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Opposite Field Dribblers

by Dave
Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Labels: batting practice, coaching, hitting, Offense, rotational

Permanent Link:  Opposite Field Dribblers

HEELLLPPPP!!!!!!!

by Dave
Tuesday, February 19, 2008

"I am a "new" travel ball coach.   I have played ball since I could walk.   The ball diamond is the only place I have ever felt completely at home.   I could no longer be competitive at the level I wanted, and with a young daughter, I decided it was her turn.   Since then, I have coached rec ball for several years, for various reasons, we decided to move to travel ball, and her coaches were the worst of the bunch.   I learned al lot about what NOT to do from them.   This fall I was asked to put together a new 14U team for an organization whose 14u A team all aged up to 16.

Now, I am truly blessed with a fantastic group of 13 highly talented ex-rec ball phenoms from all over the area.   We have been working on the mental transition from rec-ball to travel play and that is going very well.   We have only been together since September and have played in 2 tourneys.

I have spent many nights on the internet watching videos, reading, studying, making practice plans, etc.....   I honestly have been running on about 3 hours of sleep most nights.   I have a mental block now though.   That's my problem.   My block is coming from having to practice indoors, in a facility that is not big enough to work infield plays.   HOW in the world can I teach these girls how to run different plays without a place to do it?

My chalk board works fine showing them positions and movements.   But I feel like I have taken them as far as I can until the weather breaks and we can go outdoors about a month from now.   And I am feeling a little overwhelmed.   There is so much more we could be doing, we NEED to be doing.   I'm not even sure where we need to go from where we are right now.   We have another tourney the end of March, and I really feel like we could do very well if we could only do some more hands on situational fielding practice.   Bunt defenses!!!!!!   How can I teach bunt defenses without a diamond or room for runners??????

Like I said, this is my first time coaching travel ball, and I am learning so much that I would LOVE to be able to pass on to this group of girls.   Do you have ANY ideas????   Im also not sure about how many different plays they will be able to handle yet.   Do you have any suggestions about the basic essentials, maybe I can at least make sure we have those covered if we dont already?"

Lisa, I have some thoughts for you.   They are as follows:

1) Don't panic.   Panic never helped any situation.   Far more teams than you can imagine are in a similar plight.   Ask, for example, the coaches of last year's 14U team what they did to teach their kids situations and plays.   Their answers will probably put you at ease or give you some ideas about how to proceed.

2) You have noted that you have some talented individuals on your team.   My guess is that many of these girls know how to handle situations so you are not quite as bad off as it seems right now.   They'll play some school ball and get in plenty of long tosses while also running plays with their school teams.   They'll come to the first tournament more well prepared than you would at first think.

3) Travel ball is really about learning rather than winning games or tournaments.   Your kids will learn how to handle situations and run plays over the course of the season.   You're going to get them outdoors soon enough and while they may make a huge number of mistakes early on, that is, after all, the best way to learn something.   If you cannot get them in space suitable for running plays now, then so be it.   You will be able to do this when it gets warmer outside.   For now, plan to go over plays after they botch situations, right after games.   Tournament days often provide more than enough time to talk through situational plays between games.

4) If you can find a place not too far away which has sufficient space, book some time in late February / early March so you can do at least some of the sort of practicing you'd like to do.   Chances are decent that there is a place which spans 70x70 or bigger in which you can run some infield plays.   It may be a commercial facility or a school gym.   If your team is so inclined, collect $30, $40, $50, or some such from each family and book some good space for 2 - 4 hours or more during which you will exclusively run plays.   If they cannot come up with money like that, try running some sort of quick fundraiser or do canning.   You should be able to pull in $400 - $800 by spending a day or two parked outside some supermarket and begging for money.   That should be sufficient for running a few very high quality practices in which you only run situations and plays.

5) Map out the most important plays you have in your mind and put them on paper.   Hold some sort of one or two hour meeting during which you will distribute the plays and discuss them.   Tell the girls what your concerns are.   Explain to them that this game is not about physical attributes / athleticism, but rather more about the mental side of things and knowing where to go with the ball in certain circumstances.   Tell them that they must all commit the plays you have distributed to memory.   Tell them that you want them to think about these things every night before they go to sleep.   Explain that softball is largely about patterned response and that in order to be competitive this year, they are going to need to be able to run these plays without a hitch.   So they must commit them to memory, know instantly what to do in these limited circumstances, and then you are going to practice them whenever you are able.

6) If you just cannot find a sufficient space and/or do not have the money to book something like that, turn your eyes towards the weather forecasts.   Take a look around your area for a field of some sort, not a softball field (softball fields won't be playable for a while) but rather a grassy field or even a parking lot, at which you can conduct a practice when or if the weather suddenly turns warm one day.   Then watch those weather forecasts for a Saturday or Sunday on which it is supposed to be 45 or above.   Tell your players in advance that, if the weather does this, you are going to quickly call for an outdoor practice on a moments notice and you want to make sure everyone is there.   Then, assuming the weather breaks, go out and run situations with the team for as long as the weather holds.

7) If you are not able to book space and / or the weather never breaks for you or you cannot find a field / parking lot to do any sort of situations or plays, see if you can get a scrimmage together with any other team.   The age doesn't so much matter.   You could see if the 16U team can do something with you.   Tell the opposing coach that you want to stop the game from time to time to conduct meetings to go over plays.   So when the first opportunity for a bunt situation arises, you go out and remind the girls what they are going to do if the batter bunts.   Then after they blow it, go out again and go over it.

8) Focus on the most important plays first.   Chances are pretty good that if your team can't handle a bunt, that's all you are going to see.   So work on simple stuff first and gradually add complicated responses over the course of the season.   If you like getting the lead runner on bunts, that's fine but before you want to handle that, do plain vanilla getting the batter out at first before you get complicated and work more advanced plays.   You don't have time to get all that crazy just yet and it is absolutely critical that you handle the easy stuff properly first.   You do not need to be able to handle first and thirds situations at your first tournament.   And once they see that this is an important situation, they will learn the plays you want to run more easily.

I completely understand the circumstances you are in.   Most travel coaches do too.   Many of us have only enough space to run skills drills for the entire winter.   But most of us look around for any sort of facility we can find to run at least some play practices.   We might have to drive for half an hour or even an hour to do these.   But it is well worth it to run at least some practices in large enough space to run an infield.   Many of us have to conduct fundraisers specifically to fund these practices.   While it may seem too late to start into this now, it isn't.   All you need is some supermarket that will let you park outside and collect a couple hundred dollars.   It could happen next week or the one after that.   Then get yourself into the space and do exclusively those plays for a few hours.   Your girls may not run these right at your first tournament but I think they will after that.   Relax, have fun, this will be a learning year.

Labels: coaching, defense, indoor, practice, pre-season preparation

Permanent Link:  HEELLLPPPP!!!!!!!

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