Tournament ball- how often does YOUR team practice?

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obbay

Banned
Aug 21, 2008
2,199
0
Boston, MA
Our U18 team just played their last tournament of the summer and finished much weaker than they started. my thoughts are that when they were fresh off HS ball they had been practicing/playing 6 days a week. once tournament season started we might have a BP at the cages once a week, but that was it.

i can tell that most of the teams we are playing have to be practicing regularly, so I'm just wondering what kind of practices does your team have during the summer and how often?
 
Feb 15, 2013
650
18
Delaware
My DD's 14U and now 16U team has full team practices 3 days a week even in the winter as we have an indoor facility. On top of that there is a pitcher/catcher practice once a week. So most are practicing 4 nights a week all year long.
 
Jun 27, 2011
5,089
0
North Carolina
Our 16U team has practiced 3 times since high school ball ended. The players don't live that close, and they're playing tournaments 3 weekends/month, so it's not practical or even particularly helpful as a team. It's a team where players are expected to work out on their own. Much more efficient for DD to practice with me for 1.5 hours than drive 2 hours round-trip for a team practice.

When I coached 12U, almost everybody on the team lived within 15 minutes of the park. We practiced all the time.
 
Jun 12, 2015
3,848
83
My dd is younger. Our 8U travel team practiced twice a week, for 1:30-2 hours per practice. It was kind of a rec team playing travel (both coaches and most girls new to travel ball). Our 10U team is probably going to practice twice a week also, but I think it'll be 2 hours for one and 4 for the other. But we also practice just with our DD separately almost every day, at least with pitching and hitting.
 
Jul 25, 2015
148
0
Tournament week it was generally twice during the week and then playing on the weekend. When a weekend came along where there was not a tournament, DD's team normally had three practices during that week. Of course, it was "expected" that all the players were doing individual work or going to private lessons on the "off" days.
 
Sep 19, 2013
420
0
Texas
My DD's 14U and now 16U team has full team practices 3 days a week even in the winter as we have an indoor facility. On top of that there is a pitcher/catcher practice once a week. So most are practicing 4 nights a week all year long.
Wow.Jq. Do u guys ever worry about burnout? How well do the girls play in tournaments? Do u guys ever take a break?
 
Oct 18, 2009
604
18
Season is now over but my DD's 18U team had practiced as a team only once on the one off weekend since travel season started (end of HS Season). So once in 2 months. Players come from too far away to have regular team practices. In winter they practice 1x/week. To be honest I'd be surprised if any 18u teams have team practices regularly once the showcase/tournament season starts.

Although at younger ages my DD's team had at least 1 team practice a week during travel season. But at that age kids on the team weren't really from different states.
 
Feb 15, 2013
650
18
Delaware
Wow.Jq. Do u guys ever worry about burnout? How well do the girls play in tournaments? Do u guys ever take a break?

Burnout is always a possibility with any girl. I think as you move up in age groups 16/18 the girls who want to play at the "NEXT" level are committed and will be there working hard and the ones that think they want to play at the next level will get burnt. It's something you have to worry about but I think it happens to less girls than we think. There's never a shortage of girls on college teams nor is there a shortage of TB teams anywhere that I've seen.

The girls played well starting in May at 14U. They couldn't tie their cleats from Aug until then LOL. They really struggled to understand and execute all the different things we were doing. Once it clicked they were fine.

As far as breaks I don't like them. That being said my DD took the entire week off from softball after nationals and before tryouts so she had about 10 days of no softball except emails to coaches and research on schools. Now that tryouts have started she's back to 3 days a week until the team is picked and then will be 4-6 days a week again. I have had teams that take Turkey Day through New Years off to relax and what I found was 12+ girls that sat around for 40 days and did nothing. Might as well not start the season until January and save yourself the entire fall hassle. But that was the younger age groups 10/12. I think 2nd year 14-18U you need to be mastering your craft as much as possible.
 
Jan 15, 2009
689
18
Midwest
We have workouts twice a week (speed & agility, hitting, pitching, fielding), a team practice once a week -- for 14s, 16s (18s we only practiced twice).
If for some reason there was no practice, you had to be at a workout.
 

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