- May 26, 2021
- 56
- 18
I started coaching this year because growing up, and watching my daughter, it's always bugged me how horrible (in my mind) practices were run. Growing up playing baseball usually we would have one, or at best, 2 lines of kids doing a drill for 10 minutes then we would switch to the next drill, followed by 45 minutes to an hour standing in positions doing nothing as one kid got a ball every 20 seconds or so. I remember the bad players would be bad forever. They would still catch wrong after 3 years of playing. Because no one taught them.
Now that I've watched a few seasons of practices of my daughter it just started to bug me so much I decided to coach. So now I'm coaching 10u fall ball. I've got what I think is a pretty decent system down. We have 5 or 6 stations I rotate the girls through. We have a lot of parents helping, I told them at the beginning I needed 5 other people on the field. So girls are always doing something. Mostly getting a lot of 1 on 1 or 1 on 2 help. We have 6 girls that have never played, so I feel like that's important too.
We only get one practice a week and two games. I have two parents that have coached before and they are totally not down with this station thing. During warm ups before a game today I wanted a smaller version of the stations too, since we have an hour and just want to get in as much practice as we can.
One of the parents, who has coached before, insisted we line up 8 of the girls and hit balls to them while our pitchers were warming up. I don't want to be a tyrant, so I let him have it. As I was standing there watching with two other parents I was just so confused at how anyone could think that was a better way to do it. These girls get a grounder then the coach says "run up to it!" followed by that girl getting back in line and getting a grounder a minute or so later. By that point the girl has forgot (or maybe didn't understand to begin with) the "run up to it" suggestion. So they make the same mistake again.
If I had two or three girls I could give her a ball right away, and really take time to talk to her, and they would be getting way more reps in the same amount of time.
Our next practice is Monday. This assistant coach wants us to put all the girls in position and hit balls to them for the whole practice just basically talking to them and explaining rules. He's pretty adamant about it. And now other parents are saying the same thing too. During the game they are a little lost for sure. But 6 of the 12 girls have literally never played before. If I had them all in the field explaining rules during practice, I'm pretty sure we would have the same outcome.
Learning the game during the game seems like the most reasonable thing to me, but now I'm thinking of just appeasing and having them all out on the field the next practice, at least once, to get the parents off my back.
I know my way is different. I'm doing it because it's different. I had 3 hitting stations and I swear these girls are getting better. I had two girls who have never played before hit off of good pitchers today at the game. Their swings are different than when we started. Noticeably. They seem much more confident and we've only had two games.
So my question. Am I crazy? Am I doing it all wrong? Or should I stick to my guns. I feel like I'm all alone on my philosophy here, so I want to just do a gut check with people other than the parents on my team.
Now that I've watched a few seasons of practices of my daughter it just started to bug me so much I decided to coach. So now I'm coaching 10u fall ball. I've got what I think is a pretty decent system down. We have 5 or 6 stations I rotate the girls through. We have a lot of parents helping, I told them at the beginning I needed 5 other people on the field. So girls are always doing something. Mostly getting a lot of 1 on 1 or 1 on 2 help. We have 6 girls that have never played, so I feel like that's important too.
We only get one practice a week and two games. I have two parents that have coached before and they are totally not down with this station thing. During warm ups before a game today I wanted a smaller version of the stations too, since we have an hour and just want to get in as much practice as we can.
One of the parents, who has coached before, insisted we line up 8 of the girls and hit balls to them while our pitchers were warming up. I don't want to be a tyrant, so I let him have it. As I was standing there watching with two other parents I was just so confused at how anyone could think that was a better way to do it. These girls get a grounder then the coach says "run up to it!" followed by that girl getting back in line and getting a grounder a minute or so later. By that point the girl has forgot (or maybe didn't understand to begin with) the "run up to it" suggestion. So they make the same mistake again.
If I had two or three girls I could give her a ball right away, and really take time to talk to her, and they would be getting way more reps in the same amount of time.
Our next practice is Monday. This assistant coach wants us to put all the girls in position and hit balls to them for the whole practice just basically talking to them and explaining rules. He's pretty adamant about it. And now other parents are saying the same thing too. During the game they are a little lost for sure. But 6 of the 12 girls have literally never played before. If I had them all in the field explaining rules during practice, I'm pretty sure we would have the same outcome.
Learning the game during the game seems like the most reasonable thing to me, but now I'm thinking of just appeasing and having them all out on the field the next practice, at least once, to get the parents off my back.
I know my way is different. I'm doing it because it's different. I had 3 hitting stations and I swear these girls are getting better. I had two girls who have never played before hit off of good pitchers today at the game. Their swings are different than when we started. Noticeably. They seem much more confident and we've only had two games.
So my question. Am I crazy? Am I doing it all wrong? Or should I stick to my guns. I feel like I'm all alone on my philosophy here, so I want to just do a gut check with people other than the parents on my team.