TerribleBPthrower posted:Could use some advice here from some of the crafty veterans who have been through the high school ball thing. Yesterday was the first day of practice/tryouts for my son, 2023 C. My son has played travel ball for the HC for 2 years and has a great relationship with him. The coach is very new school with a lot of things he teaches. So yesterday my son meets the new C/P coach and he immediately lets my son know he's an old school guy and starts changing up his stance and receiving back to the old school way my son was taught when he was 10-12 years old. My question is, would my son be out of line for asking the new C/P coach if he can show him the way he was taught by his private catching coach? My son is afraid the coach will think he's trying to show him up or something.
My two cents your son has three choices - Ignore the coach and keep doing it the way his private coach taught him, listen to the HS P/C coach and do it the coaches way or speak with the coach and find a solution. I would advise against straight up ignoring the coach, and I am sure you would agree. Your son clearly doesn't want to do it the old school way. So that leaves speaking to the coach which you seem to also know is the proper course of action. As noted above you can't be the one to have this conversation. A Freshman vs an old school coach is not an easy convo by any stretch but that's the situation in which you find yourself. Its a tricky convo. IMO, your son needs to explain he's been taught both ways and over the past two years he's gotten very comfortable with his current approach. He needs to explain why that is the case and he should ask the coach if its ok he continue with the stance that he feels gives him the best opportunity to compete. Maybe you can convince your son to approach it this way (if you agree). It takes an incredibly mature freshman though to execute this convo but unfortunately that seems to be where you are right now.....