New Coach! 8u and I don't know what to do!

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Mar 4, 2015
13
0
Western WA
You are all AMAZING! I read everything and now the panic has dissipated and the excitement has set in! Since this morning I suckered in another person to help me coach :rolleyes: and I have scheduled practices for Tuesdays and Thursdays From 5pm-6pm with the option of staying till 6:30pm. I wrote out a letter for the parents and made up a few safety rules. Some of the gear was crap so I bought a few things to make it easier on everyone. I'm going to try to make the drills fun and like playing games so they don't hate it... a few girls aren't playing this year because they hated last year! I don't want that to happen so making it fun and not work should help! :p

Thank you all for the fantastic advice. I'm super stoked and ready to play softball with the girls, but first paperwork... lol
 
May 20, 2008
12
3
Break the girls up into 2 or 3 groups (4 or 5 girls in a group) for drills. That way they are rotating through the drill quicker and don't have a chance to stand around and get bored. You can have one group working on fielding another on hitting, etc. Then after say 15-20 minutes the groups switch (may a quick water break). Don't be afraid to go longer than an hour! They should be able to go an hour an a half....sometimes even a bit longer...just have to keep them busy and moving (and don't tell them how long they've been practicing). But some days realize that it just isn't working and cut it a bit short.

Welcome to the fickle whims of 8yo...and I LOVED coaching them!
 
Jan 7, 2014
972
0
Western New York
Welcome to one of the most fulfilling things you will do EVER...

Some of my thoughts on this...

I'm on to DD3 who is 7. Oldest is 14. I am a 12U travel coach now. I have so many great memories of softball at this age...why did they have to grow up?

My 1st words of advice: Do not make ANY assumptions about what they know or don't know.

My 2nd words of advice: Don't try to eat the elephant in 1 bite. At this age, EVERYTHING - and I mean EVERYTHING needs to be singled out. I will give examples of this below.

You are a teacher by profession so I'm sure you realize you have about 1 minute of attention span for every year they are old. Drills should be in the 10-12 minute range. Keep them moving or they will quickly switch to soccer, lacrosse, volleyball, etc...

Also, because you are a teacher, I'm certain you value a lesson plan. Practices should be structured no different - have a plan...I don't care if your plan is nothing more than how to pick dandelions properly and to find out what their favorite snacks are but have a plan...THAT plan is better than NO plan.

We have our 1st practice with the 7-8 year olds this Sunday...here is what we are doing and yes, I have this documented electronically (we have 90 minutes)

0-15
Name tags, introductions and safety for everyone (wife handles this)
During this time, I talk to the parents and set some basic expectations\get some feedback (some examples):
- find out if there are any peanut allergies, gluten intolerances, diabetics or asthmatics (or any other potential health issues)
- expectations
- player goals
- find our who wants to help out with practice. I encourage all parents at this age to assist with practice.
- no parents in\near the dugouts during games
- hand out snack schedule for after the games (remind them to be conscientious of any health issues if discovered)

15-25
warm up - make it fun and dynamic...
Fun stuff...duck walks, bear crawls, hop on one leg, frankenstein walks, etc.
MAKE NOTE OF ANY GIRL WHO IS: pigeon toed, splayed foot (think Charlie Chaplin) valgus\vargus in the femur area ("Q" angle if you know what that is) (usually not an issue at this age because they don't have hips yet), any sort of obvious muscle deficiency (it will be clear that when they move, for example, they don't move one of the arms\legs the same way as the other. Don't kill yourself over this just put your "Mom radar" on to look for this stuff...it could save an injury later...Mom radar is pretty good)

Stretch the warmed up muscles...stretch AFTER you get warm, not vice versa

25-30: Water

30-40

4 stations: each 10 minutes (so 2-3 minutes per station with 2-3 girls per station)

1: Put glove on correctly (you'll see kids instinctively put the glove on their dominant hand). Every kid has to take glove on\off properly 10 times

2: Getting setup in the batters box correctly\taking a stance (no bats yet) Stand, distance from plate, where in the batters box, etc. Helmet on!

3. How to get into a good throwing position. I teach thumbs down\elbows move up. (if you start from prayer position palms opposed and rotate both thumbs downward, your elbows will raise and you will end up in a very similar starting spot as the water bottle drill start. If you do this, you will feel your shoulder blade start to load as well as feeling resistance in your rear delt and tricep). I have never shot video of this but I will if you don't understand.

4. How to get into "ready position" on every play. No hands on knees. Try to get them to "walk into" a good ready position (they're 7-8 so good luck LOL)

40-50:
Contest! Who can stand on 1 leg the longest. Winner gets a dollar! Play along if you like...if you beat them all, they owe you a penny, payable at some point in the future :)

This gives me time to set up next stations:

1: Gripping the bat properly. I do this in conjunction with reviewing how to get setup in the batter's box correctly. This is a progression from station#2 above

2: Go from a good throwing position to actually throwing. Getting them to step with the correct foot can be a challenge. Again this is a progression from above. Have them start standing sideways (left arm pointed at target for RH thrower) with a ball and move thumbs down\elbow up. As the elbow moves up\hand separate, have them take a small step forward with their left leg (for RH thrower).

3. How to get into a proper infield fielding position (no glove here) back flat (should be able to put a softball on their back like a tabletop), back of hand facing ground - hand in front of body (don't field ball between legs, field it in front of you. You can get 50 reps in 3 minutes with this once you get going...

4. How to stand on a base correctly as a runner (left foot on base\right foot back. Why? Left foot on base will put them in foul territory when on 3rd)

I adjust the time here because you will probably be behind because you'll have to stop and correct things (it's the 1st practice, so observation NOT correction is my focus - you will set "your course" so to speak after seeing what you have), tie shoelaces, wipe noses, bathroom break, etc...it's all good :)

These are the last of the progressions so I make them longer - give a break in the middle
60-80:

2 stations of each of these:

1. Hitting progression off the tee. Make sure bat grip is good and setup to plate is correct. Most players setup with the tee too far forward and they are too far away from the tee. Let them hit a few balls off the tee. Make notes for next practice.

2. Roll a ball to them, have them field it and actually make a throw (make notes as to who throws stepping with their off foot, who drops their elbow, "shot puts" the ball, etc). You know a bad looking motion when you see it.

Video is your friend here...not to make corrections NOW but so you can plan out future practices around making corrective actions...

Oh...and for the most part, my parents run the drills and my wife and I supervise.

Other notes...

Words\phrases like "Don't do that" or "not like this" don't exist at my practices...everything is in a positive light!

Lastly, you'll do GREAT! I know this already because you took to the time to post here and express some self doubt - yet at the same time you recognized inadequate coaching...and decided that your DD deserved better...

...and because of that, my hat is off to you!

Believe in yourself...you have leadership skills!

Don't hesitate to ask questions...you don't know what you don't know...lots of folks here are more than willing to help...CP
 
Mar 21, 2013
353
0
First thing I did was go see a psychologist. I was diagnosed with the following;

1. Glutton for punishment
2. Allergic to free time

Make 3 to 4 groups of girls for each drill. This allows you to keep the drills short while maximizing reps. At the end of each drill make a game or contest involving the aspects of that drill. The girls love this, and it forces them to focus a little more since they know there may be a game or contest after.
 
Oct 4, 2014
57
6
howard is great. we have him come and do a weekend with our org every year. his dvds are great and worth it, imo. maybe you can get the org buy them and have all the coaches view it. I do not get anything for this endorsement, I just know our org fields quite well using his drills and techniques. the main goal is for each girl to get better and have fun. make your drills into games for example I use the star drill with runners. at 8u, you will have to pull the fielders in. but here is how it works. split team half runners half fielders, no pitcher. catcher starts with ball, now make a star c to ss, ss to 1st, 1st to third, this may be a tough throw at 8u but do it anyway, 3rd to second, second to c. now while this is going on you have your runners with helmets on! run the bases. five runners. it is a race. can the fielders complete 5 rounds before the 5 runners circle the bases? second runner does not start until first runner touches home and so on. after 2 or 3 times switch sides. at 8u I would have coaches with extra balls to help the fielders overthrows. when I coached rec ball we did this every practice. they like it because it is a game but it also is teaching them urgency on both sides. anything you can do to get them to learn while they think they are just playing a game is invaluable. an hour and half of drills will bore them to death. I have other games we play but that one is my favorite. I am sure other can give you some great ideas as well. make it fun and give lots of short water breaks to keep them from getting information overload.
best of luck
 
Aug 9, 2013
230
0
There is a lot of great advice in here!

Here are two more:
1) Understand the rules you will play under so you can coach to those. For example, understand the base running rules. You may play live ball anywhere - you may play only multiple base advances if the ball is in the OF. You need to understand those. Also, playing time limits (might have limits to pitching, infield time)

2) Build practices to be as near to game times as possible. The biggest mistake I see at this level is running 60 minute practices and when games start (they are 2 hours), the girls are bored/tired by the time the game is close to end. If they are used to doing softball for 90 minutes, they will adjust to the game times.
 
Jun 11, 2013
2,619
113
One point on safety that I think is import especially at this age is to teach them to be ready on defense. People joke about building sand castles,etc, but even at this age some of the kids can hit the ball hard. When we played 8U we had 3 or 4 girls that hit the ball extremely hard (for that age). We would always ask the other coaches to move the infield back on these kids.

My sons coach when he was 7 spend a lot of time on drill that got the kids to go left right ready every pitch. You can see players from this team 4 years later and tell they played on that team.
 

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