HS Camp

[Cannonball]

We had our first day of HS camp today. I live a stone's throw from the HS. It was pouring this morning and I thought that the chances of the camp happening today was slim. When I got to the field, I was shocked. It rained on everything between my house and the softball diamond. The HS baseball diamond was soaked. There is a combined concession stand/bathroom between the baseball and softball diamonds. The HS softball field? Not one drop. Unbelievable. We had an incredible turnout with over 80 players showing up. This will be one of the largest camps we have had. Naturally, we had our HS team help. However, our coaching staff has 3 former college players and we had some graduated players who are currently playing softball show up. I believe our total staff for today numbered 21. What I like about our camps is that we instruct the players but we also go into the stands and explain some of the concepts we teach.

Some things to think about when your player goes to these types of camps:

• That first day will contain some type of evaluation of player abilities. Don't judge the camp by that first day. For example, today we did some throwing drills. A part of that was to determine player abilities. We did instruction for some players to see if they were able to process what we wanted them to do and if they could move up to a better group.
• Water breaks often puzzle parents. They are necessary. We only do one or two for over 2 hours. We are not trying to waste time. We want your player to learn and be ready to help us win in the future.
• We have players show up from other school systems. We don't care. We want to coach.
• We do drills with HS players demonstrating the drills. All of those players grew up in the system. I hope that the parents caught on to that when we explained that to the crowd of parents.
• On that first day, there will be walk-up registration. That might delay the beginning of the camp but it will not be long. I could not believe how many signed up today. (Almost half of the players in the camp!)

Naturally there are a few negatives as well:

• I was instructing a young lady who was not throwing the ball accurately. She told me that she knows how to throw a ball.
• When players demonstrate drills and then try to coach camp attendees, it is a good idea to try to do the drill.
• Being the last to make it to various stations while walking to those stations is not good. For example, our cages are beyond the left field fence. When your group jogs out to the cages and you walk, you stand out by showing up so much later than the group.

More to follow from this week.

 

[Orange Socks]

Good Stuff. Wonder if the WCWS helped with the level of interest?

 

[Hawk_]

My DD is an incoming freshman with a good chance of being on Varsity next season (The team is not good) and of course broke her thumb the first day of camp. Luckily the coaches know who she is.... showed up the rest of camp and was able to catch balls and help out the littles

 

[Cannonball]

2nd day of camp.

Wow, it was a lot of fun. The younger players went to one diamond. The old players stayed on the varsity field. Both diamonds have great facilities. I did the hitting. It was a blast and we had players try different things. I am really excited about the incoming freshmen and the incoming 8th graders. For the 8th graders, I bet 8 or 9 of them came up to me after camp today and thanked me for working with them. I had great help in the cages. One young lady, a former player, led her college team in hitting for the last two years. She is going to go back for one more year. She made me so proud to hear her coach em up. It sounded a lot like me. LOL

For today, we broke both diamonds down to outfield, infield and hitting with rotations. For the hitting we used things like a whip-hit and one of our cam bats. We had a couple of front toss stations where players hit TCB whiffle balls.

Side note, some of these players are the children of former baseball and basketball players of mine. I have coached HS for 37 years. It is so cool to see these players.

As another side note, some of you know that I was an assistant baseball coach for some exceptional teams. A couple were declared the #1 HS baseball teams in America. I did that while at Edwardsville High School. My dd is now an assistant HS softball coach at that school. Today, they advanced to the state tournament. (4 teams left in the highest class.) I am so proud of her and now she will get to know what it is like to coach a team at the state tournament.

 

[Cannonball]

Day 3:

We dodged thunderstorms again and were able to get the entire camp day in. Today's camp started with a dad coming over to me and commenting on just how much he thinks that the players are being coached. It was a very nice compliment. We tried to open discussions with the players asking why we had them do each drill. Some of the parents are taking notes on what we are doing. Some of the things we discussed today wrt hitting were "intent," getting your front hip "in the way to get it out of the way," allowing a ball to travel, and hitting it to the opposite field. One really important thing that we are doing is talking to hitters about the mental aspect of hitting.

The infield portion of the camp involved some fundamentals but then fielding with pressure. We created a competitive situation where players had to react. This involved things like runners on base and situations. The players loved it.

I wanted to add this:

When we finished camp today, the hitters in the cage all grabbed equipment to take it back to the softball office. We didn't have to tell them to do it and they organized it with players saying that they were taking this or that. I loved the leadership that these players showed.

 

[Dabears17]

Love your posts CB. Not going to happen this summer, but I want DD's HS to host a softball camp next summer. Keep the posts coming!

 

[HotRoute]

As another side note, some of you know that I was an assistant baseball coach for some exceptional teams. A couple were declared the #1 HS baseball teams in America. I did that while at Edwardsville High School. My dd is now an assistant HS softball coach at that school. Today, they advanced to the state tournament. (4 teams left in the highest class.) I am so proud of her and now she will get to know what it is like to coach a team at the state tournament.

Good luck! They will be playing my high school where I teach.

 

[Cannonball]

Good luck! They will be playing my high school where I teach.

Thanks and right back at you. Edwardsville is also playing at state in baseball. That school is an athletic powerhouse in our area. I retired from Triad High where I now help coach softball. Triad won the state 3A championship in that one sport with the round funny-looking ball that people kick. Triad has won a few of those titles in that sport.

 

[Maxx]

Awesome buddy!!

 

[Cannonball]

Awesome buddy!!

Thanks! I hope all is well!!!