Practice Recap 8 - 23 - 2010

* Work in progress I will finish tomorrow.

Sorry I didn't have time for a practice plan. I am back to work and have less time for this crazy blog. I finished practice... 25 minutes ago, my wife is giving the play by play for the day, I have a vanilla pudding cup, and here I am - writing about baseball. I saw a couple of things today that bothered me philosophically that we can work on. I will write about it later in the week, they are ideas that coaches yell about a lot but rarely sit down and explain to their team. Today was a good practice, I still need to do a better job of taking in the whole team. I get tunnel vision going and I get into a drill, then realized I learned very little about players in other drills.

Practice Plan
6:00 warm - up
Working on hands and feet, when playing catch. Remember to start the hands out in front of the body and receive the ball to the throwing side of the body. The feet need to shuffle as you catch the ball. The players had improved from the first time out.

6:15 - 7
Fielding Drills
Grounders.. Players looked better, the footwork is improving. I yelled a ton about staying low, it is tough, but it needs to be exaggerated. The hands need to be way out in front.

Working around the ball - I will link a video later

Short hops -

Hitting Drills

The inside and outside pitch

Knee down - This helps quick hands to the ball

No step drill - This drill helps with using legs and hips to help power the ball.

Whiffle ball - Hit Bombs!

Practice recap

First thing to remember is... bring a watch:) It is tough to tell groups to rotate when you have no idea how long it has been. The practice went well, I am very surprised with the arms in this group. I wish the team was playing on a full sized field because it would be an advantage.
Pitching:
Most have solid form off the mound, but 90% fly open with their front shoulder; they can get away with it at this stage, but most of my friends with that problem have either stopped playing or had arm surgery. I will put up some video up that can help with keeping the front shoulder closed and I will continue to work on it at practice. Ok I found a great video. The four points facing the target is a great visual. When I say the phrase"you need to stay closed," means that one of the four points are not going towards the target.


Fielding is my main concern at this point. It seems to be a crapshoot with our technique. What I mean is that the technique changes on each grounder. Please check out the videos from my earlier posts on how to approach a grounder and the importance of keeping the hands out in front of the body. Some of the problems I saw were weight on the heels, approaching the ball straight up and down, and straight back when fielding the grounder (your chin should be in front of your body.) You can have success while having these flaws, but it will be hard to field the ball consistently.

Any thoughts on what should go in the next practice plan? The only thing that is off limits is live hitting, it takes up the whole field:) We will have to get some cage time at MCRA.

Practice Plan 8 - 18 - 10

I am at a loss on where to start with this team. I am use to everyday practices which gives me time to hit each aspect of the game. This is Fall Ball so practice is two days a week, with a couple of games each week. The first practice I decided to stick with skills and I believe I will continue to do that. Now if I can just learn names...

Warm - up
6:00 - arm motions were pretty good, but the footwork and hands need work.

Group Rotations - fifteen minutes each
6:15
Group One - Relays - working on receiving the ball and footwork to the bag. I found an old video but it does give an idea of what I am looking for.


Group Two - Short Hops - Working on a good fielding position and keeping the body and head low. This video is awesome!


Group Three - Pitchers - Work off the mound. I have no idea what is coming so I need to see their stuff.

Group Rotation #2
7:00

Group One - Grounders at 3rd - I need an overall feel of who is comfortable with grounders.
Group Two - Hitting - working on a knee, so the idea is to work on hands to the ball.

Group Three - Catcher/Pitcher work

Wrap - up - Work on picks and leads at first.

I will add some player video later this week.

Oh the grunt work...

Grunt work is the term my father used when I was a kid. It meant to be great at something you have to work at it. This meant on the weekends the family would pack up and head to Rainbow Sports or Hit A Ton for batting practice. If it was during the week, we headed to Callanan park for defensive work. The main thing that has changed for me since those days is my approach to hitting and defense. We used to practice grounders and take batting practice. We were happy with a caught grounder or making great contact with the bat. Now don't get me wrong, if it is a game I am more than happy with those outcomes, but when we practice we are practicing to be great. I will put videos of drills from my practices, but I would really like to hear about drills that you find important. Link some video or explanation of the drill. Here is a video I found google searching. It is a great place to start.





It is a bit long, but it is showing a skill that many of my players need to understand. Our stance at contact is very important to become a reliable defender. I also like how he mentioned to stay low when approaching the ball. Many young players catch the ball behind them or under their stance. Contact with the ball should be one foot in front of the body.