As I continue to work with baseball players I have become convinced that the instructional programs in the minors, professional leagues and what scouts say has no semblance of coordination. It appears that individuals from each of these categories tells an athlete to do something that is completely opposite from what the others say.
I can understand some deviation when coaches have a preference for one technique or another, but not when they tell the athlete to do something that is opposite of what they were told by the previous coach. A little of this is understandable but it is rampant.
Because of this we often lose some great talent because the coach told them to do something that was very ineffective that eventually brought the athlete down. For example, I had a minor league player who was very effective hitting from both sides -.280 average.
The coaches were impressed and told him to keep it up as the parent club wanted such hitters. When he moved up to the next team the coach told him to hit only from one side. His batting average went down and eventually he was cut.
Another player who played for several teams was told to change his batting stance with each different coach. One told him to keep the weight on the rear foot, another said it should be the front foot, and still another said it should be equally balanced.
An outfielder that I worked with was told to assume a wide stance half squat in the ready position. Another coach told him to assume the typical athletic position. A third coach told him to take a stride stance and to be ready to move forward at all times.
When stealing a base, one player was told to use the crossover step, another was told to step out immediately, another was told to get into a wide stance and to be stationary, and still another was told to take a narrow stance and move his upper body to distract the pitcher.
I can go on with many more examples but these should be sufficient. They show how the team management selects coaches based on factors having little to do with the instruction that they will be giving. There are no universally accepted practices that have proven to be most efficient.
This situation just leads to great confusion among the players. As a result, I have had to tell the players to ignore what the coach says and to continue doing what we practiced. It is not something I like to do, but in such cases it is a necessity.
For more information on what an athlete should do an execution of his skills in baseball see Build a Better Athlete.