Practice Advice

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Unless you have 3 hr team practice ever day, kids develop most of their skills at home. Coaches who think otherwise think too much of their coaching ability..

Ahh, I had a feeling I wasn’t needed. I guess I will contact my parents and let ‘em know coach is hanging it up and that their kids will do alright in the yard.

I 100% agree that kids need to work at home. But if they can’t hit while at practice how in the heck are they going to hit at home? That is where I am going with my question. Not trying to be super coach just trying to do everything I can for my players and leave it all out there for them. If coaches aren’t needed then why are there so many private coaches in the world? They just stealing peoples money? I know of a handful of kids that won’t put the same effort out with mom and dad that they do for me. Mom and dad have said as much. Thanks for the insight.


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Jun 8, 2016
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Ahh, I had a feeling I wasn’t needed. I guess I will contact my parents and let ‘em know coach is hanging it up and that their kids will do alright in the yard.

I 100% agree that kids need to work at home. But if they can’t hit while at practice how in the heck are they going to hit at home? That is where I am going with my question. Not trying to be super coach just trying to do everything I can for my players and leave it all out there for them. If coaches aren’t needed then why are there so many private coaches in the world? They just stealing peoples money? I know of a handful of kids that won’t put the same effort out with mom and dad that they do for me. Mom and dad have said as much. Thanks for the insight.


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Coaches can show them what needs to be done,etc but impossible to get enough reps at a practice (and by home I was including private instructors)

Teach them the proper way to field a ground ball and fly ball. Teach the proper way to throw. Work drills, hitting/fielding/throwing with them that they can do at home with their parents or by themselves and encourage them to do so.

Fielding instruction here in OK stinks..amazes me we have 14u “National” teams with SS who have horrible footwork. Your kids will be ahead of the game if they are taught the proper way now..but they won’t be proficient at the skills without tons of reps.

Oh….and develop a thicker skin..
 
Last edited:
Jun 6, 2016
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Chicago
I have asked parents for help as assistants but not much luck.
Might you have more luck asking those parents to help working with their daughters on their own at home?

You can't do everything. You really can only do so much at team practices. Your best (not easiest) bet is convincing as many as possible to personally invest in their daughter's development.
 
Jul 22, 2015
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Others have given you good thoughts about breaking into smaller groups and getting more swings, which is far better than one kid hitting and everyone else standing around. You really don't get as much bang for the buck with front toss as you would hope unless you can get each girl a full bucket or more and have someone who can really give the girls realistic arm action and speed. We did often try to get each girl 2 or 3 at bats against live pitching in an inter-squad type of format. Even if you don't have a full team in the field you can still get pitching, catching, fielding, and some side hitting drills all at the same time but you really have to keep things moving with multiple pitchers and catchers ready to go. Most hitting skill work just needs to be done outside of team practices.
 
Jun 20, 2015
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the one game type event we utilize in practice is break the girls into 2 squads. 1 in field, 1 batting. offense hits the ball off the tee at home and runs just like game, defense plays all balls live.

keeps all involved, allows work on defense, easily correctable stuff, etc, etc.
 
May 17, 2012
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So how do you get hitting work in? I tried to approach it in that way previous seasons and it has bitten me in the butt with kids woefully unprepared to step in the box. Even kids that have private instructors.

Just by playing in the games, kids will be able to put the bat to the ball. Kids will emulate other kids hitting, this is a part of the rec learning process. Unless they are getting one on one instruction somewhere else the hitting that you are attempting to do in practice is futile.

The thought is that they are getting some instruction somewhere else and you are adding to that by doing soft toss on the side at practice.

Hitters aren't going to get substantially better just by taking "X" amount of swings without instruction. You trying to instruct them during soft toss is wasting even more time that you don't have.
 
May 17, 2012
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Going to double down on this....you can always pull players aside before games, before/after practice, and after an at-bat to discuss hitting. I just wouldn't revolve my practices around hitting. If you can get one other person to do this off to the side, one one one, this is the best solution. Set up a batting tee and a bownet.

Kids with a good mental and physical approach will put the bat on the ball.
 
May 16, 2016
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90 minutes divided by 12 players is 7.5 minutes of individual hitting instruction per player. That is, if you the coach (or someone else) don't do anything but hitting instruction all practice. So, even with 3 practices a week, they are not even getting 30 minutes of hitting instruction per week.

My kids have been seeing a private hitting instructor for an hour/week, every week, year round, since 10u. On top of pitching instruction and team practices and workouts, and individual work.
 

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