Coming full circle!

[ANNASDAD]

"Hi, my name is X, I like leather...."

No? A bit too strong?

I'm going to "try" not to judge them and their parents by their gloves.....really going to try!

 

[ANNASDAD]

I would have a really fun 1st practice and do some fun/goofy drills or games to get them moving so that you can assess athletic ability and see where you are. Play the cat and mouse base running game, throw the ball threw a hoop for points, catch fly balls with teams and give points for caught balls. If you have a goofy hat, wear it. You have all season to make them D1 prospects, get them to want to come back for practice #2.

Edit: Smile and Laugh a lot!!!

Thank you!

 

[flogzilla]

 

[ANNASDAD]

Flog, I'm pretty sure that's my favorite video ever, I bet I've watched it 50 times, he's borderline my hero!

 

[bmakj]

And BTW, I have already had a dad who I've been told is going to help me, he's already called me several times, sounds like a young guy, nice enough but he sure did ask me a lot of questions!

sounds like he already knows the most important thing for anybody to know - what he doesnt know! try to recruit a few more parents willing to listen to you. at that age they need pretty good supervision for drills. get together with ACs/helpers maybe before team's first practice, run through drills you will run, go over mechanics, so you are all on same page, and teaching same thing. if you can keep the number of girls at a station to 4 or less, this gives lots more time for individual instruction, more reps to.

brings to mind a neat trick, if your DD's schedule permits, if you had her at a practice, and she "let's" you correct her a time or two (even have her intentionally do a few things poorly, bad mechanics, etc), if they see her accept correction eagerly, might make them more receptive to what youre coaching.

I think a big thing at that age is to make them not afraid of making a mistake. tell them practice is where we try to make all our mistakes . . . but if we make one in a game, that is OK too! encourage failure, especially failure that incorporates great effort. at that age, practice has to be mostly fundamentals.

KISS - do not overburden them with lots of bunt defenses, steal coverages. basic defense. depending on how much they get it, you might even have to start with any infield hit, throw to 1B, forget lead runners, unless they can tag bag themselves.

not certain how much your league pays attention to W and Ls, but I had a really great ump for that age tell me in every game, one team wins, one team Learns (that's what the L means) no one loses.

work on pitching from the beginning, maybe offer extra time at end for pitching if possible. tell the prospective pitchers though, they have to throw outside of team practices. this is actually good advice for eveyrbody actually, and try to get parents on board with that (tell them about all that special bonding it can lead to).

not certain of how stealing is handled in your league, but if possible, try lots of different girls at C, and if you have steal limits, great place to put girls who need to work on throwing (lots of throws back to pitcher).

 

[TLUD]

They are 10, and it’s a rev league. You have to start from scratch. Have them play catch, hit grounders to them and for the love of got reteach them how to run bases

 

[ANNASDAD]

sounds like he already knows the most important thing for anybody to know - what he doesnt know! try to recruit a few more parents willing to listen to you. at that age they need pretty good supervision for drills. get together with ACs/helpers maybe before team's first practice, run through drills you will run, go over mechanics, so you are all on same page, and teaching same thing. if you can keep the number of girls at a station to 4 or less, this gives lots more time for individual instruction, more reps to.

brings to mind a neat trick, if your DD's schedule permits, if you had her at a practice, and she "let's" you correct her a time or two (even have her intentionally do a few things poorly, bad mechanics, etc), if they see her accept correction eagerly, might make them more receptive to what youre coaching.

I think a big thing at that age is to make them not afraid of making a mistake. tell them practice is where we try to make all our mistakes . . . but if we make one in a game, that is OK too! encourage failure, especially failure that incorporates great effort. at that age, practice has to be mostly fundamentals.

KISS - do not overburden them with lots of bunt defenses, steal coverages. basic defense. depending on how much they get it, you might even have to start with any infield hit, throw to 1B, forget lead runners, unless they can tag bag themselves.

not certain how much your league pays attention to W and Ls, but I had a really great ump for that age tell me in every game, one team wins, one team Learns (that's what the L means) no one loses.

work on pitching from the beginning, maybe offer extra time at end for pitching if possible. tell the prospective pitchers though, they have to throw outside of team practices. this is actually good advice for eveyrbody actually, and try to get parents on board with that (tell them about all that special bonding it can lead to).

not certain of how stealing is handled in your league, but if possible, try lots of different girls at C, and if you have steal limits, great place to put girls who need to work on throwing (lots of throws back to pitcher).

Thanks, great post!

 

[ANNASDAD]

They are 10, and it’s a rev league. You have to start from scratch. Have them play catch, hit grounders to them and for the love of got reteach them how to run bases

Yes, base running will be a priority!

 

[bmakj]

pop up tracking drill I like, put batting helmets on them, bucket or bag of tennis balls and racquet, hit loopers, tell them to run under it and have it hit them in helmet. make a game, one with most hits to the helmet wins a candy bar (given right before they leave with mom and dad )

can then move on to catching balls still using tennis balls, teaches em to really squeeze or it bounces out

 

[Recent Addict]

End every practice with a race around the bases. Our players at 14u still want to do this