Makes it All Worth it
Image via Wikipedia I had a pitching lesson last night with an eight year old girl that has good core talent. We have been working together off and on for a few months now. In fact, her minor’s team wasn’t really doing anything for her so she often practiced with our majors team. Anyway, last night we were dodging lightning bolts so I decided to show her a few basic drills.
I have to admit, I thought this practice was pretty boring. We started in the dugout w/ a simple flip drill, then once it stopped raining, we moved to a basic one knee drill. That is pretty much all we did.
Her response? She told her dad that was the funnest practice she ever had???? Amazing!
Don’t ever forget the effect you have having on the children you coach. They are sponges, they absorb everything you say good and bad. How about we all try and be a good influence?
What is the greatest thing a kid ever said about you?
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Variation of the Around the Horn Drill
Tonight we did a variation of the “around the horn” drill. Everyone has thrown the ball around the horn. While it seems pretty boring, if you get the ball moving fast enough, it can be very effective. We like to usually do it like this:
- Straddle 3rd, 2nd, and 1st base.
- Pitch to the catcher.
- Have her whip the ball to 3rd, then 2nd, then 1st, then home.
- Catcher whips to 3rd and you start all over.
It is fun to see how many times you can get around without an error.
For variety we advance to “making a tag” when they receive the throw at each base.
Tonight we switched it up a bit. We had the following throwing pattern:
Catcher —> 2nd —> 3rd —> 1st—> home.
I feel that the catcher to 2nd is a more effective practice for the catcher. Likewise, 2nd to 3rd is a good practice for “pickoff” once the out is recorded at 2nd. Third to 1st is a throw that is often made and almost always the 1st baseman has to catch for the out and immediately fire home.
This went very well, and while it didn’t move quite as fast, it was much more “game friendly”.
Throwing and catching are simple skills that are often overlooked. It is usually boring to practice them, so coaches sometimes neglect them. They are too important to neglect, finding fun drills that hone those skills w/0 the kids even recognizing they are practicing is the key.
Have you used a modified drill before? Post a comment below and let us know about it.
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