Here is a reprint from Dick Mills on youth baseball pitching. There are some very valid points being made on youth baseball pitching.
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7 Reasons Why You Should Listen To This High School Coach About Pitching
by Dick Mills on June 26, 2009
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Dear Coach Mills:
Greetings again from Lake Forest Academy and Lake Bluff, Illinois!
You may remember that I've been using your program for six or seven years now with my h.s. players at Lake Forest Academy, my youth players in Lake Bluff, and my two sons (13 and 14). I can respond to the frustration the parent in your newsletter is feeling with coaches who want to change his son's delivery.
I've been fortunate enough to coach my sons on many of their youth teams, so I had control of how they developed as pitchers, and I taught them (and all my players) your system because it's based on evidence. Unfortunately, the two or three seasons that I couldn't coach their youth teams resulted in problems.
It took me about two years to correct what an incompetent coach had taught my 14 year old when he was 12--he added a balance point and had his lead leg swinging out and around. Now, however, my son is really doing well with the momentum pitching delivery, and he's on track to be one of my top varsity pitchers next year. He has surprised even me with his velocity and his control on our summer team.
My younger son (13) has been struggling a bit with his delivery, but he's finally getting it and had a very strong outing as recently as last night using his momentum delivery. The funny thing is that his coach wanted him to add a balance point a few weeks ago, but my son told him that he was learning momentum pitching which has no balance point. To the coach's credit, he has not tried to change my son's delivery since then. (That coach, by the way, is a former minor league player.)
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To the parent in your newsletter, here's my list of advice:
- Be proactive with your son's coaches by asking them to explain their pitching philosophy before the season starts. That'll tell you right away if they know what they're talking about. Explain to them that you follow the Dick Mills' system, and send them to Dick's website. Initiate a dialogue. See if they're willing to do their homework. If the league has a director of coaching, initiate the same dialogue with him.
- Avoid private pitching instructors. You will do better studying Dick's DVDs, videotaping your son, and studying the newsletter than you will by hiring any private instructor, no matter what his credentials. Credentials mean nothing. High school coaches and private instructors are the worst offenders. They refuse to do their homework and study the evidence. (I tell all my players and their parents that what separates me from other coaches is that I'm willing to do my homework.
- Consider yourself lucky if your son plays for someone who doesn't coach the pitchers, like a volunteer dad. Better to have a coach who knows nothing about pitching and doesn't try to coach it.
- Prepare for the inevitable: travel coaches, h.s. coaches, etc., who will try to change what's working for him and want him to stretch his arm before throwing, lift weights, etc. I've instructed my sons, if they play for someone like that, to "fake" the stretching and the lifting. In other words, go through the motions of stretching without actually stretching, and if they are forced to lift, stick to leg work only and always with the lightest weights possible, or try to substitute med ball routines.
- Volunteer to coach your son's team or at least assist. That will allow you to have more control over what he learns.
- Tell your son how to respond to incompetent coaches. Tell him to be polite and respectful, but also firm in telling the coach that he's learned this system and it's working for him.
- Don't send your son to pitching clinics. You'll save money and he won't be exposed to incompetent coaches.
I've worked with many of my h.s. pitchers for months on developing a momentum delivery only to have them work with a private instructor in the off season and come back to me in February with their old, bad habits, and I have to start all over again.
I'm proud to say that after 28 years of h.s. coaching, I'm willing to keep doing my homework and change anything that I'm doing wrong.
Thanks again for your great program.
Dave Wick
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