Situations

[Slappers]

How do you all teach situations? I'm having trouble getting the team to understand that there are more plays out there than just get the lead runner.

 

[ArkFastpitch]

What age group? TB or rec team? I prefer to practice different scenarios and let the girls tell me what they would do in each. I want them to understand why we do what we do in each scenario.

 

[JJsqueeze]

if you find a way to teach thinking be sure to post it....I struggle with this all of the time. The best I can come up with is that some girls learn how to play the game and some don't, you cannot teach all situations, you just have to try to teach good decision making and hope they develop a way to make decisions on the fly in a game. I take hope from the fact that even a catcher on a world series team is still struggling with decisions like whether or not to try to get an out at third.

 

[canyonjoe]

It's the biggest problem I see with our team. Everyone can hit, throw, catch,etc, but very few know how to play. I really think that when I was a kid we learned by watching a lot of baseball on TV, but more importantly playing ball in the park, wiffle ball, kick ball,etc. You just learned to think and react.

We do some chalkboard stuff and it helps, but I don't know how many times I'll see a girl bunt with a runner on 3rd right to the 3B. So many times the runner is standing 3 feet from the fielder and she throws to first to get the out. Or a grounder to 2nd where the player tries to get the lead runner when it's clearly too late. Runners holding on popups that you can see from anywhere that they are not going to be caught. Throwing late to bases or home and giving up the extra base. All of these things are things that come with more playing, but even with as much as we get to play it's just not enough IMHO. When we were kids, our little league games at night were our 5th game of the day.

One thing we did in on our rec team one fall, was we scrimmaged a lot in practice. We would have coach pitch and coach catch and the players would just play. We'd get 6-7 inning in very quickly and kids got to move around a lot. I really think they learned a lot on how to make plays and see what they can and can't do.

Our current travel team is really starting to make strides in the mental part of the game. Our mistakes are dwindling, but we are hoping to make bigger strides throughout the fall and winter. Any advice given will be truly appreciated.

 

[MountieSB]

Here's what I did with a 10U team a few years ago. Put a defense in the infield. Take the rest of the team with helmets to 3B (girls obviously run one at a time, waiting their turn to run). Put a runner on third (no where else). Tell the defensive team that no matter what, you can't let that runner score. They get a point for keeping the runner from scoring. Tell the runner on 3B that she should try to score. Their team also gets a point for each score. Hit some ground balls to different infielders.

Here's what happens the first few hits: runners run no matter what and fielders all throw home. Sometimes they get the runner, sometimes they don't. After a few rounds of this, the runners from third stop running right away because they're almost always getting thrown out. Infielders are now "checking" the runner from third (because the runners stop running) and throwing to 1B. They get a point for this.

Next, add a runner from home who runs to first base. The running team can only get a point if both of the players (runner from 3B and runner from home) get to the next base. Fielding team still has to try to keep the runner from third from trying to score. They get a point for any out they get. However, because they now know the runner from third almost never goes right away, they throw to first. This is a mess at first, but this is where you talk about checking runners and then getting outs.

This takes a good 30 minutes the first time you do it, and we only worked on runners from 3rd and then from 3rd and home the first night. There are tons of variations you can add to this (we did runners from first to second, same points system). After a week of this they started to get it. It wasn't perfect, but it was a way to teach them to think about where runners are and what we're trying to do defensively (prevent runners from scoring).

 

[humpty]

Play a lot. Talk about finding the next out, look for the play after the play. Setup a specific situation in practice with base runners and have the defense practice the play over and over.

 

[Coach JV]

in addition to some of the ideas already mentioned, generally speaking,;
never stop teaching the game. As players get older and more experienced, they see
more plays from the competition which you in turn can use as teaching tools.
The best players I have and have had in the past are 'students of the game'
The more you help an athlete understand the 'whys' behind a situation, the better she will
understand the 'hows'. It is not productive to throw in situational practice if the players do
not understand the reasoning behind the situationals. Once you begin situationals-continue frequently
as repetition is a great tool

 

[flipper14]

We try to do scenarios at a really fast pace. I'll place a runner on second and give the scenario. For example, I'll yell out runner on second nobody out. I'll hit the ball somewhere and they have to make the play. If the girl scores we'll start with nobody on and nobody out. There is very little time between plays so it really forces girls to both communicate quickly and to think quickly as well. If the runner stops at third it will be runner at third with however many outs I want it to be. I will stop and correct if necessary if maybe we get something rare but we'll run it really fast. You can do it with or without an outfield, or even just corner outfielders or a centerfielder. It's also a great way to get some conditioning in without it even seeming like conditioning. We call it our Oregon drill (because of the tempo that they go on offense in football). You can get through a ton of scenarios in a very short period of time.

 

[Jackel2168]

With 12 girls on a team, divide them into 4 groups of 3. Warm up your pitchers and catchers. Write out situation you want to work on down with the score of the game. When one of the groups comes in have them grab X amount of situations, usually a quarter of the situations. Set the situation up, like runners on 2nd and 3rd, one out, winning run on 2nd. It allows the hitters to work situational hitting and the fielders situational hitting. Determine a reward/punishment for those who succeed/fail.

 

[CoogansBluff]

It's the biggest problem I see with our team. Everyone can hit, throw, catch,etc, but very few know how to play. I really think that when I was a kid we learned by watching a lot of baseball on TV, but more importantly playing ball in the park, wiffle ball, kick ball,etc. You just learned to think and react.

On one hand, I don't agree w/ the idea that somehow we were more fundamentally sound or had a better feel for the game when we were kids than our daughters do now (at the same age). I can remember some bone-headed things I did in high school ball that my daughter would never do at 14. Our daughters play so many games. I never knew anybody at age 14 who had played as much softball/baseball, either at the park or down the street, as my daughter has played in travel ball, and thousands like her. I think they're doing a pretty good job.

But, on the other hand, your last comment made me think a little: ''You just learned to think and react.'' ...

Biggest difference between my day and my daughter's as far as sports go is that my daughter doesn't play sports in the backyard with friends. Every sport she plays is structured. It's part of a league, or it's a full-time endeavor. She doesn't just play. She is trained. She has a coach who tells her what to think about everything. Kids don't get much opportunity to figure it out for themselves because that takes time. Team needs to win right now, so we can't wait until they figure it out on their own. So coaches are there to protect you from the dugout. They yell where to position yourself in the outfield, when to move in for the bunt, where to throw the ball if it comes to you. Third base coach will tell you where to stand in the batter's back, whether to be patient or not. "Only if it's perfect,'' he'll say when the count is 3-0. He'll also remind you to load and to keep you hands back. When you get on base, you're told to run hard on a ground ball. And on and on and on.

Who needs instincts when you've got coaches?