By: RADykstra,
We have all heard the phase "you play the way you practice" or words to that effect. So why is it? we scratch our heads when one of our players blows a play in a tight ball game? Could the added pressure of the situation cause physical problems? I've seen kids perfectly field grounders all day long in practice but in a 1-0 game in the bottom of the sixth boot one! What happend to change this player who you liken to a Kirby vacuum. Stress and pressure? We have all been under stress and most of us know we don't react the same as when we are relaxed. Most of us also know that repetition makes a task easier and relaxes the player(s) when they are faced with the same situation in the future. The question becomes how do we create stress during practice in order to help reduce the same during a game? I believe you have to artificially induce the stress through competition or physical demands. Anytime you can devise a drill which pits two players against each other, puts a little more strees in the drill as the players naturally compete against each other. (If they don't they will not be competing long in sports). The other method is to make the drill more physically demanding than it normally would be. It is this in mind that I devised a very simple yet effect infield drill that I use at a majority of my practices. This drill I call the SS to 1st drill (really creative huh?) and I use it as a warm up into whatever my main infield topic will be for the given day. It only takes 10 minutes. Basically you split up your infielders (or everybody) in lines behind SS and 1B and hit a ball to the SS and he has to field it and throw to 1B. The 1B then throws to a catcher (coach to feed batter) and the next player in each line takes his turn. The stress is induced by making each player run to the opposite line when his turn is over. As the batter, you control the tempo or stress level by the amount of time between ground balls. If you let each player set up and get comfortable and make a play before the ne
xt one, little stress is induced, if however you hit the balls one right after another, you should see the boys hustle! (especially if there are fewer than 8 players). I like to start easy and finish with 3 minutes of me hitting grounders as fast as I can. I also put a penalty for any blown attempts... either an extra minute of fast or an extra wind sprint at the end of practice. After 10 minutes of this exercise every one is usually huffing and puffing and you definitely know who the guys with heart are and who the lazy ones are. You, as coach/batter, can also adjust for different players abilities. You hit wide balls to your slick SS and 2B (sometimes making them dive for the ball) and more directly to your 1b and OFs. One note: Make sure the runners run along the outfield grass and not directly between the positions. At the end the balls really start flying! I also challenged my team last season and told them if they could ever compete the 3 minutes without a single mistake I would treat them to "31 flavors". It took them a while but in the end we all had Ice cream! Anyway the benefits of this drill are many in my mind. 1) you get practice fielding ground balls 2) you do it in a stressfull situation 3) you add endurance and stamina. 4) You really know the kids are warmed up when its over. 5) Kids can't dog it and hide. (it is very evident who is hustling or not).
Date: December 21, 1998 at 16:12