What should I do at a very first softball practice?
Sunday, April 25th, 2010 at
4:50 am
Tomorrow night, my fastpitch girls team has their first practice. These girls are 7 to 9 years old. They learn how to pitch in this division. Some of the girls have never played ball before. What is a good pratice plan to figure out the kids’ abilities and who should be at which position, etc?
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After you do some introductions, learn some names and maybe some favorite positions then I would get them into a regular warm up routine you can use at the beg. of every practice such as playing catch, running a few laps, and stretching.
Then I would work on some ground balls and some pop ups, which could give you an idea of who your better players are going to be defensively and who you will need to work with on the more fundamental aspects of the game.
Lastly I would teach them some basic base running skills and end the practice with some batting practice. Everybody loves to hit and ending practice with some swings will get you on their good side and off on the right foot.
Noble work your doing with the 7 to 9 yr old age group some of the kids can give ya a hard time but all in all they are fun. Enjoy it, and thanks for teaching the game.
figure out which players have played before and what positions then fill in the other positions and rotate the girls around the first couple practices to see whose good at what position. start with finding a good pitcher- ask if anyone has pitched or wanted to learn pitch then work with all those girls and see who you think has the talent mean while have your asst. coach seeing hows fast on their toes for short stop, whose fast and good at catching line drives for 2nd, and etc. 7-9 is when you start to notice whose serious about the game and who is just in it for fun! good luck!
First, you have to do warm-up..tell your team to be attentible and to be sports-minded.. they have to be patience because playing such game is not that easy..you have to know who among them had played before or had any experiences on the game..You have to place active players on the bases and on the catcher’s plate, you have to place there the player who is not lazy and who has flexible body.
Been there, done that!
First thing you need to teach them is how to properly throw the ball.
Ready position,
Reach, arm fully extended rewards,
Throw, arm past ear and fully extend to the front.
Then have them learn to properly field a ball, then come up and throw from that position.
Second, Running.
Run through first base, run TOO all others. Watch the base coach. Have them round first some, and run through some. Have them run to 2B and "pick-up" the signal from the 3B coach.
That should take up a good hour, and be a good first practice.
For more knowledge, go here:
http://eteamz.active.com/fastpitch/instruction/tips/index.cfm?m=1,2,3,4,5
try working with their throwing and fielding. see which girls have strong arms and fielding abilities.
This answer is comming from somone who has been playing softball for 10 years, and i’m also an umpire. What i would do is just start with the basics (swinging, throwing, catching, ect.) when you do the basics you can pick out who learns faster, who does it the best, and/ or who is the most coachable. from there you can put them where you think they should go. but my advice is focuse on the basics, trust me. you will have a better team if they know what they are doing.
hope that helps!
I coach too, and I don’t believe in coaching positions yet at that age. Teach the fundamentals. Throwing, catching, hitting, etc. Have everyone do the same workout drills. catching at first etc. At first we got a lot of complaints from parents that their girls weren’t learning a postion. 4 years later with the same girls, we are comfortable subbing in and out anyone on our team when our starting SS is sick. We had a girl who we thought for sure would be a SS in high school. She grew out of that, she is a mean catcher now.
The key to coaching that age group is to let each kid touch the ball as many times as possible. There are two ways to do this. First is to have several stations with 3-4 kids per station. Have them rotate stations every 10-15 minutes. Longer than this and they get bored. If you have 12 kids, divide them into 4 stations (bunting, baserunning, grounders, throwing, etc.) and rotate every 15 minutes. Now there is 1 hour of practice planned.
Second way is to play some kind of game. Here are three of our girls favorite games that keep everyone occupied and learning. 1. Around the horn. Set up 5 infielders. (P, 1B,2B,3B, & SS). Set a tee up at home plate. Girl hits the ball on the ground (out if hit over infielders head). The defense must then throw the ball in a specified pattern and return the ball to the pitcher before the runner makes it home to make an out. Rotate positions after each hitter. Rotate teams after three outs or everyone on one team has hit through. At first the pattern may be, field ball, throw to 1B, then 2b, then 3b, then pitcher. After a while you can add around the horn or whatever pattern you think of. This game teaches many aspects of the game. The girls will learn to back each other up eventually, because one bad throw = one run. They also learn to think about what they are going to do will the ball when they get it, before the ball is put in play. Every defensive player gets to catch and throw everytime the ball is hit.
2nd game is "duck hunting". We put a large stuffed duck on a chair at home plate. Set cones out where the 2B and SS plays. Divide into two teams, and place behind cones. Hit grounders alternating between teams. Players starts behind cone, charges ball, and tries to hit the duck at home plate with a throw. 2 pts for hitting duck, and 1 point for hitting chair or going between legs. Explain to them that the more they charge the ball the shorter and easier the throw will be. Eventually, they will be charging every ground ball out of habit. ( a hard thing to teach). Our girls absolutely love this game, they ask for it at every practice.
3rd drill. "Follow your throw". Place a player in LF, and one on every base including home. Hit ball to LF, they throw to 3B, then 2b, then 1b, then home. After each throw the player runs to the position they threw it to and the catcher runs to LF. You can do this drill with 10 girls by having them back up a position before moving up to it.
Sample 1:45 practice.
15 minute warm ups (good time to work on throwing drills and technique)
5 minute water break and organization
1 hour station work (whatever they are weak on)
5 minutes water break and organization
15 minutes game or team drill
5 minutes closing talk
I would first start out with a tough stretching & conditioning routine and see who is pooping out…..they might be better as outfielders as less work for them.
Time their running from home to 1st base. Faster girls should be at top of lineup and play infield (Provided they can catch & throw fast).
Hit lots of grounders and fly balls and see whose reactions are best.
I would put best long throwers at 3rd, SS, Catcher & Outfield, in that order.
Hope that helps get you started.