Private Instruction

Plano East has the following unwritten policy (paraphrased) -- "Do what you need to do to improve..."

Direct from the coaches mouth last night at a "Mini School"

"Baseball Class is not enough, your boys need to be doing whatever they can outside of school to improve their game"

Son's current & past coaches: no policy.

Have known of one coach who was violently opposed to private pitching coaches. He ended up getting fired a few years back for some of the shenanigans he was pulling.

quote:

Originally posted by KellerDad:
Direct from the coaches mouth last night at a "Mini School"

"Baseball Class is not enough, your boys need to be doing whatever they can outside of school to improve their game"

I totally agree! Some common sense needs to be used though. I had a kid go and get a pitching lesson the night before a start. Changed his mechanics and goodness knows how many pitches he threw in the lesson. Obviously I did not find out until afterward. Glad he got some work in, but not the best timing. Never made it out of the first inning.

I have had kids go and get a hitting lesson the night before a game, tell me, "coach, I fixed my swing last night!" The kid goes out and has a 3 for 4 night with a couple extra base hits and drives in a few. Nothing wrong with his swing...he hit .400 batting clean up that year and won his conference's hitting title as a freshman...just got his timing and confidence from the lesson.

FD -- sometimes that's all the need from a lesson. Isn't hitting 40% physical and 70% mental?

I don't know, PD. I always told my boys that hitting was 75% mechanics but 95% confidence.

Except in the case of my mind (old dog-new tricks thing) -- it may be easier to postivitely influence one's mental approach than their mechanics. Someone recently told me that it takes 21 days of repetition to significantly modify muscle memory. Obviously, sound mechanics are the most important factor in establishing consistency at the plate. So, slumps are easier to overcome when minor tweaking can take the place of a major overhaul.

Yogi and I may have had the numbers skewed a bit...but confidence is key!

I agree that each player needs to do what they can outside to improve.

Also, I found that most pitching and hitting instructors have minors in pschycology...lol

I don't do a whole lot of physical teaching when it comes to hitting. Now, if I see something that needs to be corrected, then of course we'll work on it. Chances are if they make the team, they have at least decent swing mechanics or they would not be there.

We focus on the mental side of hitting because more than half the time, HS age hitters get themselves out. We teach the kids that all hitting is, is timing. All pitching is, is upsetting the hitters timing.

I show videos, give them handouts, and we will be doing more video work this year...both in practice and games.

Yogi said it best..."baseball is 90% mental, and the other half is physical."