Thread: Does Your Team Practice Effectively?

I was watching an 11-12 All Star practice recently that ran about 2 and a half hours. A little structure could have knocked off at least 45 minutes. Some of the parents with travel ball experience were very frustrated. Does your DD play for a coach that brings a plan to practice every time? A 12-u team, we practice twice a week, about two hours per. One of our nearby elite teams practices less often because their players come from greater distances. They'll find a Saturday they're not playing and go almost all day, stopping to grill or picnic about the 2/3rds mark. What works, or doesn't, for your team and what would you do different?

I saw a 12U All Star team, last week. The coach had 14 girls lined up at SS. He was hitting a ball at them.
Then, he moved the line to 2nd base and did the same thing.
He had an assistant coach just running around and retrieving balls.

Short answer is no but I am not will to be a HC or AC so I keep more or less quite. Show up at all the practices and games, more than the ACs, but will only help in practice or games when specifically asked. That would be when saying less probably be a good thing.

For 12U/10u you can accomplish a lot in 90 minutes if practice is run correctly.

We always have a plan. A plan helps us focus on what we need to do and it allows us to use time wisely. We also base our plan on game situations from tournaments and we do a mix of drills, situations, and, yes, fun stuff. It's as much about teaching the game as it is about teaching skills.

This may need to be a new thread but here goes. Does anyone have a 2hr general practice plan they would care to share? I am speaking of a plan for a competitve 12u travel team. Most all of these girls have played for 4 or 5 years and are very skilled in the basics, but I know you must do the fielding drills and hitting every practice. I think we are wasting a lot of time and would like to see what others are doing.