Adjustments?

SC,

A little different situation since my 04 son is a pitcher, but he also was trying to make significant adjustments during freshman year, and had a very inconsistent year with stinky stats. Still, he learned a lot and really enjoyed his team, then worked very hard this past summer on the adjustments. Similarly to what your son's teammate told him, some of the adjustments (mechanics changes) required him to take a step backwards (or two or three) before they started clicking and he moved forward. It is looking like the hard work may pay off with a much improved soph year, but of course that remains to be seen! Freshman year is tough for many players, but it sounds like your son is on the right track with this thought: "The program is a proven winner and the coaches are very respected, so he knows the things they are telling him will help him to improve." Good luck to him!

scbaseball,
Absolutely! My son's thing was a good fall, then a really rough start when it counted. They struggle with their changes, then presto, everything falls into place. As a scout told my son this past weekend, there is no such thing as a FALL American. This is the time for learning, changes and adjustments and time to practice them. Things may even be a bit rough when season begins.
Understand another thing, your son's fielding and hitting may have been more than adequate at the HS level. These tweaks are necessary for college ball.
As MN-Mom suggests, sometimes you need to go backwards to move forwards.

This time next year, it will be a piece of cake!

SCBaseball,
Adjustments can be frustrating but they are always be needed if a player is to succeed. I think every time you change coaches, teams, or levels there are adjustments that need to be made. For instance, you talk about your son’s power. Of course you can only be comparing his power to his past teams. Everything is relative.
One of the prerequisites in selecting a college is the looking for “fit”… we talk about all the time. “Fit” can be a little more complex than just finding a college that needs a third baseman. Your son may be a 3 hole hitter at one school and be a 2 hole hitter at another. As you well know this takes a completely different approach at the plate to get the desired results. He has to make adjustments.
My son was a high school power pitcher that could blow a 94 mph fastball by most high school players. In the SEC a 94 mph fastball is BP. He made a BIG adjustment….he quit pitching after his sophomore year of college.
The only word of advice is to help your son adjust. You do this by supporting the coach as he “molds” your son. MANY times I have heard parents publicly blame the coach for their son’s poor performance. “The coach changed this…or… the coach changed that, and the stupid coach has really messed him up!” I can only imagine what they are saying to their son in private. All this does is reinforces in your son’s mind that he need to resist the adjustments.
JMO,
Fungo

Something to keep in mind here: My son tells me that a minimum of approximately 2,000 reps, properly done, are required to incorporate a change. This is a lengthy process; involving a lot of hard work.

College coaches changed my son's stance and swing in last fall, but he hit the ball well. Then there was a coaching change, he went into a slump and there wasn't anyone there who could help him out of it. He let it get to him and it affected him on defense, where he usually excels, and finally in the classroom, where it almost cost him a year of eligibility.

Coach last spring told him, when you're going as bad as you are, you'd better by making changes. By the end of the season he was hitting from the other side of the plate, where he had some success.

He got back on track nicely with a summer course, and played in a local rec league. But his hitting continued to stink. Only then did he come completely clean about what we have now know is a vision situation that we hope will get fixed soon.

Fast forward to this fall. The coach doesn't want him to switch hit; pick a side and live with the results.

His early results, hitting left-handed (though righty most of his life), were mixed. Coach tells him he's only interested in results, not technical progress, and my son thought coach was giving up on him. So he said to bleep with it, turned back around and his shows signs of coming around.

Adjustments? They're going to be constant, like it or not. As a parent, it can drive you nuts, because invariably they use us to vent, and because to us, he's been a work-in-progress for 17 years and more.

But college baseball is about immediacy. If something isn't working, you'd better change it quickly to something that works, or they'll simply change you.

My LHP son late in the fall of his freshman year had his throwing arm slot adjusted from almost straight overhand to just below 3/4 arm. The reason was to gain velocity and movement, and that seems to have worked, but it has taken him a long time (1.5 years) to really get comfortable with it and to regain the control that he had before the change.

Some great advice an AAA minor league pitcher gave him when he was 12:"You're going to have lots of pitching coaches in your life and they'll suggest a lot of things, all meaning well. Try them all and be respectful, but ultimately, the results and your body will show you what works for you."