| The Coach's Corner/ A Day at Practice |
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A friend of mine has a nine year old son that plays ball. Ok, his Dad is my friend. But anyway the kid's dad coaches his son's team and asked me to conduct a practice for them. I must admit I hadn't coached a team of 9 year olds in a looong time. I must also admit I was honored and fired up. I spent considerable time and thought to organizing this practice down to the minute for the maximum amount of learning experiences and FUN, after all I am THE COACH. I was impressed. The team all arrived on time. Most showed up a few minutes early. After introductions, they ran to warm up and we commenced to throw to get loose. I introduced the " Throwing For Points" game. This competition focuses their game of catch by rewarding 3 pts for throwing the ball to the chest, 2 to the face, 1 to the legs and arms and minus 1 for anything outside. Instead of just throwing the ball around wildly and chasing it, the competition really improved their accuracy. 10 minutes into practice they were warm and ready to go. I like to work on defense first on the theory that if we can't get people out, we may never get to hit. Utilizing drills from the Fundamentals Of Fielding from the BASEBALL SKILLS AND DRILLS video series, I divided the players into three groups of four and put them through the five basic defensive drills that encompass every movement of defensive baseball. These drills allowed them to get a tremendous number of repetitions by having all the players in each group either actually execute the play or shadow, simulate the play. Then the players went to their positions and we did your basic pre-game drills with emphasis on the outfielders hitting the cutoff man. I am really a stickler for hitting the cutoff. It boggles my mind the number of players that get to be pro or college prospects that seem to have never grasped the concept of hitting the cutoff. One half hour into the practice and they had worked up a good sweat so they got a 5 minute water break and I tortured them with my jokes. Hey, my bag of jokes for 9 year olds is pretty lame. The next 25 minutes was dedicated to "Defensive Situational Practice." Everyone took their positions. The pitcher would simulate a pitch to the catcher and I would hit fungos, putting the ball in play. A runner would run and the defense would execute the play. If I got a hit, the runner became a baserunner and we would go again. This is a great drill because on each play you get to yell in a lot of different directions. "Why did you go out to be the relay", "You are supposed to cover second", "Why are you still on first", "Aren't you supposed to be in position to "back up" that play", or "Ok, let's go again". When they did it right I praised them to high heaven. We laughed and had a ball. Periodically, I would signal the runner to attempt to steal second and the catcher got to work on his throws So that everyone got the opportunity to run the bases, players got to get valuable time playing a second position. Everyone didn't play every position but everyone got to work at least two spots. During "Situational Practice" is a good time to sneak a pitcher to the bullpen to throw a "pen". While the coaches set up for hitting practice, the players got another water break. From the FUNdamentals Of Hitting, in the BASEBALL SKILLS AND DRILLS video series, we had learned a great many drills so that the players would be able to get the maximum amount of cuts in a short period of time. We set up a Stay Back Tee station and a couple of HANDS BACK HITTER stations. This is whereI personally, worked on their swing mechanics. At the Stay Back Tee station, to place emphasis upon a soft stride while keeping their weight back, I would either say "Take" or "Rip" just as their stride foot was about to touch the ground. This is a very hard drill to execute but very productive. Another coach had a bucket of Pickleballs. He had 3 hitters in a circle around him in RF and would spin and throw BP. If the ball was thrown to them, they of course, would swing or take, depending on if it was a strike. The other two would execute their swings regardless concentrating upon making a mechanically perfect swing. They got a tremendous amount of reps in a short period of time. Two players shagged the Pickleballs and periodically would rotate into the circle to get their hacks. While all this was going on, at the plate, a hitter was taking live BP, hitting Incrediballs. Incredibles are restricted flight or rag balls. I like them because it discourages the hitters from trying to play HR Derby. They are rewarded for hitting line drives and flyballs don't go far and are not impressive. Also, as we had no L screen, the BP pitcher stayed safe, as did all the players that were hitting on other parts of the field not watching out for balls. Three players shagged the balls in and we rotated everyone through the stations periodically never letting anyone stay at one task for more then 10 minutes. We were now an hour and a half into practice. We had worked on defensive skills and situations and had all gotten a tremendous amounts of quality cuts in hitting practice. Now was the time to close out practice with some fun so we played the "hitting for points" game. The team was divided into 2 six man squads. Each player on each team would get 3 swings in the first inning. A line drive scores 3 points, a ground ball 2 points, a flyball, 1 point and a foul or miss scored -1 pt. The second inning each player gets two swings and the third 1 swing. I pitched and was the judge. Each team kept their own score. They argued every call I made, they cheated, laughed and yelled. They had a ball but they also learned that when each swing counts, it is a good idea to wait on a quality pitch and that line drives and hard ground ball are a good idea. We finished up our two hour practice with ten minutes left. I used them to explain the meaning of quality at bats and count strategies. I was truly moved when they gave me three HIP HIP HOORAYS and thanked me for working with them. Heck, I had a ball! Yours in Baseball THE COACH ARCHIVES
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Gas Lites
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