What would you do?

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Ken Krause

Administrator
Admin
May 7, 2008
3,911
113
Mundelein, IL
Ok, here's the situation. It's a hypothetical, by the way, not a recent incident. But I've heard of this sort of thing.

Yesterday your team dropped both ends of a double header. You made a couple of errors in each game, but mostly it was a lack of offense against a couple of mediocre pitchers. What would you do in the next practice?

A) Have your players hit the entire practice, working on technique

B) Conduct a normal practice with hitting, fielding, baserunning, etc.

C) Have them run until they puke so they focus more next time

D) Bring in an optometrist and give them all an eye exam
 

FJRGerry

Abby's Dad
Jan 23, 2009
202
0
Collegeville, PA
If swinging and missing at strikes then work on hitting mechanics...

If not swinging at all then run til they puke - then work on hitting mechanics... :)

Gerry
 
May 12, 2008
2,214
0
Yeah. Could be anything. Poor decision making or just a bad day? Probably. If it was mechanics, you would already know a long time before the double header. On the other hand, sometimes lousy pitching is tough to hit when you are used to good pitching. So I'd need more information before prescribing. Maybe it was the day after the school dance and what they really need is a good night's sleep. :)
 

Coach-n-Dad

Crazy Daddy
Oct 31, 2008
1,010
0
If swinging and missing at strikes then work on hitting mechanics...

If not swinging at all then run til they puke - then work on hitting mechanics... :)

Gerry

HA HA, It is funny you would say that. My team will be running 'till they puke tonight, then we will be working on hitting mechanics.

They will be doing wind sprints for each "caught looking", I hope we have time for other work :eek:
 
Dec 28, 2008
389
0
I propose some alternates ....

E) If the girls are over 10 ... ask them what happened and work on what they feel as a group they need the work on. Guessing what is going on in a girls mind, and trying to fix the problem before you know what it really is .... is always a bad idea.

F) Do some team building drills that draw them closer as a unit that will hopefully help them pull together when the wheels fall off the next time.

G) Do some purposeful batting drills that force them to focus and eliminate distractions (like giving up 3 runs on a dropped ball in the outfield). Have them hit off of tees or try to catch popups with others laughing, screaming and shooting them with water guns etc. Obviously it is easy to say "forget about what happened in the field or at bat" but it is entirely a different thing to actually do it, unless you are doing drills that will help them learn how to do it through practice.
 
May 7, 2008
8,506
48
Tucson
I hope you are kidding about running young girls, 'til they puke. I hope you are kidding about using running as punishment at all.
 

Coach-n-Dad

Crazy Daddy
Oct 31, 2008
1,010
0
I was only half kidding. We are 14U and we did run wind sprints, not for punishment mind you, for conditioning - and no one puked. Then we ran offensive 3rd strike batting drills with base runners. Then we worked on defensive bunt coverage.

We had a lot of fun and there was MAJOR improvement on the girls choosing pitches "close" to the zone.
 
If my girls are missing "good" pitches, I do bunting practice @ the next practice. It seems to make them concentrate more on seeing the ball all the way to the bat. I have done this now for the past 5-6 years and seems to have helped our hitting game. Now if it is "bad" pitches they are swinging at then we work on seeing the difference between strikes and balls with girls taking turns umpiring for batting practice.
 
Jul 28, 2008
1,088
0
I would work in defense. In order to lose, your team must give up some runs. That means the defense wasn't up to par. To me, hitting if over rated. Defense and good pitching wins games.
 

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