Each spring, a slew of new coaches join minor baseball programs. This is particularly true at the game’s lower levels, such as tee ball and coaching pitch. Families and friends are used as helpers by even tough travel clubs and even high schools.
Whereas most novice trainers have some game experience, any trainer with a few games under their experience can tell you that gameplay and coaching are two very different things.
Many parents and new coaches feel disoriented on their first day of training, and they battle throughout the season to design a curriculum that gets kids motivated and having a great time, as well as one that assists them to improve into better athletes.
This post contains convenient suggestions that will benefit you, your athletes, and their families.
Successful coaches of all levels and skillsets organize practice sessions ahead of time and adhere to them on the field. Whether you’re instructing a strong travel team, a small League team with largely casual players, or even a tee-ball squad, you must arrive at the field with a minute-by-minute itinerary that includes (at a minimum) the following:
- When does each section of practice begin and end?
- Certain players are going to take part in which drills?
- How many times will each exercise be repeated by each player?
Having a practice strategy achieves a couple of goals.
It requires you to consider your practice design in advance. The majority of amateur baseball coaches simply show up on the field and hope for the best. And, quite often, they repeat the same routine: stretching, warm-up, team infield, and outfield, then hitting training, where one child bats while the rest of the team waits around shagging balls (i.e., doing nothing). Creating a practice plan allows you to think more critically about your team’s objectives.
It allows you to make better use of your practicing time. Baseball practices for kids usually descend into either pandemonium or drowsiness. A predetermined timetable will not only help you keep your practice flowing, but it will also give you a time limit for each exercise or station. Understanding how much time you have per section of practice can help you keep track of your progression of the team and avoid instances where a 15-minute drill turns into a 30-minute exercise because 25% of the squad didn’t finish their sets in the time given.
There are several more reasons to adopt a practice plan, as well as numerous design options. In the future, I’ll write more about those themes.
It’s vital to remember that a practice schedule shouldn’t have to be set in stone. When required, alter from your strategy, and you should do so each time you see that your exercises aren’t functioning or aren’t fruitful. The main benefit of having a drill program at the young level is that it forces you to think about the organization and objectives of your training sessions. And you should do this perfectly.