Flat Spots in Practice

Today was the first day that I walked away from practicing thinking that the girls did not give everything they had. The practice started off with them playing catch, and that was all. They were not working on mechanics and not focusing on moving their feet when they caught the ball. Then we went to work on infield and outfield which I felt went pretty well. Suddenly we hit rock bottom, we were working on cut off and relays. The girls were almost walking through the drill. At first I felt that it was them thinking to much and not wanting to make a mistake. So I called them in to pick it up and after that they did a 100% times better job. Which as a coach I know I should be happy they responded to what I had to say but it is way to early in the year for me to have to be a motivating factor. To me, that is one of the hardest parts of being a coach; you want your players to want to work hard for you but at the same time you do not want to have to say anything to them about it. After cut offs we went to hitting and that went well, but that lack of effort in the middle of practice is still really sticking with me. I will not let it effect tomorrow but if the same thing happens when we go over 1st and 3rds then “it” will hit the fan. Sometimes players lose sight on how important preparation of the little things is. Yet that is what makes good teams and as coaches, we have to remind them of that sometimes.

Scott Miller