Stations vs Position Work

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May 26, 2021
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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.
 
Jun 8, 2016
16,118
113
Stations are good...it keeps everybody engaged. You are the HC, run practice the way you want to do it. If the parents want to get involved tell them they
can practice the way they want to when they work with their kids at home.... ;)
 
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Jan 8, 2019
664
93
It’s great to keep everyone moving and engaged! Keep that up!

One cautionary note: I have been very thankful upfront to have the support of many parents, only to find later that the drills were not being run correctly. If the parents are knowledgeable, you are gold. If the parents also need training, bad habits may be forming. Just getting hacks in is not the same as developing good mechanics.

Good luck, and thank you for stepping up!
 
Dec 11, 2010
4,713
113
My DD’s 10u coach was a brilliant human being that planned intricate station based practices. Everyone got a strip of paper with what station they would be at with time slots. Including the parents who were required to help. There were also 3-4 coaches with no kids on the team and they all knew what they were doing. Every so many minutes he would yell out “ROTATE!” and players moved to next station. There was fielding and hitting stations and they had to take bat/helmet/glove/water everywhere and there was no fooling around. This was half of the practice. The other half of the practice was on the field situations but there could also be stations still going on so everyone was busy. (Example: fly ball stations for outfield while infield was going on so no outfielders were picking daisies watching other kids get situations.)

So after that was the third portion of practice. I would call this the “until it’s really dark“ portion of practice. Dive back to first, slides, running situations, reading pitches during lead offs etc.

This guy only coached 10’s and 12’s and he laid foundation for some really nice players. You could pick out hs players that played for him years prior just by how they ran bases. They were usually the best hitters on the team too. Probably because there were 3-4 of those evil pitching machines humming at every practice, lol!

One of the things he said that sticks with me today is that “softball players aren’t born, they are made.”.
 
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Jun 8, 2016
16,118
113
My DD’s 10u coach was a brilliant human being that planned intricate station based practices. Everyone got a strip of paper with what station they would be at and for how long. Including the parents who were required to help. There were also 3-4 coaches with no kids on the team and they all knew what they were doing. Every so many minutes he would yell out “ROTATE!” and players moved to next station. There was fielding and hitting stations and they had to take bat helmet glove water everywhere and there was no fooling around. This was half of the practice. The other half of the practice was on the field situations but there could also be stations still going on so everyone was busy.

So after that was the third portion of practice. I would call this the “until it’s really dark“ portion of practice. Dive back to first, slides, running situations, reading pitches during lead offs etc.

This guy only coached 10’s and 12’s and he laid foundation for some really nice players.
In my brief stint coaching my son's 7U team this past spring I made a practice plan before each practice and then sent it to the parents with links to videos of the drills in the stations I was going to run so they could see how I wanted them done. I would also demonstrate beforehand. I think a few of the parents who helped would look at the links (there were also a few who I could tell didn't like that I was doing a lot drills). Not sure it helped our team didn't win a game (while I do these with my son at home most of the kids would have rather we just played a game the whole time..which isn't surprising I guess for a bunch of 7 and 8 YO boys) but if fulfilled my need to control everything :cautious:

His current coach runs stations as well and he has a plethora of help from overzealous fathers (which doesn't include me..)
 
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Dec 11, 2010
4,713
113
I really think you were on the right track.

The guys that coached the team I wrote about were all retired. They had figured out the intricacies of herding cats over the years- and they had time to do it over the course of years.

I couldn’t do it what they did. Not enough patience.

The new breed parents were starting to show up when my kid was on the team. That’s part of why they threw in the towel and retired from coaching.
 
Jun 8, 2016
16,118
113
I couldn’t do it what they did. No patience.
Yeah..I won't be coaching again. I don't deal well with parents who don't know wth they are talking about but open their mouths anyway. I had a Mom who kept yelling out swing at strikes (it was coach pitch) from the stands when her kid was missing balls right down the middle. After 4 or 5 games of this, in the middle of an inning I "kiddingly" asked her (from the mound) if she wanted to pitch..she got the point.
 
Jun 8, 2016
16,118
113
I work out with my kids right across the street from Marita Hynes. They have a count down clock on the scoreboard when they are practicing for the timing of the stations they run..if it is good enough for Patty it is good enough for your team.
 
May 15, 2008
1,913
113
Cape Cod Mass.
Certainly 'traditional' rec practices are terrible, but there are a lot of 'experts' out there that are clueless about that. Getting reps is the best way to improve skills. With one practice and two games a week you could continue with what you are doing, but it might be worth taking time to explain the game to the players, then go back to stations. As their skills get better you can transition to some situational stuff.
 

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