Printable Softball Drills Planner - need your feedback

[kriesberg]

Hey everyone, I'm new to the community and I'm so happy I found it. There's great advice on here and I'm looking forward to getting some feedback on my post.

I have a passion for softball as well as being an entrepreneur. I've thought about putting together a printable document/planner of softball drills for coaches that can be printed and placed in a binder that can be taken with them to practice. Before I begin, I'd like to get my idea validated to see if it's worthwhile. I realize there are tons of books or websites out there, but I want to put these drills into a nice, printable layout that coaches can keep on hand.

It'd be great to have something available at practice to go to if you see a girl struggling with dropping her bat and see what kind of drill would help with this specific problem.

I just went through a 10U spring competitive season with my daughter who unfortunately had terrible coaches and did the same few drills over and over again. Never working on the basics and really getting the fundamentals down.

I'm asking if people would graciously take their time to answer a few questions. (Validation is key to starting any kind of business, otherwise there's no point in starting!)

1. Does it sound like something you would use?
2. What would you pay for it? Assuming it had 50 different softball drills
3. Any questions/comments that you think would be helpful to know
4. What else would you like to see?

Thank you so much, I appreciate your time and look forward to feedback. I believe that if a coach volunteers their time to coach, those girls deserve to be taught the right way, and also have fun while doing it.

 

[Slappers]

1. Yes and no. If they are written out well then yes. I've seen a few items like this and they are so terribly written that they aren't worth it. No because of apps such as iPractice where you download the videos that explain the drills to your iPad so a book isn't needed.

2. Depends on the quality of the drills. I have books full of drills that were like $10-15.

3. The problem as I stated earlier and as you will see when reading through some of the technical stuff on this site is a lot of verbiage that no one understands gets used. Just read some of the hitting and pitching threads on this site.

4. In this day and age, a basic app would be better than a book. My iPad is with me at all times for using various apps during practices...most notably Coach's Eye. Carrying around yet another thing isn't likely to happen. Might be useful for a new coach though?

 

[Sparky Guy]

I have a list of about 80 different drills I use when I'm working with young players. Unfortunately, it's stored between my ears. Writing them out is a long and tedious process. I started it once and gave up.

Then you're faced with the experience level of coach. While I can give you a drill to use it's next to impossible to write out all the wrong things to watch for and the little nuances of a particular skill that helps make a player successful.

Your idea is great for newbie coaches. As the others have said, combine it with some video of the skill being done correctly. It's a daunting task. Then there will always be those who have a different or "better" way to do the same things.

Don't mean to sound so negative. But that's the reality of it.

 

[kriesberg]

Thanks guys, I do really appreciate the feedback. And your comments are exactly why I wanted to validate it before I did it because I have the same apprehensions as well.

The experience level of coach is what frustrated me this season. The girls are 30+ games into the season and the coaches still haven't thought about correcting some of the girls that throw very incorrectly in a 10U competitive league... very frustrating for a parent that's coached before.

There's so many drills and the videos that I find are just really outdated, but you're right, talk about a tall task.

Thanks again, love to hear the feedback!

 

[Amy in AZ.]

I bought something like that once. It came in a binder and someone had went to the problem of copying all of the drills. It wasn't uniform though. It was just copied pages.

I do have books like you are describing. "Infield drills" "Outfield drills" Etc. So, what you are thinking may have already been done, in various forms.

 

[softballphreak]

I have a list of about 80 different drills I use when I'm working with young players. Unfortunately, it's stored between my ears. Writing them out is a long and tedious process. I started it once and gave up.

Then you're faced with the experience level of coach. While I can give you a drill to use it's next to impossible to write out all the wrong things to watch for and the little nuances of a particular skill that helps make a player successful.

Your idea is great for newbie coaches. As the others have said, combine it with some video of the skill being done correctly. It's a daunting task. Then there will always be those who have a different or "better" way to do the same things.

Don't mean to sound so negative. But that's the reality of it.

And then there's the often overlooked problem of communicating those drills to a dozen or more players who will invariably find ways to completely misunderstand them and pass on to their parents and other coaches a totally different explanation of what you tried to teach.

Before you (the OP) try to get deep into it I would try to learn, know, and understand exactly what you are trying to teach. You need to "feel" it for yourself to help you understand it.

I don't have a link but you would be far ahead of the game if you downloaded Donny Buster's pdf. Someone will probably post a link to it. If not keep asking til you get it; it's worth it!