At the beginning of the season, coaches want to pack in as many drills as possible before games begin.
Amazing how many players cannot perform this basic drill
They have a ton to cover and not much time to work with. Because of the rush, coaches often don’t take the time to teach and/or review how to specifically and correctly perform each drill. They just set up the drills and run the kids through them. I find this most often to be true with hitting drills.
An example of this is a simple soft-toss drill. Even at the high school level I was amazed at how many players did not know how to properly toss a ball for a basic soft-toss drill to a partner. Many lobbed it either too high or too low. Others tossed the ball too hard for the hitter to have time to do anything. Some knelt down too far away and some were too close. This becomes frustrating for players and coaches because how effective the soft-toss drill ends up depends largely on how the ball is tossed.
The suggestion I would make for coaches is to spend an early practice doing drill “walk throughs.” Show all your players what the common drills will be, how to set up the equipment, where the participants of the drills are located, and how to properly do each one.
It may not be the most exciting practice but if they all learn it together at the very beginning of the season it can save you a lot of little headaches throughout the season.
Tomorrow’s post: Repost – Pre-season checklists