How far do you drive?

[uncdrew]

We drive an hour. There are some that come from different states to go to this instructor. 3+ hour drives.

Even being pretty close, we only go once every two weeks. I think it's really important to work on what you're taught rather than have as many lessons as you can.

That said, the first few lessons with a new instructor will always seem amazing (assuming the instructor is decent). Just new stuff, new eyes looking at her, etc. That will wear off some...

 

[UKCATSFAN76]

Hour and fifteen minutes each way. Twice a month.

Designed workouts at home for the two weeks in between.


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[Tazman]

We have an 11yr old pitcher who has seen the same local pitching coach for 2+ years. She is extremely tall and powerful for her age and is hitting some impressive speed #s and that seems like all her pitching coach is focusing on. So long story short, we had some free time over the summer and chose to see a new pitching coach who my daughter follows on social media and after her lesson, told me she learned more in those 2 hours than the past 2 years.
SO now of course the dilemma is that she wants to continue seeing this new coach, however the facility is almost 3 hours away. So I'm just looking for some advice.. what would you do? She's used to weekly pitching lessons but I just can't come to terms with driving that far every week. 1-2x/month at most. At this age (11) is that going to be enough with regular practices at home? And how do we tell her former coach that we are moving on?

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We are fortunate to only drive 30 minutes. With a 14U that just went through PGF nationals premier with an 0.5 ERA and 60k's, I can say the pitching coach makes all the difference in the world but the key is that plus multi year consistency week in and week out for years. You have to decide if it's worth it or not and if you can sustain that with all the other travel and expense coming your way. I have made family choices including stepping way back from a great career to be on this journey but everyone has to make their own tradeoffs. I would also carefully evaluate the track record of the coach including how many players she/he has recently gotten into major universities on scholarship and how effective their arsenal before accepting that kind of drive. The video visit hybrid sounds like a great option but it depends if the coach is open to that. We used video effectively during covid though nothing beats live.

 

[daywalkerdad]

We are lucky have to go 15 minutes to a wonderful instructor that puts 1-2 girls in college per grade. Remarkable considering the population.
Distance would be a problem, in the winter we can schedule extra lessons just to have a place to pitch since it is convenient. Team has 1 practice a week, can throw into a net in the garage, or rent cage time ( farther and only slightly cheaper). The struggle can be real to get pitching in when it is cold and prior to daylight savings time.

 

[HighStrung]

We're 1hr 15min to our pitching coach, drive it weekly in the off season, every other week once things start to pick up around school ball time, and whenever we can actually fit it in during the hardcore summer travel season. We wouldn't hesitate to drive 3 hrs if thats what it took, we like this coach that much, and it's been 100% worth it. That said, she's also on a travel team thats 7hrs away so driving is something we're accustomed to.

 

[HunterMO]

We have an 11yr old pitcher who has seen the same local pitching coach for 2+ years. She is extremely tall and powerful for her age and is hitting some impressive speed #s and that seems like all her pitching coach is focusing on. So long story short, we had some free time over the summer and chose to see a new pitching coach who my daughter follows on social media and after her lesson, told me she learned more in those 2 hours than the past 2 years.
SO now of course the dilemma is that she wants to continue seeing this new coach, however the facility is almost 3 hours away. So I'm just looking for some advice.. what would you do? She's used to weekly pitching lessons but I just can't come to terms with driving that far every week. 1-2x/month at most. At this age (11) is that going to be enough with regular practices at home? And how do we tell her former coach that we are moving on?

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This is my opinion on lessons. But weekly lessons, especially for pitching, is partly paying the instructor to practice with your kid. When DD was 11/12, we would see her pitching instructor for an hour maybe 2x a month. During the lesson they would work on specific things and then she would be sent away with homework. That homework is just that, "home" "work". It takes time. So, if the new instructor is almost 3-hours away and you can't find anyone similar closer....go 1x a month. And ask if you can send video or schedule a video lesson/chat 1x a month. That way your kid is getting interaction and instruction 2x a month, but you're not making the drive twice. A huge thing you can do to help her, is learn as much as you can yourself. And listen to the instructor (if possible) during the lessons so you know what they're working on. (Just understand, pitching is super hard and she's growing, so things that seem easy.....are not easy.)

The Google machine says average cost of gas is $3.83 a gallon. A 3-hour drive at 70mph is 210 miles. If you're driving a current sized SUV, gas tank is around 23-gal earning a combined 18 MPG (or so says the brochure). That means you'll spend $88 per lesson if you're seeing this instructor in person each time. That's a $176 if you go twice a month. Then drop in a fast food stop, coffee, etc etc. All on top of the lesson fee.

As far as telling her former coach you're moving on? Just stop scheduling time with him/her. Or olitely thank them for all their time with your DD but you wanted to get a different set of eyes for awhile.

I say all this, admitting we are fortunate and DD has never had to drive longer than 30min to see some wonderful instructors. But all of them never wanted to see her weekly. At most, every other week. And all of them were a phone call/text/video chat away from helping if DD was struggling on something. DD consistently sends video to her hitting instructor for feedback inbetween lessons.

 

[TNSBparent]

We have an 11yr old pitcher who has seen the same local pitching coach for 2+ years. She is extremely tall and powerful for her age and is hitting some impressive speed #s and that seems like all her pitching coach is focusing on. So long story short, we had some free time over the summer and chose to see a new pitching coach who my daughter follows on social media and after her lesson, told me she learned more in those 2 hours than the past 2 years.
SO now of course the dilemma is that she wants to continue seeing this new coach, however the facility is almost 3 hours away. So I'm just looking for some advice.. what would you do? She's used to weekly pitching lessons but I just can't come to terms with driving that far every week. 1-2x/month at most. At this age (11) is that going to be enough with regular practices at home? And how do we tell her former coach that we are moving on?

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We have driven 3 hours each way for the past 2 years to see my 15 year old’s pitching coach but only go once every 4 to 6 weeks. She comes home with lots of homework so she works on the things they go over until she goes back…she is good about putting in work on her own. My daughter was not a beginner when she switched to this coach and had decent mechanics, but the change has been well worth it as she has made a ton of progress and loves her time in lessons with a coach who is invested in her and giving her 100 percent while she is there. We are happy with our arrangement and it has been worth it to us to do it this way. My daughter has her drivers permit now so we also use the time on the road to practice driving Best of luck!