Does Your Team Practice Effectively?

[lostbayou21]

I was watching an 11-12 All Star practice recently that ran about 2 and a half hours. A little structure could have knocked off at least 45 minutes. Some of the parents with travel ball experience were very frustrated. Does your DD play for a coach that brings a plan to practice every time? A 12-u team, we practice twice a week, about two hours per. One of our nearby elite teams practices less often because their players come from greater distances. They'll find a Saturday they're not playing and go almost all day, stopping to grill or picnic about the 2/3rds mark. What works, or doesn't, for your team and what would you do different?

 

[GTRH8R]

If practicing effectively means doing the same pointless drills and going through the motions is effective...

 

[Amy in AZ.]

I saw a 12U All Star team, last week. The coach had 14 girls lined up at SS. He was hitting a ball at them.
Then, he moved the line to 2nd base and did the same thing.
He had an assistant coach just running around and retrieving balls.

 

[quincy]

Short answer is no but I am not will to be a HC or AC so I keep more or less quite. Show up at all the practices and games, more than the ACs, but will only help in practice or games when specifically asked. That would be when saying less probably be a good thing.

For 12U/10u you can accomplish a lot in 90 minutes if practice is run correctly.

 

[Atlantabell]

We always have a plan. A plan helps us focus on what we need to do and it allows us to use time wisely. We also base our plan on game situations from tournaments and we do a mix of drills, situations, and, yes, fun stuff. It's as much about teaching the game as it is about teaching skills.

 

[marriard]

I have plans... and lots of them. I have every practice I have done in the past 4 years. I can pull plans for every level from t-ball to 12U travel. I share a sanitized version of a while season of practices with our league coaches so they have plans they can work from (or not - their choice) if they don't want to/not sure how to/whatever

What I do is have goals for each practice and then I put in what I know is going to be WAY more than I need for the practice - so I never run out of things to do ever. If I get through more than half then it has been a really successful practice.

Then with 15 minutes left to go of whatever time we have scheduled, we stop, play a fun game (based on what we have been working it on) and call it a practice.

Rec practices generally 90-100 minutes
Travel practices generally 90 min - 120 minutes. Sometimes longer on weekends/non-school nights.

 

[mm'spapa]

This may need to be a new thread but here goes. Does anyone have a 2hr general practice plan they would care to share? I am speaking of a plan for a competitve 12u travel team. Most all of these girls have played for 4 or 5 years and are very skilled in the basics, but I know you must do the fielding drills and hitting every practice. I think we are wasting a lot of time and would like to see what others are doing.