The Best Idea For a Productive Baseball Practice!
Have you ever left the field just shaking your head!
Or, saying to yourself, “what just happened?”
These may be phrases of a new coach or an assistant coach just looking to help out.
In this article I would like to share with you one of the methods I have used over the years to
keep my players engaged, constantly learning and of course having fun.
Be Prepared!
Always come to practice with a plan in mind.
“Proper planning prevents poor performance!” I’m sure you’ve heard this phrase before.
Sometime, before you’re next practice, sit down and write out a few things your team needs to work on.
This may be after a frustrating practice or an embarrassing loss.
This will help the flow of your practice and keep players from losing focus.
Create Stations!
Stations can be your best friend.
First, I like to think of about 3-4 drills that can be running at the same time.
You’ll have to put some thought into which drills work best with each other according to your available space.
If you have younger players, you can spread out and utilize the entire field.
For example, I’ll put a fielding and throwing station out in left field, a tee station in right field and batting practice at home plate.
As players get older you’ll have to rethink this strategy and you can probably combine some drills.
Such as being able to have fielders get some work in while you have batting practice on the field.
Hitters can work on hitting and then the fielders can field their position.
In between hits you can have a coach hitting them ground balls if they aren’t getting any.
Just be sure that everyone is capable to pay attention to what’s happening at the plate otherwise you’ll have baseballs flying all over the field and worrying about taking one to the back of the head.
Second, I split my players up into smaller groups to keep my coach to player ratio to something manageable (this is where assistant coaches come in).
For example: 1 coach running a tee station and 3-4 hitters.
You can divide them by player skill level, drill complexity or more commonly by player personalities.
Really, there is no wrong way to split up for drills.
Third, keep drills short and sweet.
You want to be able to work for about 10-15 minutes at each station and then rotate.
This allows you to get some work done and keeps players focused.
Last thing you want is players getting bored and starting to goof around.
Station Ideas
Hitting:
- Tee work
- Soft toss
- Batting practice (cage or field)
- Bunting
Fielding:
- Groundballs
- Pop flies
- Double plays
- Bunts
- PFP’s
- Cut Offs/ Relays
Baserunning:
- Running through first base
- Rounding first for a double
- 1st to 3rd(picking up coach)
- Leadoff, stealing and secondary leads
Conclusion:
Now go take this information and make a plan.
Talk it over with your assistant coaches and perform your plan.
Sure, it may not work the first time through, but “practice makes perfect.”
Eventually you’ll be able to run a practice with the best of them and other coaches and parents will take notice.
