How to handle the know everything coach???

[JJsqueeze]

I've said it before but it bears repeating...

Giasdad- You have posted in an internet forum about a game your daughter plays....you are officially a nutcase parent...not an insult, just a fact and welcome to the club...I am a proud fastpitch nutcase...

The fastpitch dad and the fastpitch coach are essentially the same beast, the difference is typically in the amount of Bownets you own and whether or not you have TCB balls, also whether or not your DD plays second base.. You want to know how to deal with the coach? just ask yourself how you would want to be dealt with in this situation.

See sluggers advice about the smile and nod...train your kid to understand what she is trying to accomplish with any given mechanic, then free her up to either try what coaches say in practice or smile and nod and do her best to be coachable while not really ingraining anything.

 

[GiasDad]

Giasdad- You have posted in an internet forum about a game your daughter plays....you are officially a nutcase parent...not an insult, just a fact and welcome to the club...I am a proud fastpitch nutcase...

I was a nutcase far before I posted on this board, however, I guess this just closes the case. I would not argue that at all and thank you for the welcome.

The fastpitch dad and the fastpitch coach are essentially the same beast, the difference is typically in the amount of Bownets you own and whether or not you have TCB balls, also whether or not your DD plays second base.. You want to know how to deal with the coach? just ask yourself how you would want to be dealt with in this situation.

I would want to be told! Like I said, I coach golf and just know you never mess with a guys move if he has an instructor or I would call the instructor and ask what it is they are working on and I would simply enforce that. The last thing you want to do is possibly contradict what the instructor is doing IMO. All that does is create doubt in the athletes mind and doubt is never a good thing.

See sluggers advice about the smile and nod...train your kid to understand what she is trying to accomplish with any given mechanic, then free her up to either try what coaches say in practice or smile and nod and do her best to be coachable while not really ingraining anything.

That is the route we have decided to go actually. We have discussed it and I told her exactly that because I do think the coach means well and I do not want to be rude.

 

[Doug Romrell]

As a coach you should leave the hitters alone who see a qualified instructor. If a coach is to adjust or support a hitter that coach should make the effort to learn the key words and that weeks focus from the student and instructor otherwise you have counter coaching which every coach hates yet as in this case its the coach counter coaching

Yet some coaches would rather cut such a player than let her have her own way (or let her hitting coach have his/her way) with hitting mechanics of one or more of the players on the team. This is a lack of humility for sure.

I like the "smile and nod" approach. A question many players were asked this past high school season try-out was whether or not they were "coachable." Well, I suppose that's a legitimate question. To bad a player cannot say, "Sure, I'm coachable when the stuff you're teaching me fits what I'm being taught by my hitting or pitching coach. You see, we work on my skilled a lot more than you and I will work on them."

Yes, I'm a nutcase.

 

[GiasDad]

There really is nothing wrong with taking 100 swings. I would expect that for every practice.

Sorry was not a practice was 30 minutes before a game warming up.

It is not about a parent knowing everything. It is about all 3 (2 coaches and DD) getting on the same page.

I agree with you and thank you, but when a coach tells DD that he does not like what the hitting instructor is teaching her, that is when I have a problem with. I am OK with telling me, but don't tell the 9 year old "I don't like that", just not a good thing IMO.

 

[CycloneSoftball22]

As a coach you should leave the hitters alone who see a qualified instructor. If a coach is to adjust or support a hitter that coach should make the effort to learn the key words and that weeks focus from the student and instructor otherwise you have counter coaching which every coach hates yet as in this case its the coach counter coaching

What do you do with the ones that go to an instructor but aren't hitting? Do you interject? What is the answer for a coach?

 

[softballphreak]

I have the same issues from time to time with parents giving the "nod and smile" advice. It's pretty easy to pick up on. What I do with new players/seasons is to let everyone know my position on private coaches. That position is that I will go along with what the player is being taught as long as it isn't way out of line. I also invite the player to arrange a meeting with their coach if they like. I even go to some of their "other" games.

I do try not to waste any more time than necessary with a "smile and nod" player; there is usually not enough time to go around with the ones who really need help, anyway.

I like the advice SCDad gave. It is better to get everyone together. Especially since you mentioned that the AC coach was working on one of the same issues her personal coach was working on. Plus, I believe you said they were part of the same organization. So it should be easy to get together.

When you go to clinics you'll likely receive mixed instructions also. Just keep in mind that it takes a village. This forum is a village, by the way!

 

[Doug Romrell]

A player I was working with at a hitting practice mentioned that she was told by one of her HS coaches that I had taught a particular defensive mechanic incorrectly. Well, it was quite humorous, because I had never taught the thing they said I had taught.

Oftentimes, coaches see something wrong (or what they THINK is wrong) in how a player does something and immediately blame this previous coach or that current coach for the wrong they see. I see this as very telling in terms of a coach's perspective and ability to see true cause and effect.

 

[Doug Romrell]

What do you do with the ones that go to an instructor but aren't hitting? Do you interject? What is the answer for a coach?

What do you do when the stuff you interject makes things worse? The stuff you want to interject may be worse. You see, I think most of us coaches suffer from this......if a player isn't performing like some elite college player, what they've been taught is wrong and our answers are right. For me, good coaches have a great deal of humility in terms of realizing they, themselves, may not have the fix the player needs. It could be that the hitting coach or pitching coach is, in fact, on the right track.

 

[softballphreak]

What do you do when the stuff you interject makes things worse? The stuff you want to interject may be worse. You see, I think most of us coaches suffer from this......if a player isn't performing like some elite college player, what they've been taught is wrong and our answers are right. For me, good coaches have a great deal of humility in terms of realizing they, themselves, may not have the fix the player needs. It could be that the hitting coach or pitching coach is, in fact, on the right track.

And vice versa. That's what's wrong with "nod and smile." I tell my private lessons "when in Rome ..." and try to learn something from it.

 

[CoogansBluff]

What do you do with the ones that go to an instructor but aren't hitting? Do you interject? What is the answer for a coach?

The issue is not whether a player is hitting. It's whether there is a disagreement between team coach and hitting coach on what to do about it. As a team coach, if I disagree w/ the hitting coach, then I'll point that out to the player and try to work together w/ the hitting coach. If we still don't agree, I think that player (and family) has the right to trust the person that they are paying to teach them hitting without being punished for that. Even if they are misguided. The team coach then should utilize the player based on her production, not her mechanics or htting philosophy.