Running the Perfect Practice

RUNNING THE PERFECT PRACTICE

(excerpts taken from "Taking on the Title of COACH A 5 Step Guide for Coaching Youth Baseball and Softball" by Duke Baxter and Steve Nikorak). This book can be ordered from Amazon at the following link: Link

Below is a partial presentation of the above book.  To view the whole book which includes all of the drills with images, please view the following link: Taking on the Title of Coach-Running the Perfect Practice

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Running an efficient practice requires planning ahead on your part. Otherwise, it can be very easy for chaos to break out when you’ve got one coach running a practice with 12 to 14 kids who’ve never played the game before. Use the following blueprint to successfully plan and run your practice. Remember to keep it fun, organized, and informative.

Part 1: There Must be Structure

Early in the season, it is essential to provide name tags to your players. Your coaching staff should also wear name tags so everybody on the team knows each other’s name. Use first names only to keep it simple. The last thing you want is to be weeks into your season and have players whose names you still don’t know or players who don’t know their coaches’ names. Nicknames are also a great way to interact with your players. Sometimes, it’s easier to remember nicknames and using them can make it fun for your players to get to know each other.

On the very first day of practice, be sure to go over your rules and expectations for the team. Your demeanor on day one will set the tone for the entire season. When dealing with kids, you want to lay out your guidelines on day one and stick to them throughout the season.

Be sure to hold your players accountable. When they know there are consequences for their actions, they will learn from one another and you will earn their trust and respect. Explain the importance of having fun, but also paying attention to the rules and working hard.

Here are some sample rules and expectations to consider implementing with your team.

• Look Sharp.
  If you look sharp, you play sharp. Teach your players to look professional and take pride in wearing their jerseys correctly. Our players must respect the game and look the part! Wearing your hat correctly is another example of wearing your uniform properly. Our young players who see big leaguers with their hats on backward tend to follow their lead, so it is your job to model and require they wear their uniform correctly. How the players on your team wear their uniforms is a direct reflection on the rest of the team’s commitment to the sport.
• Hustle.
  Hustling on and off the field is important from the very first practice through the duration of the player’s career. The older you get, both in baseball and in life, the more important it becomes to hustle. Especially later in their careers, not hustling is a common reason why kids get cut from teams. Players instantly add more value to the team by out-working other players.
• Always Take a Baseball Knee.
  What’s a baseball knee? A baseball knee is the position where players take a knee, not sitting down, with one foot on the ground. Taking a baseball knee is important because it shows that players are ready to listen and take direction. At younger ages, players like to sit down and play with the dirt/grass. When your players are not in a baseball knee position, it is very easy for them to lose focus and miss out on your instructions for the day.
• Respect Your Teammates.
  As coaches, we might assume that our players know how to respect their teammates and opponents. But don’t assume anything. In many cases, we must teach our players to be good team players. Too often, kids get picked on for failing or making a mistake. It is our job as coaches to make sure we teach the importance of picking each other up and playing together with respect for everyone on the team as well as our opponents.
• Respect the Game.
  What does it mean to respect the game? Respecting the game means to respect your teammates, the opposing teams, all coaches, and the umpires. When we teach our players to respect their teammates, it means to cheer them on, pick them up when they’re down, and support them when they are successful. To respect the opposing team means to cheer for your own teammates without disrespecting the other team. It means that after every game, regardless of the result, our players are to give high fives and say “good game” to each player on the other team. Respecting the umpire means to shake his/her hand after the game and say “thank you.” Too often, we lose sight of the fact that an umpire’s job is a difficult one. In most cases they are volunteering, taking time from their life to help out the league.
• Identify Newer Players
  One concept you might want to use is to identify players new to the sport. Ask the more experienced players to help them out during practice. Also note that the newer players should be taken aside and walk them through the fundamentals while the other players are doing the more advanced practice tools. In time try to get the newer players caught up (at least in the fundamentals) to the experienced players.
• Practice Plan
  At this point, you can go over your practice plan for the day. It is essential to have a practice plan each day and post it for your team. This adds organization to your practice and gives the players ownership of what is going to happen.
  It is very easy as a coach to get repetitive and do the same drills all the time. This is where practice gets boring for your team. Including a variety of drills in your practice plan will help with keeping their attention and developing their skills.
  It is also very easy to forget some of the key points you initially wanted to cover once you get halfway through practice. There are multiple ways to teach each skill set and by changing the stations each practice, you will keep your players engaged and focused. Save your practice plans so you can look back on a week-to-week basis to make adjustments.
  See sample practice plan in the Resources page
• Incorporate a dynamic warm-up directly after your introduction. Using cones, put your players into lines and structure a warm-up to follow at the start of every practice. Keep the warm-up the same each week. Walk your players through the warm-up and after a few weeks, assign one of the leaders on your team to run the dynamic warm-up on their own. Explain the importance of looking uniform and getting the blood flowing and a good sweat at the start of each practice. Aside from safety and activating your muscles, a structured warm-up will add discipline, assign leadership, and prepare your team for an organized practice each week. Below is an example of a dynamic warm-up:

1. 1. 50% jog – 60 ft.
   2. High Knees for 30 ft. followed by light jog
   3. Butt Kicks for 30 ft. followed by a light jog
   4. Side Shuffles – 60 ft.
   5. Karaoke – 60 ft.
   6. Lunge with a twist – 60 ft.
   7. Back Pedal – 60 ft.
   8. Two Shuffles & Sprint – 60 ft.

Directly after the dynamic warm-up is a perfect time to go over base running, secondary leads, and steal breaks. During each practice, it is important to touch on some aspect of base running. Explain the importance of hustling down the base path the same speed regardless of how well you hit the baseball. Teach the difference between running through first base on a ground ball to the infield and taking a hard turn around first base on a base hit to the outfield. On a ground ball to the infield, we want to accelerate through first base, in a straight line, without slowing down. On a base hit, we want to make a hard turn anticipating that the outfielder makes an error so we can go on to second base.

On all baseball fields, secondary leads are very important. On 46/60 ft. baseball fields, there is no leading. Once you get to the 50/70 ft. diamond, your team can lead. In both scenarios, you must teach your players to shuffle off the base in an athletic position to be ready for the next play to happen. On 46/60 ft. fields, when the baseball is crossing home plate, you want your players to take a shuffle off the base. On 50/70 ft. fields, when the pitcher begins their delivery to home plate, you want your players to take 2 shuffles toward the next base, timing it so their feet hit the ground as the ball is entering the hitting zone. This will put your players in an athletic position and will allow for much faster reactions to the play developing.

Part 2: Use Stations

To keep your team engaged and focused, create stations and keep them moving. We’ve all seen this situation before when a team tries to do “infield/outfield practice:'

• Coach: Hits a fly ball way over the left fielder’s head.
• Left Fielder: Runs, picks it up, and heaves it in over the cutoff man’s head.
• Shortstop: Picks up the ball and throws it to second base.
• Second Baseman: Drops the ball, picks it up, and throws it over the catcher.
• Catcher: Picks the ball up and hands it back to the coach.
• Coach: Repeats the same thing with the center fielder.
• By the time the first baseman even touches the baseball, you’re already 10 minutes into practice and now the game becomes “boring.”

Remember, we want to keep our players active and engaged during practice. The best way to maximize your practice time is to set up short stations, each focusing on a different skill set.

Below is an example of what the field might look like with four stations set up, utilizing the entire field: