Practice Plans

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Oct 11, 2010
8,337
113
Chicago, IL
You are making my point, kids want to go to practice.

If they do not, I failed.

2 years ago DD did not go to any practice but pitched every game, last year she was at every practice and asked for more.
 
Jun 1, 2015
500
43
No, I agree with you. I wasn't trying to disprove what you were saying. I want my girls to come to practice, work hard, etc. It's my goal if they're not exhausted or sweat-drenched at the end of 2 hours, they didn't work hard enough and I failed them, as you said. I want them to look forward to each Sunday - to better themselves for our upcoming season, etc.
 
Oct 3, 2011
3,478
113
Right Here For Now
I also care whether or not my players come to practice, especially when I'm going over game situational plays. Everyone, including my parents and players know this will ultimately affect their playing time because if they don't know what to do in games, i.e. where the play should be made, and they choose the wrong place to go with the ball, then they won't get as much playing time as opposed to my players that do. That said, 1 practice, I spend the first 20-30 minutes of practice on whiteboard situations. We warm-up and spend the next 30-45 minutes on running through those situations with my players on bases. The remaining time I have 3-4 hitting stations set-up to isolate certain aspects of the swing. The next practice, we will set-up 4-5 hitting stations. 3 will isolate certain aspects of the swing, 1 will be doing drill working on getting the girls in sequence and the last one will be front toss. The next practice, we will work on fielding drills after warm-ups for 30 minutes, work on bases for game situations, then play games off of a pitching machine such as Texas fastpitch and the bunt game for the last 30 minutes. Each practice will vary the situations and drills depending upon what I choose to work on but the three practice schedules themselves will remain pretty much the same.
 
Last edited:
Jun 1, 2015
500
43
I also care whether or not my players come to practice, especially when I'm going over game situational plays. Everyone, including my parents and players know this will ultimately affect their playing time because if they don't know what to do in games, i.e. where the play should be made, and they choose the wrong place to go with the ball, then they won't get as much playing time as opposed to my players that do.

In a perfect world, this is EXACTLY what I would do: Don't show up, don't expect much playing time. In reality, I haven't had a season with more than 10-11 players per year. So it's basically unwritten that everyone's going to play, so missing practice does nothing for playing time because everyone knows they're getting time in the lineup/field, which does NOTHING for my authority as a coach for this team. (For clarification, this league I coach in plays by NYS Modified HS Softball rules, which permits 10 players in the lineup/field at once). Even though this is a 16U league, I have no problem with a much younger team of players who are committed to learning and getting better as athletes if it means getting more interested players. I'm personally tired of only having 9-10 each year, but unfortunately I reach out to 5 surrounding communities to me and get only what I get. I can't control that. We'll see if that can change this coming spring.
 
Oct 11, 2010
8,337
113
Chicago, IL
We played with 10 players on field through 10U, do not have a firm opinion on it. Did not like how some coaches manipulated the game with extra fielder, all OFs had to start with thier feet on OF grass. Varied by field. :)

I do not think I would like it 12U and older.
 
Jun 1, 2015
500
43
A lot of things depend on the team, number of girls on roster, their choice whether to use 9 or 10, etc. Since most players are at least Modified level and higher, it's assumed all OFs start deep in the OF, etc. I haven't seen any negative manipulations of this. Any teams I've coached against that use 10 use 4 outfielders (LF, LCF, RCF, RF), including myself. Only 1 or 2 that I can remember in 4 years of coaching in this league ever choose to use a "Rover" for their 4th outfielder. I guess the logic behind 4 outfielders at the 16U level for this league is because many teams (like myself) have younger players (just finished Modified and going to JV or play JV and the "10th" outfielder is a younger player). I use it as a great learning opportunity in 2 ways: a.) Work with girls on charging fly balls/ground balls while others learn to support behind the play - effective communication about who has the play, and once a girl is called off, she should know to support her teammate as back-up, as well as b.) Hitting to specific areas of the field - if there's a gap in RCF, learning how to push the ball in that area by proper hitting techniques. I always try to find a teachable moment in every situation.

This league is NOWHERE close to Rec./TB at all - it's designed to keep the girls of the area active in that time between the end of HS softball and the start of fall sports in August, so the rules can be slightly more lax. Of all the girls in this league, I'd say maybe 5-10% play TB outside of this league/HS softball. We play either a round-robin or division-based schedule/"regular season" followed by a 1-day (Saturday) single-elimination playoff tournament. Starts the last Monday in June and ends by the end of July/first Saturday of August.
 
Last edited:
Nov 26, 2019
65
8
I also care whether or not my players come to practice, especially when I'm going over game situational plays. Everyone, including my parents and players know this will ultimately affect their playing time because if they don't know what to do in games, i.e. where the play should be made, and they choose the wrong place to go with the ball, then they won't get as much playing time as opposed to my players that do. That said, 1 practice, I spend the first 20-30 minutes of practice on whiteboard situations. We warm-up and spend the next 30-45 minutes on running through those situations with my players on bases. The remaining time I have 3-4 hitting stations set-up to isolate certain aspects of the swing. The next practice, we will set-up 4-5 hitting stations. 3 will isolate certain aspects of the swing, 1 will be doing drill working on getting the girls in sequence and the last one will be front toss. The next practice, we will work on fielding drills after warm-ups for 30 minutes, work on bases for game situations, then play games off of a pitching machine such as Texas fastpitch and the bunt game for the last 30 minutes. Each practice will vary the situations and drills depending upon what I choose to work on but the three practice schedules themselves will remain pretty much the same.
Would you be willing to share typed up plans if you have them?
 
May 6, 2015
2,397
113
what age group/level?

this is important, because if you can trust them not to hurt themselves or just screw around, you can set up 2-4 hitting stations, that will keep say 6 girls doing something, without a lot of supervision needed (hitting from tee into net, with one girl setting, one hitting, soft toss again one tossing, one hitting/bunting, etc.) then you can have split the remaining girls into two groups, each with a coach, to try to eliminate as much waiting their turn as possible. this to me is critical, because waiting in line almost inevitably leads to goofing off, and also less waiting keeps blood pumping. 6 girls hitting, 3 girls with one coach working on IF skills/drills, 3 girls with another coach working on OF skills/drills would be about ideal.
 

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