Discipline

Probably 75% of the kids on my DD's teams have not hated running nearly enough to think of it as punishment. My DD loves running so that would not be all that effective for her. Push ups, though, maybe.

I put my players in a time out for the rest of practice or the rest of the game.

Thanks all for sharing so far.

This is certainly a challenging area to deal with.

A lot of time running as a punishment is not a run until you die and/or hate running. Its shutting down the behavior you don't like and redirecting attention. A huuuuggggeeee plus if the time spent "wasted" comes out of fun drills players love. Kind of like when teachers have students do a quick quiet time when the classroom is being crazy.

I've done it all. I've been a yeller. I've been a quiet talker. I've been a run the team. I've been a run the player. As HC of my HS softball team, I'd simply say "touch the pole" and the team would run, touch their assigned pole by position and come back. The distance was not far and the time lost in practice was minimal. It seemed to work. I would not raise my voice or preach. I'd simply say something like, "we weren't focused and so, we needed to get focused. The team seemed to do pretty well after doing that. After the first week, I don't think I had to do that again.

Baseball was so much easier. I'd tell the players to put up my portable mound and screen and get the rolling cage off the field. Man, you want to see some players hacked off, when I would do that, those that hadn't had a chance to hit live BP would be seriously hacked off and those that brought this about would hear about it after practice. Boys are so much different.

14U is a really hard age group as you have a mix of girls that will go on to play college ball and some that are probably in their last season. Things get better at 16U and even easier at 18U. I also use touch the pole every once and a while. It is really not a punishment but more of an opportunity to collectively focus on the task at hand. Frankly if a run to a pole and back is so physically unpleasant to a player as to be viewed as punishment, they probably need to go find a different activity. Please, let's not confuse a 100 yard sprint or two with a forced 20 mile march with a 70 pound rucksack. We spend a great amount of time articulating our principles and our expectations and our players know that we are here to work hard and each has a job to do. If a player can't or will not do their job I am more than willing to find someone else who will. So to Sluggers point I find the bench or just the prospect of the bench to be very effective. If I do not seem to have enough players to come off the bench I have no problem bringing in more.

I used Burpee's. It has worked for me. 14U here, and they still don't like it. Stole it from the Varsity Volleyball coach..

We make the player committing the error or needing correction to choose another player to run. It's one thing to run yourself but to have to choose a teammate is a totally different dynamic. They will run through a brick wall before they have to pick another player. Try it.


Sent from my typewriter

We make the player committing the error or needing correction to choose another player to run.

Click to expand...

Pathetic.

If a coach has to use draconian practices like that at 14U, the coach should find some other way to spend their free time.

sluggers said:

Pathetic.

If a coach has to use draconian practices like that at 14U, the coach should find some other way to spend their free time.

Click to expand...

Actually, many of us here think your ideas about softball and discipline are milk and cookies. We all know you don't favor exercise cause a girl shouldn't have to sweat. That being said we don't attack you and call you pathetic. As a "Super Moderator" you close down threads that get personal and yet here you are attacking another poster....that is pathetic.