Must Push Girls To Be Agressive Attacking Fly Balls
Rein in the Boys
I spend my entire practice with the minor boys baseball team trying to rein them in! One of the funniest things I have ever seen happen was when our 8U travel ball coach turned around to ask the parents a question. He had a few to answer also, and slowly the boys crept away from him. Not intentionally, they just started a little wrestling, then a little chasing, then like a swarm of bees they slowly led their way away to a full out run all around the field! One of the mothers said, "this can’t end good".
That all happened in a matter of seconds, boys are just rambunctious. Girls on the other hand, start off timid. They seem to have to fully understand what they are expected to do before they will go "all out" doing it. I don’t have any idea why this is, it is simply my observation.
Teaching Girls Aggression
That said, we spend a fair amount of time trying to teach our girls to be aggressive! One of the areas this comes into play is catching fly balls in the outfield. Any semi-talented girl can catch a ball hit right at her, but how many times have you watched them let a ball you know they have the talent to catch just drop in front of them? Frustrating!
Aggressive Outfield Drill
Today we attempted to overcome this. The method I chose was to line them up in the outfield and hit balls that they could catch if the ran in, quickly attacking the ball. If they hesitated at all, they had no chance. At the same time I wanted them to practice our fire play, a throw to second, a throw to third, and a throw home. All we needed for this drill was some motivation!
Keeping with the concept of keeping everything fun and competitive at the same time, I told them they had to run 10 laps at the end of practice, but that they could take 1 lap off for every time they turned a double play. I told them a double play was a clean catch of the fly ball and a fire to whichever base we were throwing to at that time.
The Motivation
At first they didn’t catch anything. Then, as often happens, someone made a shoestring catch and motivated everyone else. Suddenly they were all attacking the ball and making catches. In fact, we had to reset at five more laps. It was very encouraging.
Finally, when they all were at their last station in left field, I told them if they caught 10 in a row I would run a lap! Talk about getting their attention! They got up to 7 one time, but I wouldn’t have let them get to 10 no matter what. I did have the bat in my hand after all!
Anyway, they were very aggressive and confident by the time practice was over. Hopefully it will transfer to our game tomorrow.
Have a great way to get your girls to play more aggressive? Please share it with us!
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