Do you play today or work for the future?

Fungo, I really believe that my son has had success because we took the scary step of changing his mechanics afterhis soph season in hs. People thought that we were crazy and it took time, but we always trained for the next level and not for stats right now or being the top little league player.

My son played on a 14 year old stud team and sat the bench. Though most of those guys are in college or juco, mine was the only one drafted. 14 yearolds stats mean nothing if they do not progress. After 14 years of age baseball is talent and the ability to adapt and change.

The landscape is littered with the bodies of those who were so caught up in re-enforcing bad mechanics in favor of "now" stats. If one is too stuborn to learn the right way because of being pretty good at 14, it will get worse later.

Anyone who has been around youth baseball for any length of time has seen just the type of player you refer to. Maybe he is bigger than the other kids or just more developed. For whatever reason the player excels without the proper form or mechanics. Too often, as the player moves up in levels, improper mechanics can lead to ineffectiveness or worse, injury.

Most every high school player is playing at that level primarily because the Dad has provided coaching and guidance. Many Fathers become blind to the fact that the time comes when they have helped their Son as much as they are able. At some point the Father must turn to others that they have trust in to further the player’s training and guidance.

Did your friend ask you to review the video for the sake of evaluation? If this is the case you have a responsibility, to yourself and to your friend, to offer an informed opinion. Help this young man get to the next level.

You gotta tell them what they gotta hear not what they want to hear

Just point out the most glaring problem. The one you are sure is causing or going to cause problems down the road. Don't pick away at too many things, he will be understandably defensive. Anyway, there are alot of college pitchers out there that don't fit the mold. He probably can get away with a few if he is a good enough athlete.

Another thought

At the age of 14 if the mechanics are bad the player is heading for an injury if he is a pitcher and same if he is a position player and throwing improperly. This is the time he should be working on improving his game and raising it to the next level

If you a kid is "playing for today" at the age of 14 he is heading for a major downfall

Since this is a friend...and may I assume one you want to remain friends with...I would have advised him to seek the advice of a nonfamiliar third party...that way no ill feelings etc...it is very hard to be placed in the situation of critiquing anothers child let alone a son of a friend...recommend them to someone whose input you value and perhaps followup with an inquiry as to the eval went and then them take the bull by the horns and make all the corrective measures needed...leaves you out of the picture...I do know that here, we have had several boys drafted recently, and others are looking to the parents for wisdom and guidance...just say your son has his mothers attributes and leave it be...IMHO

What was the motivation behind asking you to view the video?

Great advice CatcherMom! Something I will remember.

Fungo you are aware of the fact that without proper mechanics the rest is a house of cards with no foundation. Without vision people parish. (Being short sighted keeps all too many from achieving their best.)

Just do the right thing and you'll have no regrets down the road.

Perhaps explain that although the kid has a lot of potential and is good enough to have some success at this level, you see a few things that may be exposed and hinder his progress as he looks to get to the next level. Also explain that most successful players at one point in their careers had to take a step back in making adjustments in order to take two steps forward and the sooner these adjustments are made the better...

BigHit, I know what you’re saying. No one wanted to change my son’s swing because when he was 12 yrs old he could hit 12 year old pitching. I saw many flaws but I had to take him to an instructor to get it changed. (At 12 they don't listen to dads )
Catchemom, Good advice. I actually did suggest he seek private instructions and will see how this develops. Statman, Good question... I’m not real sure why I was given the video... I was asked for an evaluation but now I believe the reason for showing me the video was to get compliments. I never was too good at reading between the lines.
Fungo

Agree this is a very awkward situation to be placed in. Would also start out by highlighting the positive and subtly alluding to the negatives if you allude to them at all. The best advice may be from catchermom03 to get a respected third party's opinion.

why "p u s s y foot" around it-- use the Rizzi School of Tact--it is what it is --the kid will be better off down the road if he and his dad hear the truth now--being "politically correct" does not correct the flaws-- just makes them last longer

"But then I come from Brooklyn"==Author Unknown

Just send the video and phone number to Rizzi.

Tom will handle it.

Just tape the envelope shut.

LOL!!!! Long live TRhit! Hard to argue with your logic.

Dad 04- TOO funny!

Fungo, I would tell your friend that your son also showed a lot of potential at a young age. Then I would tell him that you are so glad that you made sure he got the right coaching or lessons to maximize his potential. Maybe it will be easier for him to be "humble" in spite of his son's stats, and get him some tweaking of his son's mechanics, if he knows that someone as successful as your son also benefitted from another source.


This reminds me of volleyball for the younger girls. My 13yo plays on a team that stresses the proper way to serve, pass , set etc. It's not the easiest way and they have been beaten by teams that they could really beat easily if they played "sloppy". But she will be ready for the next level- high school- in a year. These other girls are going to be left behind and have to play catch up if they want to compete.

They may be having fun now but will have to pay the price later. I say work now!

Fungo it really is tought to tell people what you know they dont want to hear. You will do the right thing. There are many ways to get the point across. Each of us have our ways of doing this. It doesnt matter how we do it as long as we do it. I am too critical. I tend to always see what needs to be done and what needs to be worked on rather than what is really being done right. I have to make sure that I compliment kids and tell them what I really like about thier swing or mechanics and then give them some pointers on what I think they need to work on. The fact is there are a ton of 12 year old studs that never made the adjustments because they were sucessfull. And when they realized that the way they have always done it was not going to get it anymore they were either discouraged or too hard headed to change. The earlier you fix the problem the easier and the more time you have to perfect it. JMO

IMHO – Fungo, your being too hard on yourself. You did read between the lines and you gave confidence to the young man.

Yes he needs work and I hope he seeks it.

Confidence and encouragement go really, really far at this age. As you stated in a previous post, there are enough people who will be critical – to have someone give the young man a pat on the back and gentle persuasion goes a long way - dave

Let's face it: What we're talking about is a situation where the message you want to give him is one of those "negative compliments" which have a "but" in them. "He throws hard, but..."; "He hits well against the pitching at this level, but..." It's probably fair to assume he'll respond the same way you would have if the same kind of comment had been made to you about your son. If so, maybe you should try to think of a way that someone could have given the same message to you about your son without offending you. If there's no way to do that, maybe it's just best to forget about it.

Fungo,
I think you did the right thing in telling them the truth. When they made it clear they didn't want to listen you backed off. I don't think you have any obligation to do any more.

If you do decide to pursue the matter you'll just have to couch things in terms of "making a great swing even better" if you hope to have them listen.

Our problem tends to be almost the opposite. For example last night during my son's hitting lesson he got a few compliments from onlookers about his swing. He was having a good lesson because he was getting away from his main swing flaw on many of his swings but his instructor and I both feel that he's just starting to make progress and that we can expect a lot of backtracking before he gets to the point where he swings "right" naturally and going back to the old swing flaw is the exception.