"College coaches often harm players hitting trying to get them to swing a particular way."

[_MIA_]

I know of at least one pitcher that was coached out of throwing 69 MPH bu Patty Gasso's pitching staff down to 63 MPH because she didn't have her preferred motion

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I thought maybe you were going to tell us she was initially a RH pitcher and Gasso made her throw LH...

 

[Quasimodo]

WHY, Coach? Is it ego? You recruited a player and then want to change them. I can understand a tweak or a 'have you ever tried ..." but to get them to buy into a whole new cookie cut hitting system is not a good idea. The player has worked and had success with her current swing but now you are going to enlighten them with how it is really done. Happens in the minor leagues of MLB too. In David Eckstein book Have Heart he tells how he almost got coached out of ever playing in the bigs. BTW, his book is a great short read for encouraging positivity.

Didn't Lotief make that famous at ULL?

Well hitting isn't all at risk. Someday there will be two huge asteroids approaching Earth. One will be on a trajectory that is exactly parallel to the earth's trajectory, moving like a bullet at its target. The other will be chopping down at the speeding earth, trying to intersect at an angle, meeting the earth at an exact angle in a micro-second window of opportunity to propel the earth into the desired opposite orbit around the sun. I think I would put my money on the first asteroid destroying us, or destroying the softball rather than that meteor chopping down at us. Hitting and pitching are physics, not a belief system!

 

[Quasimodo]

I would say if you rake they will leave you alone but then supposedly OU's hitting coach tried to mess with Jocelyn Alo's swing after she set the NCAA frosh record for HRs so I guess that isn't true..

For me it was about expectations as I discussed in my first post on this thread. The girl exceeded expectations for a Freshman so why would I mess with her especially in mid-season?

I will play the devil's advocate a little though. There was a right-handed batter at the '94 Nationals. She pulled line-drive foul for 2-strikes every at bat, then struggled to keep that final contact fair. She had 11-13 pitch at-bats. In truth her batting average wasn't great. She had great line-drive power. In my opinion she was the best "hitter" so to speak, at that Nationals in Visalia, CA. The second best hitter and best player I saw there was from New Hampshire, a SS with explosive 5-tool talent, and home to first in 2.45 seconds. In appearance a stunning looking athlete. There were hundreds of college coaches watching the games. I was the only coach at her games. Everyone was watching the top six teams play. Now back to the best hitter. I sat behind home plate with the Notre Dame coach and Peggy Keller from Virginia. The girl threw her hands directly at the ball, not inside the pitch. So her bat wrapped around the ball pulling it foul. A technic that was her curse. It was a mechanical issue that may have been a product of her coaching in ASA. It was an easy fix. Both Peggy Keller and I talked to her after the tournament. She had poor grades. The New Hampshire girl disappeared before we could talk to her. I contacted her coach, but he couldn't find her. Evidently her parents were splitting up right at that time and she moved away with her mom. Neither girl made it that year to Division 1 softball. Some coaches only look for performance. I was an assistant coach at Utah State at the time. Either girl was worth a full ride, one polished, one needing a simple hand-path adjustment.

 

[Westwind]

For me it was about expectations as I discussed in my first post on this thread. The girl exceeded expectations for a Freshman so why would I mess with her especially in mid-season?

Simple! Same mistake 90% of hs coaches make.

They coach to the top players in their lineup who have the least room for improvement instead of the bottom of the lineup where the most gains can be more easily made.

Doesn’t matter what job you are doing... Pick the low hanging fruit first. Why these bozos get out their ladders and climb to the top and spend all day to pick a half of a bag of fruit when they can fill three bags standing on the ground in the same amount of time I will never understand.

“Why” they do that... That’s the question.

 

[Quasimodo]

For me it was about expectations as I discussed in my first post on this thread. The girl exceeded expectations for a Freshman so why would I mess with her especially in mid-season?

That's good since most MLB hitters do the same. The ones that don't usually rely on an elbow brace.

Some do, some don't! But that is all about training. I had a girl on the National Team with terrible arm-bar. In fact 3 Filipinas with arm-bar but the other two were not starters. The other girls had a bent front elbow at contact. I don't have any on the current Junior National Team that have a big problem. The ones that do tried to get behind every outside pitch, and couldn't hit to RF to save their lives. Many big leaguers and even D1 players with arm-bar have excessive bat-wrap, or reach back releasing the wrists too early. Their swing is a sweep. Can't get away with that! Look at Javy Baez right now and during his career. With his bat speed he should be a .320 hitter.

The two girls are among my hitters. The last girl is the girl I mentioned above with the barred front arm that is a starter.

 

[_MIA_]

For me it was about expectations as I discussed in my first post on this thread. The girl exceeded expectations for a Freshman so why would I mess with her especially in mid-season?

It was after her Frosh season/before her Soph season. She got to the point where she supposedly called up Lauren Chamberlain and told her she had forgotten how to hit during her Soph year. They actually didn't bring her on a weekend trip so she could take a "mental break". From what I heard (from Alo's aunt) Chamberlain told her to ignore the hitting coach..lol. She seemed to turn it around this year before everything got cancelled so maybe she took Chamberlain's advice....

I've heard a few other stories about OU's hitting coach and the biggest thing is he seems to try and mess with their style, changing handsets etc. For one kid from around here I was sitting outside the cage where she was taking hitting lessons with my kid's org head. She was complaining that the handset he wanted her to use wasn't comfortable...and she hadn't even set foot on campus yet (she was a rising freshmen)

 

[_MIA_]

“Why” they do that... That’s the question.

So they can get some credit when the kid is successful..doesn't sound nearly as good for them when the kid credits all the hours she put in with her TB coach/hitting coach/parents/etc when was she was 8 YO - 19 YO...

 

[625ender]

Assistant coaches in college are only there to build their resume so the can springboard to a higher/paid position. Parents and players just don't realize that when they go to college they're are the mercy of who sticks around. If you go to a bigger college with a big time head coach more often than not assistants in key positions are working for free!

 

[Tango]

Had a baseball player that was drafted very high and decided to go the JUCO route. My brother played for the college a few years before this player and I had a very good relationship with the head coach. He called and said, B isn't hitting. I asked him why the heck did you recruit him? Because he can rake. Well then tell the hitting coach to shut the heck up. Player of the year in the conference. Went on to be the #1 prospect for a ML team. Was promised in spring training if he hit he would be the starting left fielder and then a changing of the GM. The new GM told him it doesn't matter what you do we are sending you to Double A. He led the team in all categories during spring except HR (3) and they moved him down to make him a front foot hitter. Never hit at the level I expected but did play 14 years up and down.

His 8U coach would always tell me if you don't mess him up- he will play MLB. Much more colorful. By the way he was the kid that was picked last at the 8U rec. league because he didn't have a glove at the tryout and was hitting right handed. The second practice he asked if he could hit left handed and crushed. They asked, why he was batting right handed. Because mom told me not to hurt anyone. True!

 

[Orange Socks]

Here's an perfect mind blowing example of how a college coach can mess up a perfectly good swing. This kid played high level TB and is a power hitter. Was talking to her former TB coach last week and said at one point she hit 4 HR's in 4 AB's. Here are the highlights from Freshman to Jr year in college.
Fr: 45 for 128 .352 avg 9 HR's 28K's All Conference 2nd team. 2nd Team All Region by NFCA
Soph: 3 for 31 .097 avg 0 HR's 10K's (New Coach) Long time Big 12 hitting coach
Jr: 39 for 123 .317 avg 8 HR's 16K's (New Coach)
Sr: 2 HR's on her way to challenge the career HR record-Covid 19 shortened season. Sad

Here's the thing about the player. She strikes out but Hits balls out of the park a lot. She has a long swing and man when she connects it takes your breath away. My DD hits Dingers that just clear the fence. This girls balls go 240' every time she connects! After her freshman season coach takes another coaching job, and new coach comes in and tries to change her swing. She changed it for the bad. She was not injured and yes the coach benched her because she couldn't adapt to her style. 31 AB's all year? Dad was pissed!!! That coach moved on and 3rd coach comes in and let's her do her thing. He is a hands off coach when it comes to mechanics. You play well, you will continue to get AB's and see the field.