12U Rec Team Practice vs Gameplay

[Chris8]

This is the third year that my husband and I have coached rec teams. We are both driven to see girls develop skills, progress, and have fun. And year after year they do. There are several girls who were turned off from past coaching experiences that thrived with us, and we have brand new girls every year who develop into competent players at this level.

We take more of a gentle approach to correcting the girls, where they have to repeat a task in practice if we know they can do better and fudge a throw etc. We are really opposed to the incredibly loud, competitive, and berating approach we have seen from other coaches.

The problem is... those coaches do win a lot more games than we do. Our girls demonstrate proficiency in the field and at the plate during practice, but during gameplay, we see only glimpses of their potential that is so apparent in practice. Rec ball isn't all about winning... but winning is fun, and we would LOVE to see the girls be able to demonstrate more of their skill in games than they are now.

We do as many game-like drills at practice as we can and keep it fun. They ARE having fun at practices. But they seem to lose their drive and their spark in games. We recognize, reward, and praise their hard work, their growth, and their performance in both practices and games. What are we missing?

Do any of you have suggestions for how we can amp up their ability to perform in games? Should we be more "strict" with them? What have you seen as effective strategies for balancing the fun of rec and the competitiveness that leads to more "W"s?

Teach them to FAIL FANTASTICALLY. It sounds like you're doing things right. I found when my girls learned to FAIL FANTASTICALLY it got even better. They were making great plays and having fun doing so. We celebrated the effort...eventually the desired results came. But we also practiced failing fantastically in practice...it got so fun the girls became fearless.

 

[tamss13]

Do any of you have suggestions for how we can amp up their ability to perform in games? Should we be more "strict" with them? What have you seen as effective strategies for balancing the fun of rec and the competitiveness that leads to more "W"s?

If they are improving your process works.

If you are picking up new girls every year. You will have difficulty beating teams that have been together for a few seasons.

My experience in Rec ball is the longer the team been together the more winning they will do.....new teams struggle.

So if you are grabbing new girls every year, but they are improving you WON.

I don't think there is anything you can do to get winning faster outside of keeping a team together for multiple years.

 

[John 800]

a few ways to look at this:
I saw this with my daughter in seasons past, she is now 2nd year 12u. She would make plays with me but botch them in a scrimmage, then she would make them at practice or a scrimmage and botch them in a game. Last fall she was playing 1b and made a very nice play stretching to dig a ball out of the dirt. After that she made almost every play for the rest of the year. Getting exited on that one play let her have confidence to play at her ability more often.
If they are making plays in practice but not in games either make practice more like games, scrimmage them with parents watching or look at something in their routine. Somehow get them in the same mental state, weather its changing practice or games to feel closer to each other.

 

[sluggers]

I coached rec for several years, at all different age levels, and was very successful. I was loud and competitive, but I never berated anyone--umps, players, other team, other coaches. Never.

I rotated kids between the IF and OF. I had no starting lineup. My batting order was based on when the kids arrived at the park.

Winning at rec is easy, but it takes work. At practive, you should be sweating harder than any girl.

1. You have to be good at teaching.
2. You have to know the stuff you are teaching.
3. You have to focus like a laser on skills.

GOOD AT TEACHING
Teaching children is about communication and making them enthused about the activity. You have to keep the practices moving. And, you can't lie.

KNOW WHAT YOU ARE TEACHING
Do you know how to pick up a softball? Most coaches don't.

E.g., fielding a grounder has multiple skill levels. So, you have to look at a kid, figure out her skill level, and build from there.

FOCUS ON SKILLS THAT WIN GAMES
The skills that win rec games:
1) Force outs at 2B and 3B.
2) Pop ups.
3) Backing up

If all popups and grounders results in an out, you win at rec. Easy.

Hit (don't roll) by the bucket full at practice. Then hit (don't throw) popups by the bucket full. How do you keep the kids engaged? By being funny, silly and demanding. They make a mistake, they do it again...immediately. And they keep doing it until they get it right.

And, keep everything moving.

Other than the absolute minimum instruction, you can't teach hitting at practice. You don't have the time. You do give them lots of opportunities to swing the bat. My goal was 100 swings for each kid at practice. I used a lot of wiffle balls.

We played competitive games at the end of each practice, and the losing team had to run the bases (one time around).

They got used to playing hard at practice, and they played hard at the games. By the end of the year, we were always the best fielding team in the league.