Getting bad instruction...

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Find yourself a good hitting coach - does not have to be an x-major leaguer by the way. And have them go there consistently (every other week maybe) throughout the year. Muscle memory. I am a much bigger fan of consistent hitting lessons than one clinic that will not stay with them.

 

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Murph:

I know that neither Howard nor Crystal believe that one clinic is all it takes. They are huge proponents of the muscle memory approach. And there are enough instructors proficient in the Bustos/Carrier and RVP methods that if a player believes that method is good, they can find instructors for the bi-weekly or monthly lessons. Once the player understands the method, that player needs to work consistently off the tee, in slow motion. What we call muscle memory, the neurologists have identified as an actual biological substance, called myelin, that wraps around nerve cells. And there is a body of research suggesting that for skills such as softball and golf swings, the myelin "insulation" is best built up by slow motion practice.

So I think there is a big intersection between Crystl's and Howard's beliefs about how to develop a good swing and yours. Namely that the player has to take a ton of practice swings and that frequent tune-ups/corrections by a qualified instructor are also important. If clinics were the be-all and end-all, Howard wouldn't have to devote his garage to individual instruction and Crystl wouldn't have made her recent capital infusion into a separate building where she and others will be offering lessons.

 

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Read the book " The Talent Code" The research supports what Carol just posted. I see many coaches just send kids into the cage to hit balls. Practice is not just hittiing balls in a cage.

 

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What has always been baffling to me is that when you see two athletes, one a stud pitcher and one a stud hitter everyone understands and accepts without question that it takes years of training, reps and game situations to make that pitcher the way she is. But when they look at a hitter that thought process goes out the window.

I have seen many parents over the years that get frustrated a few weeks or months into instruction. Why dosent she have a college level swing yet. People dont get it. It takes years!!!!!!!!!!!! to create a superior product be it pitcher or hitter.

My one piece of advice for any parent or kid that wants to be the next big stick. You have to work harder, smarter and longer than the pitchers you face. Trust me pitchers are training 3 maybe 4 days a week. Year round. If you do not take that same thought process as a working guideline as a hitter, then you you will be average at best and most of the time not even that.

To be the best at what ever you do it has to become a part of your every day life. What you think, you do .What you do, you become.


Tim

 

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Find yourself a good hitting coach - does not have to be an x-major leaguer by the way. And have them go there consistently (every other week maybe) throughout the year. Muscle memory. I am a much bigger fan of consistent hitting lessons than one clinic that will not stay with them.

Murph just getting them to practice on their owns helps a lot.

At our clinics we try to lay a foundation for balance and not one coach has been able to show us just how to get balanced yet in 9 years.

Once we show them it is too funny to see them turn red from not knowing how to do something which appears to be a very simple thing to do.

Are you stronger with your head up or down makes 300 pound men humble when shown how to do it and how it works. Then the grip! I try to find the strongest man in the crowd and with my baby finger I push the bat backwards. Then we show them our grip and they get the same smile the kids do and you know they got it!

We can tell how they stride if they can throw a ball and IF they do not shift the weight to hit they usually do not throw well either. You would think with this wealth of knowledge some coaches have they could teach a girl how to throw without their arm or shoulder hurting them after a double header. This is why we teach them how to throw before we teach them how to hit. How is it that 12 year old girls still can not throw well alone hit?

The clinics lay a foundation with the supporting paper work ( to help the parents/ coaches as reference material) and what we term making everything we do measurable and observable and then how we can prove it by the hitter seeing it, feeling it and fixing it.

Just going to an instructor will not change much unless she is willing to practice on their own.

Ask the girls you coach how much they work on their own and give us the feed back please.

Time management is not being taught in my opinion and I have heard about every excuse in the book. I will give you just two...I have to watch my brother or sister and do not have time or space to swing a bat. We show them the Bungee Bat which is a short wood bat handle with a cord that can be attached to a door and closed on it so they can do the matrix drill while the brother or sister is in the room playing or watching TV.

What do you do between commercials on TV? You could do push up, sit ups etc or use the Bungee Bat as most commercials are 2.5 to 3 minutes.

If you have not been to a coaches/ parent clinic we are doing another in Cincinnati on April 10 and it is in the clinic section. I have some parents who are paying for their high school coaches to attend so maybe the message is getting out.

It is funny to hear the stories that a coach tries to tell his girls how to grip the bat and one of our kids pushes the bat rearward with their baby finger and then shows the coach how much stronger they can be gripping it the way we do and with the head down verses up.....some of these kids are getting it!

Thanks Howard

 

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I found this definition of a coach one time; A coach is someone who makes you do what you know you need to do but won't make yourself do. I don't think this applies anymore. If you want to be the best you are going to motivate yourself and not wait for someone else to do it for you.

Best time I have had working with one of my dd's on her swing. Was last year when she was being batted for every game on her high school team(and rightfully so). She would have me go to the cage with her after games to do tee work, would listen to everything I had to say and worked really hard. For once any suggestion I made was met with an I will try that attitude instead of of I'm going to fight you every step of the way. Funny part of the story or not so funny. She has a twin sister who was hitting every game and the head coach made a remark to her about what her sister was doing after the games. I guess she figured she needed to go down their with her sister and I after a game. What a nightmare she was to work with, just goes to show the difference of wanting to do something and feeling you have to do something.

I help with a jv team this year and about 5-6 girl's have never played before. I know these girls are not going to go home and swing on their own. I use alot of what I have learned on OFC to at least give them a fighting chance when they walk up to the plate. Just getting them to take the right grip and stance really helps most of them. I well say this, working with a bunch of girls who really want to be there and learn is most enjoyable.

 

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I found this definition of a coach one time; A coach is someone who makes you do what you know you need to do but won't make yourself do. I don't think this applies anymore. If you want to be the best you are going to motivate yourself and not wait for someone else to do it for you.

Best time I have had working with one of my dd's on her swing. Was last year when she was being batted for every game on her high school team(and rightfully so). She would have me go to the cage with her after games to do tee work, would listen to everything I had to say and worked really hard. For once any suggestion I made was met with an I will try that attitude instead of of I'm going to fight you every step of the way. Funny part of the story or not so funny. She has a twin sister who was hitting every game and the head coach made a remark to her about what her sister was doing after the games. I guess she figured she needed to go down their with her sister and I after a game. What a nightmare she was to work with, just goes to show the difference of wanting to do something and feeling you have to do something.

I help with a jv team this year and about 5-6 girl's have never played before. I know these girls are not going to go home and swing on their own. I use alot of what I have learned on OFC to at least give them a fighting chance when they walk up to the plate. Just getting them to take the right grip and stance really helps most of them. I well say this, working with a bunch of girls who really want to be there and learn is most enjoyable.

At the very least it makes you feel you have accomplished something and you feel good about doing it. nothing worse than working with kids that either do not want it or they will not apply it. Very frustrating at times.

 

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What has always been baffling to me is that when you see two athletes, one a stud pitcher and one a stud hitter everyone understands and accepts without question that it takes years of training, reps and game situations to make that pitcher the way she is. But when they look at a hitter that thought process goes out the window.

I have seen many parents over the years that get frustrated a few weeks or months into instruction. Why dosent she have a college level swing yet. People dont get it. It takes years!!!!!!!!!!!! to create a superior product be it pitcher or hitter.

My one piece of advice for any parent or kid that wants to be the next big stick. You have to work harder, smarter and longer than the pitchers you face. Trust me pitchers are training 3 maybe 4 days a week. Year round. If you do not take that same thought process as a working guideline as a hitter, then you you will be average at best and most of the time not even that.

To be the best at what ever you do it has to become a part of your every day life. What you think, you do .What you do, you become.


Tim

You are exactly right.....It takes a lot of effort + talent to become great. If you don't put in the time you are not going to maximize what you have. For some reason people think hitters are just naturally born or go to some instructor. It is a skill that you need to constantly work on yourself because you can always get better and be assured that top level pitcher is improving all the time.

 

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Big Daddy,

No, you cannot teach a technique with the time allotted school coaches and your math on the time each day a school coach has is spot on. The posts after yours and up to this answer from me are very insightful. There's not a lot I can add.

My previous posts were to make everyone aware that there are more ways to perform a task than what you may be used to using. Personally, I don’t try to correct a technique that works unless I feel the need to improve on it for the sake of OUR team effort. I wish more coaches would be open-minded but they are not. I teach techniques in practices and in clinics to kids that don’t have any. Does anyone understand my insanity? Lol/

My concern with a freshman coming into the high school world is that she may come off as being hard to or impossible to coach. It’s the people skills they need to learn and ways to communicate that will ultimately win the coaching staff over. High school coaches, a lot of them, have huge egos and they don’t want to be challenged, even by a freshman with state of the art instruction from the best in the world. Sad but true. I’m ready to see them in action and look for things I can learn. Most really good instructors will be teaching the same techniques but simply go about things differently. A player, especially a new freshman, cannot have the maturity or life experience to decide after a 2-hour practice that her methods are right and a coach is wrong.

As a parent, I would encourage her to try the new methods and wait to see if she possibly improves. It might be something simple or something beyond her reasoning but she owes it to the coach and herself to at least try. As long as the instruction does not put her in jeopardy of injuring herself, what does she have to lose. She might gain the respect of her school coach for trying and possibly win some credibility with the staff. That’s when she can work on a compromise or convince them to at least give what she knows a chance.

It does take years to learn the many techniques. I wish school coaches would accept the good the kids are learning beyond the school grounds and learn how to manage the team instead of creating situations that many times make them look more of a fool while trying to defame a child that wants to do her best.

I wouldn’t go to KFC and tell them the first day of work that they don’t know how to cook chicken. Why start an unneeded fight with a coach that will throw up a defensive wall before ever giving your child a chance. This is not a perfect world. We need to adapt and learn how to get along for the better of everyone-----not just for me.

 

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CGS - like usual, agree with your post. You said what I was thinking better than I did (maybe cause you are an attorney!). Good luck this year and looks like we are going to see each other in most every tourney.

Coach Murph

 

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What has always been baffling to me is that when you see two athletes, one a stud pitcher and one a stud hitter everyone understands and accepts without question that it takes years of training, reps and game situations to make that pitcher the way she is. But when they look at a hitter that thought process goes out the window.

I have seen many parents over the years that get frustrated a few weeks or months into instruction. Why dosent she have a college level swing yet. People dont get it. It takes years!!!!!!!!!!!! to create a superior product be it pitcher or hitter.

My one piece of advice for any parent or kid that wants to be the next big stick. You have to work harder, smarter and longer than the pitchers you face. Trust me pitchers are training 3 maybe 4 days a week. Year round. If you do not take that same thought process as a working guideline as a hitter, then you you will be average at best and most of the time not even that.

To be the best at what ever you do it has to become a part of your every day life. What you think, you do .What you do, you become.


Tim

Awesome post.

You get out of it...what you put into it.

 

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What has always been baffling to me is that when you see two athletes, one a stud pitcher and one a stud hitter everyone understands and accepts without question that it takes years of training, reps and game situations to make that pitcher the way she is. But when they look at a hitter that thought process goes out the window.

I have seen many parents over the years that get frustrated a few weeks or months into instruction. Why dosent she have a college level swing yet. People dont get it. It takes years!!!!!!!!!!!! to create a superior product be it pitcher or hitter.

My one piece of advice for any parent or kid that wants to be the next big stick. You have to work harder, smarter and longer than the pitchers you face. Trust me pitchers are training 3 maybe 4 days a week. Year round. If you do not take that same thought process as a working guideline as a hitter, then you you will be average at best and most of the time not even that.

To be the best at what ever you do it has to become a part of your every day life. What you think, you do .What you do, you become.


Tim

Bouldersdad, as a parent I agree whole-heartedly. It takes time and dedication to perfect skills... nothing happens overnight. It is a process. That being said, I then have a question.

Should not a coach know this as well as parent and respect that process that a developing player is involved with because it is an on going that will span many seasons?

Should not a coach work with that process because it's in the best interest of that developing player?

Just asking...

 

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Bouldersdad, as a parent I agree whole-heartedly. It takes time and dedication to perfect skills... nothing happens overnight. It is a process. That being said, I then have a question.

Should not a coach know this as well as parent and respect that process that a developing player is involved with because it is an on going that will span many seasons?

Should not a coach work with that process because it's in the best interest of that developing player?

Just asking...

My dd's coach makes sure that he knows which of his players are using private instruction and make sure they do not interfere with what is being taught by the instructors. Now as a parent I made sure I found instruction that matches his philosophy. It just so happens that dd is one of Boulders students. We hope to soak up as much as we can before Britt heads off to school in the fall. Great people.

 

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Bouldersdad, as a parent I agree whole-heartedly. It takes time and dedication to perfect skills... nothing happens overnight. It is a process. That being said, I then have a question.

Should not a coach know this as well as parent and respect that process that a developing player is involved with because it is an on going that will span many seasons?

Should not a coach work with that process because it's in the best interest of that developing player?

Just asking...

Any smart coach be it HS or TB should be happy to reap the rewards of a player that works at her game in the off season. If not maybe they are in it for the wrong reasons or have been in it for so long that their way is the only way. Both of those type of coaches exist. There are also the type that sees if somethings not broke dont fix it. Personally I could care less what style a player uses to hit the ball as long as she does. If she is successful,have at it. If shes not then at least try it my way and attempt to learn something new which may help.

A HS coach is at a disadvantage. He has to make a team meld, practice and hopefully win games in a very short time span. If I were a HS coach I would feel rushed. Not a good feeling. He also has to deal with the stereotypical player issues, pay to play. Tenure of upperclassman. Dealing with the weather. Parents of the kids. The AD......... Not a job I would want.

If a coach isnt willing to let a succesfull athlete do her thing even if it is not what the coach would instruct it makes for a bad HS carrear. And if that is what you are going through just remember it only has about 5 weeks left. By mid summer it will be an after thought.

The more travel kids we see play HS ball the more the mind set of a lot of coaches will change and adapt to new teachings. And even more so if your dd or who ever this is about is a success. Just remember that all she needs to concern herself with is what she can control and that is herself. Everything else will take care of its self in due time.


Tim

 

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What has always been baffling to me is that when you see two athletes, one a stud pitcher and one a stud hitter everyone understands and accepts without question that it takes years of training, reps and game situations to make that pitcher the way she is. But when they look at a hitter that thought process goes out the window.

I have seen many parents over the years that get frustrated a few weeks or months into instruction. Why dosent she have a college level swing yet. People dont get it. It takes years!!!!!!!!!!!! to create a superior product be it pitcher or hitter.

My one piece of advice for any parent or kid that wants to be the next big stick. You have to work harder, smarter and longer than the pitchers you face. Trust me pitchers are training 3 maybe 4 days a week. Year round. If you do not take that same thought process as a working guideline as a hitter, then you you will be average at best and most of the time not even that.

To be the best at what ever you do it has to become a part of your every day life. What you think, you do .What you do, you become.


Tim

Tim
What you say is so true.

If the player takes a break and does not swing a bat, many times they fall back on to bad habits.

If I was helping a highschool team, I might just try to do one thing in their swing to make them hit it harder. Leave it at that. They want more, give them more.
Not enough time to give every kid a full blown lesson, over and over.


Straightleg

 

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Last season, Alli's freshman year, I emailed the coach during conditioning and told her that Alli has been working with Howard Carrier for awhile and works on hitting 4-5 days a week. I asked her politely that if she had any questions or wanted to learn more, (I even invited her to go see HC with us (she declined)), to please let me know and I would be glad to explain her technique but I also let her know that we have committed to HC's instruction and Alli would not be changing it for school ball... Coach was fine with it, Alli made and started varsity that year - never became an issue....

 

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Last season, Alli's freshman year, I emailed the coach during conditioning and told her that Alli has been working with Howard Carrier for awhile and works on hitting 4-5 days a week. I asked her politely that if she had any questions or wanted to learn more, (I even invited her to go see HC with us (she declined)), to please let me know and I would be glad to explain her technique but I also let her know that we have committed to HC's instruction and Alli would not be changing it for school ball... Coach was fine with it, Alli made and started varsity that year - never became an issue....

Your a lucky one.
I was lucky too, Casey's coach has pretty much left her alone, he know's we work on it.

Some girls I work with are not so lucky


Straightleg

 

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I agree, I know the coach, but it was her first year here at Madison so I was not sure how it would go ... I counted on Alli's practice time in front of her to be convincing enough and it was. Having plate discipline and a routine often shows a hitter who is 'training', they have that look to their approach to hitting that is easy to spot...

 

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Last season, Alli's freshman year, I emailed the coach during conditioning and told her that Alli has been working with Howard Carrier for awhile and works on hitting 4-5 days a week. I asked her politely that if she had any questions or wanted to learn more, (I even invited her to go see HC with us (she declined)), to please let me know and I would be glad to explain her technique but I also let her know that we have committed to HC's instruction and Alli would not be changing it for school ball... Coach was fine with it, Alli made and started varsity that year - never became an issue....

Doug, we tried the same thing but not the same results (not hitting). We barely got an acknowledgment from the coach. It's been really hard on my DD and it was a relief when the coach moved DD to a different position. Now, the coach may be switching DD back and my DD last told me she's sticking to her training. It's just very frustrating dealing with someone who refuses to listen, explain anything, or communicate at all. Everything is a "power" move and the talent is walking away from the program fast.

Well good for you and your DD.

And Boulder, nail on the head.

 

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643dp, I don't think anyone would have a problem with tweaking or making adjustments to a situation. Adjustments during a game happens, it's part of playing. And I wasn't referring to something like that so please don't get me wrong.

When Bouldersdad mentioned that parents need to understand that skill development is a process, I believe a coach should also be aware of it as well. I don't know Bouldersdad but what had said sounded very down-to-earth common sense and I just expounded upon it a little.

With that being said, it sounds to me that coaching softball effectively and having player development essential, coaches today have to be able to incorporate input from other sources (e.g. private instructors) since more and more kids get input from other sources. To blindly dismiss this could throw a kink in that development process of a player.

A coach depending on their level of expertise could help or hinder player development by how they interact with the player. I don't think any coach would purposely cause harm to a player. Unintentionally, a coach may and not realize it.

Man, they don't pay you coaches enough....