- effective coaches actually say very little (Is there research to back up this claim? Followed by anecdotal life story)
- Micromanaging the game sends out signals of mistrust and incompetence (introduces straw-man)
- Over-calling pitches from the bench at the youth level robs athletes of critical tactical knowledge needed to compete at an elite level. (coaches typically call pitches at all levels of competitive softball.)
- Through direct eye contact and an empathetic response to failure, great coaches show they care about their pitchers as individuals, no matter their successes or failures on the field. (What?)
- background check (Most parents do no leave their child unsupervised with their pitching coach. Most parents are catching their kids at the youth level. Team based pitching coaches will already have a background check).
So, not surprisingly you disagree with other coaching styles. in my opinion there can be extremes in either direction regarding each of the points brought up. The thing that bothers me is (and we've been through this before) is your opinion that the players (at all levels of competitive softball) should not be involved in calling pitches. You might be the greatest pitch calling coach in the world but not every coach (or staff) is yet their ego or whatever gets in the way and they have to assert that control anyway. And if the Coach is so good at it, why not help the athlete with that mental aspect of the game? Wouldn't you consider that to be "coaching"? As i've also said before, pitch calling should be a group effort not just some stubborn, know it all on a bucket expecting the players to be robots.