Help coaches Sidearm pitcher

What do you need help with on understanding them?

quote:

Originally posted by Juan:
Can a high school coach help me understand coaches? My son is a 15year old he is sidearm pitcher has good control and large selection slider, curve, sinker etc. He has pitch against power hitters and strikes them out, and he only gets a couple of innings in two or three games. He is not a fast pitcher but has a lot of movement on the ball.

You're not supplying enough info surrounding the situation.

My quick answer not knowing anything else is that (1) he is a freshmen at 15? Its early in the year and he is already fortunate to be getting time over older players.

(2) Being a sidearm pitcher even if he is Phenominal he is probably going to be looked at as a specialty guy down the road. Ask to go in and get 2 outs or only pitch 2 innings.

Therefore my thought would be talk to the coach or just give it time to workout as to what his role is.

Coach2709 If a batter is having trouble hitting from him shouldn’t he be in pitching longer time.

Strik3 Maybe as a dad I would like to see him start pitching, you may be correct I should give it time. He does start on second base. It just that he works on his pitching a lot.

quote:

Originally posted by Juan:
Coach2709 If a batter is having trouble hitting from him shouldn’t he be in pitching longer time.

Not necessarily - you can face the lineup one time and have success due to a change in speed or a gimmick. Sidearm pitchers are a gimmick.

The impression I'm getting from your original post is that you are not happy with how the coach is using your son as a pitcher. You asked if we could help you understand what a coach is thinking and then start giving us a resume of how good your son is. But you didn't give us the situation as to how the coach may not be using your son to how you feel is appropriate.

I see you are a new member and that's great - we are glad to have you - but in the past there have been several threads that want to criticize coaches because parents aren't happy. Here is my take on it - I'm a coach and I'm going to give every coach the benefit of the doubt until they prove to me they are clueless. Now if you want me to criticize a coach you better give me good reasons as to why.

Maybe your son isn't needed as a pitcher right now. You said he is a starter at second base. Two years ago I had a JR righty who threw sidearm and was a good closer - we beat several ranked teams with him throwing the last one or two innings. If he went over two innings he got lit up so we had to limit how many times hitters saw him. Last year as a Senior he barely got on the mound. It wasn't because he got worse or I lost faith in it was because we had to have him at first. Luckily we were able to use a staff to close out games. While we didn't have a closer we were able to use all of them.

I think strik3 gave some great advice and comments.

As a former sidewinder/2B. I wasn't allowed to pitch in H.S. due to my need behind the plate. When I got to the college level I was almost immediately switched to 2B. I then showed to ability to throw from the side with velocity. I became a spot reliever and 2B. I rarely saw the same hitter twice. Just as the other coaches have stated, it is a gimmick. Come in a get a few guys out because eventually they are gonna get it. Keep your son sidewinding and teach him to thrive at his job. Every role is important.