We tell our softball players we'll be measuring them on how well they perform in practice, but what if our practices aren't set up for them to perform well? If you're a new Travel Ball or Rec League coach you may want to keep reading, it's the foundation that you provide that matters...
I can remember baseball practices where we would joke that our team was so good all the coach needed to do was throw out the bats and balls each practice and we'd be good to go. Well, that couldn't have been further from the truth, but at times that is exactly what the practice felt like. Loosen up, stretch out the legs, play a little catch, take an upbeat infield and outfield and then BP.. That's where everything came to a screeching halt, 2 bunts, 10 swings, shag, shag some more and stand around and shag... If this is what your practice sounds, looks and feels like please keep reading. A solid practice plan that focuses on drills that improve skills and keeps everyone involved makes for a well run practice. Everyday (or every practice) the goal should be to improve somewhere.
Keep everyone involved and moving.
Nothing worse than a softball practice where half of the team is standing around (like in shagging BP) kids get bored quickly, and if you're coaching a younger fastpitch softball team keeping their attention is critical. Instead of a batting practice that has one kid hitting, one kid on deck and one in the hole feeding a machine or handing you the balls while the rest of team stands around and shags why not set up different hitting stations? If you have 12 kids at practice set up 4 hitting stations and rotate through each one. Set swing goals or swing focus at each station. If your practice is two hours long, hitting stations may take up an hour of it. Samples of hitting station drills might be; Soft Toss, Front Toss, Top Hand Bottom Hand, and Live BP. Changing the station while changing the area of focus keeps their attention and ultimately makes them better players.
This same focus should be done for your defensive work; infield with infield, outfield with outfield working on position skill drills for 15 to 20 minutes, followed by a complete team Infield/Outfield; followed by a situational infield / outfield with runners. The goal of each practice should be to make sure every kid that day has the opportunity to improve and that you improve as a team overall... this happens when you keep them all involved and moving!
Take the time to structure your practice and the answer to the question; "if your practices were voluntary how many of your players would show?" would be all of them. The more kids we keep involved in a well run practice the more kids we'll keep involved in the game softball. Everyday we're all trying to get better and that goes for us coaches as well....
Take the time to structure your practice and the answer to the question; "if your practices were voluntary how many of your players would show?" would be all of them. The more kids we keep involved in a well run practice the more kids we'll keep involved in the game softball. Everyday we're all trying to get better and that goes for us coaches as well....
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