What to do with pitchers with all different coaches???

[RulesMeister]

PACoach: I was out at a showcase in Edison this weekend, and I got a good tip from the Pennsbury Gems coach. I'm always looking to pick stuff up for the future, and by golly, I love the Christmas question! I'm going to use it if the time comes if you don't mind.

SoCalBlue: I agree that each situation calls for reading and acting on. The diverse psychology that occurs in that circle is amazing.

Stephanie: Original question. I generally don't modify mechanics with my pitchers who all go to different coaches. I will assist in the mental part though. On a similar note, with a different result, I will correct a fundamental hitting flaw if I see it. I won't 'overcoach' and if a player is hitting well with a funky swing, I let it be. But if they aren't hitting well, even if they have a personal hitting coach, I will address fundamental mistakes. A few years back, I had two kids on the team that had personal hitting coaches. They ended up having almost the two worst years at the plate on the team. I may have gone overboard when I made a general statement at the end of the year, "For those that have personal batting coaches, you may want to look for a different one for next year."

 

[PEPPERS]

Great post Ken and great advice, the suggestion of getting a kid to think and fix their own problems was right on target!!!!

 

[quincy]

If a girl has a private coach of any kind, even their parent spending a lot of time with them away from practice, I try very, very hard not to give advice to the girl. If the girl has a HC, no hitting advice but pitching and fielding are fair game, etc.

If they have a coach I will talk to their parent discussing what I think their DD can do to improve, I follow up with the parent later to find out how my suggestion(s) worked. This way the parents teach me and I teach them.

Like most girls my DD has a lot of idiosyncrasies. She fractured her figure in our 2nd game of the spring season. She was swinging at an inside pitch and the ball hit her hand on the bat and fractured it.

Not surprising she started to bail out of the batter’s box even when the umpire was calling an outside pitch a ball. Worst hitter you have ever seen, again not without reason she was scared of getting hurt more. After a while I started getting frustrated with her bailing out and we spent hours and hours of her just hitting. Not a lot of coaching just pitch after pitch of her hitting.

Funny enough she crowds the plate now because she knows she is not going to get hurt and kills inside pitches. The HC wants her to move back from the plate a little bit, right now I do not. This is unique to my DD, but it seems a lot of the girls when they are working with someone have a reason for doing what they are doing.

I am not going to know all their stories which is why I try and work with the parents and not the individual girl, if they have someone working with them outside of practice.

If I feel the need to go to the mound to settle a pitcher down, I will actually go into the stands and talk to their parents 1st. They know their DD better then anyone.

 

[playball13]

Asking the girls questions to think about what they are doing instead of just dumping information on them also works well in the field and at the plate. "You just hit 4 balls into the dugout. Why? What can you do to hit that pitch fair.", "You cut the ball off from going home. What are 3 reasons you would cut a throw.", "Slow grounder to 3B you threw to 1B instead of 2B. Why?" Almost any response other than "I don't know" will get them thinking and give you insight into what they are thinking and how you should be coaching. I want smart players that think softball strategy not robots waiting for me to instruct them.

 

[heybatter]

Great Post playball13!! You should always have sometype of response to a question and it should always be positive. Saying I don't know sends nothing but bad energy. Say this video and thought it went well with the discussion. Have a great day!!

 

[rowdy]

Most of the time the coaches I see yell different corrections from the sidelines. What I would recommend is calling time out and going out to the mound and having a private conversation with your pitchers. The know what to do, most of the time they are just putting to much pressure on themselves to be perfect and consequently can't perform. Have realistic expectations and refrain from the constant pitch by pitch comments to your player. Praise the pitches, don't critique them. One last thing, make sure they know it is okay for the batters to hit the ball, that is what the other eight players are standing out there.