What's more valuable, practices or games?

[Dabears17]

Regarding softball IQ, my poor DD probably watched 30+ games a year before she started playing T-ball. A couple of times, she made plays, and we didn't understand why she did what she did. After the game, the umpire would comment about what a heads-up play she made. She made a smart play; we didn't realize what she saw. Other times, I'd ask her why she made a play afterward, and she would say she didn't know; she just reacted.

She also didn't mind being on the bench 20-30 percent of the time because she wanted to watch the whole game and learn.

When coaching 8u All-Stars and 10u, I'd teach the players to run until they saw a stop sign. Eventually, teaching them to be aggressive but also read what the defense is giving them. In High School, my DD wound up on 2B a lot during her at-bats; she rarely hit doubles. She read the throw and often advanced to second on the throw.

 

[Gambler Bob]

Individual Practice > Games > Team Practice

That is the same order I would rank them in also.

Daughter's travel team only has team practices a couple times per year. She does enjoy practicing with her high school team during the high school season. Outside of high school season we practice alone 95% of the time. We get a lot done in a short period of time practicing alone.

Individual practice, games and team practices are all important ways to improve your skill set.

 

[daywalkerdad]

Individual Practice > Games > Team Practice

I agree. With the possible exception of first couple of years of playing.
Individual practice/ 2-3 players, high reps makes you better.

 

[daywalkerdad]

I do believe some runners are more aggressive than others, but coaching does make a hugh difference, DD1 did track/cross country in High school, her coaches alway let her know everytime she got caught on the bases that it was her fault. To this day she is still base to base. DD2 was always encouraged to go for extra bases, If caught on the bases was always told "good effort", she is not the fastest, but is a force on the bases. Being a younger sibling, watching a higher level of play at a young age also helps.

Huge softball ilk for me. Coaches praising runners for getting out.
Based upon D2 RE charts the base is generally worth .2-.3 runs. The out costs between .8-1.7 runs that inning.
Plus it costs you an AT BAT. So that is .1-.9 runs (.247 is my guess) in the last inning.
Imagine your best hitter with a runner on, stuck in the on deck circle in a one run game. She does not get to bat because someone ran into an out.
D2 every out you run into costs you a run. At younger ages, travel ball probably closer to 1.5- 2 runs.
Not disparaging good base running, but is the only situation where a coach says good job when a player cost the team a run.

 

[RADcatcher]

Yep having a quality coach can make a notable difference!
Development comes not because someone calls themself a coach, but because the person called coach can develop players!

Sometimes The Word Coach gets used incorrectly. Managers assuming the wrong title.

 

[lostcreek1]

For young players practice for sure, both with the team and individually. I think a lot of teams play to many games, and don't practice enough. At that age the teams that do the fundamentals the best usually win.

 

[PJR202]

Basing this answer off of a typical 4-6 weeks of spring practice and another 8 weeks of games, this is my take. My (admittedly limited) experience in coaching at all three levels, helping restart a nearly dead school program, is that for a brand new player, until about 7th grade age, practice is more important. Kids just don't pick up game play very well regardless of how well they've picked up skills. So IMO it's better for any new player up to that age to just focus mostly on skills. They just flat-out lack the maturity to slow down the game enough to make good decisions. The best athletes I've seen come through that reach a middle school skill level quickly are still usually not reliable in game play for the entire first season regardless of how many games they play. They also generally don't have the maturity to shake off mistakes most of the time.

Brand new 8th and 9th graders (average or better athletes) pick up game play almost as fast as skills and will get better more quickly after games start. They don't usually get worked up about mistakes and will just go do their job.

From 10th grade up, games are more important. It still astounds me how quickly a brand new, average or better athlete can pick up the skills and progress in games. I've seen a 10th grader who had never held a glove go from nothing, to near gold glove type play, batting .400+ every season and hitting 20 homeruns over three seasons. I've seen similar in several of the kids who started brand new at 10th grade or later. Kids at that age benefit more from game play because they develop basic skills in just a few weeks and will get better at those skills during games. They learn to play the game ridiculously fast and are more focused during games.

I believe this is because of physical body awareness, hand-eye coordination (even faster if a kid already plays another sport like soccer or basketball), maturity, and having far less fear of the ball or fear of making mistakes. This has also been especially true for pitchers. Older kids just don't give a crap about screwing up when they're new. It's just "Hit me another one, coach."

 

[tim_s]

I think something that gets lost is practice during tournament season - we used this time for individual feedback sessions, time to work on things we have struggled with, team feedback sessions, etc, etc - seems like a lot of teams forgo practice once tournaments kick in

 

[PJR202]

I think something that gets lost is practice during tournament season - we used this time for individual feedback sessions, time to work on things we have struggled with, team feedback sessions, etc, etc - seems like a lot of teams forgo practice once tournaments kick in

There's a semi-local HS age travel team who uses our HS field for practice. My HS daughter and I were over there in our outdoor cage working on pitching and the team came over to practice. Coach said they would be a little short and invited her to join them, which she politely declined, but I told her we should stick around and watch them some just because I've never seen them.

THREE players showed up. I know travel teams don't practice a ton, but being in tournament season I would expect to see most of the team at the only weekly practice session. Our HS team schedules a lot of games and it's noticeable (epecially the pitchers) by 2/3 into the season. Once practice a week is about average and it's tough to reset hitting and throwing patterns if bad habits are picked up during a string of games. I'd take any chance I could get to work on it.

 

[tim_s]

There's a semi-local HS age travel team who uses our HS field for practice. My HS daughter and I were over there in our outdoor cage working on pitching and the team came over to practice. Coach said they would be a little short and invited her to join them, which she politely declined, but I told her we should stick around and watch them some just because I've never seen them.

THREE players showed up. I know travel teams don't practice a ton, but being in tournament season I would expect to see most of the team at the only weekly practice session. Our HS team schedules a lot of games and it's noticeable (epecially the pitchers) by 2/3 into the season. Once practice a week is about average and it's tough to reset hitting and throwing patterns if bad habits are picked up during a string of games. I'd take any chance I could get to work on it.

we did struggle at 16u to get everyone there, between jobs and the fact that after the 3rd week in june, high school sports can practice (soccer/FH/XC/basketball) - so i get it, but 3 is rough