The Saga of Rebuilding a School Program: A parent-coach's journal

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Jan 25, 2022
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As it turns out, after applying the Pauly training for a few hours,
I think I have a much better grasp of the mechanics than I initially thought. I use Rick's methods and drills as best I can, and things gradually fall into place. He has a facebook group for his certified people, and provides excellent support for all of us. I also absolutely love teaching it. I occasionally teach classes at work, breaking down technical procedures and such and I'm told I'm pretty good at ii, so maybe it carries over pretty well to pitching instruction. I still constantly watch video, but now it's to analyze and see if I can spot flaws. The best videos for this are the ones the kids make for youtube to send to coaches, showing off this pitch or that.

This all got me back to thinking about DD2. My goal for her for spring has been 50mph with decent spots and a change-up. She was throwing 45 a couple months ago, but is tall and long, and fairly solidly built. She looks like a pitcher, and I'm pretty certain she has plenty of speed left in the tank. She also wants to understand the mechanics. I really stressed that with her as last season approached so she would be able to make corrections in the circle. We came up with a few discreet key words or hand signals I could make from the dugout, and it definitely worked as long as she still had her emotions in check.

Having this training and thinking about the mechanical differences beetween IR and her coach's style really started to eat at me. I started taking slow-mo of her at lessons, and she had a few critical flaws. They're all things she's worked on at lessons, but it's usually a drill for a bit followed by temporary improvement, then immediately back to the flaw a week later despite our efforts to reinforce the changes during the week. Then in the next lesson it usually wasn't addressed again. Her coach is really focused on hip and leg movement. That's all well and good, but I could see other things that were always going to make everything harder.

Watching this same cycle for several more weeks was really eating at me. It's not that what he teaches doesn't work. He has a couple students who are probably top 5 in the area at the HS level. But mechanically, I really started to feel like DD2 had gone as far as she could go. She has some orthopedic things that make her kinda abnormally mobile in the shoulders, and abnormally LESS mobile in the hips. The hips will allegedly work themselves out once she stops gaining height, which doesn't seem to have happened yet. Her coach had commented many times that she doesn't move the same as everyone else. It's nothing major, but the thought started creeping in that maybe his style wasn't compatible with her physiology. It was very possible that she may never "get it."

Financially, we were also taking a hit at home. We had just bought DD1 a car right before costs for everything else in life had started to skyrocket, but then our finances took another other unexpected, recurring hit recently. Nothing too urgent or insurmountable, but due to distance, every lesson was $60, plus $15 gas and $15 for us to grab some food afterward. $360 isn't an insignificant amount of cash.

So, all things considered, I started seriously considering pulling her from lessons. I had some knowledge, critiques, thoughts, ideas, etc. And tons of online resources for IR. I literally agonized over this for weeks. To think I could pull her from someone with that kind of resume, change 3/4 of her mechanics, and she would make progress in the right direction?

The thought of it seemed ridiculous, and made me feel arrogant.

But it just gnawed at me relentlessly. I have so much respect for the guy and he's been such a positive force in our lives that I felt like an a$$hole just for considering it. I know to trust my gut, though. It's never failed me, but the thought of pulling her and actually having to go through the process of it had me on the verge of anxiety attacks. I didn't even know if I could pull it off. I had no real experience. It was now or never, though. If I waited any longer I risked not having enough time to deconstruct and rebuild her mechanics.

I told DD2 what I was thinking, and the reasoning behind it. I didn't bring it up for a couple weeks and let her think on it. I did show her things about IR and such, and I could tell she knew it was for the best. I didn't say it, but I wasn't leaving it up to her anyway. It's my job to know what's best for my kids and make the hard decisions. So when it was time to go, I told her I would let him know and really appreciated her putting her trust in me. She always has. I sent him the most gracious and appreciative note I could, and a couple reasons we were shutting it down. Although he once told me he doesn't take that stuff personally, I didn't mention my concerns about his style. That's his show and I'm just a guy with an opinion. I wouldn't tell him how to do what he does.

That was about three weeks ago. We've worked three times per week for 30-60 minutes, sometimes alone and sometimes with MS HC's daughter who will take over pitching duties in 2023. With DD2, our first stop was posture and glove swim. Her swim was brutal. She looked like one of those broadway guys who throws his arms back as he leaps across the stage. And she was bowling.

Anyway...I started to take a hard look at her mechanics from slow-mo at her lessons. Lots of video. I I noticed a few things that were very refreshing.

-She wasn't doing his release. She never was.
-She wasn't turning the palm around at 10:00.
-She WAS making (good) contact with the body despite the bowling position. Most kids dangle the arm.
-She had IR but no arm whip because the arm was locking out by 9:00.
-Her starting position, knee drive, and plant were really good. I actually taught her that. I knew she shouldn't be doing the forced opening and he didn't seem to notice we had changed it. He's not a super picky coach, either. If things work and aren't blatantly wrong, he doesn't fool with them much. I've always liked that about him.


Overall, she was in MUCH better shape than I thought. I had a little confidence going into these past three weeks. We started working on swim and posture, and timing. There would be no full pitches for a while. She was super frustrated and giving me push back and some attitude, so I told her she can set the schedule. Three sessions a week, days and times she picked. She liked that, and we were back on track. I just kept telling her to trust the process.

Let me just tell you, it's working. These little drills are making a difference. We also use a spin-rite at the beginning of each session, and her fastballs are coming in end-over-end like never before. She's starting to throw very well from the K at 40ft, and when I let her do a few pitches full-motion they're gradually working their way back to the zone. She's still not keeping the arm bent, but based on a lot of viewing other pitchers, it's not a necessity right this moment. I need to get posture and swim under control, and they ARE improving. With the right posture it should keep her from overextending the arm. Right now she shoves that back shoulder down and in, and the arm just snaps right open.

HC's daughter is making drastic improvements too. She's not really had any instruction, but she's very athletic and has a smokin overhand throw. I am beyond pumped about all of this.

So, as I said in the initial post...something happened a couple days ago.

As I said earlier, I've basically never seen DD2's coach throw a pitch. It's just not something he does. He also does all the catching in his lessons, so obviously he can't get up and throw an example pitch to no one. I follow his facebook page, and he posts a lot of video of his students at work. And lo and behold, a few days ago he puts one up of him alternating throws with a student. Someone else was doing the catching. I've read and heard several times that a lot of coaches who teach hellow elbow don't actually throw that way. It took a while, but I managed to hit pause in the right place. Wanna guess what I saw?

Upright posture, normal release point, normal hip rotation, slight backward tilt, bent arm, brush contact, internal rotation, and a forearm in mid-whip. Next good screenshot I got was his hand up and across his body like Hillhouse does, and his palm was facing away. It was a beautiful example of IR pitching.

I don't know if he knows he throws that way and teaches another for the sake of perceived simplicity, or if he just isn't aware of it...I have no idea. But, I felt SO MUCH BETTER about my decision at that point. One of the best in the world, doing it just like the rest of the best do.

**sigh of relief**
 
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Jan 25, 2022
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Awesome with you learning pitching to help sustain your community's program. That is my motivation, too.

And the same to you. I'd really love to be able to keep us churning out solid pitchers in the coming years. If I get a couple going well I may start offering beginner lessons at a place in town. I think they take a $10 cut. Working with the teams at practice will hopefully always be something I do though. The kids here in our schools will always take priority as long as they're holding up their end of the bargain.
 
Jan 25, 2022
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In 2020, prior to the season being cancelled, I had ONE goal.



Don't get run-ruled just ONCE. I knew we were super weak, but if we could find a bad enough team that wouldn't run-rule us, I would consider the season a success. There's one school that MAY have fit that role, but alas, we never faced them.



In 2021 our goal was to win a couple games and not get run-ruled by most of the other teams. That turned out with us winning two games against the same team, going the distance but ultimately losing to one other team (who we didn't get to play again due to rain), and "winning" one JV game (5 innings, switch at 3 runs or 3 outs). As I posted some earlier, 2021 was rough...walkfests, emotional meltdowns, bad dugout atmosphere. Major learning experience that drove some personnel and player changes.





2022's goals were to go .500 in regular season play, and mostly not get run-ruled. It felt a touch lofty, but after how well they played at the tournament, I was optimistic. Most of our normal competition plays about at the level of the host's A and B teams, albeit with a little better hitting for some of them. And then there are a few teams that I expected to get a drubbing from. A lot of the local programs move their competent 8th graders to high school to languish on the JV team. Normally that would make me feel like we weren't getting to face a true opponent, but there are enough programs in the area whose 8th graders are 14/15 that I think our games were actually pretty "fair" in that regard...at least from an age standpoint.



I'm long-winded enough, so I definitely won't be going game-by-game. This will be more of what we did right, what we did wrong, and what we learned about the players and ourselves.



We started the season playing our county rival. I really wasn't sure what they would be like, but their MS and HS programs have been pretty strong since they had a surge of interest in softball for a few years when a really high level and well-known P5 player was there a few years back. Their program has remained pretty solid since then. Rumors are it's going to weaken over the next few years, but they still have a high level pitcher who's only in 10th grade. Great kid too.



We showed up expecting to at least compete, and after I watched their warmups, I was even more optimistic. They looked about like we did. The pitcher was about the same level as our #1 as well, so I figured it would come down to hitting.



And it did, for the most part. We came out with a bit of junk contact and strikeouts, then headed out for defense. We had been working on things like gathering at the line for a quick coach talk and breakdown cheer, and sprinting on and off the field. We had been focusing on the discipline side of things a good bit in practices, dugout behavior, and overall belief in self, and it had gone pretty well. Practices were bring run probably 30% past game speed, lots of communication, and other things that would be beneficial for a team like ours that wasn't quite there yet from a performance standpoint. We had also focused on bunting and aggressive base running. A throw-out at 2B is rare around here and we were certainly willing to risk it, every single time.



Hitting got us, though, but not in the way you'd expect. They only had maybe three hard hits. The rest was junk contact, pop-ups, etc. Not many walks overall. Just a bunch of blown opportunities for easy, routine plays that we constantly work on and preach about the importance of. Those few hard hits were mostly in the first inning, and as coaches we found out just how far the girls were from being mentally prepared. It only took those first couple well-hit balls and a single run scored to send us into a downward spiral that never improved. They were rattled, and just flat-out gave up.



Why? That's a mystery to me. They'll never see a regular season team as good as the God-Squad. Never. Those were big, strong, recruited/scholarship kids on one of the best teams in Ohio (as I understand it). And we got three outs on them in every inning with nearly flawless execution of the routine plays. And they played just as well for the other three games that weekend.



So, why? Why the meltdown on an average MS team?



My take on it is just lack of experience and the atmosphere. Local team, county "rival," and didn't feel as important as being out there in another state/district, and wanting to prove themselves. I understand all that, but they couldn’t recover once a couple mistakes were made, and that became my big concern.



We had missed rollers in the outfield, and infield collision, bobbled grounders, and at one point DD2 snatched one up at 3B and promptly threw it right into the ground 15ft in front of her. Completely rattled and defeated.



After the game, which ended at 16-1 in three innings (they didn't have to step off at least), half of them were crying. I came up to DD2, having already determined by her body language that she was very upset. I called out to her and she tried to pretend she didn't hear. She didn't want me to see her crying. Another attempt got her to turn around, and her face was a mess and she had a booger halfway out of her nose. I knew at that moment that she was about to eat dirt pitching JV.

And she did. We usually play JV games as 5 innings, switching out at 3 runs or 3 outs. She came out with a bit better attitude, but she was throwing a touch high and the umpire wasn't being real lenient about it. She doesn't argue about calls or anything, but she came back to me after the second inning and said "I hope that ump steps on a Lego, lands on a phone charger, and his girlfriend breaks up with him."

So at least she was laughing.

She also learned a valuable lesson amongst her struggles in the circle.

If you've had to cover home plate, after the catcher throws the ball back to you if there's a runner on 3B you DO NOT turn toward your left to walk back to the circle. They stole home on her twice like this. On a third attempt she got back around fast enough and the runner headed back, but DD1 was so checked-out at that point that she literally did a tiny pump fake while not even looking toward 3B. It was infuriating for me. It's simple. If you're facing the backstop, turn RIGHT to turn around.

Once the JV game ended, I knew she was fed up with herself so I left her alone to work it out for herself. That was pretty much it for the rest of the season, though. For the most part, she threw at her best the entire remainder of the season in JV plus a couple varsity starts. And despite plenty of varsity beatdowns, she never let the team's collapse affect her pitching in JV. She got the ball over the plate the rest of the regular season.
 
Jan 25, 2022
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The next game of 2022 went pretty well. It was a team we expected to do well against, and although we lost, it was only 5 -3. DD pitched JV and was fantastic. Stayed in the zone and had a great time. At one point she was in the circle, dancing to some of their walk-up songs. We looked forward to playing them again, for sure.

As the season progressed, though, it was like game #1. We showed up, played a good inning or two, then collapsed. Once they lost the fire, there seemed to be no getting it back. A team scored a few runs, the girls got rattled, and I swear the pitcher would lose a few mph. Oddly enough, we scored first in about half of our 2022 games. That added a touch more fire to them for their first time in the field, but the story remained the same once our opponent got their bats going--and it didn't mean they were always killing the ball--we were just blowing the play on junk contact. We also were struggling to find someone that could handle 1B. Pitcher #1 was hands-down the best at 1B... she really is fantastic there. Since she obviously couldn't play there during varsity, we just had a rotating cast of characters. We had a couple other kids that would have done fairly well, but they were already in critical spots that would have ALSO been a struggle.

The only real positive to the season from a competitive standpoing was that, unlike 2021, only one team stepped off the base to help end an inning. Just one. Despite the collapse, we didn't blow EVERY routine play...and in a few of those games, the other team was just flat killing the ball. Tons of power into the gaps, etc. There's literally nothing you can do about a hit you're physically not capable of getting to, and despite our best efforts to predict a hitter and have the girls move around, we just weren't accurate enough to stop them all.

I do think a lot of the reason we didn't get rescued by the intentional look-back violation had to do with the fact that we weren't walking a lot of batters the way we did in 2021. They had to at least hit the ball, so it was in play enough for us to eventually get the outs.

I think for the whole season we had 8 opponents and 16 dates. One of our division teams was so slow to return my texts that I just stopped trying. It honestly was refreshing to find that most coaches are very responsive to scheduling requests.

About halfway into the season, we had lost several and had several rainouts. Spirits were still good overall, and the girls were still showing up to each game expecting to compete. So, we came to our date with a team we had managed to go the distance with in 2021. That one had been a 12-3 loss, but most of their runs came after the third inning. We actually had the lead for the majority of the game.

Anyway, I knew from scheduling that they had a new coach with zero experience who had, like many of us, taken the job reluctantly. We were hopeful.

The game was great. We got the lead early, it went to a tie, then we got up 6 - 3 later in the game. By their last at-bat it was 9-3. They managed to score three and only had one out. Pitcher #1 hit herself in the leg and went down in tears. Wiz went out and did his thing and she got up. DD2 ran over from 3B and gave her a hug and words of encouragement (probably because she knew the pain from experience), and we went back at it. I was on the edge of my seat for the next few at-bats. Our #1 catcher had been injured the game before she stuck her glove out too far, but #2 catcher also turned out to be (at that time) the best option at 1B (using my glove so it's no surprise ;) ), so we had moved the normal SS to catch, and brought the JV 3B in from her varsity outfield spot (had a good week in practice) over to SS. Any injury to the starting nine was really hard to reposition.

They had runners on 1 and 2 with only one out, and the next kid up hits a rocket right down the line to DD2 at 3B. It took its first hop right before she had her feet set and bounced over into foul territory. I couldn't see the play, but she had manage to snatch up the ball and get back to the base. I watched the game changer video later, and she had disappeared out of frame going after the ball, then nothing but her glove showed back up into frame as she dove and tagged 3B for the out.

The next batter hit a pop-up to right center, right over top of a 6th grader who is fast and great at tracking the ball, but hit or miss when it comes to actually catching it. She was coming off two games in a row where she had finished in tears after missing a couple. But she got this one. Game over.

The win felt great. Unlike the team we had whipped at the tournament, this one felt earned. And we got to see them buckle down and fight through some adversity. We were riding high after that one, and were optimistic at least about our next game with them, and a few others were we thought we could do the same.
 
Dec 19, 2021
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Man, I'm not sure if it would be fun or torture to have 16 MS games. DD2's school plays 5 (five!) games this year plus a quick round-robin tournament. 8 schools in the district, 2 can't field an 8th grade team 😕. 1 of the 5 is a good program, usually a good game, 4 of those 5 games were/will be total stinkers.
 
Jan 25, 2022
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Man, I'm not sure if it would be fun or torture to have 16 MS games. DD2's school plays 5 (five!) games this year plus a quick round-robin tournament. 8 schools in the district, 2 can't field an 8th grade team 😕. 1 of the 5 is a good program, usually a good game, 4 of those 5 games were/will be total stinkers.
Interesting. I figured we were about average. All three grades make up our team. There are 5 other teams in our half of the district--two of which are roughly an hour drive--so we always do a 5 inning V and 3 inning JV, and each school gets a home date. That's 10 of our V games already, then we found a few teams we felt we could compete with and added those, which made 8 more dates...so I guess it was actually 18 games. And we plan expecting rainouts. I think we had 4 or 5.

The HS team scheduled around 30 dates. Coach told me he'd rather it be more like 40. He'll schedule teams 2 - 3 hours away. My wife loves traveling to those alone. That grind really wears all of us out.

Another thing though, is that our state doesn't classify baseball/softball/basketball, so what would be a football 2A like us is in district with 3 and 4A schools, a couple independent ($) programs, and a nearby city has reciprocity now so their kids can choose from I believe three public schools. And of course there's now back door recruiting going on.
 
Dec 19, 2021
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Based on other posts here, I think your schedule is more average than our pitiful schedule.

HS state limit is 20 game regular season, but tournaments are allowed, so with 2 of those and playoffs, we were at 33 games. Furthest drive was about an hour. Last year we made a 3 hour drive for one game, this year they came to us.

For HS, the sections are aligned somewhat geographically within the size category (6A in our case), but are not aligned by school district, since within the district they are all different sizes. We only ever play one of the 4 other schools in the district.
 
Jun 8, 2016
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Man, I'm not sure if it would be fun or torture to have 16 MS games. DD2's school plays 5 (five!) games this year plus a quick round-robin tournament. 8 schools in the district, 2 can't field an 8th grade team 😕. 1 of the 5 is a good program, usually a good game, 4 of those 5 games were/will be total stinkers.
DD played 13..I would categorize it as torture..😂
 
Jan 25, 2022
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Based on other posts here, I think your schedule is more average than our pitiful schedule.

HS state limit is 20 game regular season, but tournaments are allowed, so with 2 of those and playoffs, we were at 33 games. Furthest drive was about an hour. Last year we made a 3 hour drive for one game, this year they came to us.

For HS, the sections are aligned somewhat geographically within the size category (6A in our case), but are not aligned by school district, since within the district they are all different sizes. We only ever play one of the 4 other schools in the district.
I think as far as scheduling, we can either do whatever we want, or they just don't pay attention.

I thought all sports were done by class here, but it's only football. This town had the state champion girls basketball in 2000 and it's still a big deal around here. The coach died of cancer a few years later. There's stuff named after him and all, and the team is still well known. I know a state title is a big deal but it always seemed a little overkill, until I realized they had gone 38 - 0 with no classifications. One of the girls won state POY three years later. That's a pretty big deal for any school, much less a school of 450 kids.

Football team lost on a 2 point conversion in the state semifinal a couple years ago. It was for 2A, but they beat teams in every class that season.
 
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