We had our first unofficial practice getting a jump on the upcoming summer rec. league. One of the pitchers was throwing and I made a correction with her. The coach for the 14U comes over and says no do it this way and starts making corrections. I stopped making corrections because she will be on his summer team, but when not in front of the girls asked him why he was telling them that. He told me his daughter's pitching coach had her doing this and it helped her a lot.
Anyway, up until this year his daughter pitched basically the same style as I taught the girls I was working with on the summer team and the school team. Now, he is telling the girls I worked with, that are moving up to his team, to change over to this style and that the way they used to do it is now wrong.
The two leading pitchers from the school team paid good money to go to a pitching coach who has a long history of success and is the head of a college athletic department and head softball coach for that college. I spent quite a bit of time with this college coach being taught how to coach these girls on pitching. The changes he is making in their pitching puts them doing things that I was taught by the college coach puts them at risk of injury to their shoulder. He gave examples of medical studies and an explanation of the biometrics involved to back his position on this. The other issue I have with the “new” method is that it leaves them in a poor position to field and therefore puts them in harms way from a line drive. After all, the pitcher is the closest target the batter has.
OK, I get that there is more than one method or style of pitching, I am fine with that. I don't pretend to know every technique or for that matter be an expert on any of them. But, I am not OK with him teaching a method that may get them hurt.
Now, he has pretty much just not assigned me a team and it seems he is pushing me out of working with any of the summer teams.
The other problem I see is that the girls are now totally confused on how to pitch, among other skills that he has now changed his method on. The coach for the school team does not teach the same methods he is now using, although he tells the girls that he is. I know this because I am a volunteer assistant with the school team.
So now I am stuck with staying out of the way and letting this guy teach his methods during the summer and then trying to fix things in the fall school season or ending up in a battle with him on the summer league. He coaches the two oldest teams in the summer league and expects all the, as he calls them, “lower coaches” to teach the way he wants so “they are ready for his team.”
This guy has done a wonderful job of keeping the summer program going. In general he does a good job of teaching many skills. It's just the things he teaches that contradict what the school coach will tell them this fall that really bothers me.
What to do, what to do?
Anyway, up until this year his daughter pitched basically the same style as I taught the girls I was working with on the summer team and the school team. Now, he is telling the girls I worked with, that are moving up to his team, to change over to this style and that the way they used to do it is now wrong.
The two leading pitchers from the school team paid good money to go to a pitching coach who has a long history of success and is the head of a college athletic department and head softball coach for that college. I spent quite a bit of time with this college coach being taught how to coach these girls on pitching. The changes he is making in their pitching puts them doing things that I was taught by the college coach puts them at risk of injury to their shoulder. He gave examples of medical studies and an explanation of the biometrics involved to back his position on this. The other issue I have with the “new” method is that it leaves them in a poor position to field and therefore puts them in harms way from a line drive. After all, the pitcher is the closest target the batter has.
OK, I get that there is more than one method or style of pitching, I am fine with that. I don't pretend to know every technique or for that matter be an expert on any of them. But, I am not OK with him teaching a method that may get them hurt.
Now, he has pretty much just not assigned me a team and it seems he is pushing me out of working with any of the summer teams.
The other problem I see is that the girls are now totally confused on how to pitch, among other skills that he has now changed his method on. The coach for the school team does not teach the same methods he is now using, although he tells the girls that he is. I know this because I am a volunteer assistant with the school team.
So now I am stuck with staying out of the way and letting this guy teach his methods during the summer and then trying to fix things in the fall school season or ending up in a battle with him on the summer league. He coaches the two oldest teams in the summer league and expects all the, as he calls them, “lower coaches” to teach the way he wants so “they are ready for his team.”
This guy has done a wonderful job of keeping the summer program going. In general he does a good job of teaching many skills. It's just the things he teaches that contradict what the school coach will tell them this fall that really bothers me.
What to do, what to do?
