Finding a Good Pitching Coach

[curiousgeorge]

take a road trip to Texas next month with Hillhouse is there. I know he gets students from all over the country when he's there, includuing Louisiana. I'm on the mailing list he sends out for his Dallas lessons as it's on my route for work and I can sometimes swing a trip there with my DD for a lesson. Last time, he had a kid fly in from Baltimore to Dallas for lessons, in addition to the others from surrounding SW states. There is even a rate at a Hampton inn for $62 per night. While the videos are great and I recommend them, there's nothing like it in person when he will demonstrate for you too.

But slugger's is right, I'm curious about the answers you will get by posting such a loaded question. Take the answers with a grain of salt.

 

[Amy in AZ.]

You are right. It should be about the kids. But, those parents that never had their 15 minutes of fame, have everything riding on their DD.

You are obviously comfortable in your own skin and you will eventually find like minded parents, to hang with. If not, I would surround myself with relatives and especially her brothers.

If the other girls accept your DD, and they probably will, fine. But, if not, get used to the long trip to another team. We will have $2.00/gal. gas, soon, anyway. j/k

 

[Coach-n-Dad]

Amy is right, you will find other parents that think/act like you do. Even if you don't, it's about your DD, not you.

The other girls will likely accept your DD, they like to win and a good pitcher is generally well received (even by other pitchers).

We have been at the tb thing for a couple of years and have experienced most of what you are experiencing. The important thing is that our DD has been accepted warmly by the girls on every team she has tried out for and guest played for. There has been 1 girl that was cold to her and she turned out to be a "mean girl" in general and didn't last long on the team.

As far as a pitching coach; as long as your DD is improving and not in pain, I wouldn't change a thing. Hopefully her coach will accept that.

 

[ServicePeasant]

Thanks again everybody: Great answers and replies. I really didn't mean for it to be such a loaded question: Just wanted to make sure that we weren't viewing DD through the mommy or daddy goggles.

We just watched some of Bill's videos on Fastpitch.Tv. Wow, what a great personality and super teacher! I am very pleased to report that after watching that I can give our pitching coach at least a B-. We ordered both videos available from his site a few minutes ago.

The DH just did a Google Map to Carrollton, TX (closest seminar) and we are 9 hours away, which isn't horrible. We'll have to see if we can work DH's October schedule around the weekend he is there (I can't drive that far currently...medical problems). We'll check airline fees as well to see what works out better. I'm going to email his contact from the website and get the details right now.

Thanks again.

 

[ServicePeasant]

Amy is right, you will find other parents that think/act like you do. Even if you don't, it's about your DD, not you.

Yeah, we do know that. Sadly, she hasn't had the luck your daughter has: It's more 50/50. Last season the entire team's relationship eroded to the point that by the end of the season only two or three of them were even speaking to one another (One parent was causing a LOT of trouble for everyone....started with our daughter). It is bad enough to say something about a person of their child behind their backs, but to do it loudly two rows away in the bleachers is something else entirely. I had a lot of bite marks on my tongue last year: Never said a peep and pretended we didn't hear a thing.

We honestly try to be nice to everybody no matter what especially since it isn't our job to worry about what others are doing: We have a hard enough time worrying about ourselves...lol. My thing is if you want to be mean...don't do it directly or indirectly to the kids (anybody's child...not just mine) cause that's just wrong.

 

[chinamigarden]

Thanks for the responses everyone. I'm glad that even though I am a definitely a crazy softball parent, I'm not blind and stupid too...lol. My husband spends A LOT of time practicing with our daughter (I am a good human target and that's about it) and also has spend hours watching instructional videos and ESPN replay college softball games. He feels she is on the right track. I go to her pitching coach and all her games and watch and my gut feeling is the PC is a decent guy...maybe not 100% right, but definitely knows a heck of a lot more than we ever could. It was actually hard to not let our jaws visibly drop when the TB coach basically aggressively attacked us the way he did. But hey, I am new, so didn't want to discount his suggestion as without merit prior to at least giving it some consideration.

My husband tells me he has a video of her last game pitched somewhere: We'll see if we can find and edit it later tonight. She has her toe surgery tomorrow morning, so will be off her feet for a couple days...so I hope I can find it. If we get a video up I will let you guys have at it, since it's much easier to critique something you can actually see.

I hope the travel coach ends up being professional about it if we choose to pass on his suggestion. We may go for one lesson to his guy...just to see, but don't want to throw any kinks into our daughter's pitch either. It'll be a shame if he chooses to be unfriendly about the whole thing. We have a real shortage of good travel clubs in my area, so have had a tough time getting her on one. All the teams had tryouts on the same two days....so had to choose only two to attend. Their are a ton of teams in New Orleans and Baton Rouge, but those are a long drive each week on top of the cost to play. I'm not saying that we won't drive for the right team, but need to find them first. Heck her PC is an hours drive twice a week and she was going to try out for a travel club over his way, but they had a full roster and didn't need anybody this year.

We know she needs playing time, which is why she needs to be on the travel team. We home school, but she is eligible to play on the local school teams. However, the local junior high school team is coached by a couple teachers that really don't know what they are doing and force the girls to do things incorrectly (watched their practices...it was painful even with as little as I know). She wasn't ready for the high school try-outs this year...maybe in the spring. The recreation league teams teams she's been on and the All Star team have all been parents trying to build a team around their daughter: That doesn't equal playing time for anybody else at their DD's position though and it seems to be mostly the pitcher's parents coaching.

One last thing...As to ignoring bad suggestions...Everyone at my house is taught what I like to call Madagascar Penguin diplomacy..."Just smile and wave...smile and wave" then as soon as they leave get back to business. We thank them for thier input and incorporate the good suggestions and ditch the bad. I never outright ignore anyone because you never know what you can learn from being open to suggestions. However, I have met a few folks who put me into selective hearing mode when I see them.

I checked out Mr. Hillhouse's website and we are going to watch some of his videos tonight after dinner. Maybe that will help answer some of our questions as well.

Thanks again....

If I were you, I would see if I could contact some of those other teams who had tryouts the same day. You might find that a team (or two) is willing to give a personal tryout to a 13yo 6 foot tall pitcher who throws strikes.

 

[ServicePeasant]

Coaches make cliques to and it sounds like the team coach and the other pitching coach are buds. Coaches also hate the unknown, like what they know and like to control things, so prefer players to use their buds for pitching.

Don't have to go to even one lesson, diplomacy or not. You have a pitching coach and it works, that's the end of it.

However, I would get fired from my employer as a pitching coach and have the antsiest students if I did not let a student throw a ball for 6 weeks. Wow...

It did have us a little on edge the not throwing a ball for 6 weeks thing: We invested nearly $300 before she threw one ball..talk about blind faith. We had been looking everywhere for a coach locally and couldn't find anybody. DD and I went to visit a friend who lives in NW Louisiana and has a DD that is a 15 y.o. pitcher. That young lady's pitching coach did a couple sessions with us while we were there. However, my friend's daughter had been with her for months and was not improving (could throw 60 with zero control), so I knew that sort of coaching wasn't going to do us any good. The current PC was recommended by a coach of an excellent travel team DD tried out for last year (she wasn't quite ready).

We went with the PC's program because he said he wanted DD to know why she was doing what she was doing and the effect each movement had on her pitch and body. We decided to ride out the 6 weeks and not break his rules: No throwing real balls, only sock balls at a mirror during drills. The first session she had a ball back in her hand all her pitches were catch-able and close to or over the plate: Hardly anything wild anymore (She was erratic before...one great game the next was horrible). Although her speed has only marginally increased (was throwing around 44 when she started) it seems like the force of the pitch is greater? I mean she threw harder than the other pitchers her age before, but now it is way harder.

I don't know if it is normal, but by the end of this last season none of the catcher's wanted to catch for her. They said that her throws about broke their hand...you definitely hear it hit the glove; I bought a heavily padded catcher's mitt for them to use. Even the catcher at her travel ball try-outs complained and commented about it. The only thing I can figure is it has something to do with the spin? Her PC says she has really good spin on the ball.

After watching Bill's videos we can see that the current pitching coach probably will not work for the breaking pitches: He wants her to do the altered mechanics for the drop and rise balls that Bill warns about in his videos. The basic mechanics he teaches look to be good overall, but I'm not sure he will be right for the next level after what I have learned. Hopefully, we can work things out to go see Bill in Texas a few times a year: That will be a big help.

Oh, it is going to take some research to get the videos off my camera and onto YouTube. I have one of the Sony camcorders that records onto a mini DVD, so have to find a converter program. Guess its time for a new camcorder

Thanks again!

 

[ServicePeasant]

If I were you, I would see if I could contact some of those other teams who had tryouts the same day. You might find that a team (or two) is willing to give a personal tryout to a 13yo 6 foot tall pitcher who throws strikes.

I have already seen a couple of these teams advertising on the local papers forum looking for catchers, etc. We had already thought of this and have considered the option. Honestly, we would be happy with any team that has good coaching...even if she has to play outfield for a season (she likes it too). It would be better to have the playing/game experience rather than just practicing at home. For now though, it is going to be wait and see....

 

[Bucketrider]

I think above all things you have mentioned, two will serve your daughter the best. She practices faithfully. My dd is also tall, 5'10" at 13 and has been pitching for 16 months. This would be of no use whatsoever without practicing. That is something MANY of these TB parents amazingly do not get. They still think the two or three team practices are sufficient and put no extra individual time in at all. You really seem to get it and will do well with that work ethic no matter what your dd's endeavor. Also, stay away from the "cute and cuddly boys" but stick with the wave!

 

[ServicePeasant]

I think above all things you have mentioned, two will serve your daughter the best. She practices faithfully. My dd is also tall, 5'10" at 13 and has been pitching for 16 months. This would be of no use whatsoever without practicing. That is something MANY of these TB parents amazingly do not get. They still think the two or three team practices are sufficient and put no extra individual time in at all. You really seem to get it and will do well with that work ethic no matter what your dd's endeavor. Also, stay away from the "cute and cuddly boys" but stick with the wave!

Lol...the cute and cuddly boys are one of the reasons why we started home schooling two years ago. The eighth grade boys began hitting on her when she was in the sixth grade. The rule here has always been that she is not allowed to date until she is 16 or older dependent upon how responsible she is at that age. So far, she hasn't given us any trouble about it. Luckily for us the only boy she has had a serious crush on over the past 12 months lives in Iowa. They talk on the phone sometimes, but he is a very driven baseball pitcher and a good kid.

As to the practice, she is usually very self driven: She started practicing pitching without us even knowing about it and didn't show us for a couple of weeks (doing the drills in her room, or dragging her pitch-back out to the goat pasture). We do have to get after her sometimes. It seems like the times when she seems to be growing (you know all they want to do is eat and sleep) are the hardest and she'll try to get out of practice and running.
However, if her dad makes himself available to practice extra time, she always wants to. A large part of it is the softball has become part of their bond: It is something special they do together. I am fine being a spectator; DD and I have our things we do together like baking and art.

Yeah, you know the practice thing can go both ways. Sometimes it is the child who wants to magically be better without practice. Other times, the kids want to practice, but don't have any support at home: I personally think this one is worse.

The psycho parent I previously mentioned that made this past season so miserable was one of the ones who didn't practice with their daughter...didn't even buy her a bat, ball, or helmet: She was using her sister's old t-ball glove. When her girl sat the bench or was parked in the outfield she was the first to complain about how it wasn't fair; her daughter should be on a base or let pitch.

We offered to pick this girl up to come practice with our DD, but they only let her a couple times (was one of our dd best friends). Sad thing is this girl could have been a really good player with some practice and wanted to play. She could throw the ball from center field to home plate without even trying, but her aim was terrible. She would try practicing by herself but you don't get very far without help. I feel really bad for kids like that.