Rotating players?

[hlevy]

How long does a typical practice last for you? We've had 5 practices so far out of 8 and they only last 1.5 hours. We have 3 girls who I would say are our weakest. Two of them either show up late or don't show up at all so it's hard to get them where they need to be. The third is at every practice, but she is absolutely terrified of the ball. She steps out of the way when trying to catch it, and if she's fielding it she waits for it to come to a complete stop before picking it up. What are some things I can do to try and help her not be so scared of the ball?

Our better players put 150% in to every practice that we've had. They talk to each other in the infield and they are all very aware of what's going on. My outfielders that I've had practice in the infield just don't pay attention. They're more interested in playing in the dirt or throwing their gloves in the air.

I am pretty happy that they all are decent batters. Our weakest batter has improved tremendously and I couldn't be more proud of her. She was so eager to learn how to hit properly, I just wish she had that same fire to learn how to field. I don't know what I need to do to spark it in her.

 

[bmakj]

How long does a typical practice last for you? We've had 5 practices so far out of 8 and they only last 1.5 hours. We have 3 girls who I would say are our weakest. Two of them either show up late or don't show up at all so it's hard to get them where they need to be. The third is at every practice, but she is absolutely terrified of the ball. She steps out of the way when trying to catch it, and if she's fielding it she waits for it to come to a complete stop before picking it up. What are some things I can do to try and help her not be so scared of the ball?

hard thing to do, and keep in mind some never get there, but when the kids does, brings more satisfaction than any win or great play made by your best player.

1-encourage her parents to get her a face mask. If she does so, first time she wears it, take a ball, and tap the facemask with it about a dozen times, moving it around some, and demonstrate that turning her head will expose unprotected portions.

2-have you or an assistant work with her one on one for a decent amount of time, make certain parents are watching (to continue at home). place her directly in front of a tall fence/wall, heels against the wall.from about 8 feet away, have them hold glove up like they are waving at you at or a little above shoulder high. throw ball repeatedly directly into the glove about 20 times or so, can do so underhand given the short distance. have them move glove to opposite side of their body, thumb down, again about shoulder high, another 20 throws right into glove. next, have them position glove directly in front of their body, thumb down, repeat. repeat ad naseum. move on to same type of throws, but changing it up in a repeating pattern. then move on to doing it in an unpredictable pattern. important here to keep throwing balls directly to where there glove should be. rinse and repeat, always repeat. make certain they do not swat at the ball. can do this with tennis balls as well, added benefit here is they learn they must squeeze. reading this, sounds a lot more complicated than it is, try it, really kinda simple.

for grounders, try "wickets game", they have to have the ball go through their legs, no attempt to field it, just working on getting them moving to field the ball. then, once they are moving well towards the ball, put the glove back on. again, facemask is really helpful.

for fly balls, again, it is a progression. start with tennis balls, no gloves, batting helmets (with face guards) on. throw hit balls up in air, have players run under them so ball its top of helmet or faceguard. then, tennis ball fly balls directly to them, no gloves, have them two handed catch. them move on to gloves (still with tennis balls), teaches them to squeeze and get throwing hand in to secure ball once it hits glove. always insist fingers are pointed towards sky, no basket catches. then on to real balls, again, right at them, just to reinforce mechanics of the catch. as they progress, you can move on (I do this mostly with tennis balls as my shoulder is shot) to having them have to run for it, be certain to teach them how to run and look over shoulder in each direction to track ball. again, most important thing is to first get them confident in ability of the glove and hand to catch the ball, nothing else, then add in other factors. ideally, you would repeat basics until it is a reflex, but none of us have that kind of practice time.

 

[bmakj]

Also, my practices typically ran 90-100 minutes. in groups of three, no reason in a 10 minute drill each girl cannot get at least 15 reps. fast paced drills can be hell on coaches, but great for girls, more reps, keep them moving. small groups is key. time spent waiting in line or in the field while 9 other girls field and throw are pretty much wasted minutes. Again, at end of practice, it is good to bring it together for more real game type play or short scrimmage, but the younger they are, the more reps they need at the fundamentals rather than game situations.

never spend an entire practice either hitting balls to entire defense lined up in field, or even worse, pitching to each kid with entire defense lined up in field. too much standing (which also drives kids away from the game, they want more action, even in practice)


typical practice:
5-10 minute warmup throwing to each other, stragglers arrive
5 min stretch, short run
45-60 min divide into drills/stations, the smaller the groups the better stations woud be 2-4 of the following:
-batting (HC/AC throwing to one girl, another one or two on tee, if two one hitting, one setting, AC throws one bucket to each batter)
-infield (HC/AC hitting to small line of girls at a given position, throwing to a base, might have two lines so you can teach SS/2B coverages)
-outfield (HC/AC working with girls on fly balls, safety stop, etc.)
-4 girls working on cutoffs (SS/2B/RF/LF, rotating every 5th ball or so)
-baserunning/sliding (overruns, looking for overthrow, rounding, etc.)
-can also split off a P and a C to go work on the side, give a given pair 20 or so minutes then switch, just be certain to vary pairs from one practice to another.

then, maybe 20 minutes of scrimmage or full defense with HC/AC calling out a situation, and hitting a ball, can also add in live baserunners. One practice in three might cut drills a little timewise to extend this, to get them all some "live" baserunning

then, if no baserunning drill, full team baserunning, rapid fire (ie don't wait for runner in front to get to 1B to have next runner go), they alternate what they do:
two lines, staggered, so one is starting about 8-10 feet behing the other (this is to avoid collisions at 1B)
first "go", runner A runs to 1B and runs through, runner B (starting out behind) rounds and does to 2B, slides.
next "go", runners on 1B goes to 3B, slides, runner on 2B comes home, standing, runners in line go same as on first "go"
when you come home, you switch lines. repeat until everyone has gone through each line once or twice

then, split teams to HP and 2B, relay race

throw in a few water breaks, and you have a 90-100 minute practice. again, in 10 minutes of a drill, if you keep the groups small, no reason each girl cannot get at least 15 reps, possibly as many as 30

gather up gear, put plugs in, "good practice, see you XXXX, do your homework, brush your teeth, listen to mom and dad, yadda yadda yadda"

harder (ie impossible for coach) problem to solve is player not coming or coming late to practices. I had several families I offered to help out personally with rides, etc. you would be amazed at what just the offer can do to wake parents up to the fact they need to get their kids their, but there are also cases where jobs, etc. make it tough, and maybe ask the entire team to try and help out, as it benefits the entire team. Also stress playing catch (or more, but even just simple catch can work wonders) with their kids away from practice, but also stress they need to watch your practice, and how you teach, to make certain they correct problems (ie basket catching a thrown ball, wrong foot forward on throwing, etc., ie easy to see things, don't have them sweat finer points, just obvious stuff). Remind them all this will benefit their kid, not you. your salary is the same if the kid progresses from novice to all american or makes no progress, and if the team goes unbeaten or winless.

 

[hlevy]

Thanks Bmakj! We had a really good practice last night. AC worked one on one with our girl who is scared, and she seemed to make a nice improvement towards the end of practice. She's still leery of fly balls (will definitely have to try her wearing a helmet- thanks for that tip!), but her fielding did improve.

I still have one player who I'm not making progress with. I'm trying really hard, but I'm not sure how to connect to her. I know I need to change my coaching method to something she'll respond to, but I just haven't figured it out. I never knew coaching could be so hard!! Hustle is not in her vocabulary. AC told her to hustle to field the ball and she said "I want to walk". And proceeded to do everything in slow motion. She wouldn't listen....tried talking over us when we were giving instructions. Dragging her feet everywhere she goes. I saw an end of practice competition that involved lining girls at SS and them throwing balls at a bucket at HP to knock it over. Gave each girls 5 chances and if they didn't hit it, they had to run 1 lap. All of them loved this (and all of them missed except 2). They each ran their lap with no complaints until our bad attitude girl came up. She missed and when she was told to do her lap, she cocked an attitude and said she wasn't running....she eventually walked around the field. I swear if it isn't one thing, it's another.

 

[bmakj]

Thanks Bmakj! We had a really good practice last night. AC worked one on one with our girl who is scared, and she seemed to make a nice improvement towards the end of practice. She's still leery of fly balls (will definitely have to try her wearing a helmet- thanks for that tip!), but her fielding did improve.

I still have one player who I'm not making progress with. I'm trying really hard, but I'm not sure how to connect to her. I know I need to change my coaching method to something she'll respond to, but I just haven't figured it out. I never knew coaching could be so hard!! Hustle is not in her vocabulary. AC told her to hustle to field the ball and she said "I want to walk". And proceeded to do everything in slow motion. She wouldn't listen....tried talking over us when we were giving instructions. Dragging her feet everywhere she goes. I saw an end of practice competition that involved lining girls at SS and them throwing balls at a bucket at HP to knock it over. Gave each girls 5 chances and if they didn't hit it, they had to run 1 lap. All of them loved this (and all of them missed except 2). They each ran their lap with no complaints until our bad attitude girl came up. She missed and when she was told to do her lap, she cocked an attitude and said she wasn't running....she eventually walked around the field. I swear if it isn't one thing, it's another.

my advice:

talk with parents out of earshot of all, see if they have insights/ideas

talk with girl out of earshot of all, most of all make certain she really wants to play (sounds like this may be the issue), see if she is having issues with other girls (oh the drama of girls)

talk with girls and parents together explain that if she will not make effort, then she will get minimum playing time by rules, all in LF or LCF and batting last in order. Explain that you get out of an experience according to what you put in, and it is not fair to rest of team otherwise.

in the end, you do what you can. case like this, if you cannot get player to want to improve, almost impossible in my opinion (you already see the difference with the one girl, so I do not think it is the coaching, but more the individual, not to say you cannot still not try to help, but player has to want to and put work in in order to get better)

 

[Axe]

I saw an end of practice competition that involved lining girls at SS and them throwing balls at a bucket at HP to knock it over. Gave each girls 5 chances and if they didn't hit it, they had to run 1 lap. All of them loved this (and all of them missed except 2). They each ran their lap with no complaints until our bad attitude girl came up. She missed and when she was told to do her lap, she cocked an attitude and said she wasn't running....she eventually walked around the field. I swear if it isn't one thing, it's another.

This is a great drill, kids love it. Why would you punish them by running laps if they miss it (trust me, kids see this as punishment). It's not really that easy to do. How about finding a way to encourage the girls by celebrating their success instead?

 

[hlevy]

This is a great drill, kids love it. Why would you punish them by running laps if they miss it (trust me, kids see this as punishment). It's not really that easy to do. How about finding a way to encourage the girls by celebrating their success instead?

I can assure you one lap isn't punishment. It also kept the girls moving while the next player attempted the challenge. It was all smiles and laughter while running until our player who had a bad attitude the entire night attempted it. All of the other girls wanted to do the challenge again even with the knowledge that 5 misses resulted in ONE lap.

 

[Rocketech1]

Whatever you do, just make sure that you have kid pitchers and not pitching machines. My other point is in Rec All-Stars, players compete for playing time and rotate in the "weaker" players in pool play (as necessary). It gets them ready for the eventual move up to travel ball.