Me_and_my_big_mouth
witty softball quote
I'm just another bucket parent, and the sport is relatively new to our family (it's been 18 months). I have a 13 yo dd who loves to pitch. She's strong, aggressive, athletic, and very VERY stubborn. Yep - a model softball player. 
She's on her first travel team this year.
She was taught some weird mechanics early on, which impeded her progress a bit. We went through some team-switching problems (long story, and I'm fairly certain I've already posted it, anyway). Got with a new team, was told a different way to pitch. We ended up here. Time to become educated. I'm smart. I can figure this out. . . right . . .?
I had the great fortune of being introduced to someone locally (through this board) who is the bees-knees of softball. True passion for the game, love for his daughters, and confident in what he teaches. He taught us about the Hanson Principle. He told us that coaches will come and go, but parents are forever the first coaches and should therefore be educated. He was right. He selflessly invited us to come out and work with his girls. Who does that??? Well, someone who just freaking loves softball, and watching girls get better - that's who. It turned out that WE needed coaching, too.
So the hard part - this sort of feels like a confession of sorts - but maybe it will help someone else feel a little more successful down the road, so I'll be brave and just admit that the information on this board was OVERWHELMING. We watched and read all the stickies. Then we watched again. We purchased coach's eye. Then we did comparisons. We watched the stickies again. 12 o'clock, 3 o'clock, 45 degrees, 90 degrees, brush resistance . . . phew . . . WHAT ARE YOU ALL TALKING ABOUT, ANYWAY??? So, we took one thing at a time, and made DD sit down and watch with us. We rolled stuff back. We frame-by-framed through her drive mechanics and Ueno's. And Osterman. And Finch. And well, all of them. We went back through BM's drills, and Java's Pushback and 2-step videos are engrained in my brain. You should see me try to model them for my DD. She is a saint for not falling down on the gym floor and laughing, and it's not my proudest moment - but I try.
We struggled with DD feeling like we were punishing her. "Everything I've been doing is wrong." "Now I'm really slow," and "I don't know where the ball is going to go" were a huge part of the work. "I just shouldn't pitch" and "I'm not getting this." Lots of eye-rolling, frustration, and always (after we got home) "Thanks so much for sticking this out with me, mom and dad. I appreciate it. I'm going to get it." Then, the best moments: "Wow, did you see that? I DID IT!" "That felt faster. Did it look faster?" "Did you see it spin? Dad, that sucker was spinning!" Yep. That's the good stuff.
We are still watching her struggle. Every time she is with PC and working on location, she reverts back to old drive mechanics, H/E shows up, and other stuff goes away. We are told this is normal. We are told this is a process. And we know it. None of that matters, though, because a lightbulb has gone on in DD's brain. She can "feel" when she's not dialed in. That is a big deal in and of itself. She's learning to adjust, albeit slowly. Fast forward to another practice: her drive mechanics improve, and then she loses the IR she's been working on. We try to keep her relaxed, and I have even gotten up and attempted to pitch, letting her take video, just to give her some perspective on how very hard pitching is - and we all take a minute to laugh and appreciate how far she's come. And want to see it get really weird? Watch her in a game. It's like a different person between innings . . . nope, scratch that, between BATTERS. And the word that we keep hearing in all of our minds? TRUST. Trust yourself. Trust the process. Trust that she's 13, and this game, this inning, this batter - won't scar her or cost us her college fund in therapy if she isn't awesome.
She's not perfect, she's got a lot of work to do. But she feels more confident working this out together with us, since we've taken such a methodical "we can do this" approach to it. She's committed to pushing herself, and she knows that she's got catching up to do - but she isn't on her own. She has parents who demonstrate that what they lack in knowledge they make up for in enthusiasm, and she has access to the DFP boards and kind people who openly share their vast knowledge.
I guess I'm just posting for anyone getting started who might feel, as a parent, that this is heady stuff that you'll never figure out. To be brutally honest, I think there are a lot of ridiculously smart, analytical people who can science the daylights out of pitching. They're wonderful to read, but I rarely understand what they're talking about. I have to start with the videos, then go bit-by-bit on the descriptions. We will keep trying, and keep helping her along.
I love that we can use DFP to show her that we might not know what we're doing, but we're very interested, and it's something we can do together as a family. Hang in there if you're getting started. It's trying, it's frustrating, and it's rewarding when the work shows results.
Happy New Year, everyone! Thanks for participating on this board. We lurkers get more out of it than you could ever imagine.
She's on her first travel team this year.She was taught some weird mechanics early on, which impeded her progress a bit. We went through some team-switching problems (long story, and I'm fairly certain I've already posted it, anyway). Got with a new team, was told a different way to pitch. We ended up here. Time to become educated. I'm smart. I can figure this out. . . right . . .?
I had the great fortune of being introduced to someone locally (through this board) who is the bees-knees of softball. True passion for the game, love for his daughters, and confident in what he teaches. He taught us about the Hanson Principle. He told us that coaches will come and go, but parents are forever the first coaches and should therefore be educated. He was right. He selflessly invited us to come out and work with his girls. Who does that??? Well, someone who just freaking loves softball, and watching girls get better - that's who. It turned out that WE needed coaching, too.
So the hard part - this sort of feels like a confession of sorts - but maybe it will help someone else feel a little more successful down the road, so I'll be brave and just admit that the information on this board was OVERWHELMING.
We watched and read all the stickies. Then we watched again. We purchased coach's eye. Then we did comparisons. We watched the stickies again. 12 o'clock, 3 o'clock, 45 degrees, 90 degrees, brush resistance . . . phew . . . WHAT ARE YOU ALL TALKING ABOUT, ANYWAY??? So, we took one thing at a time, and made DD sit down and watch with us. We rolled stuff back. We frame-by-framed through her drive mechanics and Ueno's. And Osterman. And Finch. And well, all of them. We went back through BM's drills, and Java's Pushback and 2-step videos are engrained in my brain. You should see me try to model them for my DD. She is a saint for not falling down on the gym floor and laughing, and it's not my proudest moment - but I try. We struggled with DD feeling like we were punishing her. "Everything I've been doing is wrong." "Now I'm really slow," and "I don't know where the ball is going to go" were a huge part of the work. "I just shouldn't pitch" and "I'm not getting this." Lots of eye-rolling, frustration, and always (after we got home) "Thanks so much for sticking this out with me, mom and dad. I appreciate it. I'm going to get it." Then, the best moments: "Wow, did you see that? I DID IT!" "That felt faster. Did it look faster?" "Did you see it spin? Dad, that sucker was spinning!" Yep. That's the good stuff.
We are still watching her struggle. Every time she is with PC and working on location, she reverts back to old drive mechanics, H/E shows up, and other stuff goes away. We are told this is normal. We are told this is a process. And we know it. None of that matters, though, because a lightbulb has gone on in DD's brain. She can "feel" when she's not dialed in. That is a big deal in and of itself. She's learning to adjust, albeit slowly. Fast forward to another practice: her drive mechanics improve, and then she loses the IR she's been working on. We try to keep her relaxed, and I have even gotten up and attempted to pitch, letting her take video, just to give her some perspective on how very hard pitching is - and we all take a minute to laugh and appreciate how far she's come. And want to see it get really weird? Watch her in a game. It's like a different person between innings . . . nope, scratch that, between BATTERS. And the word that we keep hearing in all of our minds? TRUST. Trust yourself. Trust the process. Trust that she's 13, and this game, this inning, this batter - won't scar her or cost us her college fund in therapy if she isn't awesome.
She's not perfect, she's got a lot of work to do. But she feels more confident working this out together with us, since we've taken such a methodical "we can do this" approach to it. She's committed to pushing herself, and she knows that she's got catching up to do - but she isn't on her own. She has parents who demonstrate that what they lack in knowledge they make up for in enthusiasm, and she has access to the DFP boards and kind people who openly share their vast knowledge.
I guess I'm just posting for anyone getting started who might feel, as a parent, that this is heady stuff that you'll never figure out. To be brutally honest, I think there are a lot of ridiculously smart, analytical people who can science the daylights out of pitching. They're wonderful to read, but I rarely understand what they're talking about. I have to start with the videos, then go bit-by-bit on the descriptions. We will keep trying, and keep helping her along.
I love that we can use DFP to show her that we might not know what we're doing, but we're very interested, and it's something we can do together as a family. Hang in there if you're getting started. It's trying, it's frustrating, and it's rewarding when the work shows results.
Happy New Year, everyone! Thanks for participating on this board. We lurkers get more out of it than you could ever imagine.
