quote:Originally posted by dirt bag:
This is a question for Coachb25. I observed your team from Edwardsville in 1998 and noticied that almost all your hitters had similar form and approach when at bat. To say that team was one of the best to ever play for a state championship would be an understatement. Did you instruct every hitter on the team to have a similar approach to their stance and mental read of the pitch? It appeared that they were compact, quick swings. Somehow I do not believe many went to private instructors, but did they? What was coach Pile's imput on this phase of the game. Those young men came to Play! Thanks.
Dirt Bag, Sorry this had taken so long to respond. Yes, we used the same approach for all of those kids and no, none of them went to private lessons. We started a system of camps and instruction with these young men at a very early age. By the time that they were seniors in high school, I had known/coached all of them most of their lives. We are attempting to now do the same thing at Triad. As I've posted before, we have a belief in hitting that we entitle, "Qualities of an outstanding hitter." We've asked some posters such as swingbuster to look at those qualities and cirtique them and we've added or changed some basics but the base is still there. We teach the base and then we allow individaulism within that base. It isn't a cookie cutter approach but I'd bet if you have film of those kids, you'd see exactly the same stance, approach to getting ready to hit and hitting philosophy while they were up at the plate. Naturally, the kids had to buy into what we were doing and then also be athletic enough to do it.
With regards to the role of Coach Pile, he was a tremendous coach. He understood all phases of the game and he had the confidence to allow each of his assistants to fill their roles. My role was "hitting coach." Coach Waldo's role was "Pitching Coach," We ran our systems within his beliefs and system. However, you can bet that if we messed up or deviated from his beliefs, we'd know it at once. Game time was Coach Pile's personal arena. He was so very good at thinking on his feet as well as motivation. As you might know, Coach Pile's nickname is "Moto." That is short for Motivator!
One final comment on that team, yes, they came to play. They were the best of friends and still are. We are still very close to them and I am blessed that I get a chance to see many of them on a monthly basis. They go out of their ways to keep in touch and so that speaks to the quality of those kids. You can bet one thing, when practice started, the friendships ended. There were there to get after it and push each other. Then, when the practice ended, they were back to being close friends. I've only coached 2 other teams as focused as that team. One made it to the supersectionals here at Triad and one won a state title in Edwardsville in 1990.