Offseason open gyms

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Sep 21, 2017
230
43
PA
I looked up the PA rule and I think you’re misinterpreting this. The first sentence means they WILL be penalized for holding any out of season practices, whether inter school or not. The football quote refers to physical contact, which is blocking or contact with pads, not coach contact. Or maybe you accidentally copied the wrong section.

From the PIAA Handbook: Schools may NOT hold practices out of season. Coaches MAY train or coach non-school teams as private citizens provided no school players are required to participate.
See ARTICLE XVI SEASON AND OUT-OF-SEASON RULES AND REGULATIONS

https://www.piaa.org/assets/web/documents/Handbook - Section I - Constitution and By-laws.pdf

I want to make sure I'm clear. I'm talking about open gyms/fields, totally voluntary, not anything like an official practice. If my previous post was unclear, I apologize. Yes, I understand there are clear guidelines for official practices.

I do appreciate the response. Definitely not trying to break any rules!
 
Jun 12, 2015
17
1
I am a high school coach in PA. We started conditioning/hitting last week twice a week. We go through a strength/agility circuit for about half an hour then hit for about an hour to an hour and a half depending how many girls we have that day. We keep it pretty informal and loose. None of this is mandatory. I can truly say I don't hold lack of attendance against those that aren't around at all. The basketball players and swimmers are free to come for 20 minutes and hit a couple of rounds after their bball/swim practice if they want, no pressure to do so if not. The girls that show up a lot will certainly have a leg up on the others come tryouts in March due to having thousands of swings under their belts in Dec/Jan/Feb, but I go into March (official practice) with an open mind and the best players will play whether they were at open gyms or not. We only have a couple travel players on our team, so these are the only swings 90% of the girls get.
 

Chris Delorit

Member
Apr 24, 2016
343
28
Green Bay, WI
If you have a local youth program, you could consider opening your "open gyms" to both your HS and youth level teams. For those kids under HS age, use the time to interact with them on softball skill training. Instruct verbally and your HS players are now "hearing" and "seeing" your expectations live without your direct intervention with them. With your attention directed to the younger players, it's a guarantee that your HS players will be curious and also take note of those things you are training the future of your HS program. ;)

Chris
 

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