At every level of baseball, coaches are presented with new players for their team on a fairly regular basis. This is often inefficient for players who have had previous success under a former coach. Take a high schooler who has worked with a specific hitting coach for years, maybe it's even his dad, and he goes to college and starts to struggle. Maybe it's a college player getting drafted, or a pro player getting called up from High-A to AA. They are taken to ground zero with a new coach and sometimes struggle getting acclimated (eHarmony for baseball coaches).
Change can present both positives and negatives, we need to minimize the negatives. It is far too common for players to blame new routines for their lack of success when moving up a level. Rather than waiting for the player to struggle before stepping in, coaches can take a proactive approach to understand what previously made that player successful. (I touched on this some in a previous post, Pitch Design: Explore vs. Exploit).
Here's an example of how this could work with a hitter. A coach (or anyone working for the team/organization) has conversations with both the previous coach, and the player. The dialogue could give great insight into what has made that player successful, which would then be filtered into the new player's development plan.
If the player and previous coach both bring up the same cue, drill or feel that worked, that is extremely valuable information to the new coach. This is not to say the points brought up solely on the coach or player side should be disregarded. If a hitter gets ready by taking one-handed swings off the tee but the previous coach does not mention it, that's ok, still do it. Maybe the coach has some data to show the underload/overload bats have helped the hitter, continue with that training with the new coach. The goal of this is to understand what has helped the player get to where he is, and not mess him up just because he is working with a new coach.
At some point, players need to be pushed out of their comfort zones, but that can be introduced as he continues with what has worked.
The best coaches are already doing this and a good scout likely has intel on this, as well. Way too many players have expressed their frustration with this as they move onto a new level of play and something needs to be done about it.
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