The roller coaster ride that is recruitment

[GoRight]

My daughter participated in a pretty big showcase this weekend. She’s been struggling this Fall with hitting. Actually this has been going on since last Spring. Pretty much her hitting instructor has been learning new stuff and he’s adjusting her swing to what he is learning and evolving himself in. It’s a method he believes in. He believes it will actually get her more power than she had before. Last Fall she was hitting around .600 with a slugging percentage of .800. Problem is she’s struggling a bit. However, she absolutely believes in what he says. Over this past summer her TB coach (16u) hated her swing and also had a bit of a control/anger issue. So she says the summer was a complete waste because he was constantly working against what she was trying to do and it ended up being a train wreck. She changed teams in August and moved up to 18’s. Thankfully her new coach is more patient. So in her mind, since August she’s been able to work better on it, without pressure and she did start making more contact for some solid hits. But her strike out amount was still way higher than it should be. This is happening at the absolute worse time as we are entering the thick of recruitment. Thankfully defensively she’s doing well. Yesterday our Fall showcase season ended. She was feeling pretty down because a coach came out to watch her. She didn’t hit well. She sent him an email thanking him, and briefly mentioned that her hitting coach changed something on her swing and she’s working through that right now. (I don’t know if that was ok to do, but my feeling is it was ok). She’s not making excuses she really is adapting to some stuff. She also feels more reps over winter will help. To my surprise, his response was short but it was positive. He said he would see her again. It made her feel better.


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[justanotherguy]

One thing that might help, have her email this coach exactly what she's working on. Show that she knows what she's trying to accomplish and what mechanics she's changing and why. With a good understanding of mechanics, that could impress a college coach. JMHO that may be useless. However, I've absolutely NEVER met a girl that knew why she was doing what she was doing, instead doing what she'd been taught.

 

[Strike2]

If that was no-kidding .600 average with an .800 slugging against decent pitching, messing with it was a mistake. Additional power is nice, but to steal a quote from Stalin and applying it to hitting..."quantity has a quality all its own". DD's team had a very nice season in 16/18U last year with only a handful of players over .400. Frankly, reviewing the HS numbers of the best HS-age hitter I've ever seen, who was recruited very early to a large Division 1 school, and she wasn't a .600 hitter.

 

[Orange Socks]

Players are always working on something. Once she gets to college the coach will change her swing mechanics anyway. I know a kid who killed it her freshman year in college. 9 HR's .352 avg, 10 doubles, 128 AB's ,etc. All conference awards. New coach comes in and starts changing her swing. Soph year goes .097. Batted 3 for 31 with 10 K's. Yikes! That coach was let go and new coach let's her do what she does. .317 with 8 HR's. Can't wait to see what she does her Senior year. Sorry I just took this way off track.

 

[murphdog]

Most coaches can see potential even if your DD didn’t have the best game.
The first time DD’s coach came to see her wasn’t the best game but she loved DD’s energy so she kept coming back.
Coaches always want to see how players do when things don’t go great. I know one who asked a travel coach to sit a girl who had already been told she was starting a game because the coach wanted to see how the player handled adversity before he made an offer.

 

[Rolling Hard]

I am interested in what the hell the hitting coach is changing in her swing. And i agree that 600 ba is mot something that should be radically changed. Sounds like he found a new website and thinks he has found ANSWER! He probably hasnt.

 

[GoRight]

Not sure. When they first started I didn’t think it would be such a dramatic difference. I think part of where she is now is also mental. She seems fine in practice/lessons but in games has been the strike out queen. She has the opportunity to work with some live pitching over the winter. We just need to figure out how to fix. We need to get her back to where she was before. Her hitting coach also got to see her in games lately so he identified some things to zero in on.


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[GoRight]

I just realized that what he’s teaching is that Antoneli TTB tilt...I did not realize that’s what it was until I watched the video.


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