How to Determine Your Practice Plan

As you get into the first 5 to 10 practices, you can begin to add individual position drills. As you get more practices in, you can begin to add team skills. As you add things, you should always be considering which areas will be more important in games. I tried to prioritize topics for you in each heading, but priorities might change depending on your needs. The hardest one to prioritize is team skills. You have to determine which ones your team needs more.

Five Practices Before the Season Begins

1. All you can do here is focus all five days on throwing, fielding, pitching, catching, and hitting.
2. You teach individual skills and team skills before your games begin or during your game. For example, if the first baseman is holding the runner on first incorrectly, you can show him the correct stance between innings. If a cutoff and relay is performed incorrectly, talk about it with the players when they come off the field.

Ten Practices Before the Season Begins

1. During the first five workouts, you focus on the fundamental skills.
2. For the next five practices, you begin to add work for individual positions, such as pitcher, catcher, outfielder, and so on.

Twenty or More Practices

1. For the first five practices, focus on the fundamentals
2. For next five, decrease work on the fundamentals and start adding work for individual positions.
3. On the next five days, you can begin adding team skills. For the last five practices, add the rest of the team skills.

Practice Plans for 90 Minutes, 60 Minutes, and 30 Minutes

1. Make sure that you have your practice plan written down and placed on a clipboard.
2. With today's technology you should e-mail a practice plan ahead of time to all your players. They will then see what they are working on, how it is organized, and what to expect.
3. Make sure that you have all the equipment needed for the practice.
4. Get there early and lay out all your cones and equipment where you need it. Do not use your practice time to do this. If players are there early, have them place the items in the correct part of the field.
5. Add the sample plan that uses the drills, skills, and philosophy presented in this book.

SHOP

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