreciate your time and opinions!

 

[Amy in AZ.]

Are you able to post some video? Maybe there is something going on that the new PC needs to correct. Teaching the peel drop is not that unusual and some PCs do teach it early.

 

[dbias]

Peel drop vs fastball is pretty much a easy one for me.
Peel drop is closest thing to a "fastball" with an emphasis on how the ball spins. It is easy to pick up esp at that age. No pitcher can go through their life on a fastball. A good drop moves, and that is important, it produces groundballs, and as they get older, and the pitch drops more, it will produce strikes moreso than any other pitch that i have seen. All a pitcher needs is a drop, a change, and a rise.... the important thing is to make sure the ball changes planes after the batters eye has picked it up and predicted where the ball should be.

As for slowing down to correct mechanics, i guess it really would depend on what is being fixed.

 

[sluggers]

Agree with dbias and Amy...you really aren't telling us enough. Posting a video would help us help you.

I'm a little concerned that the coach is talking about 'the snap'. At your DD's age, body position and arm motion is quite a bit more important than 'the snap'--but, it could just be differences in explaining the same mechanics.

 

[halskinner]

Hello all I have a very confusing deal going on with my DD's pitching coach right now and I'm looking for some help. She has been in pitching lessons for 13 months and she is 9 years old turning 10 in a couple of months. She has progressed nicely over time and having fun doing it. We recently switched pitching coaches due to scheduling conflicts with my DD's team practice and her PC's schedule. The issue now is the new coach is telling us she wants to abandon my DD's fastball and start focusing on a peel drop. Her reasoning is that she says my DD struggles with her snap and spin and a peel drop will be more of a natural release for her and therefore not struggle on location. She is also asking us to slow down and retrain her mechanics. From everything I have read on this website slowing down is not a good thing and not recommended. I'm also not sure about the dropping of her fastball either? My DD does have inconsistent location and spin, but she is still learning also. She is asking us to trust her that it will pay off in the long run for my DD. We are confused and not sure how to proceed with this one. My DD has worked real hard at becoming a pitcher and she is feeling very confused right now with this potential change. Would really like to get all your guys feedback on this and really appreciate your time and opinions!

Dont mention or work on the 'Old' stuff when with the new instructor, work on it at home. Work on what the new instructor wants while at the session. Then work on the 'Old' stuff and the 'New' stuff at home.

Instructor is happy and the student keeps the confidence level in herself at a high point.

 

[wannahit]

many times when you retrain a pitchers mechanics you need to break it down into segments, slowing the pitcher down so they can feel and see the changes being made in their mechanics, then they can bring up the speed as they get the feel of the changes

 

[wannahit]

it seems that their is a few key words that might be leading us to believe that the new pc might be trying to change her to a more hillhouse release with mention of the more natural release and the peel drop instead of a fastball, if this is true it would take some slow mo changes, it sure takes me a long time to get a student to get comfortable with a more ir release if they were taught the hand behind the ball and straight up follow through

 

[PEPPERS]

My daughter is 16 and is beginning her senior year in HS, she rarely throws a fastball and when she does, the spin due to the wrist snap, gives it a dropping action. She also uses the peel drop and to me it is just about as fast as the fastball. The only problem is our catcher hates to call the pitch, because she has trouble catching it.

I was standing behind the back stop during a game and heard the UMP talking to the catcher about the amount of break on the ball, the catchers says, I hate to do it but watch this, and called the drop.

When I catch her I hate to catch it myself, to me the drop and screw are just about as fast as her fastball, the old man has to have shinguards to keep from being cripled.

As far as slowing down, we do that all the time slow down and work on spins, and it helps build muscle memory. Martial Arts has used this technique for years to train and I am a firm beliver in that it works. If you can't do it in slow motion then you can't do it at full speed.

My daughter has a pitching coach who is a Martial Arts trainner and trains boxers also. When we first went to him he gave us refences and insisted we call and talk with them.

So you may want to ask this coach to give you some refences to talk with.

Up to a ceratain age you can blow them away with speed, when they can hit the fastball then what?

 

[Jojo]

Did your old PC teach her a different release spin other than a 4 seam downspin? Like a bullet spin?

Personally I think 9yrs old is too young to abandoned anything.

I once had an 8yr old from another instructor that had abandoned her fastball because he said she had a natural curve spin.

 

[CRAZYFPDAD]

You all are awesome with your feedback and we really appreciate it! Right now we do not have any video but I'm working on it. She is very frustrated with the slowing down part. We have from the beginning worked and practiced with speed or intensity for lack of a better word. She has been working hard since her first lessons and makes me stay up after working grave to take her to the park and practice. Since the slowing down and dropping of her fastball she is not feeling very good about her pitching. I will coach her through this but I just want to make sure it’s the right thing to do. We know that her fastball will not be the go to pitch for her entire PC life. She has been working on her change up also which is a simple flip change.