What do you say to the knob to the ball coach?

[justanotherguy]

Yesterday, my DD attended a private tryout for a pretty good team in the local area. It's a husband and wife team, within a highly respected org, that have no DDs on their team. However, the coach started instructing my DD on how to hit. My DD's first season of travel softball was this past spring season. She's an '03 that has played (and still plays) fairly high level baseball. She hits with very strong power. Her first season she batted over 500, but what I like the most is a QAB of over 700. The highest A level 14u ball competition in the state. She adapted fairly well, I'd say. However, this coach wanted to change so many things about my DD's swing. I heard the old "A to C" crap, and instead of "knob to the ball", I heard "knob to the pitcher". I was honestly so disappointed. I'm not a hitting guru, but I know there's zero difference between a good baseball swing and a good softball swing. After it was all done I was talking to both the husband and wife, saying she was headed down to Miami this weekend to play baseball. "Oh, you STILL play baseball? You'll have to stop that. You know the baseball swing doesn't work in softball!?"

I think they have a very good understanding of the game. They're good coaches. (My DD's team beat them 2-0 the only time we played them, and my DD hit an opposing field HR for 1 of those runs.) They wanted her to attend a team practice. However, after that, is there any hope? The wife is booked probably 4 hours out of most every day giving batting lessons. At this point I don't even think we should bother with the team any further. However, I would like to hear some honest opinions on whether we should pursue anything further with the team or just say, "Thanks but we're going in another direction". If she's giving lessons with this approach, then I don't think she'd be willing to accept any other approach to softball.

BTW, the only reason we're shopping for another team (for next spring) is because my DD's team is all '04s and they're going to continue playing 14u some next season.

 

[Ksphenom]

If the kid makes contact with the ball and can keep it in play that should be enough to make a coach leave her alone. Unless the coach is judging if she can be "coached"

I always ask my kid the following.
"Do you want everyone to stop telling you how to hit the ball?"
Of course the answer is always a resounding YES!.
My response: Then hit the ball!!! People will leave you alone (almost always)

 

[4 girl's dad]

Id find a new team or come to an agreement before hand but I doubt they would be up for that.

 

[Doug Romrell]

Boy, what a huge counterproductive waste of time.

 

[Strike2]

A tryout should be about assessing what they can do rather than giving extensive instruction. Perhaps a small suggestion and seeing if they can / will implement can tell a coach whether a player is "coachable", but I'd be looking to do that with some defensive technique rather than messing with the swing.

Sometimes, people overly get hung up on verbiage when discussing a particular part of the swing, but I look to what the final product looks like. You played them last year, and saw the product of their coaching. Was it effective? Your pitcher and defense shut them out, but what did they look like swinging the bat?

The two things that really stand out are the comments about the baseball vs softball swing, and your observation about the wife giving softball lessons four hours a day. That says to me, in a loud and clear way, that they are firmly welded to their ideas.

If you like everything else about the team, I'd try some honest feedback before cutting them loose. Tell them about your DD's effectiveness at the plate, and who she's currently seeing for hitting work. Tell them that you think they are fine coaches, but reworking your DD's swing isn't something you're interested in right now, and would they consider giving her a chance with the team anyway. You're risking a benching and perhaps a mid-season exit if she doesn't perform, but it would take a REALLY big ego to keep a kid who was hitting well out of the lineup.

Funny about the baseball vs softball swing...there is a very well regarded guy in my area who is the batting coach for both the HS baseball and softball teams. I doubt that he does anything differently except for the pitch delivery.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

Funny about the baseball vs softball swing...there is a very well regarded guy in my area who is the batting coach for both the HS baseball and softball teams. I doubt that he does anything differently except for the pitch delivery.

Worked with a girl that transferred from the boy's HS baseball team to the girl's HS softball team. After the first lesson she said with an inquisitive comment ... "so, the softball swing is the same as the baseball swing".