Practices with 1 Coach

[CoachJD]

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

I don't know why this never occurred to me before. I always have a written plan, and I usually give a brief preview of what we'll do at the very beginning, but I never considered actually sending the plan to players.

I like this, though I wonder if some of the players would be more likely to find an excuse to not come to practice on days when they didn't like what was planned. Maybe I should put "free ice cream" on every day's plan just to get them to show up.

 

[tim_s]

I don't know why this never occurred to me before. I always have a written plan, and I usually give a brief preview of what we'll do at the very beginning, but I never considered actually sending the plan to players.

I like this, though I wonder if some of the players would be more likely to find an excuse to not come to practice on days when they didn't like what was planned. Maybe I should put "free ice cream" on every day's plan just to get them to show up.

i never had issue with players not showing up.....guess i was lucky

but the knowing ahead of time makes things more efficient for sure......and i'm just a huge fan of players knowing the why's......answering the why question makes a huge difference in student engagement and student learning, so it makes sense that it carries over to athletics as well

 

[CoachJD]

i never had issue with players not showing up.....guess i was lucky

but the knowing ahead of time makes things more efficient for sure......and i'm just a huge fan of players knowing the why's......answering the why question makes a huge difference in student engagement and student learning, so it makes sense that it carries over to athletics as well

Agree on explaining why. That's always part of anything new we do.

My practice attendance is pretty good, at least from the serious players. But we get a lot of girls who play to have something to do, that type of thing. We don't have many true, dedicated athletes at our school. We also have some pretty awful parents (and some great ones) who won't let their kids attend practice if it's even the slightly inconvenience to them, things like that.

 

[tim_s]

Agree on explaining why. That's always part of anything new we do.

My practice attendance is pretty good, at least from the serious players. But we get a lot of girls who play to have something to do, that type of thing. We don't have many true, dedicated athletes at our school. We also have some pretty awful parents (and some great ones) who won't let their kids attend practice if it's even the slightly inconvenience to them, things like that.

fun

we always tried to end with something fun, a competition piece......sometimes that carrot was enough on a 95 degree summer day

i always took the "for many practice is the best part of their day" mantra seriously, and treated it as such.......but luckily HS & travel teams have been very well attended.....MS back when we had 24 we always had 3-4 that were intermittent at best, but only so much you can do

 

[gdc03120]

I would recommend you not be alone at practice. You don't necessarily need to have another coach there, but for your own protection I'd suggest you have another adult there. Two-deep leadership should be the standard.

Echoing this - I've coached 16U rec softball during the summertime (May-July) since 2015. All of these seasons save for one, I've been by myself. I ALWAYS do my practices a.) Out in the wide open where anyone can witness/see the drills/plans going on, and b.) Open to parents to watch/supervise at any time (so long as they do not directly get involved/coach without asking me first - I'm always open to volunteers on the field, not from the sidelines).

That being said, with 1 coach, it's very difficult to do active practices without having to feel like you are everywhere. I would focus on group work where you have groups of equal abilities and/or nominate unofficial "captains" who can lead groups with the lesser/weaker-ability players and model appropriate behavior/techniques for them. Doing team-inclusive drills where competitions are involved ALWAYS keep the girls' attention (such as 6 on defense in the infield, 4 runners at HP, simulating hits and trying to outrun infield singles. Every 3 outs, swap the 4 infielders with the 4 runners, etc.) Keep them constantly moving, keep them engaged and their minds on softball and you have less to worry about OUTSIDE of your plans.

 

[YoungBuck]

I would recommend you not be alone at practice. You don't necessarily need to have another coach there, but for your own protection I'd suggest you have another adult there. Two-deep leadership should be the standard.

This is spot on.

The high school I graduated from ages ago was fortunate. I think for every two players they had a coach! Many state titles won.

 

[lynx]

The one coach will be for about 3 weeks until the other coach gets back from maternity leave......appreciate all of the suggestions and thoughts on the topic

 

[sluggers]

Y

i never had issue with players not showing up.....guess i was lucky

You made the practices fun and engaging

 

[sluggers]

Get a bunch of small bats and teach your players how to hit grounders. Then, have them hit grounders while you supervise.

 

[Dropball]

The responses to this subject tend to relate more to keeping players in motion, grounders, batting etc. I thought about this for a while and while it is commendable to run a 1 coach practice is that really what practice should be about?

People often mistake activity for achievement, quantity vs. quality,. Just because the SS fields a ball and throws the fictitious runner out should she feel as though her actions were correct? If she had a goal of beating a time clock would she have done it using the? Putting a clock on fielders suddenly can show if the technique is correct. And don't hit balls right at fielder, that seldom happens in a game.

When we practiced the coaches made sure each player had a goal to accomplish. Every so often they had to explain how and why we did certain things and answer questions, You would be surprised how that focused the team.