So myself, my DD and my 3 other pitchers scheduled a 2 hour lesson with JavaSource. He's about an hour and 45 minutes from us so we packed up the Expedition, grabbed some tim bits, cheese puffs and plenty of DVD movies and headed down the road.
While I have no problem grasping the concept of I/R I certainly have zero comfort teaching it past the most basic drills. I've been moving my 10U DD over to this for the past 6 weeks or so and it was definitely time to move her forward. My DD was the guinea pig for this I/R "experiment" of mine. She's demonstrated a great deal of success since letting I/R principals "bleed" into her practice routines. We play an indoor league and the other pitcher's parents have seen my DD's success, so getting buy in for them to go on a "pitching field trip" was not a problem.
I will also say I've attended coaches clinics on how to teach pitching, been to 2 D1 pitching clinics with my DD, attended pitching clinics run by D1 pitching coaches and have been present at countless lessons with my DD and this by far was the best 2 hours I've ever spent as a coach and father in terms of pitching instruction.
What made it so great?
The preparation was 2nd to none. I videotaped each of the girls prior to going and received a very detailed report back from JS as to what stood out to him about each girl.
He started from square one and he didn't try to eat the elephant in one bite so to speak. I think lots of coaches are guilty of this - JS stuck to his agenda to lay the proper foundation for these girls moving forward. I don't want to steal his thunder so I'm being vague on the detail on purpose. If he wants to share his outline, I'll defer to him.
He really is very gifted at speaking\teaching very age appropriate to them without dumbing down the content at all. His DD was there too and is just terrific. You would never know she's a teenage given her demeanor, maturity and ability to teach I/R. She's an impressive young lady!
JS had not one negative thing to say - only positive corrections. He teaches very much like I coach - which is why I think the girls took to him so well.
He closed with positive comments directed at each girl - what they did well. separately, he emailed me where I should start with moving them over to I/R.
So what can I say without sounding like a cheese ball to summarize? Prepared, Professional and Personable. Content was A+++.
If you are somewhere in Western New York and are interested in getting top notch I/R instruction, send him a PM. We already have our 2nd lessons booked!
Oh...and one more thing...and this is coming from the guy who doesn't believe in magic bullet cures. We had a game the next day. Starter pitched the greatest 3 innings of her life. She never had started a game before. 3 IP, 6K's, 4 BB's, 1 run. 32 balls/31 strikes. Spin was right for the most part. Misses were consistently inside (like they should be).
My DD pitched the last 2 innings 3 K's, 0 BB's, 0 runs. 13 strikes, 5 balls. 18 pitches in 2 innings? 6 weeks ago she was throwing 25+ pitches an inning. RIDICULOUS!
Both girls still have a ton of work to do, but their improvements were very visible immediately.
CP
While I have no problem grasping the concept of I/R I certainly have zero comfort teaching it past the most basic drills. I've been moving my 10U DD over to this for the past 6 weeks or so and it was definitely time to move her forward. My DD was the guinea pig for this I/R "experiment" of mine. She's demonstrated a great deal of success since letting I/R principals "bleed" into her practice routines. We play an indoor league and the other pitcher's parents have seen my DD's success, so getting buy in for them to go on a "pitching field trip" was not a problem.
I will also say I've attended coaches clinics on how to teach pitching, been to 2 D1 pitching clinics with my DD, attended pitching clinics run by D1 pitching coaches and have been present at countless lessons with my DD and this by far was the best 2 hours I've ever spent as a coach and father in terms of pitching instruction.
What made it so great?
The preparation was 2nd to none. I videotaped each of the girls prior to going and received a very detailed report back from JS as to what stood out to him about each girl.
He started from square one and he didn't try to eat the elephant in one bite so to speak. I think lots of coaches are guilty of this - JS stuck to his agenda to lay the proper foundation for these girls moving forward. I don't want to steal his thunder so I'm being vague on the detail on purpose. If he wants to share his outline, I'll defer to him.
He really is very gifted at speaking\teaching very age appropriate to them without dumbing down the content at all. His DD was there too and is just terrific. You would never know she's a teenage given her demeanor, maturity and ability to teach I/R. She's an impressive young lady!
JS had not one negative thing to say - only positive corrections. He teaches very much like I coach - which is why I think the girls took to him so well.
He closed with positive comments directed at each girl - what they did well. separately, he emailed me where I should start with moving them over to I/R.
So what can I say without sounding like a cheese ball to summarize? Prepared, Professional and Personable. Content was A+++.
If you are somewhere in Western New York and are interested in getting top notch I/R instruction, send him a PM. We already have our 2nd lessons booked!
Oh...and one more thing...and this is coming from the guy who doesn't believe in magic bullet cures. We had a game the next day. Starter pitched the greatest 3 innings of her life. She never had started a game before. 3 IP, 6K's, 4 BB's, 1 run. 32 balls/31 strikes. Spin was right for the most part. Misses were consistently inside (like they should be).
My DD pitched the last 2 innings 3 K's, 0 BB's, 0 runs. 13 strikes, 5 balls. 18 pitches in 2 innings? 6 weeks ago she was throwing 25+ pitches an inning. RIDICULOUS!
Both girls still have a ton of work to do, but their improvements were very visible immediately.
CP
I'm not judging, just sayin.
