keep pitching lesson the day before a start?

Luv2play,
I would listen to the sons coach he is playing for currently. Most likley the coach has a plan of when and how is best for the teams play and your sons health when he sets his rotation and pitchers for the day. If the Lessons can be done with very limited throwing and more easy drill type work I wouldnt see the harm , but since he specifically said not to throw..

If the coach found out he did in fact throw, would there be problems? That is more the problem to me then the actuall work.

Luv2play,

Does your son take his lesson from a mound or on flat ground?

In 30 minute indoor lesson, he normally moves to the mound 10-15 minutes into the lesson. Even if the lesson didn't involve much throwing, I would like him to go over with his instructor what went right yesterday and what he needs help with. Just called & spoke to another instructor who said he would have a pitcher work on short work, pick offs, pitchers fielding, My gut feeling in our particular case after 2+ years with the school program is private pitching instructors are more experienced than our school coaches.

Luv2

Then in your specific case go with your gut. The biggest thing is to have your son be honest with you and whoever he is working with him. He is the only one to know how his arm feels, If it doesnt feel good limit the throws, if it feels strong, get better.

I have recently given lessons the day before a start to a few high school pitchers. I work on dry mechanics, Both flat and mound, no actual throwing. I also work on stretch and pick work, and pitching strageties with men on base. All of this can be done without throwing. 5 minutes speaking about the mental approach is also very important IMO.

I appreciate the feedback. Thank you!

Luv:
Yeah, the instructor is more experienced at what? Teaching pitching. Right. Not designing an entire season and an entire PROGRAM. He told them not to throw. He knows what he has scheduled for the week. Your instructor doesn't. Be open and communicate with the coach. You both want the best performance out of your son so that is the building block, but going around him (oh, it was just a light workout) is not the up front thing to do. You wouldn't be asking if down deep you didn't feel opposed to going in the side door on it.... BTW, I love it when my kids get extra instruction. But, they need to understand that I have the entire PROGRAM in front of me and I know the needs of the upcoming days and who I want to have available ... etc. Good luck and have a great spring.

trojan
Everything you said is absolutely correct. I have always communicated with my son's coach about his outside training. He did go to lesson today but only talked about his recent games then hit for 30 minutes. Coach was fine with that. I'm hoping it's possible for coach to let my son know his expected rotation so scheduled lessons can be rearranged if necessary so he can still receive help from the outside instructor. Of course changes due to rainouts, the health of the other guys' arms etc are expected. Good luck to your team too!

Luv ...

Just curious here ... but why is your son taking actual pitching lessons during his high school season? Is he not on some type of throwing/bull pen schedule to prepare for his high school starts?

Just wondering 'cause my only experience is with our son who did NOT take any private lessons during his high school season so he would not have to worry about any conflict in lessons and starts. Generally he knew which game he was going to start ... every other one during a two game week ... but was occasionally called on to finish the game before his scheduled start. If he had been taking lessons, this would have definitely been a problem. Instead he had long toss and bull pen during his days off, but no formal lesson.

I guess another thing that is good for your son ... his high school coach apparently doesn't have a problem with him taking private lessons. Our son's coach was not a fan of that and fortunately they had a varsity level pitching coach (generally an alum who pitched profressionally for a while) who could help the pitchers during the season, always watching their bullpens and the pre-game warm-up in the pen.

I've got to say I'm perplexed by this situation. Our kids throw 6 days a week. Our pen is 44 pitches. Then, they throw live. Now that we've started games, they have either full pens or half pens and long toss depending upon their rotation. So, if I tell someone I don't want them throwing on their day off, it just might be so that they can recoup some. What I'd like to know is what happens when the EXPERT'S opinion and the Coach's opinion clash?

FutureBack.Mom & CoachB25
My son advanced for his winter sport (swimming) and had one day off between end of champs and official first day of school baseball practice. Any preseason baseball work he's done on his own for 3 seasons in a row. When he showed up for a pre-season before school pitchers/catchers session, baseball coach told him not to come anymore and hardly let him throw despite almost weekly private lessons since Nov. He was concerned the throwing would be too much strain on his shoulders while he was still swimming.

Just from reading the pre-season workouts/expectations high school coaches offer here and knowing what other local schools do for pre-season, our team is very far behind as far as what kind of shape they are expected to be in when the season started. When preseason finally did start, it was a lot later than other local schools. I'm not sure if the reason is because of our coach or because of limited gym space. That really doesn't concern us because my son would miss the team preseason work anyway.

Athletics is not a high priority for our high school/school district. Coaches are district teachers with some college, no pro experience. If our district had higher expectations from our coaches (at least for 3 of the sports my kids have done over the years), I think the coaches would step it up and have higher expectations from the athletes. I'm not talking about winning a league or district championship-just being able to finish a season with more than a few wins and not being the team other schools joke about. Luckily that doesn't get to my sons. They love the game too much to let that get to them.

CoachB25:Our team just had finished their first 6 day week of practice and games. 2nd game is tomorrow. I'm not sure what they do on daily basis for bullpens. Weather hasn't been great. Looking forward to a game without wind and temps in the mid 40's! Hoping to avoid situations where the expert's and coach's opinion clash. Advice posted on this board has been extremely helpful!

quote:

Originally posted by ThreeLuv2Play:


CoachB25:Our team just had finished their first 6 day week of practice and games. 2nd game is tomorrow. I'm not sure what they do on daily basis for bullpens. Weather hasn't been great. Looking forward to a game without wind and temps in the mid 40's! Hoping to avoid situations where the expert's and coach's opinion clash. Advice posted on this board has been extremely helpful!

Let me then give some advice. If you son isn't getting his "throwing work" in, have him approach the coach. We set up a system where our kids know their rotations and whether to throw that half or full pen. Now, we do get to go inside in our gym if the weather is bad. I don't know your situation. Your son needs to take charge of his arm. After games, we don't just leave even if we are on the road. Our team knows that our pitchers have to get their work in. We can do half-pens in a short period of time by making sure we have the rotation ready by offsetting their running, bandwork and toss program. Something to think about.

Our pitchers throw the day before a start. They throw between 15-25 pitches at about 75%. Working mechanics they start at about 40 feet and work their way back to the mound. Then they come back up, break some off doing the same thing working their way back. Then, they come back up again, and do change ups. It can get quite tedious, just ask me. I get to catch all of them. This includes both the starting pitcher as well as a couple guys who the coach is expecting to be in relief the next day. 90% of my practice is spent in the bullpen many days.