Pray for Rain

When I first started coaching five years ago, it never would have occurred to me to run high energy practices — for five- and six-year olds — but this year I noticed that the more I worked the kids at practice, the more fun they had. Somewhere around the mid-season point this year, I ran a practice that started with us running the bases, then running the perimeter of the field, and then moving immediately into a series of fast-moving drills that had the kids constantly in motion. At the end of the hour, not only did they want to keep practicing, but they were grinning as they asked for more drills and more running games.

I’ll spend more time on this idea of “high energy practices” as I write up a few additional model practices for this website. My experience this year has definitely changed the way I think about practices.

This post sponsored by Wondrous.com.

I’m sure the idea of “negative attention” is a very old one for school teachers, and perhaps many parents, but as a baseball coach, I first learned this a few years ago when I was conducting batting drills with one of my players. Here’s the story.

One day when one of my assistant coaches was running fielding drills with the team in the main field, I decided I would pull one kid at a time to work on hitting. Each kid would hit 10 balls from a T into a chain link fence, and I would work with him or her on the proper stance and swing. I told them that they each would “get to hit 10 balls cleanly from the T.”

When it came time for my best hitter to take his swings, he appeared to be in a deep baseball funk. His bat struck the T time after time. He couldn’t seem to get his swing right. His feet were in the wrong position. His bat wasn’t even coming close to the ball. I was stunned. In the games, this was my best hitter…by far. Why was my coaching making him worse? After spending 10-15 minutes with this one kid (all the others averaged about 3-4 minutes), I told him that I was going to have to move on to the next batter. I gave him three more swings, but “Even if you hit the T,” I told him, “I need to move on.”

BAM! BAM! BAM! Three of the best hits from anyone all day.

I’m not sure whether he was conscious of it or not, but he obviously had been playing me for the extra attention. Looking back on it, it was almost sweet. This terrific 7 year old kid, who didn’t have a father at home, had been messing up to get extra time at the plate…and extra time with the coach.

It’s a lesson I’ve tried to remember.

This year, at the very last game, I assigned the kids’ their fielding positions for the inning (in T-Ball, we rotate positions every inning) , and I asked them to run out to their positions after we counted to three. “1-2-3, Angels!” All of the kids ran out but one girl lingered behind…and told me that she didn’t know where shortstop was. Could I please take her there? I was sure she was seeking attention, so I told her that if she didn’t know where shortstop was, after an entire season of 12 games, she needed to stay in the dugout. She ran straight to shortstop.

What’s the lesson here? What these experiences have taught me is that the kids really crave attention from the coaches. And while each of the coaches with whom I have ever worked has been happy to give that attention, it’s important to give it at the right time and not at the expense of the other kids. When my best hitter wanted extra hitting attention, I asked his mother to bring him to practice early, or stay with him late after practice, so we could work a bit one on one. And I heaped praise on my lost shortstop after she came in from the field. I’ve tried to listen to what the kids are really saying though, despite what their words might suggest.

This post sponsored by sailmodel.com.

“Angels!”

This year I’m coaching T-Ball again. I forget where I read it, but one of the baseball books I read during my first year of coaching reported that 5- and 6-year olds have a three minute attention span. This is important to remember during the slow parts of games. Here’s an easy trick I adopted to bring them back to baseball.

Before every practice and game, and at the end of every practice and game, I ask the team “Who are we?” And the kids shout the name of our team. After a few times, they grow accustomed to the question and know what to do what I say “Who are we?”

So now during the games, when I want to keep the kids from catching bugs or building dirt castles in the infield, I ask the question “Who are we?” It’s better than shouting instructions or reminding them to pay attention.

One of the hardest things to teach young players is to run through First Base instead of stopping on the bag. Even for young kids who routinely watch professional baseball — and see every player run fast through and past First Base — their initial instinct is to slow down as they approach the base and gently touch the bag. I had some extra time at last week’s practice, so I improvised this quick drill. It worked well, and I plan to make it a regular part of my practices.

Running Through First. This is easy to set up. The team lines up at home plate, while I set up two orange cones (or you can use a brightly colored rag or any other “target”) about ten feet beyond first base. I stand to the side of the cones. When I clap my hands, simulating the sound of the bat hitting the ball, the player runs along the first base line, touches the base, and runs past the “target” marked by the cones. Since the kids’ natural inclination is to slow as they approach the base, I’ve simply given them a different target, well beyond the base, at which to aim. It works.

Our T-Ball team played its first game of the year today. The play of the day came in the third inning, when our team was at bat. We had a player on Second and a player on First, with nobody out. The third batter of the inning hit a hard infield grounder up the middle, between Second Base and Shortstop. Our player on Second Base started to run toward Third, saw the ball cross his path in front of him…and immediately chased the ball into the outfield. He fielded the ball, threw it back into the infield….and then ran on to Third Base. Everyone was safe.

This week is all about getting the kids ready for their first game. Half of the team played, those experienced 6-year olds, played T-Ball last year, but for the other half, this may be their first time in a game situation of any kind. So far, our practices have consisted of drills, but no game simulations. That changes today.

Here’s the schedule for Week 3’s Practice….

4:00-4:10. Name Game, Stretches, Warm-ups and Base Run. This is the last week we will run the “name game” at the start of practice. Most of the kids know each other by now, so we’ll make this time shorter than usual. We’ll follow the name game with a few minutes of stretching, some light calisthenics, and a “snake run” around the field. (In the snake run, I run in crazy loops and turns, and they run behind me, following my path. At this age, the “snake run” is a game; they don’t realize they’re running laps and exercising!)

4:10-4:30. Simulated Game. We have ten players on our team. For this session of practice, I’ll divide the group into two equal sides, 5 and 5. On the defensive side, we’ll have a pitcher, first-base, second-base, shortstop, and third-base. No outfield. I’ll use some of the older siblings or parents who attend practice to shag balls hit to the outfield. The other five will bat around twice and run the bases. In this simulated game, I only ask the defensive players to do one thing: field the ball and throw it to first base.

4:30-4:35. Water and Bathroom Break.

4:35-4:40. Base-Running Tag / “Monster” Game. This is a repeat from last week, but the kids always love it.

During the games, we want the players to move from home plate to first base, and base to base after that, as fast as they possibly can. This game of “tag,” or the “monster game” as we sometimes play it, uses home plate and the bases as safety zones and everything in the base paths as places whether the player can be “tagged”…or gobbled up by the monster. I’ve found that this game is fun for the kids, regardless of their ages or abilities, and teaches the youngest kids the principle that they need to get to the base, their safety zone, as soon as possible.

4:40-5:00. Hitting Game. I’ll place cones at various distances away from home plate. The closest cone will be 1 point (to play with older kids, call it a “single”), the second cone will be 2 points (”double”), the third cone will be 3 points (”triple”), and the fourth cone will be 4 points (”home run”). Each child will hit two balls off the T, and we’ll keep score as a team, week to week. I like this game because the only thing we track is the team’s point total. As we play this game again at various times during the season, the kids can measure their progress. We usually double the team’s first score within 6 weeks.

5:00. End of practice. As we do every week, we’ll end each practice with a short review of what we learned and some things to practice during the week.

After Practice Note: Most weeks, whenever I’m not pressed to get home or head back to the office, I stay around practice an extra 15-20 minutes to let anyone who wants to do so take extra batting practice.

Anytime I coach one of the instructional divisions of Little League, I try to make sure that each child plays every position a couple of times during the season. At the beginning of the season, however, I only play the most experienced players at First and Second Base. This isn’t a competitive issue; it’s a safety issue. Children who haven’t learned to react to a quick throw to the base are just as likely to have the ball hit them in the face as land in their glove. By the fourth or fifth week of the season, everyone is usually ready to play any of the hot positions of the infield. Over the course of a season, it all evens out.

Last week’s practice went really well. We didn’t have time for the last batting drill, so I’ll have to revise my time estimates a bit. Otherwise, the kids did well and seemed to enjoy the hour. This Saturday is our first game. If you’ve looked at our practice schedule (first practice / second practice), you can see that we haven’t had any game simulations. Our T-Ball team’s first game is Saturday, so this week’s practice will have to have some game time simulations.

Last week I wrote that the The Berenstain Bears Play T-Ball (I Can Read Book 1) was the only book about T-Ball I had ever come across meant to be read by T-Ball-aged kids. A reader reports that another books is in print also: Froggy Plays T-ball. Thanks for the recommendation!

Parents usually like to buy a baseball or two to play with at home, but when they go to the Sporting Goods store they see a wide variety of baseballs on the shelves. So, as a coach, one of the questions I often get is “which baseball should I buy?”

In my local league, we play with the Worth RIF Level-5 in all divisions T-Ball through Minors. This ball is slightly softer than a real baseball.

While it’s nice to practice with a real game ball, at the beginning of the season, especially for kids 5-8, I prefer practicing with Easton’s Incrediball. The Incrediball is significantly softer than a real baseball. I don’t worry as much about kids injuring each other when we’re playing with the Incrediball.

These aren’t the only brands by any means. I encourage parents to feel the baseballs at the store and see which ones they think are best for playing at home.