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Alternative To Private Lessons?
by Dave
Friday, January 05, 2007
A visitor to this site writes in requesting feedback as follows:
This is an e-mail I sent to YYYYY (fastpitch pitching school) - sounds a lot like the type of outfit you mention in your article about getting lessons for your kids (helpful stuff) so I figured I would send it to you to and see what you think:
My daughter is a three sport athlete already (in 6th grade, age 12). She loves both Softball and Soccer and is very good at both (softball is her love), only 6th grade starter on her middle school team this year. In softball last year she was clearly the best girl on the team and simply because of athletic ability the coach started using her as a pitcher - so I sent her to a coach a couple of times and did 1 mini clinic to get some basics down. She likes to pitch and has the head and the physical tools to do it so I want to get her some instruction and wanted to see what you have to say ...... what would your approach be - I don't have thousands of dollars to put toward this (I have 3 other kids who also are in sports). Do you have something that would work for us? Or should I just go to another type of place and do a winter clinic? She is my oldest and I have never done this sort of thing before. I have always been an athlete but was self taught and coached at school (the problem is that the coaches she has know less than I do). I appreciate your feedback
Hi Ike,
Yours is an interesting yet fairly typical question. I'm not sure I have a satisfactory answer for you - one you'll like - but I'll try. Here goes:
First off, I was also an athlete who was also "self-taught" in the sense that I had to make do with the available coaches at whatever level. But with 20-20 hindsight, I can see that this was not nearly enough unless I was lucky enough to find a really good coach. I competed in football, baseball and swimming from a fairly young age through my first years of college. My experiences in various sports led me to the conclusion that coaching, particularly with respect to fundamental skills, is the key to success. Where I had good coaching, I functioned at a higher level. Where I did not, my athletic ability was wasted.
Aside from my personal experiences in sport, I believe what I have seen since has even greater bearing on the question. When I was a kid, swimming was extremely organized but football and baseball were not. Swimming had high level "club" teams which practiced 3 to 9 times each week (sometimes two a day practices) and many did so year round. Baseball and football were seasonal and lacked the club structure of swimming and several other sports like ice hockey, figure skating, gymnastics and a few others. Nowadays, almost every sport has club teams, private instructions, etc. It isn't the same sports world you or I grew up in.
Nowhere, at least to me, is this more apparent than it is in the world of girls fastpitch softball. Girls attend group and private lessons for catching, pitching, infielding, hitting, etc. They also go to many camps where high level instruction is available. They are far better at this game than their forerunners were.
I fully understand that you have other kids and cannot pump "thousands of dollars" into teaching your daughter to pitch. But the fact is, there are many out there who can and will do exactly that. I'm familiar with YYYYY fastpitch pitching school and that is what they do - provide group and personal instruction to girls who want to be great, not just good.
One of YYYYY's students is CCCCC who is in her senior year and will probably break the state HS strike-out record this year. She sees a few coaches including BBBBB at YYYYY. She's just signed for a full scholarship with FFFFF, a first rate Div I program. Right now I believe she's down in Florida pitching at the Rising Stars showcase tournament where the best college coaches are looking to find recruits. She's already got her college plans lined up but she's down at the showcase anyways because her college coach wants to check her development.
Welcome to the world of fastpitch softball!
As I said, many big-time pitchers go to places like YYYYY. They are gifted athletes who probably have a similar experience to what your daughter has had so far but in addition to that, they go to private coaches, sometimes twice a week, and practice like nothing else you have ever seen. If you've never seen CCCCC workout, you should. The girl takes an hour to warm up and then goes for an hour-long lesson when she can fit them in. If she hasn't thrown very well during that lesson, her father will sometimes make her throw for an additional hour afterwards. It is a sight to behold. Three hours of practice! And my guess is she does that most days.
Another girl I have seen pitch was a HS freshman last year and started most of the time for her high school team. She goes to twice a week lessons and spends the rest of her "free" time practicing. I once watched her warmup before a championship game and it was incredible. The girl began by throwing about 100 fastballs and then 50 of each of her other 5 pitches. She was having trouble with one particular pitch so she threw 100 more of those. Then after more than an hour of warmups, she was ready to pitch in the game. The girl is a machine!
My point here is this is what it takes in high level girls fastpitch softball. It isn't enough to be athletically gifted. You have to have serious coaching and practice like a demon. All the gifted athletes who choose pitching and then make a name for themselves are also working very hard at their craft. They fit lessons in when they can and don't simply rely on good athleticism.
You talk about school ball and while you note that your daughter was very good on her team, you lament that the coaching is poor. This is typical. But this is also why the top school teams do not become top teams merely because of coaching. The top high school teams around the country become top teams because their girls take lessons and compete in high level club travel softball. The girls do not excel because of the school coaches - they do so in spite of them. Now, there are some outstanding school coaches and their abilities do make a difference. But most of their players are already gifted athletes who played travel, got private instruction, practiced like demons and then sought out these coaches in one way or another.
As it happens, I coach a middle of the road 12U travel team. I say middle of the road because we don't draw the best girls, even from our own area. We'll probably win about half our games but we won't win any competitive tournaments.
Think of travel teams like this: There are teams like us every 4 or 5 towns. We're better than all-star teams but we are strictly speaking a "B" or "C" team. Typically within any given county, there is one very good travel club. I call these "A-" teams. And every couple counties or so, there is one elite team which I refer to as "true A" teams. Of the elite teams in your state, a handful are top level and can compete on a national level. They may not win or even reach the top few of elite national competition but they can compete with those who do.
The best teams will draw kids from a broad geographic area and practice three times a week in addition to the private instruction and practicing their kids do on their own, especially the pitchers. But even on my middle of the road team, I won't even try out a girl for pitching unless she takes private lessons, preferably year round, and practices a minimum of two times a week in addition to her lessons, again preferably year round. I've turned down girls who take private lessons year round because they haven't developed enough. Even those who are on the team may not see that much action. The ones who will see the majority of time in the circle will be very committed and perhaps destined to eventually make it to "A" level.
I'm trying to lead this conversation in a direction away from school ball for a particular reason. School ball is nothing compared to high level travel or tournament ball. Being the best on your school team, even at a young age, doesn't necessarily lead to ultimate success in high school or beyond. In fact college coaches for the most part do not scout high school games. That would be a waste of their precious little time and high school season takes place at the same time college teams are busy with their own games. Instead they attend showcase tournaments like the one currently in Florida and, for example, the Team NJ one near you during the summer:
http://teamnjsoftball.com/2007_Summer_Classic.htm
Let me put it succinctly, if you are after a possible college scholarship for your kid, school ball is not the way to obtain one.
But let's assume you are not after a scholarship since most softball parents are not. Maybe you don't need to go after private instruction and maniacal practicing regimens. But you should be aware that somebody in your neighborhood or town might be doing just that. I have seen a number of girls who were good softball players and at young ages were "star pitchers" on their local and middle school teams. Then, when they got to high school, they discovered this other girl who has been taking lessons and preparing for a higher level softball career. Maybe she didn't bother playing local rec leagues or didn't have time to fit in the middle school team because she was tied up with private lessons and travel ball. Whatever the reason, she is now the high school's ace pitcher and has supplanted your kid. Your kid's high school softball experience involves playing an unfamiliar position or perhaps even riding the bench. Hey, it happens.
Camp yourself outside any softball academy for 24 hours and watch how many kids come and go. And that's just in your town. Are these kids going to be competing with your daughter? Maybe.
OK, so I've explained that I am predisposed towards high quality coaching, including private instruction. I've told you about how hard top level athletes in this sport work. I've explained that school ball is not at all similar to what you may have experienced as a player a generation ago. Today, you don't get a college scholarship to play softball by being an excellent high school pitcher. You get attention via travel ball playing at showcases. I've also explained that if a player's aspirations do not extend past high school ball, she may still need private instruction just to get playing time. But you've said, you just cannot afford private instruction so here is what I recommend you do:
First off, put your daughter into every group pitching clinic at these pitching schools you can. She will not get the kind of instruction she would but she will get more benefit than merely winging it on her own. You can probably keep her in clinic year round with less than $100 per month. An alternative to using clinics is to find a local high school or college pitcher who wants to make a few bucks teaching your daughter. Those who can do something like pitching cannot always convert that into teaching skills but if you find someone who has spent years in lessons and wants to start coaching, you might just get lucky and find a diamond in the rough. I would think you could get away with as little as $15 - $25 for a half hour private lesson.
Next up figure out a way in which your daughter can practice the things she has learned at clinics. If you're contemplating finishing your large basement, think again. Leave it bare and put up some space in which your daughter can practice. That'll probably cost you a few hundred for a pitching mat with rubber and some nets. But that's all that should be necessary. Now encourage her to practice at least two times per week in addition to the clinics, preferably more frequently than that.
Now go out and find yourself instructional books and videotapes which teach pitching. Learn everything you can from these materials and assuming you attend those clinics with your daughter, learn what you can from there. Essentially, in lieu of being able to put your daughter through private instruction, become your daughter's private pitching instructor.
Now practice, practice, practice.
Once you've begun this process, get your daughter involved in club travel. Find a reasonable team to start, learn whatever you can, and then work towards getting her on a more competitive team.
This is the best advice I can give you. My opinion is private coaching is the best way. But if you can't do that, you can't and you must find something else to replace it. In any event, best of luck to you.
Links back to this post: Warming Up To PitchLabels: instruction, lessons, parents, pitching
Permanent Link: Alternative To Private Lessons?
 
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