efficient practices

[sportinus]

How do you all run your practice? I am struggling of how to better use the time at the end when we have everyone bat and everyone shags. I am thinking I probably need to have separate pitching practices. We typically do;
stretch, warm up, throwing 30 minutes
catchers, primary infielders, primary outfielders, break out and drill for 30 minutes
Secondary infielders, secondary outfielders drill for 15 minutes
Drill situations and responsiblities 15 minutes
30 minutes everyone hits (this always takes longer and players are just standing there) need a better way
10 minute base running

I need to work pitchers somehow also, I also need to work in kids pitch with hitting. Any suggestions?

 

[Amy in AZ.]

I do hitting at stations, so that almost everyone keeps busy. But, I wouldn't try to do it, during a day when we are working on throwing and fielding. Use a different day.

I watch a young team here, that has appropriate hitting with the kids shagging. 1 girl batting, 2 on deck. The batter takes 10 quick swings with coach pitching from a net and a distance of like 25 feet. This works a couple of catchers, pretty good. Batter 1 does her batting and runs to right field, the fielders all shift over and one fielder goes in and gets her bat and helmet and runs to get on deck. Running is the key, here.

There is a coach about mid way down the first base line and he is protected by a screen. The balls are thrown to him. If there is a lag, where the ball hasn't been hit - he yells "ball" and throws the ball to the OF.

You can refine this for your coaches and age group. Then, at the end or at the water break. Everyone scrambles to get foul balls, etc.

 

[sluggers]

Amy is, as usual, right on target. You need hitting stations and lots of wiffle balls. Your goal should be to get every kid to do 100 swings during batting practice. It is tough, but it can be done during batting practice.

My favorite station was to get wiffle balls of all shapes and sizes...golf ball size, softball size, baseball size, etc. We would have one group batting, one group on their knees about 20 feet from the batters, and one group shagging. The group on the knees would throw to the kids batting. They would toss as many as possible in 10 minutes. The shaggers would be collecting the balls. It is pretty fast moving and keeps the kids interested.

IMHO, situational work for young kids is a waste of time.

I would not separate the kids by outfielders and infielders. There isn't that much different in skill sets to justify a break out when you only have a 2 hour practice. Have all the kids do all the drills.

Catchers and pitchers work out on their own or at an additional practice.

 

[CoachKevin]

I always had pitcher/catcher practice an hour before team practice. Of course we would have the pitchers work on their different pitches, but we would also work the catchers throwing to bases. Worked out pretty well.

As far as team practices go use the above suggestions. You cannot fit everything into a practice, I used to do 1 day hitting/baserunning and 1 day defense.

 

[sportinus]

This is for a 14u team. thanks for the feedback! I thought that splitting them into 2 groups allows for more touches. We will also have 1 hour a week in the cages for hitting and was thinking of 3 practices a week til games start. I need to carve out some pitcher catcher time. I like the hitting stations idea!

Slugger at what age do you do situational work?

 

[PGSAKen]

Stations keep everyone engaged. This works for all aspects of the game.

 

[RichK]

Sportinus, I like the idea of 30 minutes primary infield/outfield and 15 minute secondary....we've struggled how to do this effectively. As we get older, now first year 16U, mostly freshman, we want to teach advanced position skills but still would like most kids to play some out and some infield if possible, not time to completely specialize just yet. So for instance, we want our primary outfielders to cover more ground, have good slide/dive skills, etc....but we also want everyone, even if they are not a prime outfield athlete, to be able to pay a solid outfield. I like your approach.

As for situations, we drill the crap out of basic catch and throw, but had great success drilling situational work this year at 14U, made a huge difference in game play when combined with solid catch the ball throw the ball...when you add a full understanding of situations then basic catch and throw becomes ten times more lethal : >

 

[sportinus]

RichK thanks, we actually found out that our backup SS was a really good OF by doing this, but we had to go find a new backup SS. I think we will try to work in the hitting session a T station with wiffles for 1 arms, hit into a net (soft toss) , and live pitching either coach or girl.

 

[southwestsoftball]

IMO the key to having the most efficient practice is................having capable assistant coaches. Thats JMO.( of course thats assuming you plans practices wisely and have very little wasted time)

I have seen teams that had the right idea with stations but one coach out of the 5 had a clue and the rest didnt. So these girls at these stations are taking cuts but they are doing so and establishing even further incorrent muscle memory and re-inforcing bad habits. Ive also seen a team with 2 coaches and half the stations, girls were by themselves. Having coaches who can make sure the girsl are doing things correctly is the key IMO. I would rather girls take 50 cuts the right way and doing drills correctly, than taking 200 cuts the wrong way and re-inforcing bad habits.

I also think that there are too many people who think quantity is better than quality. Ive seen and heard soooooo many people critisize the amount of practices I have had in a week compared to other coaches in our age group around our city. Parents complained we werent working enough. Board members. Other coaches scoffed at us only practicing 3 days a week. However, let me say this: I have seen many of our peers practice and do it 5-6 times a week. They have so much wasted time, standing around and coaches twittling their thumbs/talking trying to figure out what they should do next, that we got WAY MORE done in our 3 days than they did in 5 or 6. So IMO you can practice all you want. I mean you can practice 7 days a week for 6 hours a day but if it isnt efficient your team isnt getting better and doing things wrong a thousand times is getting you no where.

JMO as always.

 

[Chewy_06]

Hey Sportinus, not sure where you are or what resources exist for coaches, but, my first suggestion for you is to seek out a coaching clinic appropriate to the age & stage of the kids you're working with.

Have seen a lot of practices where one kid bats & everyone else on the field drools (yeah, my experience is with the younger kids). I wont lie, it makes my skin crawl.

I lay out a high level strategy for my team at the beginning of the season - ie when am i focusing on core skills, when do we introduce situational play, when do we shift from P covering home on pass balls to 1B doing it, when do we introduce using a more active middle infield, when do we start teaching 3B-C plays & from there, once I have my high level plan, I build tactical practice plans around meeting my strategy. Pre season - we do lots of drills that are progression based, high energy (keep them moving!) that culminate in a fun competition based exercise at the end of the practice. Typically we start with a dynamic warmup, from there team run, when they get back from that, we have (for example), partnered throwing - starting right from flick, moving to long throw - then cicrlce drill (with up to five balls, then get it moving), from there, break into two groups (increases reps) for ground balls - with flavours of each - then back to one group at short with a 1B, field, throw, follow throw (moves fast & they have to run), we'll shift gears a bit from there & break half the kids out getting them to run, from there, maybe a two ball drill or four corners to wrap practice up. 1h30 - 1h40 minutes, couple quick water breaks, almost zero stand around time.

If were working on hitting, i'll book the cage - we'll use both lanes with machines & parents. two tee stations into nets, one station at whack a pole and one-two or three stations of soft toss wiffles. I'll typically book the kids into waves for this with half hour staggered start times & once they move through all stations they're done. makes for a longer practice for the coaches, but, for the kids, it's crazy efficient.

By end of season, we'll work on core skills for 30 minutes, I'll break out a couple of the batters who have been struggling & then we'll spend time focusing on active middle infield & situational play.

Baserunning, not typically practiced, we used games for that (I know, youre all cringing), we really suffered with opposition this year that could not deliver pitching. This meant for most of the regular season we had a 90%+ OBP. We aggravated a few teams by actively working on baserunning & in a few cases being far too aggressive in mean-nothing regular season games. I justified by explaining we were trying to salvage some value for our team from the game & were teaching - and suggested more than once, it's MY job to teach them how to be aggressive on the base run, it's YOUR job to teach your kids how to STOP them. Most didnt like it, but what can you do? We dont get any pitches over the plate to swing at and they get zero hits off of any of our four pitchers. I cant just say "you know what coach - lets just go to opposite ends of teh diamond and have our own little practices...".

pitching/catching practices - done seperately, immediately prior to regular practices.