Coaches - What are you analyzing at an indoor tournament over the winter?

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As I'm still fairly new to travel ball and trying to learn as much as I can, I wanted to just pick the brains of some of the more experienced coaches that I see on here.
What is that you are truly trying to accomplish when doing an indoor tournament over the winter? I get the obvious of seeing how the girls perform while hitting, pitching, fielding, etc. Plus, just giving the girls a chance to get back into a game setting. But since we are still technically in "pre-season" mode, what are the things that you are really analyzing from a coach's perspective?

 

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I had a little disagreement with another coach over this question in indoor league. What Im looking at is my 12u girls have been working hard at individual hitting lessons all winter. Indoors I want to see where they are at in their development and see them hit off live pitching. Same with pitchers. In lessons, learning new pitches want to see them in game action. Biggest thing on defense would be catchers development which we are also doing alot of one on one. Not too worried about situational stuff as we will have 2-3 months to work on that this Spring.

 

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While I am not a coach, I agree with what Lionsfastpitch is saying. You cannot get true feedback with hitting off a machine. You really need live pitching. I am using the "off season" (like there is one) to get as much data to her hitting coach (Bouldersdad) as possible. I was actually able to get some video last night against the '00 Thunder Elite (Thanks Jeff for letting me take space in your bench to video Ashe).

 

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See some live pitching, work on situations, bunting, fielding situations. I also like to put girls into different "pressure situations." If they don't get in those now, they won't succeed in them later. Work on pitchers hitting spots and not worry about K's etc.... just hit the spots I want you to. Make sure balls are being put in play so fielders can get work and work in different positions. I will even walk a batter late in the game just to put my girls in a pressure type situation at the end of the game. Indoor is for nothing but practice. If you can succeed in the different situations, then you will still win too! Just last week I gave 3 different girls bunt signs w/ 2 strikes and 1 a squeeze w/ 2 strikes. They understand the importance of getting the job done in certain situations. Only makes them better in long run!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

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You will probably get a bunch of different answers for me:

1) Just having the girls play, off season to a kid can be tedious. No matter what you do to keep practice fresh, it's still practice. It's amazing how productive off season indoor practices are before and right after an indoor tournament.

2) A review of my practice plans. I can see what has really worked at practice and what hasn't. Also, what we maybe haven't worked on that needs to be addressed. Gauge my off season coaching plan and what kind of job I'm doing as a coach.

3) Team bonding and team experiences.

I normally don't even know the score, because I don't care. Every indoor tournament I have a playing time, position and hitting plan and I'm not going to allow the competitive juices in January to effect the big picture.

Its just my point of view, been through it once and I feel I got a handle on what works for teams I'm coaching.

 

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I thought the obvious answer is because we still want to play softball but the weather ****s in wintertime? I am pretty much looking for the same stuff indoors as outdoors.

 

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You will probably get a bunch of different answers for me:

1) Just having the girls play, off season to a kid can be tedious. No matter what you do to keep practice fresh, it's still practice. It's amazing how productive off season indoor practices are before and right after an indoor tournament.

2) A review of my practice plans. I can see what has really worked at practice and what hasn't. Also, what we maybe haven't worked on that needs to be addressed. Gauge my off season coaching plan and what kind of job I'm doing as a coach.

3) Team bonding and team experiences.

I normally don't even know the score, because I don't care. Every indoor tournament I have a playing time, position and hitting plan and I'm not going to allow the competitive juices in January to effect the big picture.

Its just my point of view, been through it once and I feel I got a handle on what works for teams I'm coaching.

This isn't your first rodeo. Ditto on all the above.

 

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I thought the obvious answer is because we still want to play softball but the weather ****s in wintertime? I am pretty much looking for the same stuff indoors as outdoors.

Bear...we wouldn't have to quote as much if you would just install a "Like" button!

 

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I thought the obvious answer is because we still want to play softball but the weather ****s in wintertime? I am pretty much looking for the same stuff indoors as outdoors.

Nice!

 

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As a parent, just like to see the progress of the girls since tryouts, pitching, hitting, defense, etc. Our family just enjoys spending time with the team & other parents.

 

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Bear...we wouldn't have to quote as much if you would just install a "Like" button!

Now that's a cool idea!

 

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Ditto on the like button

 

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Thanks to all for the insight. I know our girls are very excited for our first indoor tourney next month. Hopefully all the hard work they've been putting in will show. Also, I too think the "like" button is a great idea.

 

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1) Just having the girls play, off season to a kid can be tedious. No matter what you do to keep practice fresh, it's still practice. It's amazing how productive off season indoor practices are before and right after an indoor tournament.

Agree 100%. Playing indoor games in the off season is a reward for your off season practicing. Practicing indoors a few times a week is valuable but it can become a real grind, much more so than an outdoor practice. Same goes for those off season camps and clinics, as necessary and productive as those things are there aren't any girls who got into softball because they wanted to hit 200 balls off a tee or shag 1000 grounders off a wooden gym floor. If the fun goes away, the enthusiasm to practice can go right out the door with it.