Is HE a money grab?

Money grab, I don't think so. Waste of money, sure. I truly believe some PC's believe they pitch they way they were taught. Even though video would prove otherwise. But there are some out there that believe HE is is correct way, no proving to them any other way. Won't even hear of it. HE or bust.

I think these coaches legitimately believe that they are teaching a baby-step to young pitchers when they recommend this training. Some might believe they are teaching what they do, but most of the kids that I see who learned what we call HE are now getting away from that as they get older.

For most it is just "teaching what they were taught".

It isn't anything more than that. How they were taught has translated into success, so it is a natural thought that they start teaching others that way.

The dedicated coach/player really looks into what is going on and with video etc, there is now less of an excuse to not go down this path, but I don't believe that for the players transitioning into coaching or just doing some lessons on the side that there is anything malicious about it.

The ones who are stubborn and refuse to learn - and the long time coaches completely set in their ways - I have no time for them. When you get the comment "But you don't pitch the way you are teaching" and do not at least investigate that makes no sense to me.

I also believe it's mostly a matter of teaching what they were taught. Those are the steps and the terms they know. They think it worked for them, so they repeat it. They've never given any thought as to whether they're doing what they were told because when you're pitching it's the results that count. So if you were told X and got the results you wanted, you must have been doing X. Even if you were really doing Y.

For PCs who weren't fastpitch pitchers (such as myself) you start out seeking information to help your young pitchers. If you get lucky you wind up here and get evidence-based input. If not, you end up on YouTube watching bad videos. But since you have no basis to make a judgment you don't know they're bad. And it seems like there is a lot more bad information than good out there, so in sheer numbers the odds are you'll find bad information. If you see 10 videos from 10 people saying do it this way, and 1 video from another person saying do something different, and you don't know any better, you're probably going to think 10 is better than 1 and go with the majority.

Ex-pitcher or not, you really have to be interested in learning the optimal mechanics and why they're optimal to teach IR. That's what makes it challenging.

I call it regurgitation of what they heard but don't understand. DD has IR coach. HS tries to get her throwing HE. DD comes home laughing "she teach he but throws bp using ir".

Judging where you are from and other details.

What is meant by HE and IR?


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mlewis7789 said:

What is meant by HE and IR?


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HE is Hello Elbow, and IR is Internal Rotation. Two types of pitching instruction. You might want to check out some of the "stickies" at the top of the pitching forum to get more of a background for the discussion.

Thanks. I knew there were 2 styles but had not heard those terms before.


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mlewis7789 said:

Thanks. I knew there were 2 styles but had not heard those terms before.

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Keep in mind that those specific terms are not universal, so you'll find people in the softball world who might have no idea what you're talking about if you use the terms.