How to sabotage your player’s progress

1. Don’t take time for practice

“We’ve been so busy this week…”  There’s no denying it takes a huge commitment from the entire family when your daughter’s a softball pitcher. It’s almost like doing two sports; the extra time needed for lessons, and pitching practice leaves little room for other activities.

Without a doubt, the pitchers who succeed at a higher level practice—practice—practice. The ordinary pitcher can out perform the extrordanry athlete in the long run by practicing. Twenty minutes a day is better than an hour, and a-half twice a week. Remember, pitching takes years to master, and is a long-term commitment.

2. Over-instruct your child

The learning process for a child is different than that of an adult. Adults are better prepared to put the complex physical movements, and the steps associated with pitching into sequential order. Also, adults tend to be more focused on the end results than children.

Young athletes are usually more into the events of the moment (present tense). By contrast, parents tend to be more concerned about what their daughters are capable of doing with what they’ve just learned (future tense). Understand there are times when the parent or coach needs to slow down the instruction, and let the child absorb the lesson before moving on to more complex assignments.

3. Don’t be patient

Have you ever noticed, generally speaking, that parents tend to be more patient with other people’s children than with their own? I know I am certainally guilty.

Every student-athlete has that “ah ha” moment where she improves in her pitching, and understanding of the pitching process. Further, it usually happens on her own timetable; it can take 2-3 months, or up to two years. Some pitchers get it sooner than others. Even though we do our best to speed up the process it will happen when it happens.

In conclusion, know that comparing one pitcher (your daughter) to another is not fair, and is usually counter-productive.

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