Travel vs. School vs. Private Coaching Conflicts

[radness]

The "school ball coaches will ruin my kid" stance is a weird one to me. From my experience, school ball coaches wouldn't have the time to ruin your kid, even if they wanted to. If your kid has a TB coach and is getting private instruction, they should be able to politely smile and say something like "I could try that", and then go about their business.

If a kid can flat out rake, I suspect she will find her way into the lineup regardless. If she can't, maybe she/the parent should be a little more gracious.

appears your post described how NOT to let a school coach currupt a players skills.

 

[CoachJD]

It could be something as simple as the change in pitching. We don't know where the girl came from, what level of high school ball she was seeing. 3A and 6A are vastly different. A 3A player of the week might be #2 on a depth chart for a 6A school.

Also depends on the level of college being played. What area, division, conference is she now in. A D1 SEC conference, I can get the changes because those pitchers can spin the ball.

College pitchers are much more consistent. Maybe she had a hole with inside pitches. Once word, or scouting reports make their rounds, you can bet that girl will see a lot of inside pitches.

Sometimes, we coaches see things that make us say, "that worked where she came from, but I don't think it will be as effective where I am going to take her". Thus we suggest change.

I had a girl come to me, she played B level travel, great kid, good attitude, very strong. When she made contact, she would send the ball. She never used the lower half of her body. She was a top hitter on her TB team. I needed her to hit to all sides of the field and I needed her to engage the lower half in her swing. Pure strength wasn't going to cut it where we played, and against who.

If you're a college coach recruiting the player, would you tell her in advance your plan to fix the swing (presuming you recognized the need before you saw her in the college environment)? I get everything you're saying, and I don't disagree, but it feels a little bait-and-switchy to me if the coach recruited a player, acting as if she was exactly what they wanted, only to say "OK, now we're changing everything you do" on Day 1.

 

[CoachJD]

slugger asked, "what was the drill"? DId that question ever get answered? Does it matter which drill? What if it was this one?

I don't see how doing this drill would ruin your swing if you know the drill is trash AND you already have a good swing. Pitchers who have good mechanics aren't going to forget how to pitch properly because the coach wants them to do a few wrist flick warmups. Overhand throwers who understand how to properly throw aren't going to just forget how to do that because the coach wants them to do the L-Drill.

 

[quincy]

When DD played school ball we stopped private lessons and more or less stopped practicing outside of practice. Coaches kept her pretty busy and it was the 1 time of the year I absolutely left her alone, it was her time. She pitched and got plenty of innings, if she did not we would have practiced that.

Did we need to unwind a couple things after season was over, sure but it was a relatively painless.

Plus she needs to stick up for herself if she disagrees with something,.

 

[_MIA_]

My guess is that if a kid rakes or is a spectacular fielder , 9 out of 10 HS coaches are going to leave them alone. They have all they can do to worry about the other 15 kids who don't rake. Seems like we have a disproportionate number of parents on here who have coaches in that 10%.....

 

[HunterMO]

When DD played school ball we stopped private lessons and more or less stopped practicing outside of practice. Coaches kept her pretty busy and it was the 1 time of the year I absolutely left her alone, it was her time. She pitched and got plenty of innings, if she did not we would have practiced that.

Did we need to unwind a couple things after season was over, sure but it was a relatively painless.

Plus she needs to stick up for herself if she disagrees with something,.

That's how we've handled DD's school ball thus far. Her JH practices have been 5-days a week for 2.5+ hours to start. Now they will be playing 2 games a week and practicing the other 3 days.

We stopped doing anything at home or private lesson since she was getting so much work in with the school. They cover it all. Hitting, Pitching, Fielding, and Base Running. And I've been (relatively) hands off letting her do her own thing. The coaching staff is great (they also handle the HS program) and I've not seen anything that would be a negative.

DD has mentioned trying to slip in a private hitting lesson after a week or two of games. But we will see. Main thing for us is to let her enjoy her season away from me and her TB team.

She even got to experience talking with the coaches about potentially limiting her pitching time due to knee pain. But, now that it's better, she gets to go back and have the "I'm ready to go. Put me in." talk with them as well. I think it's good for players to get used to doing that on their own.

 

[quincy]

DD has the worst swing in the history of SB. The person taking pictures changed her stance so she looked more like a SB player so you know it is not good.

Guess who leads off Or bats 3rd?

Coach has choice.

Blow her up and start over, she could be so much better
Just leave her alone

As a coach it is hard not to twick things.

 

[_MIA_]

As a coach it is hard not to twick things.

It is a good thing for him Jeff Bagwell's amateur coaches didn't have any problem with it...

 

[bmakj]

related, what do you do if your Tb coach gives conflicting instruction from private instructor?

 

[quincy]

And I am telling her something else, hard to believe thier head might explode sometimes. Plus her friends.

I need to think how many people gave DD help, conflict advice for sure. Do this, don't do this. You need to this but not this.

Surprising she loved playing SB sometimes.