Incorporating Pitching Practice in Team Practices

[hmslouie]

Hello All,

What some best methods/suggestions to incorporating pitching practice into team practices. This would be for a 12U B travel team. Thanks for the responses and help.

 

[JAD]

Getting your pitchers and catchers working together is always a good idea, and having your batters face live pitching is the best way to improve their hitting in games.

 

[Amy in AZ.]

Serious pitchers and catchers need to carry more of the load. I have found having them show up 30 minutes early, to get their instruction in is best, then they are ready for the rest of the team practice.

 

[CoachKevin]

I always had my pitchers/catchers come an hour early. Don't forget it's not just about the pitchers, the catchers need work too. But for the OP, live pitching for batting practice is best, but have plans for the other players, you don't want 10 players just standing around while batting practice is going on.

 

[robertc3]

I have my pitchers and catchers stay 30 minutes after practice for their serious work. During practice I will sometimes incorporate a live hitting station into our hitting rotation. It messes up the groups some and means that the pitcher(s) and catcher(s) don't get as much hitting work as the rest of the team, but it can be made to work. Live pitching is great for getting better at hitting live pitching, but it isn't very good for improving swing mechanics. That is best done off of a tee and with front toss.

Occasionally, I will have my pitcher throw pitches to my catcher during our team defense period. It gives the fielders a more game like situation and if you have base runners they have something on which to time their lead off. It isn't great pitching or catching work, but it can be if you have enough coaches to work with everyone.

 

[Osric]

Wish I could get my pitchers/catchers to come early or stay late. Not a great option for me at this time. Instead, I actually break them out from the rest of the team for about 45 minutes of our practice. The rest of the team does infield/outfield work, the pitchers/catchers go off and do pitching and catching work and then we come back together for the last 45 minutes of practice to work on the 'daily lesson'. Result is that P/C miss out on a lot of field work, but I feel it more important that they get the dedicated time in for pitching and catching.

 

[Hit by the Pitch]

Wish I could get my pitchers/catchers to come early or stay late. Not a great option for me at this time.

I understand what you are saying and we break them out in pairs, they miss some other non-important stuff like fielding and batting.

DD is a P and my opinion used to be no pitching at practice, now that she is a little bit older the C has a lot to do with her success or failure. They need to work together and I need to set it up so they can.

I have no interest in coming early or staying late unless the P and C is there.

 

[Amy in AZ.]

Does anyone (coach?) work with the pitchers and catchers when they break away from a normal practice? I can remember all of those days of sending them away, w/o any instruction and I don't think that it was very productive.

 

[Hit by the Pitch]

Depends on the age but you, not you personally but you know what I mean, better leave my DD alone. 12 or 14 they should know what they are doing.

Pay attention enough that they are accomplishing something but stay out of their way.

 

[Osric]

Does anyone (coach?) work with the pitchers and catchers when they break away from a normal practice? I can remember all of those days of sending them away, w/o any instruction and I don't think that it was very productive.

I'm not a great pitching or catching coach, but I oversee their practice sessions and let my assistant run infield/outfield in my absence. I can't do much in correcting their mistakes, but I can keep them moving and give them some focus points. I have them do drills in groups of 5 and throw in some 'game' type drills like "how fast can you pitch 5 pitches" that I time so that they have a goal to focus on and can go for improvement. Better pitchers have drills like "how fast can you pitch 5 strikes".

The one time my assistant couldn't make practice and I sent the pitchers/catchers off on their own, they got next to no practice in and had no focus because they were just talking between themselves. This is in a 13U division