When to start looking for new pitching coach?

[NachoMama]

DD's last year of 12U, second year of pitching. First year of Comp ball..starting pitcher. She's been with a private coach for about a year and a half. Coach is knowledgable and did a great job of breaking down each step of pitching. We see her once a week for 30 mins unless she cancels (we haven't seen her in two weeks). DD hasn't really learned anything new in a few months. She started learning a drop ball but they haven't gotten to practicing it and coach doesn't want her throwing it without her approval.

DD has a change, FB, OS- and is pretty consistent in her spots. We also work with her outside of regular team practices and her lessons. I don't expect miracles with my kid...but I'm feeling like Coach and her just aren't working. Coach takes everything very personal. And if DD rolls her eyes at me for video-taping,
Coach spends 15 minutes lecturing on eye-rolling in the cage. There's a lot of talks and lecturing and no pitching. It's gotten to the point where I don't even go anymore because I just distract the kid and end up talking to coach about how her last clinic was, how her HS team is, etc.

DD has been complaining for at least six months that Coach talks too much. And it's rarely about pitching. Is it time for a new coach? I don't want my kid to think its okay to complain and move on. It doesn't happen in the dugout or in real life. And I don't want her to get a bad rep for being uncoachable (this coach works with a few travel ball teams). I also don't want to waste money. So much pressure in this small world of fastpitch!

 

[quincy]

DD has been complaining for at least six months that Coach talks too much. And it's rarely about pitching. Is it time for a new coach? I don't want my kid to think its okay to complain and move on. It doesn't happen in the dugout or in real life. And I don't want her to get a bad rep for being uncoachable (this coach works with a few travel ball teams). I also don't want to waste money. So much pressure in this small world of fastpitch!

It doesn’t? Private lessons need to be good experience for everyone, Player, Parents and PC. If any one of these things is not happening it is time to move on. If PC has hard feelings, oh well.

 

[Carly]

If your daughter isn't happy, move on! If being "uncoachable" becomes a pattern, then maybe you should be concerned about it, but if it's only one example that affects one coach, give her the benefit of the doubt. Maybe she and this coach just don't get along, and that's fine. If she loves pitching, it's good to address the issue before she starts mistaking disliking this coach for disliking pitching altogether. A coach you pay for (any coach, really, but that's not always realistic) shouldn't just be teaching your kid a skill. They should be affecting her life in a positive way and helping her grow as a person.

If I'm teaching a student a new pitch, sometimes depending on the results of the first session I'll tell her not to practice it without me. If I don't think she has a good feel or understanding of it, I don't want her ingraining something bad in her muscle memory that she'll then have to undo. So I don't think that's so unusual in general, but obviously you also have to use your judgement on a case-by-case basis. If your kid has a decent grasp of the pitch and the coach is just being a control freak, that's something else.

Also in general, whether it's this coach or another one, not learning new movement pitches does not always mean no progress is being made. I think it can be detrimental to learn too many movement pitches before the general mechanics are solidified to a certain point. Obviously I don't know about your specific situation, so this may not affect your daughter, but it's just some general advice.

 

[Jojo]

Also in general, whether it's this coach or another one, not learning new movement pitches does not always mean no progress is being made. I think it can be detrimental to learn too many movement pitches before the general mechanics are solidified to a certain point. Obviously I don't know about your specific situation, so this may not affect your daughter, but it's just some general advice.

A good point to make, I recently had a student of mine leave me to go to another PC because her father claimed, "In order to for her to be ready for HS she needs to have all her pitches right now."
We disagreed over this, because his DD was just 12, and still struggling with fastball mechanics and working on a change-up and drop.
She was not very good at practicing --she just went through the motions with no desires to fix mechanical issues, so yes, there wasn't steady progress being made because lessons were consumed with constant work on her mechanical issues. But slowly she was coming along, she was doing well in games, threw about 45 and could control her fastball and change up was about 50%, and she was moved to 14u.

I see her practicing now, she is with another PC, all her old habits we worked so hard to overcome are back, she has dropped about 5mph's and has no control--BUT she has all her pitches, riseball, screwball, curveball along with her drop and change-up, and they dropped her back down to 12u.

Hey they are happy. And who knows, maybe eventually she'll address her mechanical problems and regain control--one can only hope.

I am concerned that your PC is spending so much time at lessons not talking "pitching". Sometimes my kids go off on chatter tangents with me, and I have to get them back to focusing on lessons. I do enjoy chatting with them, but lesson time is lesson time.

I suggest you attend lessons of other PC's before deciding a change and see how different PC's instruct and interact with their students, and preferably students your DD's age. I interact differently to my students of different age groups and abilities.

 

[halskinner]

Is this coach young and trying to make a name for herself locally? Kind of sounds that way to me.

I retired from instructing and 2 years later, I got called by the league directors of 2 local leagues. Both of them begged me to come back to teaching because no other pitching instructs would take on a new young beginner! Why> Becayse the3 young pitchers rarely made the papers, only the older ones. So that was all they would work with.

Is somet6hing like that going on with your instructor? Might be time to leave.

 

[MandM]

Reasons to leave pitching coach:

#1 daughter does not like coach. If your DD does not like the coach, it is not going to work well in the long run-
That being said- there may be some things to explore with your DD as well, prior to making a change. e.g. what are her expectations for a lesson vs. what is actually going to happen- how the flow of the lesson is conducted, how often will new pitches be introduced based on PC's philosophy (vs. what DD hears from friends "should" happen), what tools will PC use regularly- stuff like that. May be you and she could scout out another instructor or two and observe a lesson b4 deciding -or if you feel that this instructors reputation and mechanics are where you want to be- talk to the instructor. You are the consumer and (I guess) are paying good money for the person's time - but also- there is an expectation about responsiveness to your concerns as well.

#2 instructors teaching philosophy and mechanics are not in line with accepted wisdom (at least with regard to key point in the mechanics that are common among high level pitchers.

 

[tojo]

I may ask someone just starting a roll-over(turn-over) drop to not practice it until they have a good understanding of how and why the pitch is thrown as being taught. I,also.do not want the student to go home and practice bad mechanics. I may have to spend valuable time the next lesson undoing what they have practiced during the week. I see a lot of pitchers that use a lot of shoulder when they throw the drop and are taught that way by their PC. Many of these pitchers have pain or discomfort in their shoulder and rotator cuff area. I want to avoid that so I prefer the student take the needed time to learn proper mechanics the first time before practicing at home.
If I were paying for pitching lessons, I would want the PC to instruct my DD on Pitching and not lecture my child about rolling the eyes unless she is teaching her how attitudes can affect her pitching. Also, if the PC cancels frequently, I would look for someone you can depend on being there. Dedication is one trait that a young pitcher needs to understand is necessary if she wants to be the best she can be. If the PC is not exhibiting a dedication to her students, then I would probably look elsewhere for instruction.

 

[NachoMama]

Good point, thanks!

 

[NachoMama]

This is great advice. I never really thought to ask what DD's expectations were.

 

[NachoMama]

I have thought about this. PC says the mechanics aren't perfect for her drop - so she doesn't want her to throw until she's seen it consistent. I can respect that - but we haven't gotten to practicing the drop in several weeks. Lots of it is because the new season has started and she's busy and has to cancel lessons...and so have we (because of practice conflicts, etc). I respect that she wants to perfect mechanics...but she's also given up on trying to correct DD's funky presentation (sometimes she doesn't get the ball all the way into the glove) - and she won't try to help her with her left shoulder alignment. She says.."she's not listening to me, so we'll let her get called in a tournament for illegal pitches"...or something to that extent. It's almost like PC and DD now have a big-sister-little-sister relationship and it's no longer paid coach/consumer relationship. Thanks for your input!