The Saga of Rebuilding a School Program: A parent-coach's journal

[PJR202]

We had a onfield practice yesterday with the D3 team, focusing on D. I saw trailing runners unaccounted for, bad throws because they hurried when they didn't need to, OF not backing throws (this is my area and it was handled with just a few questions), unforced errors, you get the picture, eh? My point is that D errors and misplays result in big innings and teams beating themselves. Personally, in my past coaching days, I would stop practices as many times as needed and explain the correct way of playing a situation and WHY it needs to be done that way. I also chattered the whole game on reminding players about situations for our D. So I repeat, as long as you work on getting more informed about the nuts and bolts of D, the better you can teach it. The overarching goal is to keep runners of the bases and when they do get on, keep them from advancing to home. Teach your D when to throw it to where and why.

The frustrating part is, they DO know where and when. I think so much of this is just nerves. Starting the season, we had two freshmen in the infield, and basically three kids who are either in their first year playing or first year starting. For the most part, the skills and knowledge are there for all of them. But man, the nerves. You can see it in their body language. Plays they make 90% of the time or better in practice, just fall apart. And I'm talking about EASY stuff. And as you know, once that snowball starts it's incredibly difficult for them to settle back down. I think it even affects the hitting. And then at times, they've been brilliant. Error free, or only 1 or 2 errors. And of course, they always hit better when the D is on point. And vice versa.

There's just so much of the mental game happening. And a lot of that can be helped with more reps, but you can't force kids to show up in the offseason. We're on the field or cage twice a week, starting a week or two after the season ends. But half of them don't show up until day 1, which is 4 weeks before games start.

 

[PJR202]

Spring break and a few rainouts, and the kids haven't played for quite a while. Expecting rainouts Thursday and Friday.

For DD at least, it's for the best. She got a bad scrape near her ankle a few games back sliding into home, then it rubbed the next night when she pitched and it opened up badly. She didnt say much about it, then I look and actually see how bad it was, plus it's infected. She's on antibiotics now and it's healing, but it's not in any big hurry to do so. Even if the games happen, I don't think she's gonna be able to play until next week. It's pretty nasty.