Over coaching: Do you ever let up? "Coach free hitting"

[WinThemAll]

During the course of a season, a couple of times I institute “coach free hitting” which means that the players are to work on just hitting the ball and make their own adjustments during their sessions.

Coaches are there to supervise, soft toss and answer questions, but are to otherwise only correct glaring issues.

This is only my second year of instituting this type of session for my young players. What I have gathered so far is that I feel that this improves the players confidence, gives them the opportunity to work out some minor issues on their own thus giving them ownership.

I have really like the results (even though it is really hard for a few helpers).

Does anyone else do something similar?

 

[Mark H]

Yeah. The goal is to get them to the point they don't need me at all.

 

[bigboyk]

I personally think that you can get too many thoughts going on in a kids head. (my golf swing) If you look at some of the better hitters they all have some things in common but they also have individual habits, bottom line is you have to hit the ball. Not all golfers can reproduce a Tiger Woods swing and all girls cannot produce a Bustos swing either. If there are major flaws then they must be corrected, but other than that minor adjustments work best,IMHO.

 

[Tewks]

During the course of a season, a couple of times I institute “coach free hitting” which means that the players are to work on just hitting the ball and make their own adjustments during their sessions.

Coaches are there to supervise, soft toss and answer questions, but are to otherwise only correct glaring issues.

This is only my second year of instituting this type of session for my young players. What I have gathered so far is that I feel that this improves the players confidence, gives them the opportunity to work out some minor issues on their own thus giving them ownership.

I have really like the results (even though it is really hard for a few helpers).

Does anyone else do something similar?

We work this into almost every session toward the end. Sometimes, we have players listen to music on their iPods for an entire session. Just let them get in the moment, work through things, feel the rhythm of the music.