Had a kind of fun experience over the weekend. My daughter attended a half-day pitching camp with Michele Smith and Cat Osterman at the local high school. During the camp, Michele explained the fundamentals of pitching, then she and Cat worked with the various pitchers to try to help them get to where they need to be.

Validation #1 was that what Michele said is what I teach. Not just mostly, but pretty much exactly. While I am confident in what I'm doing, especially with the results I've been able to help my students achieve, it's still good to get that sort of reinforcement.

Validation #2 was what happened when Michele and Cat were walking around working with the girls. When they got to my daughter, neither of them wanted to change anything. Not one thing! Both said she looked very good and should keep doing what she was doing. In fact, the only change was a different grip on her curve ball, which got her pretty excited. She said it was breaking better than ever.

Of course, #2 is more a tribute to her than me. She did the work — I just pointed the way to it. But I was glad to see her get that kind of reinforcement from two pitchers who have achieved so much success.

By the way, Michele is an excellent instructor. Very friendly and approachable while being very knowledgeable. I'm not big on these one-day clinics, but if you're looking for tweaks rather than learning from scratch, Michele's is a good one.