Practice Plan Development

The development of any team and its individual athletes is dependent on the quality and quantity of practice that they experience.  As a Head Coach or as an Assistant Coach, developing a practice plan that will provide your team constructive time to learn new skills and practice current ones, takes some time and effort.   A good practice cannot be thrown together in five minutes/ or by the seat of your pants.

 

3 Skills That Need to Be Worked On At Every Practice

Baseball is a game that is comprised of three basic skills that every quality practice plan should cover to varying degrees each day.  The three skills are: individual skills, combination skills, and team skills.

 

1) Individual Skills 

A player’s ability to throw, catch, hit, field, and run are examples of individual skills.

 

2) Combination Skills

Skills that involve two to three players.  For example, double play feeds between the SS and the 2B.  Other examples would be, WP/PB communication between the pitcher and catcher, or covering 1st base for a feed (P & 1B).

 

3)Team Skills

Skills that involve three or more players.  For example, cuts & relays or bunt defense practice would all be team skills.

 

Baseball Tools

 

Players on every level can be evaluated on the five “tools” that college coaches and professional scouts use to measure the baseball ability of a prospect/suspect.  The five tools are:

 

1)      Speed

2)      Arm Strength

3)      Hitting

4)      Fielding

5)      Power (Very important in Professional Baseball)

 

Each of the three skills (individual, combination, team) that were mentioned earlier consist of elements of the five tools that must be execute properly if they are to be done in a consistent and fundamentally correct fashion. 

 

Every practice should emphasize and provide players the opportunity to work and develop their tools.  With that in mind, at each practice, a coach should construct a practice plan that emphasizes running, throwing, fielding, and hitting.

 

Developing a Practice Plan

There are a number of things to consider when developing a practice plan.  Time of the season, conditioning level of your players, ability level of your team, facilities available,

number of assistants, number of players, how they played the game before (problem areas, such as base running mistakes, poor rundown), etc.

 

Some general rules to follow:

·         No preferential star treatment.  Everyone gets the same number of ground balls,

      swings, fly balls.

 

·         Keep the kids moving.  Try to eliminate waiting lines.  Do not throw a kid a bucket

      of balls while everyone stands watching the grass grow in the outfield.  Ten swings

      and rotate would be more appropriate.

 

·         Attempt to work on the five baseball tools at every practice.  Construct practice

      periods where you work on running, throwing, fielding, and hitting each and every

      practice day.

 

·         Establish a good practice environment.  It should be fun and challenging.  Also,

      the kids must learn that they are coming to work on things that will help them

      become better players and a better team. 

 

·         Encourage your players  to practice as often as possible.  The more they work at

their skills the better they will become and the more they may experience success. 

Playing video games never has nor never will make you into a player.

     

·         Praise in public, criticize in private.  Would you like to be berated by your boss in

      front of your co-workers and friends?  Think about this long and hard.

 

·         If you must get on your team or a player, use the fast food sandwich 

      approach.  A lot of bread (encouragement  & praise) and a little meat (criticism).

 

·         Always think SAFETY FIRST in practice and game situations.

 

 

 

 

 

SAMPLE PRACTICE PLAN (Adjust to age and skill level)

Date                                   

4:00 P.M               Report to field (In adjacent area if another team has the field)

·                   Announcements (Game tomorrow vs. Yankees)

·                   Pizza party Friday after the game.

·                   Review practice for today.

 

4:10 P.M.              Practice Begins (In adjacent area if another team has the field)

·               Pre-stretching Run (2x2 two laps foul pole to foul pole)

·               Stretching (Stretch legs, arms, trunk) – Organize in lines or circle up.

·               Form running

1)       High knees

2)       Skip Drill

3)       Bounding

 

4:30 P.M.              ·   Base Running Drills

1)       Lead & Breaks (Primary lead, hold, break, ball)

2)       Secondary lead (Primary lead, hold, shuffle, shuffle, break)

 

4:40 P.M.                · Throwing

1)       Double leg drill

2)       Sway drill

3)       Regular throwing (Step, Catch, Throw)

 

5:00 P.M.                 · Defensive Work

1)       Outfielder taking fly balls with Assistant Coach

2)       Infielders taking ground balls with Head Coach

3)       Catchers working on skills or catching pitchers with Assistant Coach.

 

5:30 P.M.                · Batting Practice  (3 Bunts, 6 Cuts, Run the bases)  Must wear helmets.

                                     

                                       Group I                           Group II                 Group III

                                       Knoblauch                      Canseco                                 Bonds

                                       Jeter                               Sosa                                       Griffey

                                       Piazza                             Clark                                     Jones

                                       Rodriquez                      Giambi                                   Helton

                             

1)       Outfielders play ball off the bat.  (Dump all balls to bag man)

2)       Infielders take ground balls from assistant coach between swings of hitter.

3)       After last swing, run bases. (move on 1st bunt, advance from 2nd on 2 swing, score from 3rd on the 4th swing)

4)       Go to position for ground balls or fly balls.

 

6:15 P.M.                  · Team Defense

1)       Practice taking an infield

2)       Simulated cuts/relays

6:30 P.M.                 · Conditioning  (Sprint work – Run through 1st base – 8 minutes)

 

6:40 P.M.                  · Wrap up field, store gear. Post-practice announcements.