Stations vs Position Work

[sluggers]

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.

Yes, you are crazy...for letting the parents help. Other than that, you are running the practice perfectly. (I am pretty good at quickly hitting ground balls.)

You don't win rec leagues by having five good players. You win rec league games by elevating the play of each individual on the team.

NOTE: You should have one station where you practice SS to 2B and 2B to SS force outs.

 

[_MIA_]

Yes, you are crazy...for letting the parents help. Other than that, you are running the practice perfectly. (I am pretty good at quickly hitting ground balls.)

You don't win rec leagues by having five good players. You win rec league games by elevating the play of each individual on the team.

NOTE: You should have one station where you practice SS to 2B and 2B to SS force outs.

Kind of hard to have stations at that age ( when the players cannot run the stations themselves) without parents involved..
My best assistant was my DD but I kicked her out when she started getting on my best player too much (her brother... )

 

[bmakj]

you are doing great. with that ratio of practices to games, you really will be using games to teach situational things. not ideal, but with that format, probably best you can do.

Let me guess, the parents complaining are NOT the parents of the 6 girls with no experience.

address the issue, say that you feel that getting all the girls as many reps as possible on the basic skills is the key to their long term success. Go ahead and tell them you are not really concerned about W/L in this fall season (because it sounds like you are not, and that is good), but development of all the players. PREACH. maybe have each parent count how many reps their girls get at your practice and at a practice like your AC wants.

put it another way, even if all 12 or however many players you have know WHAT to do with the ball when hit towards them, if they do not know HOW to do it, chances of success are slim.

Also, 10u rec, situationally, IF throw to one, OF throw to 2 or cut. get them to do that without thinking, you get outs. name of the game in 10u rec, get outs, especially if there are run limits. in our 10u rec days, team that allowed fewest max run innings won 9 of ten times.

 

[canyonjoe]

Until you can catch and throw all the rest of the situations on defense is a waste of time. Assuming you have a few players who can do so you'll do fine in games when you want to but in practice in 10U rec you are supposed to get them all better which you are doing. It's fine to question what you are doing but you need to do what you think is right.

 

[RichK]

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.”.

Exactly.

The difference between good and 'bad' (ie, undeveloped) teams and players is NOT the amount of time they put in but what they do in that time. Almost all teams these days will have multiple practices per week, lots of friendlies and tournaments, private coaches, etc.

If they get good instruction they'll improve. If they have poor or no instruction they'll basically be burning in mechanics that will NEVER be able to be changed. Just go to a large high school tryout where you might have 40-60 kids across levels and it is so sad that so many of them 'know' the drills and routines but execute them with horrid mechanics -- can't throw, no idea how to circle a grounder or execute base footwork or get behind a fly ball, etc. etc. (let alone hitting mechanics). And it's mostly too late to fix many things and what a waste of time to work all those years to get to that point anyway.

To the OP, keep up what you are doing. It will pay off and the parents that don't see it will move on. Hopefully you'll have enough stick around to keep it going. Good luck.

 

[bjenkins24]

Thanks everyone! That was all really helpful. I feel better and more confident now to go back to the team and tell them how it's going to be moving forward. I love so much of what everyone said

Until you can catch and throw all the rest of the situations on defense is a waste of time

put it another way, even if all 12 or however many players you have know WHAT to do with the ball when hit towards them, if they do not know HOW to do it, chances of success are slim.

That's exactly how I've been thinking about it. This forum is so great, so I don't feel like I'm alone in this.

Every so many minutes he would yell out “ROTATE!” and players moved to next station

That's literally exactly what I do. Except I just got a whistle to save my voice


Thanks again for all the help. I'm going to talk to the parents and be very clear about what I'm doing and why we're doing it. Hopefully at the very least that will get them to shut up regardless if they like it or not.

 

[marriard]

I don't want to be a tyrant, so I let him have it.

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.

This is a mistake new coaches often make.

Yes, you want to be a tyrant. Or more specifically you want to be a 'benevolent dictator'

You can be willing to take input and feedback from others, but you are the head coach and you make the decisions for what you believe is best for the team. If your assistants can't support that, then they can't be your assistants anymore. If they wanted to be the head coach, they should have raised their hand.

-- you are right btw, practice methods have moved on. Stations to get lots of reps are much better ---

Ideally, BTW, you don't run a station. You constantly go from station to station instructing. Parents on the field are not coaches; they put balls on tees or throw or reinforce what YOU TELL THEM.

 

[bjenkins24]

This is a mistake new coaches often make.

Yes, you want to be a tyrant. Or more specifically you want to be a 'benevolent dictator'

You can be willing to take input and feedback from others, but you are the head coach and you make the decisions for what you believe is best for the team. If your assistants can't support that, then they can't be your assistants anymore. If they wanted to be the head coach, they should have raised their hand.

-- you are right btw, practice methods have moved on. Stations to get lots of reps are much better ---

Ideally, BTW, you don't run a station. You constantly go from station to station instructing. Parents on the field are not coaches; they put balls on tees or throw or reinforce what YOU TELL THEM.

This was very helpful. Readying through this thread I've definitely felt that was a misstep on my part. I gave him an inch and I have a feeling he's going to try to take a mile. I'm gonna step up this next practice.

And going station to station is a great idea. I haven't been doing that, but I think I'm going to give it a try.

 

[bmakj]

keep us posted!

 

[canyonjoe]

I remember when my son was 8 or 9 he had some coaches who did a lot of drills. One thing that I totally remember was they never let anyone do it the wrong way. They taught all aspects but would stop and fix mistakes. I know we all like to get a lot of reps in but if they are done wrong you are essentially negative learning.