PREPARATION – Battling the Surge of Conflicting Baseball Advice

A difficult aspect of amateur baseball today is the number of coaches and instructors players encounter. By the time he enters high school, a player might compete on ten different teams, each of which may have a coaching staff of four adults. In addition, that player might participate in team instruction as well as individual instruction. That’s about 50 different voices rattling around in his head by the time he gets the combination for his freshman hall locker.

Kids often question, who should I listen to? This coach, for example, told me to take a short stride, this instructor preaches no stride and my last coach taught me a leg kick. What should I do? Personally, I feel bad for this generation of kids. We, as adults, ask them to relax and have fun, but cloud the waters with conflicting advice and technical jargon. It’s like former major league pitcher and manager Bob Lemon once said, “Baseball is a kid’s game that grown-ups only tend to screw up.”

My primary advice to players struggling to decide who to listen to is to take responsibility for your careers. You have to develop an understanding of who you are as a player and what works for you. What works for someone else may not be suitable to you and your game. Consider all the different batting styles and pitching delivers you witness at the major league level. David Ortiz is not going to swing the bat like Ichiro Suzuki and Brandon Webb is not going to throw like Josh Beckett. You have to serve as judge for yourself as to what is a good suggestion for you and what advice is better for someone else.

Secondly, don’t be afraid to ask, “Why?” Don’t ask like a wise-guy, but as someone who is interested in hearing precisely how this information will help. And the coach or instructor better have a good answer. If someone is asking you to make a change, they need to back it up with “why” and it has to make sense to you. That’s the only way you will believe in it, and ultimately, have confidence that the advice will make you better. Answers like, “Because I said so,” or “that’s the way we do it here,” are not good enough. It has to make sense to you.

Be careful of adults who preach in absolutes. Yes, there are certain positions in the swing and pitching delivery you want to get to, but how you get there is not of great substance. There are an abundance of pitching deliveries and grips, batting stances and swings, double play pivots and throws that work for many different players. Sentences regarding technique that start with, “You must …” should be monitored. The key is that your style fits your physical abilities, it’s working, and you’re continually trying make it better.

With regards to style, when in doubt, keep it simple. Baseball is a game of fine skills that are more easily executed in a competitive environment when there is consistency born through constant repetition. The more complex you make the fundamentals, the greater the chance of inconsistency in execution and/or timing.

When you go through a period of struggles, it opens the window for coaches to make changes. They can be like vultures. And because you’re vulnerable, you become willing to try anything. Don’t jump the gun and start changing something every time you have a bad game or two. Yes, there are times that wrinkles need to be ironed out and adjustments are necessary. But slumps happen to every player at every level and technique is not always the cause. It can be your mental approach, emotions or perhaps you’ve just run into some really tough competition. Adjustments may be required, but remember, constant change will never allow you to be consistent nor will it allow you to establish a true level of comfort and confidence.

Last point and this may sound contradictory to every that’s been said. Always listen to what your coaches have to say. First, it’s a sign of respect towards someone who is trying to help you. Give him eye contact and give him a chance to explain his thoughts. A coach may say 12 things to you throughout a season, ten of which you’ve already heard or may not work for you. But if two of those 12 tips make you say, “That’s a good idea,” then it makes you a better player. Anything that makes you better is worth listening to.