1st time 10u coach, coached basketball & soccer

[Kcfoison]

This is my first time coaching softball. New 10u coach here. I offered to assist but no parents would lead. So I took it upon myself in order for the girls to get a chance to play. I have recruited two experienced female coaches, I think it’s important for girls teams to have women as rolemodels. Any help in planning practices would be helpful. We have 8 practices before our first game.

 

[PJR202]

i'm not a super experienced coach, but I have a couple years of it and a couple more watching my older daughter play. I've coached kids from 7 up to middle school, but mostly middle school. Have dealt with a lot of first time players. In my opinion, learning position play by taking infield/outfield is #1 for defense. For offense, they need to understand base running (emphasis on running through 1B). My head coach has a ton of experience, and our practices are generally once a week of nothing but batting, one or two of scrimmage, and the other practices are usually about half IF and OF work, followed by game play scenarios/reps, then the last 15 minutes or so will be base running. Kids like base running games.

If the kids are brand new, make sure they know 4 balls/3 strikes, outs, innings, rules, strike zone, etc. I never neglected to remember that the new kids knew NOTHING, but many times I've had to come behind one of the other coaches and explain what they meant, or translate the lingo for things like "eat it," "on the bag," etc. Just the little things you say during practices and games.

If you're using real pitchers, make sure they get 30-40 reps in with the catchers at every practice.

 

[JayW]

i'm not a super experienced coach, but I have a couple years of it and a couple more watching my older daughter play. I've coached kids from 7 up to middle school, but mostly middle school. Have dealt with a lot of first time players. In my opinion, learning position play by taking infield/outfield is #1 for defense. For offense, they need to understand base running (emphasis on running through 1B). My head coach has a ton of experience, and our practices are generally once a week of nothing but batting, one or two of scrimmage, and the other practices are usually about half IF and OF work, followed by game play scenarios/reps, then the last 15 minutes or so will be base running. Kids like base running games.

If the kids are brand new, make sure they know 4 balls/3 strikes, outs, innings, rules, strike zone, etc. I never neglected to remember that the new kids knew NOTHING, but many times I've had to come behind one of the other coaches and explain what they meant, or translate the lingo for things like "eat it," "on the bag," etc. Just the little things you say during practices and games.

If you're using real pitchers, make sure they get 30-40 reps in with the catchers at every practice.

I realized I hadn’t explained everything to a girl new to softball when she asked me after her at bat who the scary guy behind the plate was and whose team was he on.

 

[PJR202]

I realized I hadn’t explained everything to a girl new to softball when she asked me after her at bat who the scary guy behind the plate was and whose team was he on.

That's great. I quiz them a lot in the early practices. I'll randomly ask one how many outs there are per inning, what's an inning. What's the top/bottom of the inning, etc.

We were working on secondary leads and sliding one day, and they were in line for the respective turns. We have a 7th grader, brand new, and I could see confusion and panic on her face. I said "do you know what a steal is?" I pulled her aside and she looked so relieved...hahaha. We don't have time to give them each a lot of individual attention. We mostly just have to throw them in a group and wing it.

 

[Kcfoison]

i'm not a super experienced coach, but I have a couple years of it and a couple more watching my older daughter play. I've coached kids from 7 up to middle school, but mostly middle school. Have dealt with a lot of first time players. In my opinion, learning position play by taking infield/outfield is #1 for defense. For offense, they need to understand base running (emphasis on running through 1B). My head coach has a ton of experience, and our practices are generally once a week of nothing but batting, one or two of scrimmage, and the other practices are usually about half IF and OF work, followed by game play scenarios/reps, then the last 15 minutes or so will be base running. Kids like base running games.

If the kids are brand new, make sure they know 4 balls/3 strikes, outs, innings, rules, strike zone, etc. I never neglected to remember that the new kids knew NOTHING, but many times I've had to come behind one of the other coaches and explain what they meant, or translate the lingo for things like "eat it," "on the bag," etc. Just the little things you say during practices and games.

If you're using real pitchers, make sure they get 30-40 reps in with the catchers at every practice.

Thank you for the advice. We had our first practice, while I was still battling food poisoning. My assistant coaches are awesome. Our first practice was a little disorganized but the girls had fun. It was lightly raining and another team came off the field so we went on and I took the new girls to be on the field for the first time. I showed them the field and let them run the bases, get a feel for the size of the field, and then we brought all the girls to the field and showed them the "softball stance", down and ready, as the assistant coach called it, I call it "player position" in basketball. We practiced batting and throwing to first. All the girls hit really well. For Monday's practice I am planning on splitting up the girls practicing fielding on the field and batting in the outfield, then practice game play on the field while allowing girls to try pitching, (we have two girls who said they have pitched before or have had training so I will have one of the softball coaches work one-on-one with them, lastly we will do some base running games.

 

[PJR202]

Thank you for the advice. We had our first practice, while I was still battling food poisoning. My assistant coaches are awesome. Our first practice was a little disorganized but the girls had fun. It was lightly raining and another team came off the field so we went on and I took the new girls to be on the field for the first time. I showed them the field and let them run the bases, get a feel for the size of the field, and then we brought all the girls to the field and showed them the "softball stance", down and ready, as the assistant coach called it, I call it "player position" in basketball. We practiced batting and throwing to first. All the girls hit really well. For Monday's practice I am planning on splitting up the girls practicing fielding on the field and batting in the outfield, then practice game play on the field while allowing girls to try pitching, (we have two girls who said they have pitched before or have had training so I will have one of the softball coaches work one-on-one with them, lastly we will do some base running games.

Sounds like you're on the right path. We have a drill for the ground ball that starts with the down-and-ready position. We just called it "right left right." Basically it's the last part of the ground ball approach, or the entire approach if they dont run up on it. Get down, step right, left, right, then scoop. That helped our 10U age kids a lot.

 

[softball dad 6]

My advice is to have a practice plan written up before practice with times, what coach is running what station, etc. Splitting the girls up into small groups greatly increases the reps and cuts out most of the down time you see in lots of practices with the whole team lined up at ss waiting for a grounder. Individual instruction also doesn't slow the practice down as much. Keep an eye on your watch and rotate at the right time. For the last 1/3 of practice bring everyone together run a team practice. Practices should build on each other. For example the first practice you line them up in defensive positions and hit ball to them. The next practice you have some girls run the bases while you hit to them. The third practice you throw front toss and let them run the bases. Finally you have a true intrasquad scrimmage. During all this assign an assistant coach to be working with the fielders and one working with the base runners talking to them about what they did, what they were thinking, and what they maybe should have done differently. Coaching is just teaching. Finally at the end make sure and do something fun to end practice. My go to at that age were usually base running relay contest or the 2 strike contest.

Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk

 

[Strike2]

You post will give me nightmares. The game starts with pitchers and catchers, and you need to develop those skills separately from team practice. If your game rules are "no walk", just getting a strike or two on the batter can make a huge difference. If your game rules allow walks, and your pitcher can't throw strikes, it's going to be long and boring for everyone.

For the team, focus on catching, throwing, and fielding ground balls...lots of reps emphasizing good technique. That means everyone, including your pitchers and catchers. See the Mike Candrea videos on youtube on how to get LOTS of reps in a short period.

In terms of teaching execution, keep it simple. The foundation of sound defense is being able to get an out at 1B and, if that's not possible, get the ball ahead of the lead runner, and then to the pitcher in the circle. If you can't do that, you have no chance of doing anything more complicated, like getting outs on the lead or trailing runner.

Hitting practice should be done with stations...batting T, soft toss, and front toss. However, if someone knowledgeable isn't providing feedback, you're pretty much wasting your time. After they can swing the bat reasonably well, get to a batting cage with a pitching machine.

Best of luck!

 

[PJR202]

"The foundation of sound defense is being able to get an out at 1B and, if that's not possible, get the ball ahead of the lead runner, and then to the pitcher in the circle."

That's such a simple, clear and concise way to put it.

 

[Kcfoison]

You post will give me nightmares. The game starts with pitchers and catchers, and you need to develop those skills separately from team practice. If your game rules are "no walk", just getting a strike or two on the batter can make a huge difference. If your game rules allow walks, and your pitcher can't throw strikes, it's going to be long and boring for everyone.

For the team, focus on catching, throwing, and fielding ground balls...lots of reps emphasizing good technique. That means everyone, including your pitchers and catchers. See the Mike Candrea videos on youtube on how to get LOTS of reps in a short period.

In terms of teaching execution, keep it simple. The foundation of sound defense is being able to get an out at 1B and, if that's not possible, get the ball ahead of the lead runner, and then to the pitcher in the circle. If you can't do that, you have no chance of doing anything more complicated, like getting outs on the lead or trailing runner.

Hitting practice should be done with stations...batting T, soft toss, and front toss. However, if someone knowledgeable isn't providing feedback, you're pretty much wasting your time. After they can swing the bat reasonably well, get to a batting cage with a pitching machine.

Best of luck!

I appreciate the feedback. I have taken the above advice and for our 2nd practice tomorrow after warming up catching and throwing we will do 3 stations, Pitching (to see what we have) batting, and grounders all with an experienced coach at each position. I have us then doing game practice on the field with a base running game at the end.
"being able to get an out at 1B and, if that's not possible, get the ball ahead of the lead runner, and then to the pitcher in the circle. If you can't do that, you have no chance of doing anything more complicated, like getting outs on the lead or trailing runner." THIS was our focus during the first practice and will continue to be.