Share the worst of the worst! I'm actually still trying to think of some things, but the pitching world is full of weird stuff. In the pitching world, I've found that a lot of times it's best to just instruct something vs sticking a kid on a balance beam with a softball filled sock and a glass of water while singing Bohemian Rhapsody...ya know?
What are the WORST hitting/pitching/fielding practice drills and games you've encountered?
- Thread starter PJR202
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I laughed so hard. My lord. The 3 hop is the only one of those I've ever used. Those side hops and reverses! HAHAHAHA
- Jun 8, 2016
- 16,118
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The hitting forum has a stickie.
Weak, unregimented, pre game warm up stretches. Half the players just going thru the motions ( not really stretching) and talking a mile a minute about blah blah blah. Looks so bad. Lack of leadership.
The excuse: "They are 14u now and have to take responsibility and figure it out themselves." Sounds good in theory but that's not reality. With 15 players there will always be a few motor mouths half assing it, distracting others and making warm ups look like crap.
The excuse: "They are 14u now and have to take responsibility and figure it out themselves." Sounds good in theory but that's not reality. With 15 players there will always be a few motor mouths half assing it, distracting others and making warm ups look like crap.
- May 27, 2013
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Not sure if this was a good drill or not but it was extremely difficult, yet comical, to watch at a 12U Little League practice. The coach would stand up on a chair and drop a ball in from overhead while the batter tried to hit it. Have to admit, it was the first and last time I saw that drill.
Six pitchers? So about 8 coaches doing nothing. "They are 12u now, the need to figure it out themselves."Coaches who run practices who don't include structure for pitchers and catchers.
Like the most basic foundations of being a catcher.
Crouch and glove target.
And
Pitchers no structure of pitch sequence to workout and develop locations.
Yikes!
Definitely hard to watch.
Went to watch a 13u, 12u two-team practice that had pitchers and catchers working out before the team showed up.
6 pitchers and 6 catchers.
Zero structure.
Coaches standing around chatting with each other on the field,
And it was travel ball, no leadership. Shame!
Don't know maybe these coaches thought these were responsible young softball players with a routine they were supposed to be doingbut what I saw were coaches not being responsible to hold a real workout.
(They did have a structured plan of grounders and fly balls for the rest of the defense. Mystery to not oversee the critical element of pitchers and catchers)
- Jun 8, 2016
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Not a fan of ANY IF fielding drills where the coach doesn't actually instruct the player on how they should be doing things (footwork, posture,glove presentation,etc,etc). Given enough reps SOME kids may naturally gravitate towards the proper way of doing things but there are not enough reps in a team practice for the coach to hope that happens...
Two seasons ago I would be boiling (which really takes a lot for me) as I watched the girls warm-up pass. It was so awful. They were pretty light on skills at that point, but all of them could handle short didtance throw and catch. I had a hard time righting the ship because we had a few cancerous kids and HC wasn't bothering to back me up. I'd have had to just stand there the whole time. Last season was much better. Less cancer, new HC.
You can tell a lot about your opponent watching them warm up. They finally started to realize it halfway through last season.
radness
Possibilities & Opportunities!
- Dec 13, 2019
- 7,270
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At one of our Long Beach State pregames on the field was right next to a fraternity in San Diego. For some reason our third baseman was experiencing fumble fingers and missed three grounders in a row. Conveniently
very close to the field were some fraternity boys looking over their wall, with their red Solo cups,One of them yelled out 'if you ate with those hands you'd starve to death'...
Did the comment help?!
...Our 3rd base did not make any errors in the following doubleheader!
