Looking for a new pitching coach for my DD

[halskinner]

Hal, yes, understood.
That's why I qualified my statements with regard to a 10U, or perhaps a 12U.

If you are teaching all of that to your 12U and below students with any real success, then I suspect folks are beating down your doors begging you for lessons...

Haha. NO. I retired from teaching pitchers twice.

The first time was 2003. However, I was contacted by two area league directors that begged me to come back and work with their very young beginners as no other instructor in the area wanted to, so I did.

I only wanted 1 night per week but shorly I had 3 full nights. Up to my eyeballs in rug rats! All beginners. Had other students over 12yo but mostly the rotten 'Little kids". They did well.

I retired again in 2006 due to poor eyesight. I am self taught and had to coime up with my own teaching methods when I was very young. Had to make a modification here and there, but what I taught and more importantly HOW I TAUGHT IT gave me the reputation of being the best with young beginners in my area. I would turn out a competitive pitcher in a few weeks where other instructors took some months.

Its how you teach just as much as what you teach. I had alot of fun working with those rotten little kids. They had a lot of fun workin with their rotten ole instructor too.

 

[tomzpc]

Let me start by saying that I DO NOT usually agree with Hal, but on this one point I do. When beginning focusing only on I/R CAN be counter productive. In my experience, my DD was taught HE. She was taught turn at the top, stay straight in the arm, get behind the ball, keep wrist cocked,... All these things that are a big NO NO an the forum. But after all the years of doing these types of drills video of my daughter(at age 16) showed she was using I/R. Never even heard of the term before this forum, but somehow she was magically using it. The years before we realized what she was ACTUALLY doing, not what she was being taught, we worked on fast arm, STRONG leg drive, lots of resistance on the plant leg. I believe this focus is what got her to where she is today!!! Had we focused on I'R from day one I'm not sure where she would be. Not that it would be bad. I'm just not sure how much focus would have been on the rest of the motion, not just the I/R.

While I agree that an athletic pitcher will develop an I/R release eventually without it specifically being taught that is still no excuse for teaching non-I/R mechanics. All it does is slow down a pitcher's development. I'm guessing that 90% of the pitching coaches out there teach girls to get their hand on top of/in back of the ball right at or after 12:00. My 12 yo DD just finished a one week camp/clinic run by probably the most highly sought after PC in the State of CT. Her first day at the camp she was doing her warmup drills and one of the instructors stopped her and asked why she was holding the ball with palm up at 3:00 and not palm down. She told my daughter that she was just "wasting energy" since she apparently still needed to get behind the ball before release. I told my daughter that the next time someone said that to her to respond with "this is how I pitch so why should I practice any differently". I've just about given up bringing her to see pitching coaches (we have tried several). She's gotten to where she is today mostly from me (what I've learned from this forum and watching slo-mo video of high level pitchers) and from hard work (lots of drills and throwing). She throws faster than any other 12 year old in our area (she's at 53 mph now and this is a girl who is maybe 90 lbs. soaking wet). Unless you find a real good PC it just isn't worth it IMO. Most of the PC's out there just aren't that good. They may have been a great pitcher or the father of a great pitcher but that doesn't make them a great PC. We have a PC she likes that we see from time to time but that's mostly to learn how to throw a new pitch which is something that I can't teach her.

 

[Mike-Coach Q]

I was teaching it wrong and thought it was right then I discovered a better way, swallowed my pride and begin teaching IR to 50 students. Not one complaint, each one liked the change and improved their pitching speed and accuracy. I am always looking to improve as a pitching coach. I don't look at things as right and wrong but good, better, and best. Love the journey