Practice Quality vs. Quantity

[gdc03120]

Rec players need as many reps as possible. Your challenge is to figure out how to keep a practice that's almost entirely defense interesting (don't just hit ground balls at em for two hours). Focus on what they need the most. You can work on double plays and bunt coverages and spend 20 minutes on relays, and all that is worthless if they can't convert routine grounders into outs.

This is essentially the reason for wanting to go back and do practices this way. I had 9th graders who couldn't field a basic ground ball and make an out at 1st base, and it cost us so many runs. While I want to go back and blame their modified coaches for not teaching them the other 5 days of the week she had them, I've learned quickly when you point a finger of blame at someone else, 3 fingers point back at you, so it's not worth going that route.

My big concern, as you said, was not making a 2-hour defense (or offense, or base-running, or scenario) practice boring or uninteresting to where they don't pay attention or don't retain what we go over. I'm sure of myself that I can keep the practice engaging - it's just making them aware that doing things this way is for their overall betterment and to better them for the season. If I'm able to keep things consistent like this from practice to practice (just changing the theme from offense to defense to running/sliding to this/that), I think they'll value this more, retain things more (because of the routine format), and it'll become second nature for when we transition to games.

 

[ArmWhip]

From my experience, scrimmages are maybe the worst form of practice for all but the very best players (ones who don't need to learn a lot of new skills).

A scrimmage is 90% of players doing nothing for 90% of the time. You're cutting two hours of practice to maybe 15 minutes of actual practice time for each girl.

To the OP: Rec players need as many reps as possible. Your challenge is to figure out how to keep a practice that's almost entirely defense interesting (don't just hit ground balls at em for two hours). Focus on what they need the most. You can work on double plays and bunt coverages and spend 20 minutes on relays, and all that is worthless if they can't convert routine grounders into outs.

Your general question is if practices that cover fewer topics can be good: Yes. They can. I've recently worked with three different girls one-on-one for an hour each. All we did was infield defense, and I didn't hit a single ground ball at them for the entire hour. We covered so, so much (but not too much). It never got boring. All three couldn't believe the hour was up. And that's just working with one girl at a time. I could easily expand those sessions into a two-hour practice with a full team (of infielders...would need to do something different for OFs).

They won't get bored if you keep them stimulated and you convince them that what they're working on is important. And if they're engaged, they're going to retain more of what you teach.

Oh, and make sure you don't take your own boredom for theirs. I despise hitting infield. I love infield instruction, but I get super bored hitting grounders over and over. I can't tell you how many times I've asked my catcher "Is this getting old? Should we move on?" and they say to keep going.

The key phrase is 'by myself'. It's difficult to do skills work/stations and provide quality instruction when it's just you.

 

[canyonjoe]

It's a little of both. As you move up levels there are more things that you need to be able to do. Working on OF cutoffs at 8 or 10U is hard but at 16U you need to at least be able to introduce concepts. Fundamentals are not worth doing if you do wrong. You have to at least get better at general fielding or you are wasting your time.

 

[CoachJD]

My big concern, as you said, was not making a 2-hour defense (or offense, or base-running, or scenario) practice boring or uninteresting to where they don't pay attention or don't retain what we go over. I'm sure of myself that I can keep the practice engaging - it's just making them aware that doing things this way is for their overall betterment and to better them for the season. If I'm able to keep things consistent like this from practice to practice (just changing the theme from offense to defense to running/sliding to this/that), I think they'll value this more, retain things more (because of the routine format), and it'll become second nature for when we transition to games.

Keep it fun and interesting. Create competitions out of everything. Reward the winners (I wouldn't punish the losers).

How big is your roster, and how many typically show up to practice?

Also, what do you mean by "modified"? It's not a phrase used around here I don't think, so not sure what that means.

 

[gdc03120]

Usually, at the end of my practices, we do something competition-like as a team (whether it's the "lap around the bases relay race" or a hitting competition we've done). They really like it. I usually let them pick their teams, and I will often let them determine the reward (which can be a reward for the winners OR a punishment for the losers, but they have to run it by me first - usually, it ends up being both [ i.e. winners choose not to run at the start of next practice or losers have to do 10 push-ups, etc]). I make sure it's not too extreme or over-the-top and they know that. Gives the girls some control (within reason) and lets them feel like they have a say in what goes on.

Last year, my roster was 15. I would say my average practice attendance was somewhere between 12-13/practice. I had a couple of girls who worked (and would go home, change, then come late to practice) or a couple on vacation here and there, etc. I stress that practice time = game time (unless a player is sick, where they were told NOT to show up. Injuries are different - if a girl can watch safely, she needs to be there). I also held "optional practices" outside of our regular practice time for any players who wanted specific focus on areas (pitching, fielding, catching, etc.) I mandate at least 3 players/1 parent for said practice just to be clear, but I used that to "cover" any girls who missed practice earlier on.

"Modified", in the way I'm using it, refers to junior-high-school level athletics. Primarily 7th/8th graders with the occasional 9th graders. 9th graders can only play modified IF a school does not have a JV level and/or they try out for varsity and are cut. Out of 15 girls I had last year, 3 played youth level (12U), 2 played varsity (both sophomores), 10 were 7th/8th graders, and 2 were 9th graders. Ability levels were VERY mixed. My best player overall was one of my 8th graders (she was my starting SS and backup C). Great attitude, good nose for the game. Had a clean hit in 12 of our 13 games. I'm crossing my fingers she'll be back with me next summer (her younger sister was one of the 3 youth girls I had.)

 

[Liv47]

Background Info: 16U "rec"-level team/league (summertime - May through July) - 1 coach (me *) - 1 2-hour practice night a week (Sundays)

During my practices, I often try to cover around 3-4 individual topics (since I only meet with my team once a week due to time commitments). However, I found last season that I struggled to ensure that every topic had enough time. After the season ended, my ladies filled out a survey (anonymously) of things they liked, disliked, would change, etc., and one comment nearly across the board was how we didn't have enough time to go over all the things we intended to each week, and that we should focus on fewer things. I was surprised the girls had the same thoughts as me as I never mentioned this to them at all. I wanted to see their unbiased thoughts and I was happy to see they matched.

Personally, I like this idea - having the ability to spend each practice with one general theme (fielding, hitting, situations) would let me focus on fewer topics and give me a chance to spend 2 hours coaching one specific topic (i.e. fielding - infielding, outfielding, double plays, bunting, for example). Each week/practice would then have one theme (I would have about 8-9 practices, maybe up to 10-12) before the season starts that could be separated by topic. I did find many ladies would not remember specific items from week to week, probably due to trying to cover so many things in 2 hours (as a teacher, I should've seen this coming, but failed, and I admit that.)

For the other coaches out there: Have any of you tried a setup like this for practices (one theme/topic per session) and/or what do you think would work best: QUALITY (of topic per practice) or QUANTITY (number of items covered per practice)? Absolutely looking for constructive criticism from the best softball forum on the interwebz.

(* I have been/am searching for an AC but in my area, it's VERY minimal at best. Parents have occasionally stepped in to help when asked but there's no consistency whatsoever. If I were able to get an AC or a consistent parent, then I can do more of each topic with fewer ladies in a group and it can be more individualized, but I always set up for a 1-coach situation [worst case scenario] and proceed from there).

I definitely think quality is more important!