Colorado Legion Baseball

Coaches always have a tough dilemma of what they are going to do for their practices. As a coach no matter what age group you are coaching the main thing to keep in mind is how to keep practice FRESH. If you do the same thing for practice over and over your players will lose interest and focus. Good coaches would rather have a practice that is ½ the length and twice the focus and intensity as opposed to twice the length and ½ the focus and intensity.

There is really not a magic recipe for having a good practice or a bad practice. Most coaches have a pretty good handle on their players and can get a good feel of their player’s mood going into the practice and can adjust to get the most out of that days practice time.

Try putting yourself in the player’s shoe No player wants to take a ground ball and go back to the end of the line and wait for 10 more ground balls before it is their turn for the next ground ball or fly ball in the outfielders case. Some of the best practices you can have are the ones that you break your team down into small groups and work 10-15 minutes on one thing and then rotate to the next group. Another way to keep your practices going smooth is build in bunting, throwing, hitting, running, competitions for your player’s. This gives them drive to excel and keeps them focused on being the best player they can be.

Another great strategy hat coach’s use is breaking their team down into 2 practice groups. If you have 12 players on your team you take the first ½ of practice and invite 6 player’s to that time slot and the second 6 players’ to the last ½ time slot. Now you have a smaller group that you can work with and you can give more individual time to each player. This type of practice gives the coaches the opportunity to work on player’s weaknesses. By working with a smaller group you see the player’s make bigger strides in their improvement. Without question the way to maximize your practices is keeping it mixed up and different. By keeping it fresh and keeping it fun as a coach you can reap the benefits from this.