Pitching in High School

You don't need a HS coach to tell you what should be doing with your arm and your body to be ready-- the players who want it do it on their own

But you do need the coach to approve what you're doing because it's not like extra BP. You can't just go throw on your own...not knowing what the coach's plans are for using the pitcher in games. Tell your son he needs to go talk to the coach...telling the coach he needs more work to stay sharp and that he wants to throw on his own. Make sure the coach is ok with the throwing schedule.

That's good advice Tx-Husker (even though your geography is all mixed up )

Have him go see coach with a pad and pencil and say, "Coach, I'd like to schedule some bullpen work... knowing our upcoming schedule what do you think we should schedule. I'll get one of the catcher's to stay late or come before school if we need to; I just want to be ready."

This is great advise for my son. The only problem is the coach is very young and talks down to the kids. We will have him try your suggestions tomorrow and get back to you with the coaches response.
Thanks

I'm an old guy, so take this for what you see it being worth. My experience is young guys like this coach want to make a name for themselves and be successful...just like all aggressive young folks are that are trying to make a successful career for themselves. Appeal to this when your son talks to him. Talk to the coach about wanting to help make the team better and more successful. Tell the coach he want to set a standard for others by working hard outside of practice. And, that he needs advise from the coach about the schedule to do that in a way that helps, not hurts the team.

NO coach is going to talk down to him with that approach. Good luck.

bp,
First you need to tell us what the pitchers are doing as far as a throwing program. We can't say that the coach is doing something we don't understand without knowing what he's doing.

Personally, I like the approach you've mentioned but it isn't the only option and it may be that the coach has a program that has been successful in the past.

For example, I'd assume that it is in-season and that pitchers are pitching once or twice a week. That could be a couple of the throwing hard sessions and if they throw a fair number of innings in each of those outings it may not be a good idea to throw a full pen in addition in that week.

BTW, even with Texhuskers good approach there are a few coaches who will talk down to a player in that situation. It is probably worth trying but don't get too excited if it doesn't work.

TR,
Catchers willing to catch bullpens on their off time can be darn hard to find. In addition, as the velocity and movement go up and the dad's age goes up the number of dad's able to catch bullpens goes down.

CADAD

I guess it all depends on the kids and where you live

When my son wants to throw but can't find a catcher, we trot out this:[URL=http://www.frozenropes.com/home/store/instructional-aids.aspx?d=878&title=Tic Tac Throw]tic tac throw[/URL]

It's a bit expensive and difficult to cart around, but better than my husband taking a fastball to the head.

BPerfect:

Welcome, you'll find the board to be a very helpful place. You've alreay received some good advise and I suspect that if we had some more information we might be albe to assit even more. How is your son being used in games? What level is he at? How much experience does he have as a pitcher? Is he playing somewhere other then pitcher? Has he had any arm problems? How many pitchers does his team have?

You transfer, which may mean moving to stay eligible, or you go with the flow and do what the coaches say. Personally, given that he's likely to be a starter there next year I'd say stay if there isn't serious injury risk.

It sounds like there's some blame on both sides here. You seem to be blaming everything on the coaches and that is what will destroy your son's confidence more than anything the coaches can do.

quote:

Originally posted by baseballperfect:
Please give us some feed back. Are we dumb, or should we go with the flow... what should we do? Should we go to the school and complain or keep our mouths shut and be good little parents that don't interfer?

My son has been pitching since he was 8 years old - he is just now turning 16 and is a sophmore. He is on the Varisty team and was on Varsity as a Freshman as well. He was a real star his Freshman year and made a national bb team. He was starting to get noticed. The kid has been recognized as one of the top pitchers in the state for the 2012 class. He usually pitches in most the Championship games for most all the club teams he has ever been on. His club team coaches love him!

But...in the winter fall season a few of the seniors started giving him a very hard time about anything and everything....two of the coaches also started picking at everything...

baseballperfect - welcome to the hsbbweb! I can tell you poured your heart and soul into that post!

I'll give you my take on a couple of things....

Last year, when your son performed well as a freshman, were the coaches doing their jobs then? Or, is it when your son does well, he gets all the credit and when he does not the coaches get all the blame? Please do not answer those questions but a little of that came across when I read your post.

Look, I have a hunch why some of his teammates and coaches are giving him a hard time. Sometimes "star" players have an entitlement mentality and that rubs people the wrong way. My advice would be to never discuss the star stuff with him. Encourage him to work like he is the last man on the roster yet play like he is the first. What I mean by that is take the humble approach and be the blue-collar player on that team. Do all the team dirty work and earn their respect. Be the guy who carries the water cooler and helps with field work and packs and carries all the equipment. Be the guy helping to fold tarps and manicure the fields after the games (assuming your high school doesn't hire this work out). Be the first player at practice and the last to leave. Be first in all the team running drills. Be the first guy to pick the other kid up. Be the first guy to accept responsibility when the team struggles. In short, become the leader on that team by putting his teammates first.

Do all these things but I am not sure it is a good idea to contemplate being a star player imho as what he did last year or on his national travel team will not help him now imho. The goal obviously is to play like a star player but perhaps even more important is to be thought of as a star teammate from his peers and coaches. Of course doing all these things there may still be jealousies involved. I would encourage him to ignore those petty things out of his control and focus on those positive things he can control.

Thank you for responding. The responses have been helpful and open our eyes to what others may see and think.

As you can guess we are most upset at what has been going on this year. We are weighing all the options but will keep our mouths shut.

We know that the coaches are young and obviously trying to teach our son something; but messing with kids heads is really not the way to do it. Its almost as if they are enjoying this. We think a more mature coaching staff would have dealt with all issues differently.

We are going to let this play out. See how the summer goes....