| SOFTBALL TIPS |
|
|
|
| SITE STUFF |
|
|
|
|
ARCHIVES
|
| • |
June 26, 2005 |
| • |
July 03, 2005 |
| • |
July 10, 2005 |
| • |
July 17, 2005 |
| • |
July 24, 2005 |
| • |
July 31, 2005 |
| • |
August 07, 2005 |
| • |
August 14, 2005 |
| • |
August 21, 2005 |
| • |
August 28, 2005 |
| • |
September 11, 2005 |
| • |
October 02, 2005 |
| • |
October 09, 2005 |
| • |
October 23, 2005 |
| • |
October 30, 2005 |
| • |
November 06, 2005 |
| • |
November 13, 2005 |
| • |
December 04, 2005 |
| • |
December 18, 2005 |
| • |
December 25, 2005 |
| • |
January 08, 2006 |
| • |
January 15, 2006 |
| • |
January 29, 2006 |
| • |
February 05, 2006 |
| • |
February 12, 2006 |
| • |
February 19, 2006 |
| • |
February 26, 2006 |
| • |
March 05, 2006 |
| • |
March 12, 2006 |
| • |
March 19, 2006 |
| • |
March 26, 2006 |
| • |
April 02, 2006 |
| • |
April 09, 2006 |
| • |
April 16, 2006 |
| • |
April 23, 2006 |
| • |
April 30, 2006 |
| • |
May 07, 2006 |
| • |
May 14, 2006 |
| • |
May 21, 2006 |
| • |
May 28, 2006 |
| • |
June 04, 2006 |
| • |
June 11, 2006 |
| • |
June 18, 2006 |
| • |
June 25, 2006 |
| • |
July 09, 2006 |
| • |
July 16, 2006 |
| • |
July 23, 2006 |
| • |
July 30, 2006 |
| • |
August 13, 2006 |
| • |
August 20, 2006 |
| • |
September 03, 2006 |
| • |
September 10, 2006 |
| • |
September 17, 2006 |
| • |
September 24, 2006 |
| • |
October 01, 2006 |
| • |
October 08, 2006 |
| • |
October 15, 2006 |
| • |
October 22, 2006 |
| • |
November 12, 2006 |
| • |
November 26, 2006 |
| • |
December 31, 2006 |
| • |
January 14, 2007 |
| • |
January 21, 2007 |
| • |
January 28, 2007 |
| • |
February 04, 2007 |
| • |
February 11, 2007 |
| • |
February 18, 2007 |
| • |
February 25, 2007 |
| • |
March 04, 2007 |
| • |
March 11, 2007 |
| • |
March 18, 2007 |
| • |
April 01, 2007 |
| • |
April 08, 2007 |
| • |
April 15, 2007 |
| • |
April 22, 2007 |
| • |
April 29, 2007 |
| • |
May 06, 2007 |
| • |
May 13, 2007 |
| • |
May 20, 2007 |
| • |
May 27, 2007 |
| • |
June 03, 2007 |
| • |
June 10, 2007 |
| • |
June 17, 2007 |
| • |
June 24, 2007 |
| • |
July 01, 2007 |
| • |
July 22, 2007 |
| • |
July 29, 2007 |
| • |
August 12, 2007 |
| • |
August 19, 2007 |
| • |
September 02, 2007 |
| • |
September 16, 2007 |
| • |
September 30, 2007 |
| • |
October 07, 2007 |
| • |
October 14, 2007 |
| • |
October 21, 2007 |
| • |
November 04, 2007 |
| • |
November 18, 2007 |
| • |
November 25, 2007 |
| • |
December 02, 2007 |
| • |
December 09, 2007 |
| • |
December 16, 2007 |
| • |
January 13, 2008 |
| • |
February 17, 2008 |
| • |
February 24, 2008 |
| • |
March 02, 2008 |
| • |
March 09, 2008 |
| • |
March 30, 2008 |
| • |
April 06, 2008 |
| • |
April 13, 2008 |
| • |
April 20, 2008 |
| • |
April 27, 2008 |
| • |
May 04, 2008 |
| • |
May 11, 2008 |
| • |
May 18, 2008 |
| • |
May 25, 2008 |
| • |
June 01, 2008 |
| • |
June 15, 2008 |
| • |
June 22, 2008 |
| • |
June 29, 2008 |
| • |
July 06, 2008 |
| • |
July 13, 2008 |
| • |
July 20, 2008 |
| • |
August 03, 2008 |
| • |
August 10, 2008 |
| • |
August 17, 2008 |
| • |
August 24, 2008 |
| • |
August 31, 2008 |
| • |
September 07, 2008 |
| • |
September 14, 2008 |
| • |
September 21, 2008 |
| • |
September 28, 2008 |
| • |
October 05, 2008 |
| • |
October 12, 2008 |
| • |
October 19, 2008 |
| • |
October 26, 2008 |
| • |
November 02, 2008 |
| • |
November 09, 2008 |
| • |
November 16, 2008 |
| • |
November 30, 2008 |
| • |
December 07, 2008 |
| • |
December 21, 2008 |
| • |
December 28, 2008 |
| • |
February 15, 2009 |
| • |
February 22, 2009 |
| • |
April 12, 2009 |
| • |
April 19, 2009 |
| • |
April 26, 2009 |
| • |
May 03, 2009 |
| • |
May 10, 2009 |
| • |
May 17, 2009 |
| • |
May 24, 2009 |
| • |
May 31, 2009 |
| • |
June 07, 2009 |
| • |
June 14, 2009 |
| • |
June 21, 2009 |
| • |
July 05, 2009 |
| • |
July 12, 2009 |
| • |
July 19, 2009 |
| • |
August 02, 2009 |
| • |
August 30, 2009 |
| • |
September 06, 2009 |
| • |
September 20, 2009 |
| • |
October 04, 2009 |
| • |
October 11, 2009 |
| • |
October 18, 2009 |
| • |
November 08, 2009 |
| • |
November 15, 2009 |
| • |
November 22, 2009 |
| • |
November 29, 2009 |
| • |
December 27, 2009 |
| • |
January 03, 2010 |
| • |
January 10, 2010 |
| • |
January 17, 2010 |
| • |
January 24, 2010 |
| • |
January 31, 2010 |
| • |
March 14, 2010 |
| • |
March 21, 2010 |
| • |
March 28, 2010 |
| • |
April 04, 2010 |
| • |
April 18, 2010 |
| • |
April 25, 2010 |
|
|
| SOFTBALL LINKS |
|
|
|
Indoor Practice Principles
by Dave
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
I was going to let this winter slip by without discussing indoor workouts but I feel the urge to at least go over some simple rules or principles for establishing an effective workout regimen. We all have a repertoire of drills we use to prepare a team for springtime competition. But before we allow the winter holiday season to just slip into late spring, here are some guidelines with which to make your winter practices a little better:
Appropriate SpaceIt's probably a little too late for discussing this point since you've most likely arranged space and are already practicing in it. In order to run a good indoor practice, your space must be appropriate for the task. You must have enough room to keep everybody busy. And you must have a sufficient throwing lane to make throws of appropriate distances.
At this point, You're probably stuck with your practice location but if you are unhappy with what can be accomplished in it, at least take a look around and see if you can rectify the situation for at least some portion of your winter workouts. Giving up your 40x40 area and settling for half the number of workouts to get a space double that is worth doing. Cramming yourself into smaller space in order to set up more dates due to a limited budget is inadvisable.
My ideal space would consist of an area of at least 60x60 and some hitting or pitching lanes. If the best I can do is a place with just barely 60x60, I would hope to conduct two days per week of workouts, one in which I use the full area to conduct defensive drilling and another in which I use smaller segments of the space for multiple stations, hitting or otherwise.
If you are just now slapping together a practice plan for January through March, make sure you have a good space for at least half your workouts. The other half can utilize a facility such as a batting place in which you should arrange for multiple lanes. If, for example, you are able to reserve two batting lanes for two hours, set up two different groups with half your roster in each and have the girls come fifteene minutes before your reserved time. This will give you 3 girls in each tunnel who rotate through hitting 10 minutes each. That will allow a relatively intense, supervised batting practice in which the thing doesn't break down into 2 girls hitting with the other 10 texting their friends or otherwise not paying attention.
Figure Costs RealisticallyWhen evaluating space rentals, too many coaches look at the price per hour and draw quick conclusions that this or that is too much. For example, I have often heard folks talking about a really great facility which rents for say $200 an hour and conclude that they must cross it off their list without really evaluating what the cost benefit ratio will be or the timing of payments.
For one thing, if you are going to rent 20 hours or more, often facilities will negotiate a better rate than their flat $200. I almost skipped a place without negotiating once. After I talked to the owner, we came up with a plan in which we would take a day in November for an hour, another two in December for one and then two hours, and then successive Sundays (excluding one or two which were inconvenient for a number of reasons) January through mid-March for two hours each. In the end, the owner gave me the space for $100 per hour for a grand total of 22 hours, $2,200.
Now $2,200 ain't hay but when you divide it by your roster of 12 girls, that's only $185 per kid. And when you spread out payment over say a four month period, that's under $50 per kid per month. If you offset the cost with a fundraiser or two, I'm pretty confident you can wing this with a cost of no more than $20 per kid per month. That is not a huge burden. And in return, you have great space for at least 2 hours per week leading into your outdoor season. Travel ball has a lot of costs associated with it but this is, at worst, one of the least expensive parts of it.
I do not think practicing once each week for two hours is enough, but if that's the limit of your available time and/or money, picking a more expensive place with more space and a better layout has huge benefits. The space I just talked about had a huge open turf area for running drills and a couple of tunnels in which to conduct batting, work your pitchers and catchers or just to run throwing for those who need to work on that. We were allowed to use regular softballs. We were allowed to hit in any way we wanted.
By contrast, a team I was involved with settled for a space which was about 50x50 which rented for the apparently lower cost of $75 per hour. But that rate was non-negotiable and the space wasn't intended for softball. It was a gym floor, the team had to use softees, and there was nohitting allowed. The girls looked great conducting throwing drills in the limited area but they never made throws of greater than 60 feet, then only while throwing diagonally in a limited number of drills. When they got outside in the warmer weather, it was as if they had never done anything during the cold months.
If your budget is greater than the $2,000 or so I just detailed, I would try to get some really good space to perform great drills and something a little less expensive for other work. You can usually obtain batting tunnel rentals for far less than the $100-$200 of big, multi-use space. If you will be conducting two per weeks, one two hour session for defensive and other drilling can be coupled with an hour or two renting some batting tunnels. The whole thing can easily be put together for under $250 per head, spread out so it never is a huge dollar payment at any one time, and mitigated by fundraising.
So, principles number one and two are get appropriate space and do the math for what it really costs. Make sure you shoose quality over raw quantity. It's better to spend $200 for good workouts than to save half that and get no benefit from it.
Be Organized / Have A PlanRecognizing that most coaches don't need to be told this, there are still some who drag their bodies to every practice and then just wing it. When your practice time is limited, the need for organization is greater. You must structure your workouts so to cover all the bases. If you just go to the space with the knowledge you have gained over the years and wing it, what can happen is you spend five to ten minutes setting up and another five to ten minutes between each drill explaining to your assistant coaches and the girls what you want them to accomplish each time you start something new. If you do that, two hours can slip away pretty quickly. Also you end up driving home remembering that you wished you could have fit X or Y drill into the workout. You resolve to do that next time and when next time comes, you forget to do it or remember and then forget something else. It only takes a couple minutes jotting a list down on paper to make sure you do everything you want. And if you hold onto these pieces of paper, you have something to start with next time and can jot out new drills which will not be forgotten the next time you practice.
Keeping organized has a side benefit. When you, the head or assistant coach seems to know exactly what you want to accomplish, the players develop greater confidence in your ability to run a practice and remain more focused throughout. Also, perhaps more importantly, the parents develop greater confidence in you.
There is nothing worse than a player running herself ragged in one drill and then standing around for ten minutes while the coaches confer amongst themselves and try to figure out what to do next. It is better to keep sweating girls sweating and moving rapidly from one drill to another. They may complain that they are tired but at the end of the day, they are far more happy to be working constantly for the duration of the practice. It makes time go more quickly and maintains mental focus.
Cover All The BasesI have seen a number of teams workout for the entire offseason while practicing just one aspect of the game. Maybe a team can only get the elementary school gymnasium for one or two hours per week and all they think they can do in there is throw softees. So they go through 4 or more months of just throwing back and forth for an hour or two each week. It is certainly important to keep the throwing arm in shape but everyone gets bored with a weekly throw-around. Do some speed and agility training, some throwing and at least some hitting.
If I had just one hour per week in 50x50 and there was no possibility of getting any more time or space, I would break the practice down into 3 equal 20 minute segments. We would start with a warm-up and stretch, then progress into speed/agility by doing basketball like drills such as suicides. I might bring along a ladder and have the girls run through 5 minutes of that. After 20 minutes we would start throwing the ball but I wouldn't just have them throw for the full 20 minutes back and forth across the 45 to 50 foot expanse. I'd let them warm-up for 5 minutes, run through another 5 of ground ball drills, then maybe work in some run down across the diagnonal 60 feet, then maybe close with a few minutes of throwing around via the drill called "four corners" or "the star" which I've gone over a few times in the past. Then I might have the girls spilt up into four groups for each corner of the space and have one group play pepper, another do bunting, another maybe slapping, and another hitting off pitched wiffle balls. If you bring some softees, some whiffle balls, and maybe evenb some tennis balls, you can do a lot in a little space.
Maybe you do not care for my breakdown of 5 minute intervals within each 20 minute segment Perhaps that is overly optimistic. But if you instead break it down to ten minute intervals or vary the length of each segment in accordance with your perceived needs, there's plenty of flexibllity to do that. The trick is to be organized, plan what you want to do, and try to cover as many bases as possible at each workout.
Vary Your DrillsWhen I think of a constrained space and limited time, I tend to think i n terms of making an overall plan for the full offseason schedule. Within that context, what I try to do is establish a routine which is adhered to every practice which then allows variability in at least 25% of the practices. Perhaps the first 20 minutes of my practice would never change because I believe in always doing speed and agility and there isn;t all that much point in always varying that aspect of things. But when it comes to throwing or batting drills, I have more of those than I can hope to fit into a single practice. So what I do is decide I'll use throwing drills 1-3 in the first two practices, 3-6 in the next two, and a mix of say 1,2, and 5 the next with the missed ones used the week after that. The same is true for batting. This week we focus on bunting and next week tee hitting.
There is good reason to keep the workouts consistent as well as reason to vary things to some degree. If girls arrive at your indoor workouts knowing what to do, they are more focused and usually accomplish a lot more. But after 4 weeks of doing the identical workout each time, they are likely to suffer some boredom. If every practice has some elements they do every week and some new things added in, everybody remains less bored. As I said a moment ago, you most likely have more drills than you can possibly fit into any one single workout. So vary some things each week. Drafting up an overall plan allows you to do all the drills in your repertoire while keeping everyone's interest level up and accomplishing a lot.
Note that if you are running multiple practices each week including separate hitting sessions, there is no reason to work any sort of hitting into your workout at larger, more flexible facilities. I would stick to speed/agility and defensive drills. This should provide you with lots more time to extend your speed / agility stuff and to work in more complex variations on your defensive play drills.
Keep Everyone BusyDuring your practices, one thing you should avoid is half the team doing nothing for more than five minutes. If you allow that to happen, everybody gets hurt. Somegirls will bring their mobile phones and begin texting friends or taking each other's pictures. The girls in the drills begin to resent those outside them. Their focus begins to be just getting through the drill so they can get to what they want - to text and take each other's pictures. Instead draft up your practice schedule and overall plan so as to keep everyone busy most of the time with little time allowed to catch one's breath.
Keep Things IntenseWhether you have an hour or more, you should be able to keep the girls sweating throughout the whole period. Once they warm-up and start sweating, you will use your pre-written practice plan to make sure nobody stops for very long. In softball and most other sports, there is often a time in the middle of any workout in which it is necessary to discuss some points. During the season, you might go over some play which they performed very poorly at your last tournament or scrimmage. Maybe you need to explain better throwing or hitting mechanics. But I advise you to, at least during the winter, not speak at length about anything. If you can't explain it in under five minutes, your indoor workouts are not the time to give the speech. Save those for when you aren't paying for the clock.
As I said before, I believe in using the first segment of practice for speed and agility training. The girls warm-up via a jog around the space, then stretch, then move directly into some sort of speed stuff. I like to use a variety of running drills which leave them out of breath. I have them do power-skipping, lunges, crab-crawling, maybe carryoke, then finish up with all out sprints. At the end of that, they are sweationg and out of breath. I give them a minute to sip water and then we go right into throwing. I watch them and correct mechanical erros to the extent possible during warm-ups. I don't tolerate a bunch of goofing around. We're going directly into difficult throwing drills and this is their time to warm-up their arms. If they don't do this, they're going to pay with sore arms the next day.
After the girls have adequately warmed their arms, I get into complex throwing drills. Immediately after that, we go into some ground ball drills in which there are multiple stations. I write out the layout of the multi-drills before we get to the place and then go over them with the assitant coaches in order to be more organized. ASfte the throwing drills, we divide up the girls into groups, each one doing something different. Girls are expected to run between stations. I try to use the station I run to regfulate the flow of girls so nobody is standing for more than 1 minute, including coaches. If one of my assitant coaches is slowing down the flow, I let him know that he needs to speed up his station. After a certain number of rotations., I again let the girls get drinks. Then we go into the next drill-set immediately. Usually by the end of our workouts, the girls are still sweating and out of breath. That's my goal when we started. But if something should happen which causes anyone to stand still for five minutes, I try to evaluate that circumstance to avoid it the next time.
Make Time to Go Over PlaysI just told you that I want the girls to keep moving and to avoid circumstances in which I walk for more than five minutes. Still, I believe you have need to go over plays at some point during most of your practices. Sometimes that puts a bit of stress on keeping to my five minute talk limit or the limited standing still "rule." The answer to this problem is to make sure that the plays I go over in indoor workouts are the more simple ones.
We all need to defense the bunt. I can explain what to do in just a minute if I don't try to cover absolutely everything the first time. Maybe at practice one, I work the girls out by breaking into a couple groups, one at each of the infield positions excluding SS and one running from home to first. All I do is nunt the ball alternately to first or third and have them field it and throw to first. One iteration and everybody switches. If I am high enough energy, I can run a bunt every 10-15 seconds. Everybody keeps moving.
At practice number two, I might put the SS out there and one runner at first. We run that drill with, depending on how you want to approach this, perhaps the runner from first looking to make third after the play to first, the second baseman taking the throw and then making the play to the SS covering third. Later, as the weeks progress, I might add elements each week until by the end of our offseasonprogram, I have them running the full play for fifteeen minutes each practice.
I haven't spent an excessive amount of time talking at any one practice. We've covered the entire play sequence. When we get outside and into games and scrimmages, it will be relatively easily to go over bunt defense.
Aside from this, it is also relatively easy to build other plays into your practice regimen such as geeting leads runners on ground balls, run downs, stealing situations, etc. Just keep it simple and make proper use of the amount of timeyou have at each session. If you ignore this and spend 10 to 15 minutes explaning a play at one practice, rest assured that you will have to go over this in detail the next time anyways. So make it simple and build it gradually while keeping talking to a minimum and keepingthe girls moving intensely.
Live Pitched Batting PracticeIf you are at all able to do it, I highly recommend live-pitched batting practice at some point. I can't cover the full spectrum of possible practice facilities within this context but most places will allow you to have pitchers pitching to batters inside their batting cages. If you cannot do this, I suggest you find another facility. If all you can have your kids doing is swinging at machine pitched balls for an hour each week, recognize that this has limited benefit and no matter how cheap the time is, it is to some degree money wasted. Personally, I'd rather have girls hitting soft toss and off tees as much as hitting machine pitched balls. And if the machines are baseball ones, then I have to wonder if it isn't detrimental rather than of any benefit at all. Baseball machines throw the ball from above the shoulder one a downward angle. Softball pitching machines throw from the height which is approximately where the typical pitcher'[s knee or hip would be on a more appropriate plane. Four months of a girl swinging exclusively at baseball machine pitched balls and I'll be surprised if she can hit at all in the spring.
If you get into the typical cage rental, as I said, usually, the facility will allow your pitchers to pitch to your batters. That is the ideal circumstance bcause it not only trains your hitters but also provides some workfor your pitchers. I wouldn't completely eschew doing some battingpractices with soft toss and tee or machine ball hitting. But I would try to work live pitching into half your batting practices.
Finally, lest I forget, whenever you do batting practice, make time for bunting. I don't care whether you believe in small ball or not. At some point you are going to need your kids to be able to put down a bunt. If they've never bunted before, that's going to be impossible. Every kid on your team needs to have at least some familiarity, some degree of comfort with bunting. They should put down a few bunts in drills. They should bunt a few times every time they get in with machine pitched balls. And they should bunt off of live pitching.
Pitchers And CatchersFor me, the ideal overall plan of winter workouts would involve two hours per week at ideal space at which we would do speed and agility, lots of defense, and some bunting. Then there would be another two hour stretch with multiple batting cages at which I might split up my team so nobody was just standing around waiting for a turn fifteen minutes from now. I'd have girls hit off the tees some, hit soft toss, and even hit off the softball pitching machines some. Then I'd begin working in live pitching every other batting practice. Towards the end, as our first game approaches, I'd switch to all live-pitched batting practice. In addition to these two workouts, I would also want to have anh hour to an hour and a half for pitchers and catchers.
There's no rocket science to the fact that in fastpitch softball, a team has no chance of winning if it has no pitching and / or catching. Really you need to have both in order to be successful. Pitchers need to throw throughout the winter. They also need to compete with each other. My ideal worko0ut regimen would incloude a pitchers and catchers workout once each week if that is at all possible.
If I have a mismatched number of pitchers and catchers, no matter. It is easy to rotate in girls to make maximum use of space and time. If for example, I have 5 pitchers and 3 catchers, I try to get some other player to come in and catch for the day. She'll get the benefit of seeing live pitching regardless of whether she has a bat in her hands or not. She'll also get some extra throwing in.
I don't mind having one less catcher than the number of pitchers. That issue can be resolved by me or another coach catching one of the pitchers. I don't believe you can really see what a girl has unless you get behind the plate and catch her. So Usually I'll be the extra catcher.
Conducting pitching and catching sessions has a number of benefits. First and foremost, what you don't want is to have your catchers arrive at your first game of the year in say April having not donned the equipment since last October. You want them to be game conditioned as much as possible right from the outset. You also want your pitchers and catchers to be in sync with each other. A full winter of getting used to each other is very helpful.
Additionally, having pitching and catching sessions allows you to see exactly where you are in this important aspect of the game. I know pitchers need to throw in the offseason but I have no mechanism which can check up on whether they are doing this or not. A separate practice for them is a good measuring rod. It also allows each of them to see what their "competition" is doing. One pitcher might not be working all that hard duringnthe winter while another is killing herself. The two come to practice believing they know where they stand. After a few minutes of throwing, it becomes clear who is working and improving and who is not. The girl who has neglected her offseason practice might get a rude wake-up call during one of these sessions. The girl who thought she wouldn't be seeing all that much action in the circle this year might finally see the real benefit of all that hard work she has been doing. It's easy to be lazy when you live in a vaccum in which youknow you are the team's ace because you have been for the past two years. It's more difficult to rationalize skipping workouts when that other girl is obviously going to be cutting into your star time.
I have found that an important element of motivating pitchers is their parents. Parents who have to give up their own free time in order to catch their aspiring pitchers often have the same tendencies as their kids. They skip practices here and there because the football games are on TV, to catch a nap, or whatever. They also arrive at pitching practices expecting their kid to be in a particular spot in the pecking order. If there are no separate pitcher - catcher practices, they may come to games with this belief intact. If instead, there are regular workouts throughout the winter for pitchers, they can see clearly that their daughter is falling behind that other girl. That's good for any number of reasons, not the least of which is your explanation to them after the first tournament in which their kid didn't pitch.
With pitching workouts, as with all others, you need to be organized though the requirement is a smaller one. You also need to vary things up a bit. And you have to be mindsful that the catchers need more than merely to get behind the plate and catch a bunch of pitches. There are a number of drills you should be able to work into the practice in order to keep the interest level up and keep everyone's attention level high. Obviously, the first objective of such a practice is to have your pitchers pitch for as long as they can. That's an important conditioning tool.
Let's say I have an hour and a half for this session. I'll give the pitchers 15-20 minutes to warm-up and stretch. Then we move into 10 minutes of throwing fastballs which is really an extension of the warm-up. During this 10 minute segment, I like my pitchers to work locations. Five inside and low, five inside and up, five outside and low, five outside and up. We keep doing that until the first half hour is over and then move to change-ups.
I believe a pitcher needs at least ten pitches of any variety in a workout. 15 is better, 25 is optimum, but I don't like to have a pitcher throw more than 50 of any one pitch consecutively because I believe they get bored and fall into mechanical traps when they do.
After about 25 change-ups, we move to another pitch. If you've got a screwball, throw that now. If you don't, start mixing fastballs and change-ups, switching every other pitch and working alternate locations on at least the fastball. After 25 screwballs, we get into drops, drop curves and whatever else anyone has. If you don't have a particular pitch, mix it up with what we have done so far. If you;ve even tried a pitch at your lessons, give it a shot here. This is your pitching practice, make good use of it. Don't be afraid to throw something badly because you just started with it.
I would guess that after we've worked through all the pitches, we've used up about an ho9ur of our time. At this point, I try to work in some sort of drills which benefit both the pitchers and catchers. I like the "three-ball" drill in which pitchers walk into a fastball (without a wind-up) and throw to their catchers who then whip the ball back at them. This can be done at 40 feet but there's nbo good reason not to extend it back to as far as 60 feet. If done well, this can be a robvust wind drill for pitchers as well as a good practice for catchers to work on quick release throwing. It also is good for hand eye coordination of everyone involved.
If you've never done 3-ball, I know I;ve explained it before but here goes. Catcher is positioned standing while holding a ball in her throwing hand. Pitcher has one ball in her throwing hand and another in her mitt. Pitcher initiates drill by walking into a pitch to her catcher. Catcher catches pitch with mitt and then throws ball in her hand back hard to pitcher. Pitcher has, in the meantime, removed ball from her glove and is ready to take throw from catcher. Upon receiving the throw, she immediately steps into the next pitch andthe cycle repeats. When a ball is missed, it is ignored andplay continues until either all balls are out of the loop or a pre-set time has elapsed. This is a great drill because it makes both the pitcher and catcher throw a bunch of pitches in a short amount of time. You can throw as many as 50 times in five minutes if the girls are good at the drill.
ASfter three ball, if there is still time remaining, I like to conduct the remaining practice by lining up pitchers and catchers and then calling the pitch for everyone similar to what I'll do in a game. I call fastball outside and everyone throws that. I call change-up in and low, and everyone throws that. Every ten pitches, catchers rotate.
I suppose I forgot one of the most important elelements of these pitcher-catcher workouts. It is important to have your pitchers and catchers rotate during these. Every girl who might catch each pitcher should catch some pitches from her during these sessions. If you have already designated that catcher one will be "partnered" with pitcher 1, catcher 2 with pitcher 2, and so on, they can each spend the majority of time working with each other. But let's face facts. At some point, catcher number 1 is going to be down with an injury or pitcher number 1 is going to have to come in to relieve while catcher 2 or 3 is behind the plate. These girls must get used to each other and this is as good a time as any. Perhaps I have designated pitcher-catcher "partners" but everyone ought to have some experience catching everyone else.
Well that about wraps up everythingI wanted to say today about indoor workouts. I really hope you have an intensive program planned and being used right now. If you don't, get busy. For me, the deciding factor in choosing a team is what they plan to do for offseason workouts. They are a necessary part of girls fastpitch travel softball. They make the difference between the real deal and the pretenders. Good space is a necessary part of the overall. Coaches must get good space, be organized about how they do their workouts, cover everything, do good and varied drills, keep everyone moving and interested, and work in some real situations during the winter months. Smart batting practice including live-pitched, is important to me and my playing daughters. Pitcher-catcher sessions are a real bonus. Wihtout these things, I'd really rather have my kids just do more schoolwork and use their free time for other things. I can condition them to play softball well enough on my own. I'd rather not waste the time to drive them to some cramped inappropriate space in order to get frustrated about the modified social hour. We could have used the wasted time to improve their pitching or do some soft toss in the basement!Labels: indoor
Permanent Link: Indoor Practice Principles
 
|
|
|
