Hitting & Fielding Instructor

[triplecrown]

In Northern California who is recognized as one of the top hitting instructors, and who is recognized as one of the top Infield/Outfield Instructors..

[Sarge]

Dennis Gomes of D&D Sports Academy in Lodi,CA. My daughter has been with him for over a year now and he has made her into one of the most consistent hitters in our area. He works with a lot of girls from 10U to 18 Gold. Awesome!!!

[xxxYerOut]

Is this HR? Is dd tired of "throwin the pizza"?? Are you trying to stay in the Rocklin/Roseville area, or open to outer limits (bay area)? If I had the chance to go way out, I would like to get my dd some time with SSarge if available. If local, PM me for a couple options.

[style]

who and where is ssarge from?

[ssarge]

who and where is ssarge from?

Well, Ssarge is not from the same place as whoever joined earlier this week with the name Sarge.

[dittoz]

Don't be surprised if the only big fans of a particular instructor are those who go to him/her. Those who go elsewhere will be fans of someone else.

Like shoes, it's pretty likely that the best fit is an individual experience and while opinions are like hair (most people have them), what is good for one is not always good for another.

There are a great many very good and very experienced hitting instructors in Northern California and it really depends on who the student is and how much work they're willing to put in. I've seen instructors who are phenominal in my opinion yet a student has utterly failed after going to them for an extended period of time because they refuse to practice beyond team and instructor sessions. On the other hand, I've seen very marginal instructors claim success because the student they work with simply lacked any formalized plan until they started seeing someone. Once they started on a course of action they worked hard and became a success because of their own hard work.

Lastly, different hitters are best with different styles. I cringe when I see a hitting instructor immediately try to force a hitter into this cookie-cutter style. You must rotate, you must go linear, you must do this... you must do that... Every hitter employs some of the same basic fundamentals, but not every hitter gets there in the same manner and not every hitter has the same success with the same style. My own daughter is a good example of this concept. She is 14 and stands 5' 1. On rainy days when she walks home, she weighs maybe 85 pounds. She is not the picture of a power hitter and does not do well when employing pure conventional "rotational" mechanics. She learned them early on and hit the ball consistently, but never had the power that she does now using the method that some refer to as linear-to-rotational. Prior to her current hitting coach, the last few she had tried to make her stay back, never move forward into the ball and even went so far as to try tying her to the fence to keep her back in practice. Her current coach took a different track and refined the forward movement and she immediately hit the ball harder than she ever had before. This same coach works with several other girls and is on the 18G staff at AASA. Some of the girls are power hitters and stay back, others are more linear.

So bottom line, the best hitting coach is the one that has the best success with the most girls.
In my opinon...

(YRMV)

[triplecrown]

Who is the AASA hitting coach your referring to, I had heard there where changes in staff?

[dittoz]

Rob Diggle - great guy (in my opinion of course!)

Also coach(ed) at Union Mine HS near Placerville as I recall.
Was also part of the Stanford Baseball coaching staff many moons back...

[rbi]

Rob Diggle - great guy (in my opinion of course!)

Also coach(ed) at Union Mine HS near Placerville as I recall.
Was also part of the Stanford Baseball coaching staff many moons back...

Rob Diggle, is a CLASS act and a great person with a WEALTH of knowledge, who has the girls best interest at heart, great for the game of softball..

Does he still give lessons up in the hills?

[xxxYerOut]

@TC - You are correct. There have been changes in staff and is no longer available at AASA. She was by far our favorite that dd has had.

My niece is available there (AASA-Roseville) now. I have heard VERY good things about her, but she is family so I am unable to rate her fairly. I do know shew has had some of the best coaching throughout her playing days and is doing well. We just haven't had enough time with her hitting to accurately judge, but likely will soon. I can say, nobody has gotten more out of dd as a pitcher, so she can coach. I can say the same for other pitchers we know. It is the same system as the former. At least she is local and might be worth a look. The girls that work with her love her.

@Ssarge (not sarge) Do you teach hitting outside of the the gold team I remember reading about? (sorry - been away from hb a while and out of the loop, but always thought it would be good to get dd some work with you). Please let us know if you are available privately and where.