Practice question

I just put together an 8u travel team (6,7, and 8) and this is my first time to manage a team of my own. I really only wanted 12-13 players but we ended up with 15, (one just showed up to the last practice but she is a keeper) to help keep cost down a little and to offset in case anyone decided this was just not for them during the season.

My problem is I had to take about 3-4 players that are fairly weak with their throws. One is exceptionally weak but she does seem to be doing better after only two practices. My question is, is it ok to pull these 3-4 weak throwers out of a group infield practice to focus more on their throwing and catching and to not hold back the ones that are ready to move forward with infield drills?

Looking back, I knew these were weaker players and wasn't going to invite them, 2 of them for sure. Hind site is 20/20...

We will be having tryouts again in the spring so this will change but since I have them and they are committed, I would like to develop them as best I can but I don't want to slow the rest of the team down.

I think so, maybe ask them to come to practice 15 minutes early so they do not need to miss any of the Team work.

Edit:

Also ask the parents to stay for those 15 minutes, you are going to need there help to correct any throwing or catching issues.

Work in stations.
Group the players by ability.
Rotate often.

I can't imagine that they all don't need work on the overhand throw. And they all would need help with catching the ball, anyway. So, I would style my practices for all of them and then, tell their folks that they need to be playing catch with them, everyday.

I thought about that James but I don't think15 min is enough time and it does not give them much time to warm up prior to throwing work. I may see about having them stay late both practices next week or maybe come for 30 min when the rest of the team isnt there just to work on foot work and form.

Yes, by all means separate them and have them do different drills appropriate for their ability. Let their parents know that this will not be solved in practice and they need to play a lot of catch with them. I separate girls based on ability all the time and it has no ill effects, don't make a big deal about it and don't do it with every drill or point out that it is because of ability, just tell them what drill they are doing and that's it. They will never know the difference, if there is a competitive/smart kid in this group they will get the message and be motivated to NOT be considered one of these kids and will work hard to improve. Under no circumstances should you restrict the development of the other players though. Better to set the bar high and ask the remedial players to catch up then to set it low and ask the better kids to be stunted.

Make sure you have a good understanding of how to teach throwing, IMO. If I had it to do over in 8U, I'd spend more time throwing and catching, and I'd call it a throwing program and not warmup. And I like what James Smith said about having parents involved. Most of the best throwers spent a lot of time in the backyard with a parent who also had been taught (if they didn't already know) how to throw correctly.

4 girls, James' comments are spot on...

This is just like school...the kids who do better are those whose parents work with them.

The *ONLY* people who can help the girls with their throwing is their parents. The only way for them to improve is to throw a great deal with their parents. So, you have to teach their parents how to throw and teach their parents how to teach their children.

If their parents aren't going to work with them, then it would be best for everyone for you to tell them, "It isn't working out. Here is your money back."

Thanks for all of the replies! Great forum!

I will and had already started pairing them up by ability so that when a group needed more I could focus on both. And I like the idea of our warm throwing as being our first station. (We start close and finish with an almost base line to base line throw and catch in three to four increments now.). I also agree that they really need more time at home with catching and throwing but I do have a strong group of players. Sure they ALL need work on catching and throwing but not all need the same work. And I will def tell the parents!

As far as teaching them right? I did teach my older DD the wrong way because that is what I was taught. But thanks to discussfastpitch.com, I have seen the error of my ways! I'm already working on correcting hers and now know how to correct some of the others.

I have coached several 8U teams and currently coach an 8U team (and others) and we do very little infield practice (meaning where they are put into positions and have a single ball hit at them) and do mostly throwing drills, batting/hitting (to include learning how to bunt) and base running and sliding drills. If you do not get the throws down at this age group you will be trying to get the girls to unlearn bad habits (and we future coaches will hate you for it). Once a girl has success in making a correct throw with incorrect mechanics, it becomes harder to get her to be more receptive to changes to her throw. (See Pavelov's dog experiment with the ringing dinner bell for proof). At 8U you need to get throwing down, running the bases correctly, stop looking at the ball when hit (I know, a coach can dream can't he?) and learning how to slide. If you don't start teaching sliding when they are young, the girls get more resistant to it the older they get, plus they are closer to the ground at this age so it is safer for them! You have to combine all that with keeping it fun. Try to disguise some of your drills as games. 15 is WAY too many for a travel roster. Once you get to the age where you can only field 9, you will have 6 pissed off girls and probably a set of pissed off parents for each girl. That right there totals at least 18 mad folks. If you want to tote that many mad folks with you on tourney weekends, that is your choice. Even rotating them in and out only changes the total number of mad people to a higher number. I would try to find a way to reduce the roster if possible. I have seen teams try to retain a heavy body count roster for financial reasons and the team imploded because there was too much animosity amongst the parents due to "Why is she playing over my DD?" "My DD doesn't make as many E's as her, why did she get subbed out?" "Why is my DD so low in the line up? She hits WAY BETTER than the girl at #4" etc. Trying to keep that many people happy is a reciepie for disaster. Also, I am pretty sure that most parents will SAY that they are fine with it, just to make the team. They will then change their mind if you start losing (sometimes even if you win). They forget that 8U is not about winning, but about building the correct mechanics and fostering the love for the game. Your first months of practices should be heavy on getting the girls to the correct throwing mechanics.

As far as throwing goes:
We used Mike Candrea's USA Softball series on DVD's to teach them the right way to throw (learn the right way first as a coach and then teach the girls). We start out (like Mike does in the video) with the one-knee drill and teach the girls to come across the body with the throw. We then move to the side straddle position (standing in a straight position with your leading shoulder pointing towards your target) and teach proper grasp of the ball (ball facing away), proper rotation of the arm (in a circle motion), proper release and follow through across the body, while either pointing the glove or the elbow (with glove tucked in) pointing at your target. And end the motion with the rear foot turning over with shoelaces pointing towards the ground. We combine this with a drill we call the plus drill. We make a big plus sign on the ground under each girl. The thrower starts out on the N-S axis and her partner stands with feet on the W-E axis, centered with her glove over the intersection of the plus (at waist height, not down on the ground). Once the catcher makes the catch, the girls both "pop" to the other axis to recieve or throw the ball, depending on whether they have the ball or not. The girls love this "hopping and popping" not even realizing that we are teaching them to have proper footwork, to be able to rotate their hips faster when they get older (when switching from fielding position to throwing position), to center themselves over the ball, to deliver a throw on target, etc, etc. They think it is fun to "pop" to the other axis. Once they get this down, after a few practices, we break up the cliques by making them rotate throwing partners. We add in games later to see how many "perfect" throws we can make as a team. Doing this has caused a rapid improvement in the whole teams throwing and catching mechanics. This also seems to help the girls that are afraid of the ball when catching as they center themselves when receiving the ball and they also start getting better throws. I too started teaching what I knew and then decide to ask the experts. I had to change a few things in what I was teaching these little girls from what I learned as a little boy.

Once we have throwing on the path to correction we move to infield drills where we split the team into 2 lines. One at first and the other at 2B position. With only one player from each line at the front of the line or on the base, we coaches start rolling balls at them (left, right, middle, fly) in rapid fire succession. Once one girl makes the throw to 1B, she runs to the end of the line and the ball is already on the way to the next girl. The girl at 1B drops the ball into a bucket as she runs to the end of the line at first. The coaches swap the buckets to keep things moving. Once both lines have been through several times, we switch lines. After both lines have been through balls at 2B, we rotate and move the line to SS, then 3B. Then we move the 1B line to 2B and work on throws to 2B. During the throws to 2B we teach them if they are close or the ball has carried them toward 2B, to underhand toss to 2B. Then we work on SS line fielding the ball and running and tagging 2B themselves. Then every 3rd practice or so we will put them into position and field live hitting while having runners on the bases. We give the girls quick instruction on where to play the balls by asking them to point out the plays or what they should do if the ball comes their way. We teach them that stopping the ball is more important than getting someone out. At this age they can get frustrated if a parent shouts out "You should've thrown it to 3rd." or "Why didn't you tag that runner?" I tell them, "Stop the ball first. We will teach you what comes next. Don't worry about it." We do not let our parents "should" all over our players.

Also work on hitting a lot, if you can. An L-screen helps for getting lots of repetitions in. Find out what kind of pitching they do in the local tourneys around your area. Try to duplicate it during practice. Get them used to what they are going to face. Don't forget Tee work also. You will hear parents say "I am so glad to be done with T-Ball, NO MORE TEES!" and then you will break them out at your practice! Tell them the girls will see Tees all the way through college.

Also at this age you need to start developing your pitchers. Not necessarily during your regular practices, but afterwards if some girls want to hang around and learn (if you have the knowledge to teach them). If you live near a local college, see if there is a local pitcher who might be able to come out and give a couple of lessons. There will be nothing worse for team morale than moving up to 10U and THEN trying to start working on developing your pitchers. Walk-a-thons are no fun for anyone. Get them started with the basics now. If a parent asks what you think about private pitching lessons, encourage them to seek them out.