A message to coaches from a pitching instructor.

[BucketDud]

Even easier, and it baffles me that parents don't do this:

Ask the parents of the best pitchers in your area who they go to for lessons. Call that person. Book a lesson.

Things must be different there. The instructor in our area that has most D1 prospects has like 50 girls on her waiting list won't even take any more on it.

All top coaches have long waits and even the decent ones have some waiting list that generally takes months to get in.

 

[uncdrew]

Things must be different there. The instructor in our area that has most D1 prospects has like 50 girls on her waiting list won't even take any more on it.

All top coaches have long waits and even the decent ones have some waiting list that generally takes months to get in.

Yeah, I feel we have enough in our area. I don't know for certain though.

 

[curveballer124]

When you are saying demonstrate are you talking about the instructor themselves being able to be a pitcher? That is what I was
*Specifically asking... Do you think someone has to be a pitcher to be able to teach pitching?


Are you saying that someone who is not a pitcher themself can only talk about the theory of pitching and therefore because they can't physically do it themselves they can't teach accurately and effectively because they only know it in theory?

Certainly there are people who have never pitched before and are able to communicate how to pitch and have successful students. Same with hitting Etc.

How would you explain their success coaching and teaching when they have not actually done it themselves??

To answer your question, I'm sure there are lots of coaches that have never pitched a day in their lives and have had success coaching it. Me personally I only know of a 2 (I'm sure there are a whole lot more) and both coached college ball. So they, as far as I know never developed a kid from the ground up they inherited developed pitchers and fined tuned them with what they knew....

So is it possible? Sure, but there are certain things that having never pitched themselves, they are probably going to have a difficult time relating to with the student. Especially if that student is getting frustrated with their inability to grasp the pitch or the control of their body and the pitch.

Here's the thing I started pitching in my 20's I'm now 50 and I'm still pitching men's fastpitch. I have made every mistake imaginable and have tried every, everything from different styles to different grips to different releases etc. in the course of 30 years. Some worked some didn't but my point is, its tougher (not impossible) for someone to help develop a pitcher if they have never experienced the same trials and tribulations themselves. Hell, I'm 30 years into pitching and I'm still learning new stuff all the time. I'm of the mentality that if I wanna learn something I prefer to learn it from someone that can do it better than me.

 

[Hillhouse]

One word: Demand.

There are way more students than good teachers. Couple years ago my DD pitching coach got job as P5 pitching coach and the HC wouldn't allow lessons. Took us about 4 months to find good coach and that was on favor from TB coach. She was young and inexperienced, but got up to speed quickly and is very quality person.

About month ago hitting coach we had for years took job at another P5 school and they have same rules. So we are on waiting list with a few good hitting coaches, but even the crappy ones are basically full. My guess is will take at least a year to get in and some coaches have multi-year waiting lists.

How is it that I'm only now seeing this thread?? Maybe it's because I don't really venture off the Pitching forum when I'm on this site, had I not seen this thread on the "trending topics" when I signed on, I may never have seen it!

BucketDad, you mentioned your PC took a job at a college and the HC won't allow them to do lessons. I guess it would depend on what you mean by lessons. The NCAA doesn't allow coaches to do lessons on kids above 7th grade. So, it's not really the HC's fault. The NCAA feels it would be too close to recruiting ages and would give these coaches an edge on recruiting their own students.

NCAA coaches can do group lessons of 4 or more. But they are not allowed to be one on one, or below 4 people per session. Then there's regulations on where the lessons can take place, etc. I know when I joined a college staff, I felt the hoops to jump through were too difficult so I didn't bother with organizing lessons.

 

[Vertigo]

Things must be different there. The instructor in our area that has most D1 prospects has like 50 girls on her waiting list won't even take any more on it.

All top coaches have long waits and even the decent ones have some waiting list that generally takes months to get in.

That’s why I loved our PC. No fancy facility, one on one instruction, price never changed. He is not that big on social media so most people only know of him through word of mouth. Always could get girls in. Oh, and he coached the past three Gatorade POY in our state.

 

[Hillhouse]

I had a student's HC (14u team) come to her lesson last week, that doesn't happen very often. She wanted to make sure she and I were on the same page with jargon and words being used to describe things. While I never met her before then, she said she does pitching lessons too. I could tell she and I didn't see eye to eye on everything but, neither of us tried to blow the other up. Her coming to this lesson was genuine and something I think more head coaches should do.

 

[DropcityUSA]

Just tell her to locate a fastball high. 90% of riseballs I see in HS are just a high FB and most people have no idea.

What is the difference?

 

[Chilixa]

What is the difference?

I have a theory on this and could be wildly wrong. I have been trying to figure this out also. I think most girls seem to have a natural top spin on their fastball, not all but most. So when they try and throw a high fast ball sometimes that top spin keeps it from continuing upwards. So what we see referred to as a riseball, is often just a fastball without top spin. I think this is why we see a lot of gyro spin when we see slow motion shots of girls throwing “riseballs”. They have just found a way to eliminate top spin, while still throwing hard. Now many will argue it isn’t a true “riseball” but it seems to be a very effective pitch. The true riseball with 6/12 back spin seems to be really rare. When I have seen girls get the spin right it seems to really slow the ball down. So I think when people refer to a riseball there can be several different meaning s depending on who you talk to.


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[DropcityUSA]

I have a theory on this and could be wildly wrong. I have been trying to figure this out also. I think most girls seem to have a natural top spin on their fastball, not all but most. So when they try and throw a high fast ball sometimes that top spin keeps it from continuing upwards. So what we see referred to as a riseball, is often just a fastball without top spin. I think this is why we see a lot of gyro spin when we see slow motion shots of girls throwing “riseballs”. They have just found a way to eliminate top spin, while still throwing hard. Now many will argue it isn’t a true “riseball” but it seems to be a very effective pitch. The true riseball with 6/12 back spin seems to be really rare. When I have seen girls get the spin right it seems to really slow the ball down. So I think when people refer to a riseball there can be several different meaning s depending on who you talk to.


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Yes, my DD has tended to have a natural drop spin. She told me her last game against a strong 16u team (she’s 13) that they were saying watch the rise. I looked at some of the video and understood why they said that even though she doesn’t throw a rise.

So then I reviewed her video for fall I noticed the largest percentage of her strikeouts were on high, “rising” fast balls. I didn’t even realize she was throwing them on purpose until now, since we hadn’t really practice that.

Now she’s currently been learning a backspin rise, but I still have trouble wrapping my head around how that the backspin does anything (but slow the pitch down).

Here is a clip of a high fastball. The trajectory of the ball is up. What does a riseball do differently?

https://x.com/mckenna2028/status/1721634076170264894?s=46&t=qj9j6qlUnc2Dbct9riiFSw

 

[bsbs]

I have definitely had other teams / coaches talk about laying off the riseball or all she has is a riseball and I'm calling pitches and know very few riseballs have actually been called all game.