Seriously what would you do?

To answer the original question of what would I do. Well it's pretty simple. I would do the same thing I have done any time in any sport my son or daughter has ever played. I would tell him I don't care if the coach tells you to hold the bat by the barrel and hit with the handle. You say yes sir and do it. If your swing gets screwed up we will fix it after the season but that is his team you do it the way he wants.

Sorry but unless it's a safety concern I expect my kids to do what ever their coach tells them no matter how asinine I may think it is. If something stupid is learned it can always be unlearned but being labeled a uncoachable is a much harder problem to fix.

THIS...........THIS POST........THIS IS WHAT ITS ABOUT........

Really?  Wouldn't it depend on who the coach is?  What his background is?  Being a blind follower isn't the answer either. 

 

I'll use my kid as an example.  His current coach has a different hitting approach than others.  He has changed many things in his swing.  Some comfortable.  Some not so.  Sometimes it's like a monkey humping a football.  But, while I don't necessarily agree, at least I understand everything the coach is saying.  I know where it comes from.  And it is his way or the highway.  Period.  He was a successful college player and, according to the other parents, has vastly improved most of the kids hitting.  So, my conversation with my son was along the lines that you'll have many coaches.  You'll take bits and pieces from each one and adapt them to what works for you.  For example, if the stance he is using isn't comfortable, he'll eventually change it. But this coach has our confidence.  If he was teaching something I knew to be completely wrong I certainly would have an issue.

 

Flashback to last year.  There was a difference of opinion on how to take your lead off first.  Certain kids had been taught one way for years, which was reinforced by the local college coaching staff.  New "assistant coach" comes in and claims it is all wrong.  Long discussions ensue.  Wants the kids to do something different -- based on his "little league" experience.  I tell the my kid, go ahead and do it, but in the games go back to what you where taught by coach xyz -- he is who you want to eventually play for.  The "assistant" never noticed. 

 

It is a difficult situation to be in.  You need to be somewhat diplomatic. 

 

 

 

To add some more: my soon to be 15YO (9th grade) son has been working with a great and dedicated hitting instructor associated with one of the very highest HS programs in the state for over a year. I feel very fortunate that we were able to establish that relationship. My lefty-hitting son made huge strides in his power and "tool box" and savvy for situational hitting, and especially self-knowledge of his swing. His instructor almost never throws middle-in to him because he is teaching him to drive balls up the middle and oppo. Like so many others, he jerked outside pitches into grounders to 2B by not letting the ball get deep. His coaches figures that he'll always know how and when to pull an inside pitch, but that he will not see many so he should spend 90% of his hitting practice expecting and responding to outside pitches.

 

I would really, really not like it if one of his HS coach mucked with the swing this spring. If it was a problem, I'd have my SON explain the situation with great respect sooner than later. Fortunately, I don't think this will be a problem.

This is by far excellent advice. 

I don't think most of the people here really realize what's to come as their players move forward in the game.  Do they expect that every coach is going to just lay back and let them do what they want?  They will have many coaches/managers with many different philosophies. And in some cases if you don't do what they tell you , you won't play or move forward and yes can be seen as uncoachable. 

 

Most of our sons have been through this, so gaining experience from someone who has been there and done that, and doesn't support ignoring the HS coach because of some half told story (if that isn't the OP's player) told on a message board is right on.

 

So let's see, the stud gets to college and the college hitting/pitching coach (maybe the guy that got him there in the first place) wants to change stuff to make him a better hitter (because he is such a stud).  Can you just see the player explaining to the coach that his dad paid for lessons for 4 years in HS from a MLB hitting/pitching so he is ok!

 

Players don't know how to learn to be diplomatic because their parents don't know how to be diplomatic, whatever someone else has to say or suggest (in this case,the HS coach) isn't good enough because he is just a plain old HS coach and they don't really know much according to most who post here.

 

Instead of telling the player to keep his mouth shut and just do what he wants (typical response from many folks of players these days), why not have the "stud" sit down with the coach and make a plan as to the approach.  It's never too early or late to learn to accept all ideas. If he is such a stud why is he not hitting more HR's?

 

FWIW, if you watch film of players that go from HS to college to pro, their mechanics become completely different, the only guys who have the proper mechanics become the early round draft pics or are the top HS prospects.  Even then, after the first full season of pro ball the "experts" will likely change them.

 

JMO

 

 

 

My guess would be that 99.5 % (or more) of us here (including me) at the hsbbweb don't know anything about hitting.  Most of us never played high school baseball let alone a level beyond that.  All hitting theories work in the batting cage when the hitting guru is soft tossing to the young prospect and the parent eagerly watches with anticipation of spring glory as balls explode off the bat into the net.  The funny/perplexing thing about hitting is you can do everything perfectly right and still get the wrong results when the competition begins.  Parents often base the efficacy of an approach on the numbers that were put up last year and/or the numbers they expect after their son has been exposed to the local "pro."  The coach in question may be entirely right or he may be wrong or somewhere in between. 

 

Encourage your kids to learn off everyone and have faith that they can absorb what is best from each of them and rapidly unlearn what is not.  The best players adjust.  The best players grind until there no longer is a seat at the table for them.  Encourage your kids to love the game and let them be coached.  Worrying about things out of your control will not help anyone.  Confidence is the hitters best tool.  Don't destroy it by putting doubts in their mind.  Encourage them that no matter who the coach (or what the circumstance) is that they can learn and grow. 

This is a problem that's come up more and more over the past ten years as kids go to private instructors. I was a high school pitching coach before all of this hit big, but as a youth coach, here is how I handle it. A good coach isn't going to fix something that is working. We just don't have that much time and what we do have needs to be focused on those who are struggling. If I'm your coach and your performing with whatever it is you're being taught elsewhere, I'll leave you alone. In fact, if it's working, I want to talk to your private coach. Maybe he's doing something I can use. However, if you're struggling and you won't listen to me because your private coach is saying something different, you can take a seat on the bench and get comfortable, because you may not see much field time until you do listen. It gripes me to no end the number of kids who can't hit their way out of a wet paper sack or throw anything that doesn't get rocked off the mound, but he and daddy won't listen to me because their paying some ex-pro $$$. Ignore your HS coach and see how far that gets you if you aren't already a stud. Maybe your private coach can get out here and coach a team for you.

Originally Posted by roothog66:

…A good coach isn't going to fix something that is working. We just don't have that much time and what we do have needs to be focused on those who are struggling….

 

Maybe your private coach can get out here and coach a team for you.

 

It would do many people well to look at those two statements and think about how they work together. The 1^st is true for all but a very few amateur teams, and private coaches know that, which is why you won’t find many of them risking their reputation by coaching a team.

 

The main job of a team HC isn’t to teach or develop players. Its to act as the administrator for the team.

Well said TPM and ClevelandDad. The ability to absorb and learn what is being taught, shown or told to as a player goes from level to level is an absolute must if a player is going to improve and grow. If one is incapable of this his chances are diminished because he is limiting himself to a narrow thinking that one size fits all and that what he does is the truly right way.

Originally Posted by oldmanmoses:

Well said TPM and ClevelandDad. The ability to absorb and learn what is being taught, shown or told to as a player goes from level to level is an absolute must if a player is going to improve and grow. If one is incapable of this his chances are diminished because he is limiting himself to a narrow thinking that one size fits all and that what he does is the truly right way.

 

I happen to pretty much go along with those sentiments, but if they’re true, what do you say to those who believe its better to play for the same coach with the same team as long as possible? FI, I’ve heard of many dads who coach their kid until HS, or parents who keep their kid with the same coach for 5 years or more.

Stats, I don't really have an answer for that. The only thing I do know is at some point one has to leave the travel Coach and one has to leave Dad as his Coach and be Coached by someone completely different. Does that mean one forgets about what was taught previously? No of course. The thing is to keep adding to one knowledge of the game, how to play ect...I guess its a maturation process that should be seen as growth. This all goes hand in hand with self analyzing ones hitting and getting feedback from a variety of sources. If one is constantly told that only one person has the knowledge to advance you, you become crippled in your capacity to learn at all. Just my humble opinion.

A lot of these posts assume the high school coach knows what he's doing. Some do. Some don't. Would you have confidence in a coach who told your kid to switch from a position to pitcher with no warm up on a windy, twenty something degree wind chill day? The same coach who consistently leaves his starters in for one hundred forty pitches? The coach started screaming at my son when he asked if he could be taken out of the game for one hitter, then brought back to get loose on the sidelines. His team was up eight runs at the time.

RJM...and a lot of people are ASSUMING that just because a private instructor/ or summer coach has some college or minor league experience it is impossible for him to ever be wrong about anything he teaches.

 

My personal experience is that sometimes private instructors can teach just as many BAD things as good things.  We have a private instructor in our area who ran collegiate level summer teams for many years, winning national championships.  He then went in to private instruction and I can't tell you the number of kids whose swings he's messed up.  Similarly, a pitching instructor who played D1 college ball and then minor league ball has been teaching mechanics that are "new" and all we see from his protege's are sore arms and poor results.

 

I make no excuses for coaches who are idiots or harmful to their players.  However, there are a great number of folks on here who seem to just AUTOMATICALLY assume that a high school coach is no more than a glorified babysitter, and that if you are PAYING an instructor, well, by god he MUST be a freakin' genius.  Got news for you people, it ain't always that way.  And quite frankly, a lot of people figure if they wrote a check to someone, they have to back what that guy taught their kid, or they'll feel dumb for having spent the money.

 

I don't change a kid's mechanics on a whim.  I watch him and if I think I can make him BETTER, I will work with him to improve. If you then tell your kid to ignore what I'm trying to help him with, or try to counteract what he is being taught, do you not realize you are putting him in a horrible position?  Any player who walks to the plate being pulled in two directions is going to fail.And if you think my coaching is that bad, then just don't play high school ball.  Take the spring off, work with your private instructor and play summer.  Seems like you'd be much happier with that.

I went back and re-read the OP. Nowhere in it does it say the coach wants to change mechanics. It does say that the Coach has some drills to help him with looking inside a little more. It doesn't say he wants to change approach, mechs or anything else for that matter. Absolutely nothing wrong with it! As a matter of fact if you read Joe Maurs bio. he talks about making the same little tweak to himself at the same time in high school which made him even more dangerous. It seems the OP is more concerned with the coach not working with other players. Sometimes you get a diamond that if you rub it a little bit more it really shines! That appears to be the case to me here.

TCB ... The key is investigating any instructor. I knew enough to instruct my kids into high school. I was the hitting instructor for my daughter's showcase softball team. But my son starting tuning me out at fifteen. I had to pay hitting and pitching instructors to teach him what I had been telling him for a year. Sometimes it takes a different teaching angle or just a different voice. But the instructors I selected had established reputations. I don't buy into a person knows how to coach or instruct just because they played to a certain level. 

 

What was amazing to a lot of parents and me was some of the instruction and coaching decisions the high school coach made given the level of college ball he played (ranked D2) and having been an assistant coach for an established high school power house for several years. To quote one of the parents who had coached high school ball, "You couldn't make this stuff up." Fortunately there was a pipeline of travel talent coming through the high school. What the coach did bring to the program is structure, discipline and an off season program. 

 

When a kid gets to college ball he better accept coaching or he will end up on the bench or lose his scholarship. There's plenty of talent to replace him. But college coaches have earned their way to coach at that level. I've heard complaints about some college coaches. But my experience and perception is the average college coach is far more skilled than the average high school coach. For the college coach its his job.

Maybe things are different in different areas, but around these parts, college coaches coach college.  The instructors in my area are EX-college players or EX-college coaches, not current college coaches.

 

I would certainly agree that most college coaches will have, or should have, more experience/knowledge than most high school coaches.  But a large part of this topic is dealing with a PARENT deciding that the high school coach knows nothing, or an INSTRUCTOR who hasn't seen what was being taught deciding the coach knows nothing.

 

It also appears that you are suggesting that college coaches know a lot.  But as soon as they become a high school coach, all of their coaching should be questioned by a parent or other instructor.  So, I guess it is kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy:  If you're a college coach, you must know what you're doing, but as soon as you decide to coach high school, you lose 100 IQ points and your every coaching decision should be questioned because coaching is no longer "your job".....

 

You're right...coaching isn't my job.  It is my passion.  I have a job that pays my bills. Baseball actually costs me money. I spend my time and money working on my field, setting up summer programs, coaching spring and summer, going to watch my players play on other teams, going to coaching clinics, working camps and reading and watching baseball information to try to make myself a better coach.   Just because it's your "job" doesn't mean you throw yourself into it more than someone who is a volunteer.

JCB, all high school coaches are not created equal.  You sound like a coach that many would love to have their kid play for.  Unfortunately, some high school coaches are still stuck in the past, and do not try to advance their coaching with new ideas. My son's high school coach tries to have my son hit like a midget, and my son is 6'4" tall. I don't, and never will, as you say, blindly believe a private instructor is a god, just because he played at a high level, and I am paying him. You seem to think most on here are sheep, and I think you are mistaken.  As was said earlier, the season is short, so why would a kid want to screw his swing up for the more important events.  Many have stated that high school stats don't matter, so why have your sons swing ruined?  I always advise my son to listen and try to grab something from all of his coaches, and I tell him that he can learn from most all coaches.  However, if the coach is contradicting what he has learned through his other coaches, who all seem to be on the same plane, be respectful, but do what is comfortable for him. If he hits, he'll play. 

Sheep? No, not at all.  In fact, with all of my coaching experience, there are many members of this board who have a lot more experience than I do, and who have incredibly cogent input that I am glad to find here on a regular basis.

 

But if I were a new visitor to this board who had a young high school player, and I knew nothing about my school's coach, I would read a few posts and come away with the impression that virtually ALL high school coaches were mouth-breath, drooling, rejects from a recent frontal lobotomy farm.  They come up with crazy drills, or they put kids in immediate danger of death, or they just don't care at because they are just a (whatever) teacher who is looking to make a quick buck by coaching baseball.  I would look at my school's coach with such a jaundiced view, that I think ANY parent would come in to the season absolutely convinced that anything that coach did would be wrong.

 

And if my kid had worked with a private instructor, and the HS coach and the instructor were at odds in their teaching, I should tell my son to just ignore the guy who's going to be his coach for the next 3 or 4 months (and maybe 4 years), and do whatever I (the parent) think is better for him.

Sheep? No, but I think there are people on this board, who because they have had a bad experience with a high school coach, or have heard bad things about another high school coach, will jump to the illogical conclusion that ALL HS coaches are incompetent fools.  That is such a ridiculous conclusion.

 

I know I'm getting on a soapbox here, but I'm just getting a little tired of it. This is called the HIGH SCHOOL baseball website. And yet when we get to the broader topics on this board, the tenor seems to be (some times specifically) "High school ball doesn't matter", "Summer is the only thing that matters", "The only real ball is high level select"....Well, I"m sure I won't get our owners to change the name of the website, but doggone it, I liked the site a bit better when I found it many, many years ago.  The first thing I found was "How To Make The High School Team" and I loved printing it up and putting it on a bulletin board for my kids so they could see what they needed to do to be successful.

 

Fine, if high school baseball really doesn't mean anything to you because your son is really that good that he doesn't need it...well, it doesn't need him either.  And more importantly, if you are a parent who doesn't see the value in High School baseball and can't zip your lip for a little while and let his COACH COACH HIM, then I'm pretty sure that coach doesn't need you or your son either.

 

My point ( and I hope I'm getting there) is:  Just because your high school coach doesn't agree with you, and/or doesn't agree with a private instructor, doesn't mean he's wrong.  There is not ONE specific way to hit, or pitch or field or throw, and there are different ways to teach each one.  As a parent, you need to put your son into the hands of his coaches and step back a little bit.  This is a PROCESS and you cannot tell exactly what is going on just from watching one practice, or just from your son coming home and expressing what he thought was going on.  Highly unlikely that watching one practice,or hearing a review of it by a 16 year old, will give you a true picture of what is being learned.

 

I accept that there are "bad" coaches, but I defend the literally hundreds that I know who are dedicated, involved, concerned, knowledgeable and GOOD coaches.  I just wish some of the posters on here could do the same.  From the dad who saw one drill at practice that he thought was wacky the first day and now says he has to "unteach" his son all the horrible things that one drill did to him, to the people who acknowledged that their coach had been at the school for many years, was very successful and had a good reputation, but who did something contrary to what a college coach they know would do, and they were therefore ready to mutiny after one week of practice!  For goodness sake!

 

In another topic, people argued with the lack of communication from a HS coach,and the fact that a coach didn't like people coming to practice.  Well, would YOU?  If no one ever got to watch practice, they wouldn't be running around like a chicken with their head cut off screaming about every little thing they disagreed with.  And it makes a coach not want to talk about anything because he'd spend every day defending what he's trying to teach.  There comes a point where I might be happier just having that kid and his parents walk away.

 

Personally, I've never had that problem.  I tell parents I will talk to them about ANYTHING but playing time (between me and the player) and I've never had a problem with parents questioning what or how I teach.  Maybe in the next few years I WILL as it appears things are moving in that direction.  I just hope not.....

Same issue I have,  HS coach, young no exp... tries to fix everyone.,...  son's pitching coach knows HS coach and told him to smile and ignore.

And there we are......

Perhaps my new favorite post....ever.  TCB, I like you very much my friend.

I really hope that you can see that the drill I mentioned has no merit whatsoever and the reasoning for using it by the coach is borderline lunacy?  

That being said I have not mentioned this to the coach nor has my son.  I realize the dedication of the coaches and the long hours they invest in the kids.

I use this forum as a way to vent sometimes so I don't open my big mouth and hurt my son's chances at getting playing time.   

 

I'm sure the majority of HS school coaches are very good coaches..  but frankly some are not..... Human nature, people that are happy with their coach do not post that they are happy with their coach.... People come here to vent, find comfort and advice.  

 

My sons had an unbelievable HS school coach, very good with players, won hundreds of games, sent many to college and the pros.... now he's gone and we have a coach that knows very little, does not care and the players can definately tell the difference..

 

My sons have had many college coaches tell them they saw them in the summer, college caoches do not care about HS stats... for the college / minor league talent HS can be fun, and rewarding, but by no means something one must do to play in college... On on occassion, the college coach after talking to the player and the summer coach, said do I need to call the HS coach and keep him in the loop? 

 

Most college coaches I know and have talked to know very quickly if the HS caoch is a good coach or not....

 

HS baseball is not as important as it used to be.....futhermore, having one in college and two in HS, it's not really fair to compare the coaching.... talent etc...  the college coach is there to coach baseball, the HS school coach is a teacher.... the college player is likely under scholarship to play, the high school player plays becasue he lives in that zone...

baseballmania,   Did you not get replies (including a video) acknowledging the drill as something done to teach followthrough?  Are you suggesting that your coach is saying the kids should hit that way, or, more likely, it is a way to over-emphasize the follow through?  If so, we might as well throw out the One-Arm drills, the seated swing drill, the Happy Gilmore drill, etc., etc.....I've never used the drill, but I bet there are many drills out there that COLLEGE coaches use that other people think are nuts.  In fact, there are some drills that look nuts, and 10 years later, everyone is doing them.

 

And again, my point.  The only reason you "keep your mouth shut" is because you ASSUME your coach will punish your son for your impertinence.  Maybe you should keep quiet because it might turn out he's actually a (gasp!) good coach...

bacdorslider...."now he's gone and we have a coach that knows very little, does not care and the players can definately tell the difference.."

 

OK, if  he's so NEW and has no experience, how do all these people know he's not a good coach?  And how long have you guys been practicing?  I would assume only a couple of weeks?  And yet all these opinions have been formed?  I would guess maybe they would be formed more by the parents, than the players....Strange, too, that young, new coaches don't tend to "not care", they tend to be 'gung ho"...wait, you also said he tends to try to fix everyone...so which is it?  He doesn't care, or he cares so much he tries to fix everyone.  Not sure I get it.

Yes, because I saw it in practice.  Why would you ever drill a technique that you should never put into a game? 

My son's private hitting instructor is Ted Williams so I guess he has been spoiled doing it the right way.  

As a hitting instructor I will say this any time I have a student or students parent come in talking about some crazy thing their coach is having them do my response is always SO. Its his team isn't it. If you don't like it don't play. If you play do what your coach tells you. If he screws you up we will fix it. If he can screw you up so bad in 4 months that you can't be fixed. Well baseball may not be your sport.

If it's a saftey issue by all means jump in. If it's anything else let it go. Heck the OP wasn't even about mechanics or saftey but philosophy.

Quick example I teach being aggressive. If the first pitch is a good one hammer it. My son played last year for a middle school coach that taught take until you have one strike. Sometimes two. My son really struggled with this. When summer came he went back to his aggressive approach and started taking again.  Did it ruin his baseball future, no. Plus I was talking to the HS coach who had a conversation with the MS coach. He said the MS coach went on and on about how coachable my son is and how he couldn't wait to coach my son. That was far more important than my son having a higher batting average.

Yea I confused that, let me explain, The new HC is not young, hardly ever at practice.... I dont know if its that he does not care or does not know.....  I know asst coaches have left under his 18 month tenure .... the coach that tries to fix everyone, is the new gung ho coach, that was a JV coach, but now has been placed in a varsity asst. role, partly because the HC is not there....   Like I said , there are many good HS coaches, but in some cases there are very poor coaches....  I have seen both in the past 18 months... I understand that when the new HC comes in many times the asst. coaches that are left, end up leaving , but would you not think that the new HC wouold hire his own new asst coaches?   We had 8 coaches on the staff including the JV coaches, won 7-8 straight district titles, went to state tourney many many times....now we have three coaches for both the varsity and jv teams... This school was not a normal HS team it was a very successful nationally ranked HS school program.... not it is in serious decline.... the principle and AD are as much to blame as the HC.....

bacdorslider:

 

I must disagree. I believe high school baseball is essential to playing in college -- at least it is around here. If you cannot stand out in high school, your chances of playing at a big program in essence go to zero. Plus, I just don't know any players who do not want very badly to play for their school, whether the coach is good or bad. If the coach is bad enough or the program just not up to snuff, a player can always transfer -- but then he must be good enough to compete successfully for a spot at the stronger school.

Amen coach - amen.  There have been times where I've decided that I wasn't going to come here anymore just because I got tired of defending high school baseball and high school coaches.  But for some reason I keep coming back.

 

The thing that makes me the most frustrated is everyone on here acknowledges that there are bad HS coaches (while some are WAY to eager to point them out though) but it's almost sacrilegious to say anything negative towards a summer coach / travel coach / private instructor - whatever.  People get so fixated on being trained prepared to play college that they forget the purpose of playing the game period is to win the game which is what high school is about.  Yes there are summer teams who focus on winning but when you say that you're admitting that there is a balance in that high school and summer stuff are equally rewarding and beneficial.  Let me let you people in on a secret - they are both very rewarding and beneficial IF YOU LET IT.  It's good to not be able to handpick your coach like when you HAVE to play for such and such at the high school.  Guess what if you actually get to move on in the game you're NOT going to get to pick who your coach is.

 

Whatever - this place and idea won't change.

I disagree,  10 years ago I would have agreed, but having gone through the process twice recently, and seeing a lot of other HS school players go through the process, summer ball was the ticket around here, Perfect Game and the like.  I mean, yea High School ball has been fun, and the boys and I enjoyed the heck out of it and still do.... but it had no bearing on recruiting for us.... Our summer coaches were better coaches than our high school coaches,  their summer teams were very very good summer teams, the competition is much better.  HS baseball is fun, but from what see what you do and what your team does in HS has little to do with how the college coach feels about your skills.  HS ball is all over the map with classifications, A AA AA and so on. My sons enjoy HS ball to get a chance to play with their school mates and see if they can get to state.... but summer ball was always more important to them.

I don't see nothing wrong with venting a little bit, sometimes good advice or suggestions are made because of it. Obviously many have been put in a similar position at one time or another, and perhaps many more remain silent during this thread.

 

 What I find interesting is how I have changed my mind during all of this. Originally I might of thought about discussing this issue if it was my son, and explain what the boy has been learning over the last 4 years with his hitting instructor, and how it has worked well at every level. And mention to him that hitting doubles off of the RC wall is no accident. And by hitting the ball up the middle and opposite field it helps him on the off speed that they try to get him to roll over on at every plate appearance. I might would say in fastball counts he likes to go early sometimes to see if he can get a cheap HR to LC field. And if all of that goes well, maybe I would of told him how I truly appreciate his interest in my son and the extra effort he is sending our way.......This conversation would of taken place simply because in almost every setting in America a man should be able to talk to another man, except for maybe in boot camp. But even though this coach is very nice, and seems to be very approachable.....I now totally believe that if we are in this situation that to sit and watch and keep everything to yourself is best. like the old man told me,  why chance the doghouse?

So this IS about your son!

Wrong...see earlier post. A good family on our summer team, I was commenting on how he was so calm, and was wondering if others would be that way. His demeanor is based on his older boys that have been through  HS ball already.

       
       



Sure doc, whatever you say!

  Your wrong again TPX but nice try. Hopefully I wouldn't have this problem since the HS uses my fields my buildings and my hitting coach.  However if you again have no good advice to give, or try to apply your blanket advice...have at it!

Great approach coach.  Wise our HS coach did that.

 

Follow a coach even if he is wrong?  the HS coach has him from Sept to June then you fix the problem.  Your son must be the fastest learner in baseball.

Coach you may be my sons coach unfortunately.  You think your always right but haven't learned anything in 20 years.

So you base my entire 16 years of teaching and 20 years of coaching in a negative light with me agreeing on one single solitary post although you know nothing about me?  Yeah that makes perfect sense.  Let me give back all those trophies my guys won, those guys who went to play in college and the fact that the school I was head coach at was horrible before me, became very good under me and then not doing so hot since I left not matter for anything.

 

I'm 100% in agreement with cabbagedad about player communicating with the coach.  I agreed with Scotty83 on the fact know it all, meddling parents need to keep their mouth shut or take their kid someplace else.  You know what destroys more teams?  It's not piss poor coaching - it's piss poor attitudes by kids who get it from their parents.  Either from not having a work ethic (yet talented), think they don't have to be part of the team, they feel entitled or any other myriad of excuses for failure that will always get thrown back on the coach.

 

I am old school but I'm also a great teacher in the classroom, on the baseball field and football field.  If your kid were to have me as a teacher or a coach he would be a much better person for it unless you screwed it up with your negative assumptions about the education profession.  Give me a classroom full of the worse kids in school and they will leave my class a better person and better student (based on performance, state test scores and mommas calling me to thank me for whatever it was I did to help her kid).  Give me a classroom full of AP kids in a class nobody has passed the AP test in several years with a subject I don't really know (I'm history and teaching psychology which is loaded with biology) and I'll have kids pass the AP test.  But as great as I am you know what?  I'm just one of tens of thousands across this country and there are those who make me look like I'm terrible.

 

Yeah there are bad teachers and bad coaches.  But there are bad everything - teaching and coaching are exclusive to these people.  There aren't an unusually high number in the education and coaching field.  I've came across private instructors and travel coaches who were atrocious but there are way more better ones than bad ones in my opinion.  Just like teachers and HS coaches.

 

I don't want to be thanked by anybody for doing a "noble" job.  I would like a raise and no you wouldn't be able to afford me nor any other good teacher / coach if we were paid by the hour.  But the thing I want is know it all parents to leave me the **** alone so I can do my job.