Development

Justplay · Jul 21, 2022

Orange Socks has it in my view but this is the exception versus the rule for sure. Many teams/coaches are looking for the easy way by 'selling' their team to kids that have been developed by others and then they have those kids fly thousands of miles to play with them or meet up with them where the tournament is taking place. Have even heard of kids being 'sponsored' with all travel being paid for among other things - not sure how that works as my other DD just went on to college and had to answer questions that addressed things like that to evaluate amateurism status but in the new world of NIL guessing that is not an issue perhaps. Everyone talks about doing what is 'best for the girls', concerned about too much pressure, etc but not sure how all that jives with the above. A bit off point but you all have seen it.

Getting better and developing is about putting in the work I agree but also enjoying what you are doing - if you don't want to be there it won't matter once you get to a certain level and that is different for everyone

Vertigo · Jul 21, 2022

Rick M said:
Not too much, but I’m more interested in general opinions about what constitutes development at the 16-18U level.

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I think it depends on the team, as well. A higher level team will most likely work more on execution of certain situations/plays as opposed to focusing on just fielding, hitting, and throwing drills. Don’t get me wrong, the higher level teams should still work on the everyday stuff, but it won’t take up a lot of practice time to get through it.

Agcy · Jul 22, 2022

Rick M said:
Not too much, but I’m more interested in general opinions about what constitutes development at the 16-18U level.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You can always improve throwing velocity/accuracy, speed, range, technique. Do all your catchers have a 1.65 pop time? Can all your players throw 65 mph on a dime? Do they always hit the cutoff? I don't know of any 16U player that couldn't use some work on:
- Catcher's footwork on throw downs
- Catchers working around the batter
- Backhand/forehand fielding with good footwork
- Throwing velocity and accuracy
- Receiving and throwing on double plays
- Increase range and reaction times (try pop times for your fielders and outfielders)
- Advanced plays on bunts or slappers
- Improve catching at the warning track or fence
- Throwing on the run
- Avoiding obstruction calls
- Getting interference calls
- Superman or Texas Leaguer catches
- Hitting against faster pitchers and/or more movement
- Catching and tagging (especially mis-thrown balls)
- Team play like cutoffs, bunt coverage, 1st/3rd, base coverage

In general working on any weakness. Hopefully it isn't the same drills over and over and over, but sometimes just doing repetitive drills will get players stronger, faster, and more reactive.

FP26 · Jul 22, 2022

Agcy said:
You can always improve throwing velocity/accuracy, speed, range, technique. Do all your catchers have a 1.65 pop time? Can all your players throw 65 mph on a dime? Do they always hit the cutoff? I don't know of any 16U player that couldn't use some work on:
- Catcher's footwork on throw downs
- Catchers working around the batter
- Backhand/forehand fielding with good footwork
- Throwing velocity and accuracy
- Receiving and throwing on double plays
- Increase range and reaction times (try pop times for your fielders and outfielders)
- Advanced plays on bunts or slappers
- Improve catching at the warning track or fence
- Throwing on the run
- Avoiding obstruction calls
- Getting interference calls
- Superman or Texas Leaguer catches
- Hitting against faster pitchers and/or more movement
- Catching and tagging (especially mis-thrown balls)
- Team play like cutoffs, bunt coverage, 1st/3rd, base coverage

In general working on any weakness. Hopefully it isn't the same drills over and over and over, but sometimes just doing repetitive drills will get players stronger, faster, and more reactive.

This is a very good list. That said, footwork is something that can be worked on for any position. Outfielder footwork and infielder footwork are often not stressed enough, in my opinion. At 16u/18u I also spent a great deal of time focusing on mental aspects of the game. Things like having the runner sneak a peak at the outfield to determine setup. Anything that can give you a 1/2 step advantage either in the field or on the bases can make a huge difference.

At that age I also spent time teaching the players how to control their social media usage, especially if they had college play as a goal.

CoachJD · Jul 23, 2022

FP26 said:
Outfielder footwork and infielder footwork are often not stressed enough, in my opinion.

I think about what I do in practice vs. what I've seen/heard about some local travel practices, and from my experience, travel coaches don't spend much time on this stuff. My guess is it's because they're selecting players who "already know how to play." That can mean difference things, but some of these girls are just very good athletes who may not have been taught properly/at all. Some of them are getting by on athleticism and just kind of figuring things out.

I spend a ton of time on things like basic infield footwork because most of my players are new to the sport when they start playing (and, quite frankly, we don't have a lot of super athletes either). I had one player who said her travel coach told her to never backhand the ball in the infield. So not only did they never, ever work on backhands. They got in trouble if they did it.

The girls I've had who have gone on to play travel typically only improve marginally in terms of mechanics (and this is mostly just from them getting a lot more reps and figuring some things out on their own), but they come back a lot better in terms of knowing the game, having a sense for what's happening, etc. They absolutely develop into better players. But I still have to work with a lot of them on some of those basics.

_MIA_ · Jul 23, 2022

CoachJD said:
I think about what I do in practice vs. what I've seen/heard about some local travel practices, and from my experience, travel coaches don't spend much time on this stuff. My guess is it's because they're selecting players who "already know how to play." That can mean difference things, but some of these girls are just very good athletes who may not have been taught properly/at all. Some of them are getting by on athleticism and just kind of figuring things out.

I spend a ton of time on things like basic infield footwork because most of my players are new to the sport when they start playing (and, quite frankly, we don't have a lot of super athletes either). I had one player who said her travel coach told her to never backhand the ball in the infield. So not only did they never, ever work on backhands. They got in trouble if they did it.

The girls I've had who have gone on to play travel typically only improve marginally in terms of mechanics (and this is mostly just from them getting a lot more reps and figuring some things out on their own), but they come back a lot better in terms of knowing the game, having a sense for what's happening, etc. They absolutely develop into better players. But I still have to work with a lot of them on some of those basics.

Watch till the end. IMO almost impossible to get enough reps in a team practice to become a good IF unless you are there all day

Best a coach can do is to shown them how to do it, give them 25-50 reps in practice and then motivate them to work on their own (you can get 100 reps in 30 minutes on your own with just a wall and a ball)

I also like the idea of practicing on less than ideal fields (once a kid gets over the fear of getting hit by the ball..)

Plenty of kids take a 1000 swings a week but how many take a 1000 GB??

FP26 · Jul 24, 2022

When DD was about 6 years old I taught her one of the games I played as a kid. I grabbed a tennis ball and threw it up on the roof of the house, and then caught it when it came back down. She used to do that for hours when she was young. Of course the down side was the amount of time I spent on the roof pulling tennis balls out of the gutters.

_MIA_ · Jul 24, 2022

FP26 said:
When DD was about 6 years old I taught her one of the games I played as a kid. I grabbed a tennis ball and threw it up on the roof of the house, and then caught it when it came back down. She used to do that for hours when she was young. Of course the down side was the amount of time I spent on the roof pulling tennis balls out of the gutters.

Our front yard wiffle ball games put me on the ladder quite often. I don’t like heights so I almost made a rule that a gutter foul ball counts as an out but I constrained myself…

Vertigo · Jul 24, 2022

FP26 said:
When DD was about 6 years old I taught her one of the games I played as a kid. I grabbed a tennis ball and threw it up on the roof of the house, and then caught it when it came back down. She used to do that for hours when she was young. Of course the down side was the amount of time I spent on the roof pulling tennis balls out of the gutters.

Lol - I used to throw a tennis ball against our stairs and then “fielded” the ball as it came back. I also used to pitch against a brick wall with a box painted on it. The things you do when you had no one interested in playing catch with you.

_MIA_ · Jul 24, 2022

Vertigo said:
The things you do when you had no one interested in playing catch with you.

and didn’t have a cellphone..

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