VaTech Pitching coach video

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May 9, 2021
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Hi everyone, long time creeper first time poster. I'm a big VT fan and I stumbled onto a video of their pitching coach Doug Gillis doing a camp right after he and D'Amour started at Tech. He says some interesting things I haven't heard so while the quality isn't great I thought it'd be worth sharing. Doug Gillis on Pitching
Also a BIG thanks to everyone on here my 12 year old DD has gone from never pitching to successfully pitching in 12u travel in one year because of the great info on this forum (and her willingness to work). We have no IR instructors in our area (that I can find) so this forum and Mr. Hillhouse's youtube videos have been instrumental. I keep telling my DD I'm going to have to start offering lessons because it's so painful to see so many girls pitching incorrectly. :)
 
Aug 21, 2008
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Gilly is one of the smartest guys I know on pitching mechanics. I think he goes a little over the top with some of his drills and such but, I have no doubt he puts a lot of time into what he does and has his reasons. He's a pretty unique guy, very dry. And I don't mean "dry" as in dry humor, he's not going to get any gigs at the local comedy club. Maybe calling him 'serious' would be the best description. I don't mean any of this as an insult, it's just how he is. About 10 years ago or so, Gilly had a stroke. A very serious stroke! He almost completely lost his ability to talk. It came back slowly, and quite often his thoughts would be faster than he was capable of talking. So when we'd see each other at the tournaments we'd play, he would get frustrated (and understandably so!!) when we'd chat. You could clearly see him getting frustrated that what he took for granted so much for so long (simply talking) was something he couldn't do so easily anymore. He's got back to normal as time passed. I think he even made the 2nd team all tournament at the ISC championship at 48 years old or so, I think that was about 2013 or so. I remember his team wasn't very good but he pitched extremely well and kept them in all their games. I seem to remember him getting injured a lot during our playing days, he seemed to have a lot of issues with pulled groins. This happened despite one of the most intensive warm up routines I'd ever seen for a male pitcher. Most guys tie their shoes, grab their glove and just start rolling their arm over. Doug had a long routine of exercises, stretches, etc. etc.

It's interesting to see and hear about all the Illegal pitches thrown by the VT pitchers. At one point there was a crackdown in men's fastpitch about IP's in the early-mid 1990's. I can vividly remember in the 1994 Olympic Festival in St Louis, pitching against Doug and he was struggling with IP's. You could see him really working hard and trying to roll his toe over to prevent the replant/crow hop. In the opening game of the tournament, he became ENRAGED at the base umpire who kept calling him illegal. The 94 Festival was the "tryout" for the 1995 Pan Am team going to Argentina. The umpires were very strict for that Festival event because the international umpires could be expected to be even more strict at the Pan Ams. You guys might find this incredibly hard to believe but, sometimes Americans aren't well liked internationally. lol. So they were extra strict on us at the Festival to prepare for Argentina. Doug was furious in the opening game when we pitched against each other. To his credit, he figured it out and really altered his pitching to be 100% legal. I'm not sure if he pitches anymore at the Masters events (50 and over age division).

Anyway @jarrodtibbs, go for it if you wanna do lessons!! Lord knows there's plenty of father's out there who capitalize on their daughter's pitching by becoming pitching coaches. And I'm not saying that's a bad thing entirely. Most of them have their hearts in the right place and they love the game so that is how they stay involved. The sad part about that is, many, if not most, of them are teaching hello elbow mechanics despite the fact their daughter doesn't actually pitch that way. But, those dads and their daughters simply regurgitate the things they learned by their own H/E coaches from when the pitcher was young. Unfortunately they don't notice they aren't actually pitching H/E, so they teach the things they were initially taught instead of the adaptations they made away from H/E on a subconscious level. But "this" is what Sally was taught by her coach at 10 years old and she went on to pitch D1, Olympic team, etc. etc. etc. so that must be how to pitch!!! It doesn't occur to them that Sally isn't actually pitching that way, or they simply refuse to see the difference.

Tincher coaches, Forearm fire, etc. are all simple examples of just not pitching with H/E mechanics. And because the majority of people out there still think of H/E when it comes to pitching, doing something that contradicts H/E mechanics gives the allure that something is new or revolutionary. Stay away from Hello Elbow mechanics and make up a name for your coaching: people will think you've invented a new and improved way to pitch in your area, especially if all the other coaches are teaching the same H/E junk.
 
Feb 25, 2020
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Doug Gillis has got to be my favorite Top-Notch-Men's- Fastpitch-Pitcher-Turned-Pitching-Coach. Does he have any DVD's?
 
Last edited:
Jan 22, 2011
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I went to coach's conference he was doing the pitching portion at back in 2010 or 2011. Good guy.

How well the Hokies are doing makes sense now that I know he's their pitching coach.
 
May 9, 2021
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Thanks @Powerof9!! These are great and I had no idea they existed! I'm taking my DD to his camp this summer, hopefully I can take lots of notes.
 

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