Just some observations....

[southwestsoftball]

But it sure seems that when it comes to this board ( pitching, hitting, throwing motion, warm ups etc.....) there are a lot of opinions that say certain ways of doing stuff are the wrong way of doing it. Many people will critisize coaches who teach certain Que's or ideas and if they do teach those things they are immediately dismissed. It seems like A LOT of people just flat out disregard things as wrong ways of doing something and that its widely known as such.

I come from the football world and there it is comonly accepted that there are hundreds of different ways to do the same thing. There has been success at every level of the game with completely different approaches and with completely different technique. " More than one way to skin a cat" ( in other words). The big thing we as football coaches knew is that there are many different ways to have success and not one single way is the right way. This doesnt really seem to be the vibe of this board or in softball in general. Am I missing something? Am I just too niave and green to understand?
Many of the things I see people ridicule on this board are things I ahve seen some succesful D1 coaches teach. Which has really confused me.....lol

Also coaching clinics are REALLY big in football. I know they have them in softball but they sure seem A LOT harder to find and a lot less frequent. Why is that? I would love to get to as many softball clinics as possible.I have been lucky enough to get in contact with some really good coaches and have been able to shadow them, watch how they do things and learn from them. However, when I asked to do this it almost seemed surprising to them that people would want to know how they did things and why they did it that way. From what I understand it happens but isnt a very common thing in softball. ( At least in their experiences and a few of these are some really succesful coaches).

THOUGHTS????? Does anybody know of a great place to find more clinics?

 

[NVfishing]

But it sure seems that when it comes to this board ( pitching, hitting, throwing motion, warm ups etc.....) there are a lot of opinions that say certain ways of doing stuff are the wrong way of doing it. Many people will critisize coaches who teach certain Que's or ideas and if they do teach those things they are immediately dismissed. It seems like A LOT of people just flat out disregard things as wrong ways of doing something and that its widely known as such.

I come from the football world and there it is comonly accepted that there are hundreds of different ways to do the same thing. There has been success at every level of the game with completely different approaches and with completely different technique. " More than one way to skin a cat" ( in other words). The big thing we as football coaches knew is that there are many different ways to have success and not one single way is the right way. This doesnt really seem to be the vibe of this board or in softball in general. Am I missing something? Am I just too niave and green to understand?
Many of the things I see people ridicule on this board are things I ahve seen some succesful D1 coaches teach. Which has really confused me.....lol

Also coaching clinics are REALLY big in football. I know they have them in softball but they sure seem A LOT harder to find and a lot less frequent. Why is that? I would love to get to as many softball clinics as possible.I have been lucky enough to get in contact with some really good coaches and have been able to shadow them, watch how they do things and learn from them. However, when I asked to do this it almost seemed surprising to them that people would want to know how they did things and why they did it that way. From what I understand it happens but isnt a very common thing in softball. ( At least in their experiences and a few of these are some really succesful coaches).

THOUGHTS????? Does anybody know of a great place to find more clinics?

I think, in regards to pitching, the advancement in video and photography has changed how people view certain items. Coaches that were taught hello elbow as players, and had success, still use hello elbow even though video shows that the majority of top level pitchers have internal rotation inspite of how they were coached to do it. The coaches that teach hello elbow and have successful students still point to their methodology working even though slow motion video and still frames show the pitchers doing something opposite of what the coach is saying.

Batting experts have more ability to "see" what the power hitters do now that there is the ability to slow everything down with film. A player may be taught to squish the bug because that was the easiest way for a batting coach to describe what he thought he was seeing. The flexural movement of the leg and hips driving forward/shifting weight from back to front looks like squishing a bug. Slow down the movement on video and the weight shift occurs prior to the toe rotating/squishing the bug.

As a bucket dad this is how I view things.

 

[Dtwn92]

OP great topic.
A few things, softball is a "newer" sport than say football or even baseball. While yes softball and baseball are sooooo similar, they are also different. Why the difference, I'm not really sure but sadly in the era of the internet everyone who responds is the correct one and other opinions are the wrong ones. That isn't always bad thou, lots are learned from those heavy discussion and argumentive threads. Opinions vary as to techniques I think the most important thing is how the student responds to the coach. Video has changed everything for everyone but some coaches are just better at relaying info.

As far as camps and clinic in your area look to the colleges by your house for their camps I'd also look to the year round facilities that offer multi sport events. They often offer a "special" guest type camp where tons of different info can be picked up.

I come from a hockey background and I have to tell you I agree with just about everything you have to say on your concerns. As a whole it might be people want to keep their secrets but one on one talking with people they are very open to sharing. I hope you get as much enjoyment from this sport as the majority of the others around here tend to have.

 

[Greenmonsters]

SWSB - remember that FB has about 30 or 40 years on FP SB. And high-res video and the ease of access to it by the masses has changed things significantly in just the last 4 or so years. IMO, there currently are way too many 12, 14 and even 18-year old girls that still throw and hit like girls rather than ballplayers even after they've played a number of years. Why is that? Poor coaching and/or poor understanding of the female FP game. As a former college BB player, it only took me 6 years of coaching my DD to realize that the high-level BB swing was what I should be striving to teach. When it comes right down to it, most of the dissent on this board regards methods and minor issues or semantics. Universally though, theres no hesitation to call out teachings and methods that aren't supported by observation of what the best players are doing (not necessarily what they think they are doing). Give SB another 10 or 15 years of fine tuning and then we might be able to discuss multiple ways to skin the cat.

 

[southwestsoftball]

Green. Great post my friend, you make some valid points.

IMO, there currently are way too many 12, 14 and even 18-year old girls that still throw and hit like girls rather than ballplayers .

^^^^^^^^COMPLETELY AGREE WITH THIS!

Let us all keep learning and striving to put out ball players and not accept using someones sex as an excuse for certain things. Great point I have thought for a while now and we are definiely on the same page.

I should say though..........awful coaching is going to happen in every sport. Football is the same way. Mainly due to people who think they know what they are talking about and then try to teach beyond their knowledge. The frustrating part is the level of play and habits that get taught but in football it can result in the serious injury or even death of young men. VERY frustrating. I have a rule in anything I do. Teach what you know! If you dont know something inside and out, then dont try and teach it. Work your butt off to make sure you know it that way and then teach it. Otherwsie respect the game and learn and always keep improving yourself as a coach. Teach what you know and like we tell our players, work hard to get better.

I think the REAL problem many times is the people who have no interest in respectin the game and have no interest in learning. The ones who think they know it all and spread their poison. Its always funny to talk with succesful coaches out there cause many times they are the most humble and it goes back to that old saying " you know you know a lot, when you realize you dont no sh*t."( in the grand scheme). Thats when you really respect the game and you keep trying to learn. Then you have some little league dads/ certain coaches out there who know it all and have no interest in anything else.

Good stuff Green!

 

[LAdad]

You put some football coaches and parents together on the internet, and I guarantee you'll get equally strong opinions!

I come from the football world and there it is comonly accepted that there are hundreds of different ways to do the same thing.

Are you sure about that? When Tim Tebow was having success at Florida, there was a lot of talk that he would never make it as a pro because his way of throwing didn't match the way that had to be done in the NFL. Nobody said oh that's just one of the hundreds of ways to throw a ball. (Please, no discussion about the merits of Tebow; point is, the football world didn't seem particularly accepting of different ways.)

Many people will critisize coaches who teach certain Que's or ideas and if they do teach those things they are immediately dismissed.

I think you are missing something. The cases where you get the fiercest criticism on this board are not where some successful players do A and other successful players do B, and for some arbitrary reason everyone here rejects B. No, the criticism applies to situations where every successful player does A, which is easily proven by using modern video technology, yet coaches keep teaching B.

The fact that coaches claim that they have developed successful players while teaching B doesn't mean that B works; it means that the players ignored their coaches and through their own talent or cleverness arrived at method A. That's not as unlikely as it may sound; in fact, many successful players will claim they do B while video evidence shows they use A.

As NVfishing pointed out, modern video technology has had enormous impact on the thinking about both pitching and hitting. Not because the techniques were changed, but because we finally found out what successful players were actually doing. But especially in the younger age groups, most adults are not familiar with those developments, so continue teaching the same techniques they learned as kids.

 

[nanotech14]

Football is a unskilled sport,FP softball & baseball are a skilled sport

 

[GunnerShotgun]

Whenever a parent, coach, or someone on this forum says, "Your daughter does X, she should really be doing Y". I smile and nod, but never dismiss anyone's opinion. I go home and fire up some youtube/video clips of the best college players and see if they are doing X or Y.

I think they have a name for it on this board, The Hanson Principle if I recall.

It's the only way to stay sane.

 

[nanotech14]

Therefore, they tend to think that coaching clinics are not necessary. On the other hand, softball clinics may not be big money makers, never mind COACHING clinics...my facility can get hoards of baseball folks in but softball numbers are much smaller. When I ask, a few parents tell me they know how to teach their daughters. When these same dads were kids, they never once watched a girls softball game and laughed at the prospect of girls playing anything resembling a sport.

All of us are influenced by major league baseball, of course. But back in the day (yikes, when we had no shoes and walked to school in snow....), the influence was direct, with intermediaries.

Sorry but this is how I see it.

I grew up around a softball field.My mother (68yo now)played softball,my sisters played and my dad coached.I played baseball of course but loved the game of softball,much faster paced less unforgiving then baseball.I had and still do have this great respect for the women that played the game before my dd's generation.My dd has had the awesome benefit of having a family of softball players before her.I had the oppertunity to sit in on a yearly sports budget discussion for the HS programs.

Lets just say that I'am deeply disscussed with the attitude towards female sports still.I was mad at what I saw with the breakdown of the budget with each sport.Baseball for ex. $950 for 3 new bats,softball $120 for 3 new bats.The football team needs to replace some helmets"which is fine with me,because of head injuries" but the softball team has been using the same helmets for almost ten years,they are junk,no money for that.Yes there are to many dads that think softball is easy and that anybody can coach that,put thier sons in baseball and they better have a coach that has a higher level of experience coaching or they are mad.

 

[LAdad]

softball $120 for 3 new bats.

That sounds more like 1/3 of a bat.