- Nov 15, 2011
- 6
- 0
First of all, I am a big fan of the forum, and have followed it for a couple years now. Both the coaches and parents that comment are great; tons of great information.
DD just started her third year of club softball, second year with same 14U team. We made the decision about 6 months ago to change pitching coaches. I would like to describe on this post what she was taught in the past and what she is learning now. I feel like we made the right decision in changing things up, but right now, DD is in a funk, almost like a mental block. She has never struggled the way she is now. Has anybody else tried to start over after a couple years of doing things a certain way? What were the results; did she ever recover? DD is a big kid at 5’10” 145 lbs, works her tail off, and can have a future in this sport, but she looks at me right now like she may be ready to throw in the towel.
PC #1- started with DD from the ground up. She is a former pitcher, could demonstrate mechanics and spins. Teaches very open mechanics, snap the ball below the belly button, long stride, figure 4 finish.
Keywords during lesson were fast arm and pull your 4. Taught DD roll over drop with shortened stride and weight forward, change up with circle grip that comes out of the back of her hand. Both are great pitches. Started working a lot on rise, and introduced curve and screw, but I never thought she was solid enough on the others to spend any time on them. The most valuable thing this coach taught was the mental part of the game, and I hate that she is no longer getting that. Could never teach DD how to throw hard, she has never had an effective fast ball. Her drop has been her fastest pitch, but was never thrown over 52mph.
PC#2- saw this coach for one lesson over a year ago. He is a former pitcher, and demonstrated what he teaches. He is the coach for a lot of the local hard throwing kids and has the gun on for every pitch. His drills included stopping the hand at the hip to snap the ball, while standing completely closed to the catcher, with the hello elbow finish. He made it clear that DD would never throw the ball hard with her current mechanics. I didn’t feel that what he was teaching was safe and didn’t go back.
PC#3- saw this coach for the first time close to a year ago. He is a former pitcher, and demonstrates what he teaches. Takes video regularly, and compares side by side with former male and female pitchers. The first time he saw her he said she would never throw hard with her current mechanics. The things he described were her arm was too fast, snap was too far ahead of her hip, she was getting into her leg finish too early, essentially snapping the ball with one leg on the ground. He said her timing was a mess, and she had to get her glove under control because it was pulling her shoulder around. Also, because she was open during the entire pitch, pulling her 4 at the end was pulling her beyond open. I think Amy calls it the donkey kick for that reason.
In the first lesson he was able to teach her to throw a fast ball faster than she had ever thrown before, with much less effort. He does teach to stop the hand at the hip, but explained that she needs to learn where to snap, and then he doesn’t care how she follows through. He also teaches ball to 2nd base at 3 o’clock, but as long as she is throwing hard, doesn’t try to correct that it isn’t. He is working to get her hips at a 45 degree angle at release. I was worried that he was converting her to a step style pitch because it looks so different, but her stride is still 6 feet long, her pitch is just more under control.
He has been willing not to mess with her drop and change up to this point because they have remained effective, but with her recent struggles, he thinks she can’t overcome the old mechanics if she is throwing that way every other pitch. Despite it being somewhat downplayed on this forum, I feel her glove arm is her biggest problem. It seems in drills she can keep it under control and does fine, but as soon as she gets on the mound, she feels she needs to muscle the ball and the glove goes flying again.
Anyways, sorry for the long post. I know I left things out, but I am hoping there are some parents and coaches that have gone through something similar and can offer some advise and or encouragement. Again, she has never been in a funk like this, and I am really hoping to get her through it. Also, PC#3 does not teach IR, but can we still work with what he does teach?
DD just started her third year of club softball, second year with same 14U team. We made the decision about 6 months ago to change pitching coaches. I would like to describe on this post what she was taught in the past and what she is learning now. I feel like we made the right decision in changing things up, but right now, DD is in a funk, almost like a mental block. She has never struggled the way she is now. Has anybody else tried to start over after a couple years of doing things a certain way? What were the results; did she ever recover? DD is a big kid at 5’10” 145 lbs, works her tail off, and can have a future in this sport, but she looks at me right now like she may be ready to throw in the towel.
PC #1- started with DD from the ground up. She is a former pitcher, could demonstrate mechanics and spins. Teaches very open mechanics, snap the ball below the belly button, long stride, figure 4 finish.
Keywords during lesson were fast arm and pull your 4. Taught DD roll over drop with shortened stride and weight forward, change up with circle grip that comes out of the back of her hand. Both are great pitches. Started working a lot on rise, and introduced curve and screw, but I never thought she was solid enough on the others to spend any time on them. The most valuable thing this coach taught was the mental part of the game, and I hate that she is no longer getting that. Could never teach DD how to throw hard, she has never had an effective fast ball. Her drop has been her fastest pitch, but was never thrown over 52mph.
PC#2- saw this coach for one lesson over a year ago. He is a former pitcher, and demonstrated what he teaches. He is the coach for a lot of the local hard throwing kids and has the gun on for every pitch. His drills included stopping the hand at the hip to snap the ball, while standing completely closed to the catcher, with the hello elbow finish. He made it clear that DD would never throw the ball hard with her current mechanics. I didn’t feel that what he was teaching was safe and didn’t go back.
PC#3- saw this coach for the first time close to a year ago. He is a former pitcher, and demonstrates what he teaches. Takes video regularly, and compares side by side with former male and female pitchers. The first time he saw her he said she would never throw hard with her current mechanics. The things he described were her arm was too fast, snap was too far ahead of her hip, she was getting into her leg finish too early, essentially snapping the ball with one leg on the ground. He said her timing was a mess, and she had to get her glove under control because it was pulling her shoulder around. Also, because she was open during the entire pitch, pulling her 4 at the end was pulling her beyond open. I think Amy calls it the donkey kick for that reason.
In the first lesson he was able to teach her to throw a fast ball faster than she had ever thrown before, with much less effort. He does teach to stop the hand at the hip, but explained that she needs to learn where to snap, and then he doesn’t care how she follows through. He also teaches ball to 2nd base at 3 o’clock, but as long as she is throwing hard, doesn’t try to correct that it isn’t. He is working to get her hips at a 45 degree angle at release. I was worried that he was converting her to a step style pitch because it looks so different, but her stride is still 6 feet long, her pitch is just more under control.
He has been willing not to mess with her drop and change up to this point because they have remained effective, but with her recent struggles, he thinks she can’t overcome the old mechanics if she is throwing that way every other pitch. Despite it being somewhat downplayed on this forum, I feel her glove arm is her biggest problem. It seems in drills she can keep it under control and does fine, but as soon as she gets on the mound, she feels she needs to muscle the ball and the glove goes flying again.
Anyways, sorry for the long post. I know I left things out, but I am hoping there are some parents and coaches that have gone through something similar and can offer some advise and or encouragement. Again, she has never been in a funk like this, and I am really hoping to get her through it. Also, PC#3 does not teach IR, but can we still work with what he does teach?