Private PC instruction vent

Okay, I will take the bait since I am a private pitching instructor.

I'm not sure which there are more of - bad HS coaches, bad private pitching instructors, or bad travel ball coaches.  I see a ton of bad all 3 places..

The content of your post is generally on target, with the exception of the last sentence in the first paragraph.  It is imperative to have focus on arm action, glove side mechanics, and release point. It is impossible to have good throwing mechanics without attention to all 3 of those things. Not at all minimizing the importance of the lower half.  Very few HS pitchers use their legs properly.

Sorry ADBONO. Please don't take my rant as an attack on all private PC's. I have no doubts there are good ones and that you are probably one of the.  Myy son and I were fortunate to find one of the best locally after trying to work with someone remotely. I agree in part with your thoughts on arm action, etc., but my issue is with coaches who start working on those things right away. What I have learned is that addressing these issues when a pitcher does not even understand and/or is unable to use the rear leg, it makes no sense to work on upper-half mechanics. I have seen pitchers improve arm action by doing nothing more then improving lower-half mechanics, meaning they went from not being on time to being on time.

Also, please understand that I am working hard to help some of our pitchers who have been screwed up by the top travel club in our state along with its pitching instructors.

Not jumping in on this too much but did want to say that I just had this discussion.  Parent wanted me to watch video of son throwing and wilder than ...  I mean not close.  I asked what the latest instruction was and it was arm speed, explosiveness, ...  It is an injury waiting to happen.  Have you ever seen the instruction to "bust out of the blocks?"  I don't have any problem with this or any other cue as long as it is explained and even demonstrated.  My first impression is that this young man is doing his best to do this and trying to make his arm try to catch up.  Everything, again, is high and I mean way high.  

For me, giving a pitcher homework while taking private lessons is great.  However, and I am guarded with pitchers, there are concepts that I believe are better served with a trained eye watching.  I believe this in this case while, at the same time don't think it is the pitching coach's fault totally.  Rather, it is a lack of communication, repetitions under that trained eye and a highly motivated young man who wants to please his pitching coach that can lead to problems here.  

Ok, my 2 cents.  Carry on!

Best pitching coach my kid had did not having him throwing for weeks.  Instead he evaluate his entire throwing motion the first session and then had him working on strength and conditioning drills before he allowed him to throw.  The majority of what he worked with my son on was lower body stuff.  He also gave him "homework" that was basically the Throwers 10 workout to do on his own.  I'm guessing many folks probably passed on him due to his lack of working with the kids mechanics upfront.  I also know that many of them passed on a good coach.  He told us straight up that he was not a coach for everyone.

I recall the phrase, "Listen to your arm" while my son worked with his instructor. 

Shoveit4Ks posted:

I recall the phrase, "Listen to your arm" while my son worked with his instructor. 

I would change that phrase to "listen to your kid".   By this, I don't know any kids (especially younger kids) that will tell an instructor or coach that they are hurt....because they want to stay in the game....not sit the bench, so they play thru it.  But I'll guarantee you that when they get in the car to go home, if their arm hurts, they'll surely mention it.  It's as much a parent's responsibility to communicate injury/issues to a coach instructor as it is the kid.   Heck, I was coaching a 15U team.  We were playing a summer tourney at Ohio State.  We were short on pitching. My son and a couple other friends reached out to a big time 15U kid from Michigan (on Friday night at 8pm)....that they really only knew thru having met him once or twice at tourneys to see if he'd want to come down.  He left home at 4am to throw an 8am Saturday morning game.  He got lit up by a team that had no business touching him.  He only lasted 3 innings.  After he came out he told one of the other kids "I threw 5 innings on Thursday for a team down in Dallas".....my arm is toast.   His dad was WITH HIM....and knew he had thrown on Thursday, but didn't mention it to us before the game.   I get it, the kid wanted to pitch at Ohio St, but at what risk? 

TRUE STORY.  Recent conversation with a HS kid who I noticed favoring his arm on his first day of HS practice.

Me:  Is your arm bothering you?

Player:  Yes sir.  A little.

Me:  Show me where it hurts.

Player:  (Points to UCL/Pronator Teres area.  Sounds more like UCL strain/tear to me, but I'm no doctor). 

Me:  How often have you been throwing over the last couple of months?

Player:  I've been going to pitching lessons once a week.

Me:  That's it?  The only throwing you've been doing for the last two months is once a week?

Player:  Yes sir.

Me:  Let me guess, these are 30 minute lessons.  You spend 5 minutes on warm up throws, then you're on the mound throwing the carp out of the ball for 25 minutes.  Am I right?

Player:  Yes sir.

Me:  Okay.  Did this pain start recently or has it been going on for awhile?

Player:  It's been doing it for a couple of months.  

Me:  Did you tell the guy giving the lessons.

Player:  Yes sir.

Me:  What did he say?

Player:  He said it would be fine, it was nothing to worry about.

Me:  Who is this coach?

Player then named a current Minor League Pitching Coach in the Mets Organization who gives lessons in the off season.  

The idiots are everywhere!

We wee lucky enough to find one person we completely trusted with my son's well being — he was a coach in his youth travel team who is well educated on the sport and has my son's best interests at heart. Throughout high school and even when choosing a college, we called him before going with any travel team, pitching instructor, or college team. We asked his opinion, his concerns, his recommendations. Sometimes I called, sometimes my son did, but we always knew the advice we got was geared toward the best for my son, not his pocketbook.

If you can find that person that you trust like that, make him or her part of your team. They will help protect you.

And yes, best pitching instructor Duncan worked with told him focus on legs. And when a guy says "If i had developed my legs the way I was told to, I would be in the big leagues instead of here, with a ruined shoulder, teaching you to do what I never did" kids hear it. 

It was a powerful message he took to heart. 

In fact, today, there is a tendency to transfer all work to the Internet. So the earlier the child starts to get acquainted with the computer, the easier it will be for him in later life. My work is completed online. Every day I read a lot of information, so I use a raid system. Recently my cat spilled water on the raid. I did not know what to do, but users on the forum advised me to contact salvagedata.com for a good reason. These guys are real professionals; they helped me in a short time to restore all the data.

Lookout folks this topic is 3 years old and reported the above post as spam.

Don't click on link.

I stopped reading at “my cat spilled water” so I didn’t even notice the link. But nice PSA by TPM for those that are tempted.