Practices with 1 Coach

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Apr 13, 2015
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Suggestions for having practices with HS age players and only one coach quite often.....don't want a bunch of standing around or dead time, but still need quality work put into the practices with coaching still taking place.
 
Jun 6, 2016
2,714
113
Chicago
Suggestions for having practices with HS age players and only one coach quite often.....don't want a bunch of standing around or dead time, but still need quality work put into the practices with coaching still taking place.

How many players, and what is their skill level (you mentioned age, but not ability level)? Are they capable of running stations independently?

How often is "quite often"?
 
Apr 13, 2015
179
28
How many players, and what is their skill level (you mentioned age, but not ability level)? Are they capable of running stations independently?

How often is "quite often"?
Jv and Varsity, small school level...12-14 players...daily practice
 
Jan 25, 2022
880
93
If it's just now and again, have one of your players be your assistant. At that age they should be able to do whatever you need.
 
Jun 6, 2016
2,714
113
Chicago
Jv and Varsity, small school level...12-14 players...daily practice

Are they capable of doing anything themselves? Can captains run infield? Are they capable/trusted to do hitting stations without being watched?

Will you be solo daily? You said "quite often," but what does that mean? Twice a week with no help? Four times per week? Every day except the occasional help?
 
Jun 20, 2015
848
93
with that many players. You will have to have stations set up with drills to do, especially with hitting. Its damn near impossible to run everything yourself, 12-14 players and not have 'standing around".

I'd divide in 1/2, 1 half stays with me and field rolled balls for infield reps, drop steps, etc. Other 1/2 does hitting drills on stations. Timer for rotating, etc. It's a full time gig running practice like that solo. Switching groups after reasonable time. Then do full on infield and defensive reps with all 12-14 players and rotating in.

Other in there is sep out pitchers and catchers to get their work in.

bottom-line - 12-14 players and 1 set of coaches eyes, its a tough deal.
 
May 20, 2015
1,095
113
frontload - develop core drills/daily routines, focus early on teaching them how to run those drills/routines correctly, and work those into every practice - if you break them up into multiple groups/stations, you can have two of those groups at the frontloaded "dailies" that they should know well, and you can work with a group that may need more attention - ie today you can throw P/C at one daily, INF at another while you run OF through a drill that they may need.......on different days you can break up groups differently if needed, based on who needs to learn what or work on what

on days that no one needs specific attention like that, you can rotate through the stations giving feedback

not the be all/end all, but if a portion of your practice is run like this, you can maximize your time spent with players while still getting work in that has value

I used a core group of 8 batting tee drills that worked on load/timing/finish and taught those over the winter.....those became our foundational drills, and I could easily assign different drills to players based on what they needed to work on; I'd add more as we went along or based on need, but over time the girls started to be able to identify what they needed to work on, they understood WHAT those drills did, and it allowed for ownership/more effective individual work.......another example of frontloading - ie spending a good portion of your preseason/early season practice teaching them the mechanics and the hows/whys of foundational/daily drills & routines you will use; teaching them HOW to practice in the beginning makes them more effective when coaching is limited


also work on making practice as efficient as possible......I'm a big fan of a written practice plan, either posted to the dugout wall before practice and or "in the players hands" before practice (team website, social media, etc) - that forces you to stick to a schedule as much as possible, it lets the players know ahead of time what they'll be doing, minimizes down time/wait time, etc......i've been known to go all the way down to picking who throws with who during warmups; I'd have a lot of WHYS on there as well - ie "we will be doing this drill to help improve our communication" - letting them in on the WHYS also increases ownership/engagement, which you are going to need with only one set of coach eyes

also I'd seriously consider building a team covenant a la Proactive Coaching - I am a huge fan anyways, but you are going to be relying on players keeping themselves/each other on task and staying productive; building a set of positive behavior expectations that you all want to see ahead of time is much more effective then trying to deal with lapses reactively......i'd also consider their leadership training for captains/seniors/upperclassmen/the whole team (I always did the training with ALL of my players - I wanted them all to be leaders)

i'm sure i'll think of some more, but that's enough rambling for now
 

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