Agree that this forum rocks for technical info and lacks insights into how to get young girls to understand and learn. It is very important to discuss the technical stuff though.
Hitting coaches' philosophy beyond hitting mechanics
- Thread starter kgertie
- Start date
Welcome to Discuss Fastpitch
Your FREE Account is waiting to the Best Softball Community on the Web.
Agree that this forum rocks for technical info and lacks insights into how to get young girls to understand and learn. It is very important to discuss the technical stuff though.
- Oct 25, 2009
- 3,335
- 48
First you have to have a pretty basic understanding of hitting fundamentals yourself in order to relate it to your player. Interacting with the players is pretty much an individual thing. Most coaches will have their own process for teaching.
Various cues and processes are discussed on here. If I discuss how I teach and the cues I use it may not make any sense at all to other coaches but if my player understands it then it works. You have to be able to communicate it to the player and the players.
If you understand a particular post, for example, it is on you to be able to communicate that to the player. If you don't understand the post you can't pass it on anyway.
There are a few on here who are very easy to understand. There are also some on here that are way out there. They express things on a different level. Those posts seem more appropriate for some of those already at a higher level and they translate them, if you will, to the rest of us.
If you only read the latest posts without going back to the preliminary discussions then many times you will be lost to begin with. You have to take the time to research and read earlier threads. There are no magic bullets or quick fixes. If you are going to be an expert you have to put in the time. Wellphyt, FiveFrameSwing, Jim, MTS, O'Leary, Mr T, Hitter's people, ad infinitum, all have expertise to be studied. It's all here, but you can't just taste it, you have to digest it.
Various cues and processes are discussed on here. If I discuss how I teach and the cues I use it may not make any sense at all to other coaches but if my player understands it then it works. You have to be able to communicate it to the player and the players.
If you understand a particular post, for example, it is on you to be able to communicate that to the player. If you don't understand the post you can't pass it on anyway.
There are a few on here who are very easy to understand. There are also some on here that are way out there. They express things on a different level. Those posts seem more appropriate for some of those already at a higher level and they translate them, if you will, to the rest of us.
If you only read the latest posts without going back to the preliminary discussions then many times you will be lost to begin with. You have to take the time to research and read earlier threads. There are no magic bullets or quick fixes. If you are going to be an expert you have to put in the time. Wellphyt, FiveFrameSwing, Jim, MTS, O'Leary, Mr T, Hitter's people, ad infinitum, all have expertise to be studied. It's all here, but you can't just taste it, you have to digest it.
FiveFrameSwing
Banned
IMO it is also about "what is taught". Teaching material that doesn't pass the Hanson Principle is questionable IMO ... especially if someone is "really working with kids". And, it was "stated more than once" that certain posts contained information that didn't pass the Hanson Principle. Many of those posts have been removed, perhaps because it became clear that there was a disconnect relative to how the best hitters swung a bat.
On the topic of not liking technical content that is posted .... discuss that content ... that is what message boards like this are meant for. Describe what you would prefer instead. Supply a better solution. Use the message board as it was intended to be used.
Isn't that precisely the MAGIC OF HOWARD CARRIER? He explains the technical information in an easy going, simple method that a parent can understand and in order to do so he gives workable examples/ways to teach that technical information to a DD.
That is a gift. Howard Carrier was with GE designing Air Craft Engines and can talk the techincal terms of hitting with the best . Don Slaught and him can carry on a conversation that would confuse many of us, but he can take the same conversation and relate it to a 10 year old. I have taken some posts on here and printed them off and read them to a group of players . They had no clue what someone was talking about and that included the coaches that have been around travel softball for years. That should be a good test for some on here. Take what you posted and have someone else read it. If they can't understand it, how would a dad reading it on here try to help his kid. Yes the technical stuff is useful when you are talking hitting coach to hitting coach, but read some of the stuff that is posted on my young dd's swing section and you get an idea some have no clue how to teach. ifubuildit , is another hitting coach like Howard, that is very good with young players. I know many read this forum don't post as much as they use to. At least it hasn't gotten as bad as the baseball forums.
Last edited:
I guess I assume that a technical hitting thread would be a little more in depth than would a lesson for a 10 YO. These discussions I find to be incredibly helpful for my understanding of hitting, so that I can explain it to my DD as well as other girls who need help. Cues used to help girls to do a part of a swing correctly, are useless if I do not completely understand the technical part that I am trying to teach.
I am a dad reading on here to help my DD and others that I coach become better hitters. I have learned a lot on this forum by reading, and practicing swinging a bat to understand what I am reading. For anyone to say that I should understand every post the first time reading it, or it does me no good, is absolutly wrong. I learn more from posts that are confusing at first, than ones that I immediately understand.
Take a subject that you know a lot about. Maybe your job or a hobby. Would you need someone to tell you how to teach it to a kid? I suspect not.
As others have already said, good instructors take the technical material on the swing and make it their own. Once you have a grasp of the material, you can then personalize how you teach it.
Over the past several months I have revamped how I teach the swing. The system I've developed is my own and fits my philosophy. Prior to that I was just doing drills designed by others, and playing whack-a-mole with swing issues.
- Jan 24, 2011
- 1,156
- 0
This pretty much describes how it has been going for me lately. I really enjoy the technical information (except the pissing matches are getting a bit tiresome) , I understand the info. , but I have just not been able to effectively relay it to my kids as of yet. That is why I was curious about some of the cues others use to teach. I am always trying learn to be a better instructor
- Oct 25, 2009
- 3,335
- 48
Sometimes something is explained and I "get it" and then someone gets in a "pissing match" and through their debate I learn that I didn't quite "get it".
One of the things I like about this forum is one can debate to their hearts content and the moderators don't interfere unless it becomes really out of hand and off subject. When you can go at it like that there are many opportunities to learn. I might argue with a brick wall but every now and then a brick will hit me and I learn from it. And once in a while I'm the brick.
This is absolutely true. If you take everything someone says as an absolute, you are cheating yourself out of a learning oportunity. "Pissing matches", which I consider to be "lively debate" between people with different points of view, are the best time to get an explination of both points of view as both sides defend their's and question the other's. Not everyone agrees on everything, so debate often leads to a better understanding of differences in swing teaching methods and goals.
Others may dissagree, but I always find it enjoyable to read posts where people are passionate about their point of view, and are willing to defend it technically. Name calling and charactor asassination, not so much. Questioning of other opinions is always worth reading, as long as both sides are willing to explain their position.
