Practice Blues

[HSCoach]

4:15? What time does your HS get out of school? We start practice at 3. We get done most nights at 5:30. If the HC is feeling crazy she lets me take some hitters out for private work. How long is a HS practice in your area? Lets say that it is 2 1/2 hours like ours. Now you have them make it to yours for 2 hours. How much throwing etc. are those arms doing? Where do they get homework etc. in? It is a great thing I don't live in your state. After our practices, I doubt that physically players could handle it. Our girls, tonight will get in a minimum of 300 swings in. BTW, my position regarding a "punishment" is that players who aren't playing HS ball get full credit for attending practice. So, a player could, in theory, do the math and then determine that another player playing the same position now has more points and so, the player needs to do something to gain points.

I am interested, again, in what time your school gets out and how many hours of HS practice these players do in a night.

I'm not advocating the amount of practice time being spoken of, but at my school, we have an athletic block last period. We begin practice at 1:45 and are finished by 4 normally. Towards the end of the season, we are usually finished by 3:45. IMO at this point of the season, with playoffs about to begin, less can be more when it comes to practice.

 

[gdc03120]

School dismissals vary, but here in New York State, they do not allow practices more than 2 hours in ANY sport in ANY season (except for football - football can do 2-a-days as long as I believe there's a break in between, I may be incorrect, I'm only certified softball and basketball). The town I live in/school I graduated from - school gets out at 2:55pm and practice starts at 3pm (most of the girls are typically changed ahead of time so they just go to their locker room, grab their gear, and head out to the fields). The last HS I worked/coached at for basketball we ended at 2:31pm and my boys' basketball practices went usually 2:45-4 or 4:30pm, but never a full 2 hours (especially for modified - they can't pay attention that long).

With my girls' team that I'm discussing here, I usually tell them up-front, "Practices are scheduled for 2 hours, but I'm absolutely willing to cut out early if we get through what we need to get through. The longer it takes us to finish up a drill or to settle down, the longer we'll be here." I've found as I've done that in the past year or so, we're usually between 1:30 and 1:45 for about 90% of practices, so there is incentive.

 

[quincy]

Last time I am going to post, DD no way no how is going to show up your practice while she is playing school ball.

 

[Cannonball]

We have "athletic PE" but in that class, you have to do weights, run, ... A lot of players don't take it in season. We get out at 2:35. We start practice at 3. Players have to get dressed and then walk to the fields which are beyond our football/track facility and a soccer field. They start every practice with a "ring road" which is about a half mile run. Then they do stretches etc. They won't touch a ball until twenty minutes in practice. From there, we get after it. Again, gdco3120, I could never coach in your state. I could never just stop at 2 hours. I coach until players get things right. It might be 2 hours but might be 3. In baseball, my program was known for outworking everyone in the area. A typical question that news reports would ask players after a game was what time practice was done the night before.

HSCoach, you are a lot better coach than I. I look at every practice as if I only have a limited amount of time to teach the game, fundamentals etc. I have never looked at practice as being too long or a negative. I've been blessed with players who would be mad if I cut practice short. We are not half way through our schedule yet and so, are not in the same place you are with regards to schedule. We have spring break coming up on Thursday. Some players are already talking about practice on the one day off we have. (Not counting Sunday)

 

[gdc03120]

I've been in the same boat. I tell my girls that even if it's a rec-ball type of team/league, I run it like a HS program in some ways because I want to be a HS softball coach - I'm trying to figure out what things work and don't. Obviously practice times aren't exactly part of this because in HS they're generally set ahead of time vs. me doing it for the girls. But what I do DURING practices I control and I aim to make sure we have enough repetition so that we are getting it right as quickly and then repeating that more often. It's been tricky for me even as a coach of this team only 3 years - I'm still searching for things that work and things that don't.

Given that I have players of all ages, levels, and communities, I don't feel as though an increase in practices is a bad thing for the benefit of the team in the long-term. If I started practices only 4 weeks from games given my circumstances, there's not enough time to gel and come together successfully in my opinion.

 

[SMS90]

I run it like a HS program in some ways because I want to be a HS softball coach .

One thing to think about is this for you or for them?

 

[gdc03120]

I should know not to use circular logic as a math teacher, but I have to in this one instance. Nobody can ever say I do this for simply myself - that's an asinine remark and though I'm not offended by it, I don't consider everything I do (time, money, sacrifices, etc) to be for anyone BUT the kids. Keep in mind - if I didn't care about the kids and how they do, why would I bother doing practices anyways? I want to see their growth, their improvements over the course of the season and help them to work on what needs to be improved and specialize on what they have extraordinary potential with regarding the game. I don't ever think this is about me - sure, I treat it like my vision for what I would like to achieve and this could be ironically called "practice" for that, but the more I do it, the better I should become JUST AS the players in their situation(s).

 

[GunnerShotgun]

At the end of the day you only have 11 players and it seems like one parent is protesting already. What if 3 of them decide to ignore your rules? Are you prepared to field 8 players or forfeit a game?

Unfortunately as a coach you have all of the power but none of the control. You need to recruit more kids (and parents) that share your sensibilities if possible.

If not you are just inviting drama no matter how well your intentions are.

 

[gdc03120]

I'm still actively recruiting players but getting little bites back (so far - I have heard of one player interested but she's on the shelf for 2-4 more weeks with an ankle injury - I've relayed on a message to talk to me when the parents can about the matter). Aside from that, as I've said before, this is NOT an uncommon issue in our community - all the way down to our little league program where we struggle to field 4 teams of 10 players when we've previously fielded up to 8 or 9 before. I'm doing all that I can - this parent isn't "protesting" as much as doing what she generally does which is complain (I've dealt with it in LL as an umpire before - it's usually done in a day or so). The road to Hell is paved with good intentions, as they say. I've also told our girls that if I have a team of 8, I will fold the team because I'm not going to waste anyone's time when the commitment to participating isn't there. It's up to them to decide their intentions.

 

[Gags]

You mentioned age several times - what's the age range on your team? 15-16, or wider? (12-16)


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