Do you coach for speed?

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Apr 28, 2017
13
0
Do you do any drills or spend any time on teaching your girls to run *faster*?

DD was stealing 2nd yesterday. The catcher was pretty decent and almost threw her out. If you asked her if she was running at top speed I bet she’d say yes. But I’d describe it as a fast jog. Like, 85% of top speed. This is the most recent example burned in my brain but it’s pretty consistent with all the girls.

From what I’ve seen it’s a mix of a couple issues:
- Technique. They simply don’t have the right sprinting form.
- Effort. They’re not running with everything they’ve got, even if they think they are.

Our season just wrapped up so this is for Spring. Do you spend any time working on sprinting? I’m considering anything from adding wind-sprints in practice to working with the local HS track coach and organizing a mini clinic.

The thing is it’s rec 10u and all my practice time with the girls is precious. There will be plenty to work on next season and time spent on sprinting means time lost in other areas.

Thoughts?
 
Apr 28, 2017
13
0
Thank you for the reply but that’s not really what I’m asking. I’m not talking about girls slowing down as they approach the base. I’m talking about girls not truly hitting top speed at any point. Wondering if anyone has invested time on this and if so, how.
 

TMD

Feb 18, 2016
433
43
My daughter's team worked with a local HS Girls Track Coach the past 2 winters, spending up to 50% of our indoor training time on specific speed and strengthening drills. Lots of work on form, lower body strength, explosiveness, etc. Every girl saw her Home - 1B and Home - Home measurables improve, and it definitely paid dividends in games (legging out iffy doubles, higher then ever safe SB percentages, etc.). Daughter commented to me that she wished they did more of that stuff on her college team.
 
Feb 19, 2016
280
28
Texas
I try to coach running every once in a while. I go through it, they go through it, everyone looks good. We cover lean, knees, drive, arms, balls of the feet, etc. Then we get to a game, and it's all forgotten. We'd have to approach it more often to burn it in I think. We have girls that do run well, and girls that don't. It's something we're having a hard time improving in the girls that need it the most.
 

SB45

Dad, Coach, Chauffeur
Sep 2, 2016
150
28
Western NY
No doubt it is something you should work on. However, I think a big part of it is their history...especially that young...no one has ever thrown them out. They think stealing is "running" to the next base (like you would run a mile around the track...you're running, but never at top speed)...not so much "sprinting" to the next base. Certainly, they already know how to sprint all out...and they would if they really knew they had to. I've seen lots of girls with great foot speed, start out fast...look up and jog half way...sprint at the end if they have to... Frustrating. somehow you need to hammer home the message that the game is fast, they will get thrown out...they should be up to full speed in 4-5 steps and never slow down. To me, a lot of that is mental. But to practice it you could have 2 or more girls race side by side...to at least get used to running all out, competition. They may need some failure too...until that girl starts getting thrown out she may not get the message.
 
Oct 16, 2008
164
18
SE Michigan
Local high school offers speed and agility program during summer for any student. My players who have attended show noticeable improvement.
 

Spero Koulouras

Coach in Training
Aug 15, 2014
27
3
We do speed and agility work as part of our dynamic warm-up routine. Eliminate static stretching from pre-practice and pre-game routines and replace with high energy, explosive drills. Same amount of time, much better results.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk
 

Ken Krause

Administrator
Admin
May 7, 2008
3,911
113
Mundelein, IL
I've done some of it before. Probably not enough, but we tried. Although with some of the girls I had, even if you cut .4 seconds off their home to first time you'd still consider them "slow." :D

One thing you can try is a race where you pair up two girls, one slightly faster than the other. You then give the slower runner a 10 foot (or whatever) head start and have the faster runner try to catch the slower runner. Both will work their butts off, because the faster runner wants to catch the slower one, and the slower one doesn't want to be shown up by being caught and passed. You can also have the faster runner try to tag the slower runner, with both running on a straight line to the target. Make a competition out of it and they will work harder.

If you have field space, another thing I used to do is toss a ball into the outfield and have two players of comparable speed race to see who can get to it first. You can control the results by where you throw the ball; if they whine, you just tell them life's not fair. One team I did this with seemed to be having trouble understanding how hard to run after a ball in the outfield. After this little exercise that problem was solved. Just be careful, because if you have competitive kids on your team they will try to knock each other off the ball as they get close so they can win. It's fun, but control for injuries.

One thing you'll often see is there is physical speed and there is mental speed (in other words, a sense of urgency). A player can have great speed, but it doesn't matter unless she applies it. Work with them on understanding the sense of urgency they need to bring. As in, you may have been safe this time. But a faster catcher is going to throw you out every time. When I work with catchers, I tell them the ball should get to the base so fast the runner has time to turn around and go back.
 

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