Skip practice for private pitching lesson.

[Gambler Bob]

Kind of a critical piece of information. What other information have you left out? #tellinghalfthestory

Would you like to know what we ate for breakfast also? You really come off as arrogant and rather rude. You certainly read into things way too much also. You know what they say about people who make too many assumptions.

So far you have added that we chase plastic trophies, are team is full of drama. Wrong, and wrong.

 

[Doug Romrell]

Sounds like this one might have benefited from a missed team practice and some additional specialization work.

DNeeld hits it squarely on the head with mention of "specialization work."

Even though this steps away from the original post..... High school ball is of particular concern when it comes to many pitchers NOT being able to further specialize their pitching abilities with their pitching coach. I think the common thing in high school ball is that if you don't have a game after school, you're practicing. Thus, it is often rare for a pitcher to be able to work with her pitching coach. We have four high schools in our valley community. I have a senior pitcher in one of these high schools. Of course, I'm considered the odd pitching coach because I am anti-hello-elbow, pro IR arm-whip. My senior pitching student is put at quite a disadvantage. Why? Because the team assistant coach and his daughter (also an assistant) teach all the other pitchers.....And they teach HE. My student is upset because she isn't given any time to work with me, while all the others are getting a lot of attention from their default pitching coaches--the two assistants.

All this senior pitcher is is a pitcher, so day after day team practices make her less and less specialized in her pitching style. And, given the hello elbow coaches think her style is weird, they don't really seem to care how it's affecting her.

Bottom line........the concept of "team" to me includes players being able to specialize in that which they do best, even if, in the case of pitchers, they miss a practice once a week to work with their pitching coach.

In the end, it's usually pissing matches and egos and control-freak syndrome that prevent this from happening. Thus, the player ends up being less of a contribution to the "team" than she would have been otherwise.

 

[FP26]

DNeeld hits it squarely on the head with mention of "specialization work."

Even though this steps away from the original post..... High school ball is of particular concern when it comes to many pitchers NOT being able to further specialize their pitching abilities with their pitching coach. I think the common thing in high school ball is that if you don't have a game after school, you're practicing. Thus, it is often rare for a pitcher to be able to work with her pitching coach. We have four high schools in our valley community. I have a senior pitcher in one of these high schools. Of course, I'm considered the odd pitching coach because I am anti-hello-elbow, pro IR arm-whip. My senior pitching student is put at quite a disadvantage. Why? Because the team assistant coach and his daughter (also an assistant) teach all the other pitchers.....And they teach HE. My student is upset because she isn't given any time to work with me, while all the others are getting a lot of attention from their default pitching coaches--the two assistants.

All this senior pitcher is is a pitcher, so day after day team practices make her less and less specialized in her pitching style. And, given the hello elbow coaches think her style is weird, they don't really seem to care how it's affecting her.

Bottom line........the concept of "team" to me includes players being able to specialize in that which they do best, even if, in the case of pitchers, they miss a practice once a week to work with their pitching coach.

In the end, it's usually pissing matches and egos and control-freak syndrome that prevent this from happening. Thus, the player ends up being less of a contribution to the "team" than she would have been otherwise.

Sometimes the best trait a coach can have is the ability to know what they don't know. Or at least admit that someone else may know better. Unfortunately, egos tend to get in the way of this.

 

[Ken B]

Sometimes the best trait a coach can have is the ability to know what they don't know. Or at least admit that someone else may know better. Unfortunately, egos tend to get in the way of this.

I've failed at this and wish I could go back and reteach much of what I taught 10 years ago. Guessing I'll look back in a few years and say the same about what I'm teaching now! Maybe after the release of FF, I won't have so much regret in the future. (Hint, hint...!)

 

[Gambler Bob]

DNeeld hits it squarely on the head with mention of "specialization work."

Even though this steps away from the original post..... High school ball is of particular concern when it comes to many pitchers NOT being able to further specialize their pitching abilities with their pitching coach. I think the common thing in high school ball is that if you don't have a game after school, you're practicing. Thus, it is often rare for a pitcher to be able to work with her pitching coach. We have four high schools in our valley community. I have a senior pitcher in one of these high schools. Of course, I'm considered the odd pitching coach because I am anti-hello-elbow, pro IR arm-whip. My senior pitching student is put at quite a disadvantage. Why? Because the team assistant coach and his daughter (also an assistant) teach all the other pitchers.....And they teach HE. My student is upset because she isn't given any time to work with me, while all the others are getting a lot of attention from their default pitching coaches--the two assistants.

All this senior pitcher is is a pitcher, so day after day team practices make her less and less specialized in her pitching style. And, given the hello elbow coaches think her style is weird, they don't really seem to care how it's affecting her.

Bottom line........the concept of "team" to me includes players being able to specialize in that which they do best, even if, in the case of pitchers, they miss a practice once a week to work with their pitching coach.

In the end, it's usually pissing matches and egos and control-freak syndrome that prevent this from happening. Thus, the player ends up being less of a contribution to the "team" than she would have been otherwise.

I certainly agree with with you in the situation that you describe in regards to High School softball.

 

[riseball]

Would you like to know what we ate for breakfast also? You really come off as arrogant and rather rude. You certainly read into things way too much also. You know what they say about people who make too many assumptions.

So far you have added that we chase plastic trophies, are team is full of drama. Wrong, and wrong.

You don't think sending a text 10 minutes prior to the start of practice was relevant? You come of as not really wanting input on a situation, but rather only wanting to hear people agree with you and provide validation for your position.

 

[smddad]

I communicate my expectations with the parents beforehand. Pitchers are allowed to miss practice providing I get ample notice beforehand. I get to decide what is ample and it's extremely arbitrary, subjective and to messy. With that said, it's difficult to compete in the game of fastpitch without a pitcher.

 

[grmerrill]

You don't think sending a text 10 minutes prior to the start of practice was relevant? You come of as not really wanting input on a situation, but rather only wanting to hear people agree with you and provide validation for your position.

No it's not in itself relevant. You have no idea if it happened once or if it is a problem. The issue put forward is team practice is always the priority and your practice comes on your time.

Sent from my SM-G920T using Tapatalk

 

[AndyS]

This whole thread is kind of interesting. And I'll be honest as a long-time reader and occasional poster some of the answers surprised me by some other long-time posters. But I digress. Private lessons versus a team practice. Pitching and catching clearly do take a significant amount of time outside of traditional practice for sure but trumping a team practice? Wow. You need to treat your #1 like a princess or you could lose her? Yikes. Forget softball for a moment is that the lesson you want to teach? I am entitled because I pitch?

The thing I have loved about my DD playing softball and pitching is she has learned some pretty valuable life lessons. Despite being a decent pitcher she never came before the team. She played on some decent travel teams that frankly would not have tolerated it unless there was plenty of advance notice and it was agreed by all. All her lessons/extra pitching were done on her time. That is the price you pay to achieve your goals. The other thing she has learned (took her a long time) is being a great teammate and being a spiritual leader is as important as anything she does physically on the field. Part of being viewed as a leader is being at practice doing the work with your teammates. Leaders are created in practice not showing up on the weekends.

And let's say the goal here is to get these young ladies to the next level...do you think college coaches are looking for prima donnas with attitude problems? Ones that have been taught they come first and if they are not treated "fairly" they will keep moving teams until they find somebody to treat them "special"? Again interesting stuff to say the least.

 

[SoftballMom2]

This whole thread is kind of interesting. And I'll be honest as a long-time reader and occasional poster some of the answers surprised me by some other long-time posters. But I digress. Private lessons versus a team practice. Pitching and catching clearly do take a significant amount of time outside of traditional practice for sure but trumping a team practice? Wow. You need to treat your #1 like a princess or you could lose her? Yikes. Forget softball for a moment is that the lesson you want to teach? I am entitled because I pitch?

The thing I have loved about my DD playing softball and pitching is she has learned some pretty valuable life lessons. Despite being a decent pitcher she never came before the team. She played on some decent travel teams that frankly would not have tolerated it unless there was plenty of advance notice and it was agreed by all. All her lessons/extra pitching were done on her time. That is the price you pay to achieve your goals. The other thing she has learned (took her a long time) is being a great teammate and being a spiritual leader is as important as anything she does physically on the field. Part of being viewed as a leader is being at practice doing the work with your teammates. Leaders are created in practice not showing up on the weekends.

And let's say the goal here is to get these young ladies to the next level...do you think college coaches are looking for prima donnas with attitude problems? Ones that have been taught they come first and if they are not treated "fairly" they will keep moving teams until they find somebody to treat them "special"? Again interesting stuff to say the least.

While I agree no player is any more important or should be treated with kid gloves, I believe OP was talking about a one time occurrence at the 10u level. My DD out worked every kid on any teams she's ever played on, and any kids on other teams as well.She continues to out work everyone
and being blessed with talent, athleticism and strength combined with her hard work makes her a very successful pitcher. It who she is.It is HER journey, not mine or her coach's. She was and is extremely dedicated. Her PC has a tight schedule, often has conflicts with her other job and we travel almost 2 hours to see her. I know for a fact any coach she has ever played for would not even blink if we missed one practice to go to a pitching lesson because it was only time we could go ..It's give and take..and it's a sport. Especially at 10u where too many people take it so seriously and suck the fun of the sport out for their own egos.Let the kids develop a love of the game.. Let's put it into perspective..one missed practice for a pitching lesson?