- Mar 31, 2012
- 71
- 0
Here's what we do, its a 12 girl 12U Rec team but they play in a league that combines a couple of towns and leagues and they see some travel teams. Weird, but that's it. The more adults the better to help at practice, but lets assume you have only two.
1. As soon as the girls start arriving they are supposed to set up between first and second facing a teamate in the outfield and start playing catch. They are supposed to know to do this without being told. Since they tend to drift in over the course of 10 minutes or so its helps make sure nobody sits around doing nothing at the start of practice.
I make them back up to throw farther, i make them throw groundballs to each other and emphasize fielding technique, they can practice pitching and catching in this formation - since most girls in a Rec league are going to want to try this at some point - I have them drop the gloves and roll the ball back and forth bare hand. 20 minutes of this.
Water break - talk about Justin Bieber
2. Half the girls take off their cleats and practice sliding onto cardboard with one adult. They practice popping up out of the slide, they practice brushing a rubber plate with their hands as they slide by, the ambitious try to practice "swim" moves often with comical results.
The other half go out on the bases and practice base running. An adult coaches first and runs them through or has them take two, then they go to the next base stealing "on the return", now another runner takes off for first and the kid already on base scores from where-ever she is. If the adult knows anything about softball he can work them pretty good on other aspects, taking a big turn - locating the ball, drawing a throw, etc, just keep em running. After 10 minutes they switch. 20 minutes of this altogether.
Water break - talk about The Hunger Games
3. Half put on their batting helmets and half pick up their gloves. I always make the girls keep their batting helmets on anytime they are anywhere near a batting drill. They scare the bejesus out of me.
One adult zips pitches in to tries and simulate live pitching. Many of these girls have only seen "lob" pitching up to this point and this is the first time they will see real "fast pitch". He zips in a bucket of balls one after another. No one is standing around the field, we just let the balls fall where they may. Once the bucket is empty the batter helps collect the balls and the batter rotates. Meanwhile we have two "skillz sticks" so the other adult can supervise 4 girls here, two holding and two batting. A soft toss station or a tee station is another option but I makes sure I have a grown-ups eye on any situation where a metal bat is being used. If there's a whiffle ball bat and a bucket of whifle balls the girls can do their own soft toss station. Keep the helmets on still.
While half the team is rotating through batting practice like this the other half is practing fielding ground balls and pops and throwing to first. If we only have two adults one of the 12 year olds will be in charge of throwing grounders to her teamates who rotate through a "shortstop" line to the end of a "first baseman" line.
Usually 40 minutes all together for this.
Water break - talk about Signals for batters and runners.
4. Simulated game or game situations. Get some fielders out there, a pitcher on the mound and a catcher in gear behind the plate. There aren't enough girls usually for all the positions and three base runners. Sometimes its just "The Queen and her Court" Batters can hit live pitching, and this is a good place to practice live pitching, batters can hit off a tee, or the coach can hit it where he wants while helmeted runners run the bases listening to their running coach and the fielders move, cover and backup and contemplate the intricacies of the infield fly rule listening to the coach who batted the ball. 6 against 6 hitting off the tee gets the most bang for your "situational awareness" buck.
Probably 30 minutes of this. All together with water breaks about 2 hours. This kind of practice is completely inadequate for a TB team, but for a Rec team its good. Keeps everybody moving and getting as many reps as possible.
There can't be too much fielding and throwing practice because in game 12 of the 12 game season the 6th grade Second baseman is going to try and blow the game by heaving the ball three feet over the head of the tallest 6th grade First Baseman in the league. Well, so I've heard anyway.
1. As soon as the girls start arriving they are supposed to set up between first and second facing a teamate in the outfield and start playing catch. They are supposed to know to do this without being told. Since they tend to drift in over the course of 10 minutes or so its helps make sure nobody sits around doing nothing at the start of practice.
I make them back up to throw farther, i make them throw groundballs to each other and emphasize fielding technique, they can practice pitching and catching in this formation - since most girls in a Rec league are going to want to try this at some point - I have them drop the gloves and roll the ball back and forth bare hand. 20 minutes of this.
Water break - talk about Justin Bieber
2. Half the girls take off their cleats and practice sliding onto cardboard with one adult. They practice popping up out of the slide, they practice brushing a rubber plate with their hands as they slide by, the ambitious try to practice "swim" moves often with comical results.
The other half go out on the bases and practice base running. An adult coaches first and runs them through or has them take two, then they go to the next base stealing "on the return", now another runner takes off for first and the kid already on base scores from where-ever she is. If the adult knows anything about softball he can work them pretty good on other aspects, taking a big turn - locating the ball, drawing a throw, etc, just keep em running. After 10 minutes they switch. 20 minutes of this altogether.
Water break - talk about The Hunger Games
3. Half put on their batting helmets and half pick up their gloves. I always make the girls keep their batting helmets on anytime they are anywhere near a batting drill. They scare the bejesus out of me.
One adult zips pitches in to tries and simulate live pitching. Many of these girls have only seen "lob" pitching up to this point and this is the first time they will see real "fast pitch". He zips in a bucket of balls one after another. No one is standing around the field, we just let the balls fall where they may. Once the bucket is empty the batter helps collect the balls and the batter rotates. Meanwhile we have two "skillz sticks" so the other adult can supervise 4 girls here, two holding and two batting. A soft toss station or a tee station is another option but I makes sure I have a grown-ups eye on any situation where a metal bat is being used. If there's a whiffle ball bat and a bucket of whifle balls the girls can do their own soft toss station. Keep the helmets on still.
While half the team is rotating through batting practice like this the other half is practing fielding ground balls and pops and throwing to first. If we only have two adults one of the 12 year olds will be in charge of throwing grounders to her teamates who rotate through a "shortstop" line to the end of a "first baseman" line.
Usually 40 minutes all together for this.
Water break - talk about Signals for batters and runners.
4. Simulated game or game situations. Get some fielders out there, a pitcher on the mound and a catcher in gear behind the plate. There aren't enough girls usually for all the positions and three base runners. Sometimes its just "The Queen and her Court" Batters can hit live pitching, and this is a good place to practice live pitching, batters can hit off a tee, or the coach can hit it where he wants while helmeted runners run the bases listening to their running coach and the fielders move, cover and backup and contemplate the intricacies of the infield fly rule listening to the coach who batted the ball. 6 against 6 hitting off the tee gets the most bang for your "situational awareness" buck.
Probably 30 minutes of this. All together with water breaks about 2 hours. This kind of practice is completely inadequate for a TB team, but for a Rec team its good. Keeps everybody moving and getting as many reps as possible.
There can't be too much fielding and throwing practice because in game 12 of the 12 game season the 6th grade Second baseman is going to try and blow the game by heaving the ball three feet over the head of the tallest 6th grade First Baseman in the league. Well, so I've heard anyway.
