The frustrating part is, they DO know where and when. I think so much of this is just nerves. Starting the season, we had two freshmen in the infield, and basically three kids who are either in their first year playing or first year starting. For the most part, the skills and knowledge are there for all of them. But man, the nerves. You can see it in their body language. Plays they make 90% of the time or better in practice, just fall apart. And I'm talking about EASY stuff. And as you know, once that snowball starts it's incredibly difficult for them to settle back down. I think it even affects the hitting. And then at times, they've been brilliant. Error free, or only 1 or 2 errors. And of course, they always hit better when the D is on point. And vice versa.
There's just so much of the mental game happening. And a lot of that can be helped with more reps, but you can't force kids to show up in the offseason. We're on the field or cage twice a week, starting a week or two after the season ends. But half of them don't show up until day 1, which is 4 weeks before games start.
