DD not a fan of HS coach

[Il softball fan]

I agree with OP, coach is out of line with that statement. Nothing wrong with him coaching her up on her swing. He may not be correct, but he thinks he is, and it is his job to coach. Not to be negative, and to bring her down, but unfortunately some people are like that.

Like others said, remind your dd that she can hit, and is a good player or there would be no college coach talking to her as a sophmore. Slumps happen, and she will come out of it. My DD is in the midst of the worst hitting of her life, but I am starting to see signs of her swing looking better, and more confident the last few games. The only few balls that she has managed to get out of the infield lately, of course, have went right to someone. It happens.

 

[sbmom19]

Maybe her coach is confusing bat angle with a shoulder drop? DD went to a D1 head coach for hitting lessons in 2014-2015 until the coach took a new HC position on the east coast. She had my DD change her bat angle at contact so that her power would be used to hit deep fly balls (often over the fence). She said that was DD's job as a hitter -not hitting ground balls because she is not fast. DD's HS coaches at first thought that she was dropping her shoulder because of the bat angle but when she showed them the tee drills that she did with the D1 HC they saw what she was doing...

 

[Doug Romrell]

She's likely in a somewhat hostile situation in this regard. That is, as I've said before, saying anything to the coach will likely only make the situation more hostile. She should just nod her head in agreement and do what she knows is right for her. If she doesn't produce, she'll have to accept the responsibility.

 

[Nimrod]

Thanks for great responses. An update, the coach today approached DD in the outfield and had a chat with her about general things on the team. DD is one of the 2 captains. He discussed the lineup for the next game and asked her opinion on getting a younger player motivated. He asked about her hitting and DD said she's been getting nervous and putting pressure on herself. He related and told her how good he was in golf until somebody starting keeping score. Stuff like that goes a long ways. Hopefully this is a turning point. I think players have a need to be valued and understood and I think this helped. Just pay attention to them a little more and be interested in them, and I don't mean just their swing or performance.

 

[JAD]

Well you could reassure her that when the coach recruited her she had that swing, so she does not have to worry about her swing; just remind her everyone has slumps every now and then continue working hard and it will come around. I know that is always easier said than done but even so she needs to hear it.

I would suggest checking with her soon-to-be college coach and ask for advice on hitting mechanics. This will allow your DD to get her mechanics in synch with her future coaches and when her HS coach tries to modify her swing she can confidently say "this is how my future college coach wants me to do it"....

 

[obbay]

I once coached with a guy whose DD was an excellent player. one time she was struggling at the plate and I asked her what she thought was the problem. "I keep dropping my shoulder". that's not a problem, I told her.
then when her father was around I asked him the same question and he said the same thing- "she's dropping her shoulder". so I put a ball on a tee and told him to show her how he wanted her to swing, in slo-mo, but stop at contact. when he did this I informed him that HE was dropping his shoulder. he was dumbfounded, like I had just proved the existence of Santa Claus.
her problem came from trying to fix something that wasn't a problem and then thinking about it too much when she was supposed to be hitting. coaches tryng to correct kids from dropping theirshoulder is a et peeve of mine, along with "swing down on the ball" (which can be correct but only when used correctly)

 

[let it be fun]

Thanks for great responses. An update, the coach today approached DD in the outfield and had a chat with her about general things on the team. DD is one of the 2 captains. He discussed the lineup for the next game and asked her opinion on getting a younger player motivated. He asked about her hitting and DD said she's been getting nervous and putting pressure on herself. He related and told her how good he was in golf until somebody starting keeping score. Stuff like that goes a long ways. Hopefully this is a turning point. I think players have a need to be valued and understood and I think this helped. Just pay attention to them a little more and be interested in them, and I don't mean just their swing or performance.

Good to hear that her coach reached out to her and asked for her input. Keep giving us updates. It will be interesting to see how both her relationship with her coach and her hitting go throughout the rest of the season.

 

[BobInMadison]

Interesting.

There seem to be several threads recently where there was a problem with a coach, but then things worked out with the coach.

That is really good news. It appears that there are fewer jerk coaches than what first appeared.

It may be good to vent a bit. But, be careful. Lots of people read this forum. There are different levels of anonymity. Some lurkers never post, some posters use completely anonymous names. Some, like me, use names that make it possible for people in their area to figure out who they are, and some brave souls use their full names.

So, posters who want to vent should be careful about how much information they give out.

I remember one forum where someone gave enough information in an anonymous post that I had her name, address, the VIN for her car and some other important information within 15 minutes.
I also remember politely warning someone to be careful what he was saying on the internet, and he ignored that advice until a famous judge used his internet writings for a judgment against him. This was that judge's last ruling before retirement.

Just saying. If you are going to vent, make sure you are as anonymous as possible, and don't give information that can be used to track down the ventee.