Private Lessons

My newly formed 14u team,(beginning of the fall) has been slowly showing progress in the 4 tournaments that we have played in. I have run into a bit of a roadblock from some of the parents on the team when I mentioned private lessons and actually making the girls log their workouts outside of team practices. My philosophy, and I put it out there when the team was put together, is that team practice is for working on game situations and not teaching fundamentals. Many of the girls that are on the team are first time TB players and just need some additional "fine tuning" outside of our regular team practice. It is it wrong to suggest the lessons and require a weekly log of the girls workouts outside of team practices?

I love that idea. I'm stealing it. I can see the logs getting fudged though...
Maybe the parents should do the logs. It's pretty obvious who puts in work and who just shows up for practice.

I wouldn't mind logging outside workouts if our coach wanted us to. Of course, my kid is a work horse. She loves to practice. If I had a kid who I had to wrangle into working I might be less enthused (but isn't that kind of the point?). I think you'll be able to tell pretty easily who'd fudging the records. It's pretty clear when kids don't practice at home.

I would explain to the parents and players that individual practice is expected in TB. If you have 14 players and each one takes a 30 minute batting lesson, that is 7 hours worth of practice time. I would also let the parents know that hitting balls off a tee at home for 30 minutes is great too (paid instruction could be a financial burden). A lot of parents who are new to TB are shell shocked by the costs and additional time/effort required. All that said, I would not suggest requiring players to provide log sheets, but let everyone know that playing time is earned, and the players who are working the hardest and showing the most improvement are the ones who are going get more playing time in games.

Personally I would resist the idea of logging DD’s practice time, actually I wouldn’t do it.

If you are going to emphasis private lessons, I would become very familiar with what is available in your area with different price points. I would also make sure everyone has what they need to practice at home and spend time with anyone that needs it on what they should work on.

Nothing really to add but that we'd love to be on a team like that. Good point about familiarizing yourself with what pros are available out there. Not a whole lot available in my area, but happy with our PC.

My DD logs her private workouts to track what aspect of the game she worked on (pitching). She is 10. So you are not out of line.

Tried the practice logs with my 2 DD's, DID NOT WORK! Made practicing seem like work instead of something they wanted to do. Totally agree with having a PC, since my DD's have been going to one, everything both their TB coach and I have been trying to get them to do in their swings suddenly makes sense and they listen to the PC when he suggests it! Some of this I feel is he is able to tailor the suggestions to their individual swings better than their TB coach can in a large group practice, and anything I say as a parent is the same as anything a parent suggests to a preteen or teenager, wont sink in till they are about 30 and can admit their parents were right! I would suggest any PC talk with TB coach or any other coach DD's are on so they can work together as opposed to the other trying to undo what the other is teaching. I know in our case our TB coach and PC coach spoke at length about each of our DD's after PC had a chance to evaluate them and before their weekly lessons began and both share freely with us as parents and with DD's on what they are trying to accomplish. Can honestly say our PC may be the best investment we have made towards making our DD's better at the game!

I required a hitting log during off-season for the 12U team I coached a few years ago. We met once/week during winter and got hitting instruction w/ a professional hitting coach. I wanted to make the point that you can't get better hitting once/week, especially when you are practicing mechanics that you are being taught. So it was essential that they hit 3-4/times week to improve. Everyone was cooperative.

As an aside, I will say that those who worked the hardest were not necessarily the best hitters. So while hard work pays off over a long period of time, I don't agree that your hardest workers are going to be your best players in any given season. My 2 best hitters didn't work very hard. Three years later, they can still hit. Some just have it.

CoogansBluff said:

I required a hitting log during off-season for the 12U team I coached a few years ago. We met once/week during winter and got hitting instruction w/ a professional hitting coach. I wanted to make the point that you can't get better hitting once/week, especially when you are practicing mechanics that you are being taught. So it was essential that they hit 3-4/times week to improve. Everyone was cooperative.

As an aside, I will say that those who worked the hardest were not necessarily the best hitters. So while hard work pays off over a long period of time, I don't agree that your hardest workers are going to be your best players in any given season. My 2 best hitters didn't work very hard. Three years later, they can still hit. Some just have it.

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