- Jul 14, 2008
- 1,798
- 63
Posey, no releation to Briana I'm guessing. Anyway, you said something I'd like to discuss:
When I get back from dinner, I'd like to ask a few questions regarding the "coaching aspect" of the above........And the difference between feeling it naturally by the time your 20, and teaching younger players HOW to feel it, and the value in knowing what really happens when trying to help these players "feel it".........Is it important as an instructor to know more then what it feels like, but why and how it happens and how to allow it to happen???
Food for thought for a later conversation.........
A quick example:
Mendoza say's she "locks in her hips" is what was said. If you saw a player opening her hips would you bark: "Keep those hips closed"!
Further, would you insist "Keep those hips closed" because Jess told you that's what she does? After all, she is one of the best.......
As a coach, having an intimate knowledge of what happens within a normal range of a specific skill, and MORE IMPORTANLY WHY it happens, allows the coach, and utimately the hitter(in this case) to progress more rapidly within that specific skill by opening doors that nomally are confined to "what is supposed to be correct", or "what the experts say, even though is isn't what they do"........
In the case of the hips opening, your initial impression and current knowledge level of the skill caused you to "react negetively" to my assertion that the hips open into plant. My intention wasn't to show you up. However it was to show you somthing.......
At that point, I saw an opportunity to help "expand" your knowledge base by first showing you that ALL the best players in the world do it. Almost always. And then enter into a discussion as to why they do it, and how it benifits the sequence.
The bottom line was to expand your ability to assess a particular movement, and whether that movement was "within the norm" when coaching a hitter, and whether it is a benefit, or detriment to the sequence.
With that knowledge, you may be less inclined to "stick to the book" so to speak when coaching, which actually allows for a more natural learning condition/environment.
The other benefit of deeper sequence learning is that you can actually cause a hitter to exibit a "better pattern" with a deeper understanding.
For example, what if you had a hitter who is constantly getting beat on the inside AND keeps the hips square into plant. However, knowing in your mind that NO GOOD COACHES teach opening the hips into plant, you shy away from intruducing that move that actually is within the normal range of the sequence. Instead you INSIST that the hands just aren't being quick enough.
Of couse, that could possibly damage the hitters ability of hit off speed and outside pitches, which would open an entirely NEW can of worms.
I guess I could've said ALL of this in the begining, but it's a lot to say. I personally get lost and bored in LONG DIATRIBES regarding the subject........