3 steps forward, 2 steps back

Welcome to Discuss Fastpitch

Your FREE Account is waiting to the Best Softball Community on the Web.

Jul 23, 2014
191
16
Midwest
This is how my 11u DD's story goes. Semi to long-ish, sorry.

She's been pitching on and off for about a year now, usually as a secondary because she hasn't wanted to devote enough time practicing. I've been her (youtube) pitching coach so far and think I've done a pretty nice job. Big props to Java, BM and the rest of you bucket parents here at DFP.

3 steps forward: New love for the game, better catchers, better batting/fielding practices

She's on a new (better) team now and with it has come a new drive. So she's been throwing a lot more with me, and more importantly, with the higher caliber catchers on the new team. I don't think this gets said enough, but its amazing how much better a pitcher is with a good catcher. I always wondered why she blazed frozen ropes to me in warm ups then would throw rainbows during the game. It's hard to throw confidently when you're fairly certain the "its-your-turn-to-catch" catcher is going to let routine pitches get by. I see now why my DD used to throw so tentatively. Good catcher=good pitcher. Rainbows are mostly gone except for the occasional late release or hanging change.

2 steps back: New coaches confusing her.

With the new team comes the new organization, with the new organization comes organization-wide practices, with organization-wide practices comes all the different age group coaches & assistants stopping by to give (wrong) advice on how to pitch.

I really like the organization-wide practices because they pair older girls with younger girls for hitting and fielding and this mentor/mentoree training really works well, but...

When we move off to pitching practice that's when the trouble starts. My DD knows that we live in an area where only HE mechanics is taught, we have tried multiple times to find that IR mechanics coach in the area, but they just don't seem exist. So me and the rest of DFP has taken over. She is has become well versed in nodding and smiling (and ignoring) when given the "push the ball thru the zone" talk. But it still creeps back in. She'll be clicking right along throwing how I like and some coach wandering by will watch her and then drop the usual "ball-down-at-9oclock, snap-your-wrist-at-the-hip, elbow up finish" stuff. When she hears it once, she's good at ignoring it, but when its over and over, from different people, it chisels away what I've taught her. After last Sunday's practice, we had to stay longer because she lost a better portion of her whip again.

It's so frustrating to have some coach watch her throw using IR mechanics and comment: "That was an awesome pitch!" but then the conversation that follows goes like this:

Coach (to DD): You're really good, who's your coach?
DD: points to me
Coach (to me): You've done a great job, she have an mother/older sister that pitches?
Me: nope
Coach: (with confused look) oh, you've coached before?
Me: nope, not really
Coach: (more confused) How? So this is all from reading stuff on the internet and youtube videos?
Me: yeah, pretty much.
Coach: (rolling eyes) oh, ok. Well I've (been coaching for xx years/used to pitch in college) and here's a better way....(and goes into another parroted HE lesson)

We have to keep backing up to fix things that weren't broken in the first place, and I'm running out of new and inventive ways to politely shoo away meddling coaches, but we're getting there. Slowly.
 
Jun 18, 2012
3,183
48
Utah
Ask them to present their ideas on pitching mechanics here and have the likes of Boardmember chew them up and spit them out.
 
May 9, 2014
474
0
Umatilla, Florida
The struggle is real!! It's a weekly struggle with me! If it's not a HC or AC it's a PC or a dad or a former pitcher or the senior pitchers that I hear telling the pitchers to lock the arm snap the wrist and slam the door, it's very frustrating. Normally I can let it go but the senior pitcher on our HS team (which I coach) has started "helping" the pitchers on our team the last couple weeks. The problem is her and her dad are HE taught and the HC has known them longer then me so I'm hesitant to have the conversation that I need to have so we are all on the same page when teaching the pitchers.

OP- I see two choices, tell dd to keep smiling and nodding or have the talk with the coaches about how she's learning and why, send them this website and hope for the best.
 

Greenmonsters

Wannabe Duck Boat Owner
Feb 21, 2009
6,168
38
New England
...It's so frustrating to have some coach watch her throw using IR mechanics and comment: "That was an awesome pitch!" but then the conversation that follows goes like this:

Coach (to DD): You're really good, who's your coach?
DD: points to me
Coach (to me): You've done a great job, she have an mother/older sister that pitches?
Me: nope
Coach: (with confused look) oh, you've coached before?
Me: nope, not really
Coach: (more confused) How? So this is all from reading stuff on the internet and youtube videos?
Me: yeah, pretty much.

Coach: (rolling eyes) oh, ok. Well I've (been coaching for xx years/used to pitch in college) and here's a better way....(and goes into another parroted HE lesson)

We have to keep backing up to fix things that weren't broken in the first place, and I'm running out of new and inventive ways to politely shoo away meddling coaches, but we're getting there. Slowly.

This was your mistake! For the future, the better answer is: She is a student of Hillhouse/BM/Java/Crazy Uncle Hal et al and I facilitate their distance learning training methods. If you're interested 'd be happy to direct you to video of what they teach and some of their students. :cool:
 
Feb 7, 2013
3,188
48
Here is where a little white lie helps. Tell them her pitching coach is Bill Hillhouse and be very, very vague about where he is located....or go see a local pitching coach a few times so that you can put that on her "resume" or team web page even though you rarely, if ever go see him/her. If the coach tries to tell her how to pitch, have your DD say nicely that that is not the way I have been taught. She can also smile and throw the pitch the way she knows is correct and the most coaches won't know the difference. I will tell you a little secret. DD's new head coach is big on throwing a high fastball, inside. DD throws the rise ball instead. He has never questioned it and frankly, probably doesn't know the difference. He says that he doesn't call a rise ball because if you miss the location, it gets hit out of the park. But somehow the high, arcing fastball is a safer pitch to throw?

By the way, most good head coaches will not change a pitcher's mechanics but will discuss other things with the pitcher like pitch location, pitch strategy, warm-up routine, fielding their position, back up assignments, etc.
 
Oct 28, 2015
9
0
Acroyear,

Just know that you are not alone, it is very frustrating. I get all those stupid looks too, they look at me like "you can't possibly know anything about pitching, and you certainly can't know more than me" The thing is, I dont know everthing about pitching, and never claimed to, but when I when i went looking for information and found DFP, I realized I had found what I was looking for. Just remember if you keep an open mind, and use common sense, you are way ahead of those other people. Just keep doing what you are doing.
 
Jul 17, 2012
1,091
38
I agree on the white lie. And coaches can be the most arrogant people in the world to deal with, as you saw by the eye rolling.

I took DD to a Pitching Clinic at a local D3 school. Age groups were 8-12 and 13-18. DD had JUST turned 12, so I followed the rules. Registered her for the 8-12 group. Well, she lasted 5 minutes in that group as we had time to warm up, so she did a few warm ups and started pitching. She got sent on the other side of the Gymnasium Divider with the older group. They were all still warming up. Lots of wrist snaps, and slam the door K drills going on. DD started doing Show it and throw it so as to fit in warming up, even though she was already warmed up. The head coach of this college program comes over and says..I saw you over with the younger girls and told them to bring you over here..... you're fantastic for your age, but you are losing SO much speed by not getting on top of that ball earlier and following through with your whole body....classic slam the door, hello elbow demo. So here's the arrogance I originally spoke about..... This coach sees a kid that to her, is sticking out like a sore thumb, even among the kids much older than her, and instead of taking some notes on why this kid is doing so well....she tries to change her to do what all the other kids are doing that isn't working so well.

So my advice to you is talk to the coach. Tell him that she's working with Rick Pauly, I chose that over Bill because not many people know the men's game as well as the women's game. He'll surely not leave you alone, no matter how successful she is doing it the right way. He's going to think he can make her better, by teaching her the right way in his head.
 
Jul 23, 2014
191
16
Midwest
Yeah, most of them nod and smile and claim to follow the teaching of BH, but it becomes quickly apparent that its in name only. We did go to one coach for two hour-long sessions but the second hour was only to use his super nice air conditioned indoor facility in the middle of summer. It was almost comical watching him show her wrist snaps over and over even while talking about how good my DD's "whip" was and trying to get her to stop trying to throw rise balls over and over. "You have to get on top and behind the ball" I honestly believe he knew from the get-go that 1. my DD was beyond him, and 2. he had no idea what the whip was, but he kept saying it because he heard me say it in a warm up and repeated it in an attempt to keep us around.

Worst thing is we haven't even met the "organization" PC yet. I'm not holding my breath.
 
Nov 15, 2014
7
1
chicago suburbs
I feel your pain. The team my DD played on last year was a well known team in the area, and we ran into the same problem. She is going to an instructor that does teach IR where her whip is good and she is able to let the ball fly. She stays open much longer then every other pitcher on the team and the HC and the team PC kept trying to get her to snap and to close the door. She would finish team pitching and be so frustrated and upset that she would cry to me in the car. She would always try to do what the coaches wanted her too do or try to ignore and keep excelling at what her private instructor told her. We ended up leaving the team and catching on with another team that loves her new style (they are encouraging and want to learn from her). You may need to have a talk with the coach/s and show them videos on what you are teaching her. I wish your DD luck with her pitching. Keep pushing, in the long run your DD will improve with IR.
 

Forum statistics

Threads
42,831
Messages
679,491
Members
21,445
Latest member
Bmac81802
Top