re: My Non-travel ball playing nephew just made the HS baseball team

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In my own experience, the guys who were going to get personal instruction on the side while in high school had psycho parents and they were the epitome of all that is wrong with the travel ball culture. The parents didn't think the coaches were doing enough so they went out and found someone who would gladly take their money to dick around for an hour twice a week.

If you're at a good high school program and you're going to training on the side, you're probably going to piss off your high school coaches and rightfully so. If what you're getting from them isn't good enough, don't play.

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Complete opposite experience on my end. The high school program in my area is very good. One of the best in the area. But that's because of the players. The coach is a hot-headed jackass.

The hitting coach at the baseball academy we went to in Houston is a former Astros hitting coach. These are real professionals.

Some MLB players like Carl Crawford go there for instruction during the summer. It was common to wait for Carl Crawford or Michael Bourn to get done with their lesson and you were up next. These aren't people who would take your money and "dick around" for an hour. The hitting coach was good to the point to where he could notice what you were doing wrong right away, calmly get you to fix it, and all of a sudden you can hit the ball again. He is really really good.

They are way more knowledgeable than your local high school coach.