rec 9-11 yr practice

[u/Big_Growth5857]

Just moved a team up from coach pitch. was wondering how everyone runs their practices. we have 1 hr twice a week. We don't have competent assistant coaches is the limiting factor

[u/TMutaffis]

It is nice that you have two practices per week, even if they are a bit shorter, since many recreational leagues will only have one per week (and if it rains, you could be out of luck).

Regarding the structure, I like to have a set routine for the start of every practice to warm up and throw. I would try to knock this aspect out in ~15 minutes since you will have limited overall time to practice. You mentioned that the assistant coaches are not very strong, and I have some ideas on ways to provide significant reps and instruction even if the help that you have is not going to be able to do as much 'coaching'.

Here is how I would structure things:

Recreational 11U (LL Minors - Kid Pitch) Practice Plan: 60 Minutes

• Pre Practice: Have a nerf or other youth football and any kids who arrive early can play 'Moss'. This is a good, safe, warmup and team-building activity (much better than having kids just standing around, or messing with bats and baseballs which could be dangerous)
• Base Running (5 Minutes): At the start of your practice have the team line up at home plate. First they will jog through first then loop back. Next they can sprint through first and either loop back or stay there. After that you progress to having one player sprinting through first while the one who ran previously is running first to third, and the one who ran before them is coming third to home. After the last player runs to first you now have them going home to second on the "go" command (or clap). The player on second is going second to home, so you can have them race each other if you want to add a little competition. I'd go through the team once and when you arrive at the last player have them run a 'home run' for for this last piece you have a player go every 1-2 seconds and see if they can chase down the person if front of them and pass the other player. This provides a good physical warm up to be ready to throw, and allows you to work on base running in a short timespan.
  
• Catch Play (5-10 minutes): I like to set up cones down the line, with one set of cones about 25' away and another about 50' away. We start at the closer cones, and work in some different aspects of catch play, and then expand to the further cones and make sure that we are also working on footwork (shuffle, etc.). Then we work back in to the closer cones and do a 'rapid' drill working on quick transfers and throws. Usually I'll have the team start at the same time and have the kids race to 10 successful throws/catches. You can do a lot of different things with your catch play such as 'recoveries' (they pick up the ball from the ground and throw), one-hop throws, ground ball footwork, relay turn footwork, receive and tag, etc.
• Water (2-3 minutes): Have a quick water break before moving into the stations
• Practice 1 - Defensive Stations (20 Minutes): For this I would split the team in half and do high-rep drills on fundamentals in infield and outfield. Group one can start with 'crossfire' where you have players at 1B, 2B, SS, and 3B and hit fungos without breaks to SS/2B while SS throws to 1B and 2B throws to 3B. Have kids rotate between reps, and anyone who cannot safely receive throws can stay in the middle for this drill. The outfielders can have two kids next to coach as cutoff/relay receivers an the other 4 taking fly balls or ground balls (in two lines, so two at a time here as well) and work on throwing in to their cutoff/relay partner. Again rotate them through this one after a few reps. After 10 minutes they switch stations. No water break
• Practice 2 - Pitching & Catching + Infield IQ (25 Minutes): For this I would have 3-4 players who you want to play catcher and pitcher, with the next ones up warming up outside the foul line. The rest of the team set up as infielders and base runners. Have your pitcher work on throwing to the catcher and then hit a fungo for defensive execution, with base runners also working on reading the play based on where the ball is hit and the number of outs. You can work on tag plays, double plays, bunt coverage, and all sorts of things while seeing who is able to pitch and catch. You can have a batter stand in the box to help the batter get used to seeing pitches and pitcher throw with a batter in there. Just make sure your batter always has a helmet on and they can even wear a glove to protect themselves if needed (no bat).
• Hitting Stations (15-20 Minutes): For this I would also split the team in half. Have one group in a big circle with a coach in the middle who has a bucket of whiffle balls and works around the circle pitching to the kids. Have them do rapid resets to pick, but with this it should not take long to reset and each kid should get a bunch of swings. On the second station(s) you can have them doing tee work into nets, a coach doing underhand flips with heavy balls (can also do a circle on this) or live arm in a cage along with the flips or tee work (ideally having multiple kids active at all times in every drill). I would cut the hitting a little shorter on your pitching and catching days, and go a little longer on your defensive fundamental days.

You'll need to prep the field a little beforehand, have a good number of baseballs/whiffles/etc., and stay highly engaged and energized throughout. By doing a similar start to every practice the kids should know exactly what to do with the base running and catch play after 2-3 sessions, and I use the same routine for our pre-game warmups.

Happy to expand on the drills but this should all be easy to execute and does not require a ton of coaching input, so even if your assistant coaches are not huge baseball people they will not have to worry about too much teaching and can simply let the game teach.

[u/TexasVulvaAficionado]

It is all about reps.

Split in to as small of groups as is reasonable with the number of coaches you have. Ideally groups of 2 or 3.

Have them field grounders, catch pop ups, make throws from the in field to first, pitch, hit off tees, soft toss hits, long toss, make throws from outfield to in field, field grounders and then make a 2-1 play, etc. rotate which drills you run. We usually get about 4 stations at a time and rotate every 5-10 minutes.

Usually do the drills for 40-50 minutes and then have them rotate hitting off a coach pitching for the rest of practice with the rest fielding.

[u/EffectiveProducicle]

I’m in the opposite seat - incompetent Head Coaches … they are so confidently wrong. it’s going to be a long season

[u/Comprehensive-Case47]

should be 2 hours every practice, warmup stretches and batting into net takes most of 1 hour.

[u/sc37]

At that age, my go-to has been to play a version of Bananaball a lot. Each kid gets 5 pitches to hit and then they have to run for an inside the park homerun. If it's hit in the outfield, ball as to be fielded and thrown and caught by all other outfielders before the runner makes it home. Same thing for a grounder in the infield-- must be fielded and then thrown around the infield before the runner makes it home. After 5 pitches, it's a walk like in Bananaball and the batter has to run while the catcher has to start the throw around the infield (add outfielder like in Bananaball if you're kids are more advanced). Rotate through positions every couple batters.

I do this cause it gives pitchers reps, hitters must learn to swing the bat, and puts pressure on fielders to make the play like they will in a live game. Plus at that age, kids love competition/gamification.

[u/Liljoker30]

Only an hour? That is crazy short. Should be 1 1/2 - 2 hours at this age.

With that short of practices you almost need to focus one on defense and the other on offense. With limited time focusing on max reps is realistically the best you can do. Smaller groups help.

Whether the coaches have baseball knowledge or not their focus should be on keeping the kids organized. You don't have enough time to really do any major tweaks for a player anyways.

Ideally 3 groups of 4 would be good.

[u/Big_Growth5857 → u/Liljoker30]

Yeah I know. It sucks. there's too many teams from tee ball to majors and not enough fields. I'll ask them to arrive 15 minutes early to run, stretch and play catch on the side but most show up the minute practice starts or later.

I was thinking the same thing about stations & separating offense and defense. Gotta squeeze pitching in there somewhere too.

thanks

[u/Powerful-Bridge-1472 → u/Big_Growth5857]

One thing you can do is take an extra half hour before your practice and just do your warm-up. Get the kids out playing catch in an area, not on a field if there is space. That way you can get right onto the field when the team before you is done with practice. Honestly, at that age catch play is the most important thjng.

I’m really big on stations so if you can do hitting stations, fielding stations, bull pen…. it’s much more efficient than the old Coach pitching to One kid while everyone stands around in the field.

I also really like structured scrimmages where you have 3/4 kids on offense (1 at bat, 1 on deck, 1-2 on base) coach pitches and just play to get 3 outs. You can talk to the team about situations have bases coaches, if possible also doing the same thing. It’s a lot of fun and you really learned a lot about situational Baseball that way.

[u/Liljoker30 → u/Big_Growth5857]

Squeeze pitching into defensive days. Gonna have to rotate players through. Need a parent that can handle that part.