Balance between technical coaching and just playing

[smallball]

My belief is that is a failed philosophy. By that I mean it is absolutely, positively, necessary to "coach" a player during a game, particularly at younger ages. But I believe it is done at the college level. In fact, I know it is because I spoken with
college coaches from all 3 levels as well as a few Div. II and div. III baseball coaches.
I'm not referring to pre-game coaching. I'm speaking of coaching during the game, making adjustments to the pitcher and
adjusting the swing mechanics. For example, 2 evenigs ago my DD played a highschool game against a team coached by her summer travel ball coach from last summer. This coach knows my where the hole in my DD swing is. I told her where
they were going to pitch her the night before the game. I also told her as I always do, not to swing at any pitches that aren't in your "wheel house" unless you have to (2 strike on her). Wait for a mistake. She didn't really hear me. 1st 2 at
bats, 2 K's on 9 pitches total. As usual, no coaching from the coaches. I sat quietly in the stands shaking my head. I could see she was upset, hugely so. No coaching from her coaches. After her 2nd k I stood up and motioned to her to come over to me. When she got to me, she was yelling about the ump hurrying her and the pitcher quick pitching blah.blah blah.
I had to tell her to shut the mouth and listened to me. She did. I told her what she was doing wrong mechanically and mentally. When her team was up to bat again, she grasbbed her bat, went behind the dugout and took some dry swings correcting what we discussed. Her next at bat (you can see where this is going, can't you?) 3 pitches, all outside-low, her hole, 1 ball-2 strikes, didn't swing at any of them. The next pitch, for some odd reason, was coming inside based on the catcher's set-up. The pitcher missed the spot and left it right their, I'm pointing to middle-middle. She jumped all over it and it landed at least 250' dead center.
Was this in game coaching? I don't care what you call it, but I did what I needed to do to get a smile back on the kid's face.
I've been told by the ASSistant coach not to do this thing that the coaches will handle it. Well they don't, So I continue to.
You can't tell me and expect my to buy into it, that college don't coach their players during games. It just aint so. They do.

This would have been a great story had your DD sent a low outside pitch over the right field fence. The way I see it, she hit a meat pitch over the fence and you're trying to take credit for it by changing her mechanics during the game. Meat pitches are supposed to be hit hard, and a lot of them end up over the fence. Nothing special about that.

Regarding your sitting in the stands and shaking your head about your coach not reminding your DD that the other team would likely pitch her low and away because their coach was her old coach and knew she couldn't hit that pitch, I assume that your DD's current coach knew that, or you offered that bit of information to her or him? If so, I agree that it was a poor decision by the coach to not remind your DD of that during the game. If not, congrats on being THAT parent.

As far as giving mechanical instruction to hitters during the game, it has been my experience that some benefit from it and some do not. My job is to figure out who does and who does not, and adjust accordingly.

 

[Mr T]

I agree with the majority here that coaching mechanics can be a very bad idea. Seems pretty clear that too many girls are going up to bat trying to perform a checklist of actions, instead of trying to hit.

I will chime in a bit for addition. If we are talking older, more advanced players, who know of a mechanical problem with their swing and know and have practiced how to fix it, reminding them of it, perhaps after 1 at bat, doesn't seem like a bad idea.

 

[Jim]

Manny Ramirez (aka Rain Man with a Bat) comes to mind

Who do you think Charlie was talking about when he said that?

 

[Jim]

This would have been a great story had your DD sent a low outside pitch over the right field fence. The way I see it, she hit a meat pitch over the fence and you're trying to take credit for it by changing her mechanics during the game. Meat pitches are supposed to be hit hard, and a lot of them end up over the fence. Nothing special about that.

Regarding your sitting in the stands and shaking your head about your coach not reminding your DD that the other team would likely pitch her low and away because their coach was her old coach and knew she couldn't hit that pitch, I assume that your DD's current coach knew that, or you offered that bit of information to her or him? If so, I agree that it was a poor decision by the coach to not remind your DD of that during the game. If not, congrats on being THAT parent.

As far as giving mechanical instruction to hitters during the game, it has been my experience that some benefit from it and some do not. My job is to figure out who does and who does not, and adjust accordingly.

Excellent approach to coaching! Nice