Listen to Everyone, Question Everything, But Do It Now!
Sometimes a student comes to a lesson and shows us something she has discovered. A different grip or a slightly different body position creates unusual movement on the ball or an increase in speed. Immediately I become interested.
If it is safe, healthy, and it works, we want to understand the adaptation and see if it can be duplicated with others.
All of that being said, we have to be careful when thinking that, “Just because it works for one kid it will work for all.” There have been times when I tried something unusual and it worked beautifully. The next pitcher arrived and it worked again. Now, perhaps, I am onto something. Not necessarily. It may not work as well for the third student. Each is an individual. Remember this. Just because a friend says something worked for his daughter does not mean it will be right for your pitcher.
One of the most popular drills in softball pitching today is supposed to help pitchers develop one part of the motion, but it creates many other problems with her movement and timing. We think there are better ways with less “side effects”. Yet, many people keep promoting it because it is the way things have always been done. If I ask them to name specific benefits of the drill, they look puzzled. They never really thought about it. If you don’t know why you are doing it, how the heck can you get a benefit from it? Way too much mis-information is passed around in pitching because people “trust the experts”. Too many of these kids come to us, too late, because they hit a plateau or they were injured, but it never occurred to them to question the things they were being taught much earlier.
Because we work with thousands of students, we have a very large research pool. It allows us to assess various procedures to see if they can be generalized, but we never want to rule out something that may only work for a specific few kids. Something as simple as body type, muscle balance, or the way a kid processes information can indicate that she needs a more specialized approach. Trying to force her to learn exactly the way another kid learns can simply stunt her growth. It could rob her of the opportunity to discover something unique within her body that could take her to new heights.
Nothing breaks our heart like the 17-year-old kid who arrives with tears in her eyes because traditional pitching approaches left her far short of reaching her college dreams. We will be nice to you, but ask what took you so long to realize you needed to change something.
We can tell you of dozens of pitchers we discovered when they were in 8th or 9th grade who brought some pretty big issues, but they were ready to make changes and we watched their college dreams come true, often in ways that surprised them and their parents. Sadly, we can tell you far more stories of kids 17-years-old who say they “wish they had discovered us three years ago”. She is beaten down, confidence is shot, and we have to ask so much of her that we feel guilty. Few kids can make that change at that stage.
Every kid is an individual. Each has specific strengths and weaknesses. Each must be developed in specific ways. You must ask a thousand questions along the way and be confident the answers apply to your kid in this situation. Avoid the “cookie cutter” approach if you truly want to discover the best within your individual player. Listen to everyone, but question everything. And, if you are not confident in the answers you are getting, do something about it right now.