High School pre season conditioning.

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I was just wondering what high school coaches are doing with their girls from now till pitchers and catchers report. What kind of conditioning are you doing, do you have good commitment?

Just looking for coaches thoughts? How bout you Shane??

 

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At this point the coaches shouldn't actually be doing anything with the girls, but it should be expected that the team captains and/or Seniors are scheduling and leading the team in conditioning and lifting 2-3 times a week. Coaches may be able to schedule open field/gyms, but that about all that they can be doing right now.

 

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Our school started one a week open gyms two weeks ago but it's been the coaches telling the girls what they want done but only about 4 girls show. No one has any interest until regular practices begin in Feb.

 

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I understand that COACHES are not ALLOWED to do STUFF over the winter but WHY???????.....I know there are rules but if girls want to improve over the winter on hitting or pitching wouldn`t we as parents, want coaches or at least someone that knows what to teach around them. This game is so much about muscle memory that if they pick up bad habits over the winter it will be hard to correct come spring. and summer. JMHO

 

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The rules in place are to protect the girls from over zealous coaches.

My DD's team starts open gym 2nd week of Nov. They lift, hit in the cages, pitch as well as work on defence. It is not run by the coach. It is lead by the upper classman and some adult volunteers. They do it 2 days a week for 1 1/2 hours up until pitcher and catchers report. The turn out is about 40-50 kids. It is also open to the kids that will be trying out for the team in the spring.

After that each day there is also an open gym for the jr high and under kids to come in and work on pitching as well as hitting. This last same period of time for about 1 1/2 hours. Until pitchers and catchers report.

 

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We started open gyms/conditioning 2 weeks ago. ?We go 2 nights a week for around 2 hours. ?This allows girls with other things to do, to come in when they can. ?The first night we had 1 girl, and our last one had 7 girls show up. ?In years past, we usually have anywhere from 5-12 girls on a regular basis, mostly girls not involved with a winter sport.
We have a winter workout setup for the girls to follow as far as weight lifting and conditioning, focusing on high reps. and light weight, for muscle endurance, and some speed and agility movements for the conditioning.

Whats going on up at Creston?

 

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Conditioning twice a week with H.S. trainer, hitting twice a week with winter league coach, and open gym (especially for pitchers/catchers) once a week. Plus, indoor winter league on the weekends. The expectation is that if you are not playing a winter sport, you should be there if at all possible.

 

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We had a nice young man who was SUPPOSED to be the new coach 2 years ago whose plan was to have open gyms ran by parent volunteers over the fall & winter. A pair of mothers constantly called and harrassed him insisting on how things were supposed to be with our program and the traditions he HAD to honor. He quit before we even had one open gym because it's hard enought being a coach to the girls without dealing with out of control parents. From what I've seen at our open gyms the only ones who show are the very few dedicated players or freshmen hopefulls trying to show the coach they want to play. Everyone else blows it off knowing they can get away with it as we barely get enough trying out to fill a roster.

 

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Some tidbits...

BE SURE your DD is being properly supervised, AND is familiar with proper weightlifting techniques before turning her loose in the weight room at school.

BE SURE your DD is practicing proper form if she's swinging a bat. More damage than good can come from repetitive BAD swings, where she'll just reinforce bad habits (muscle memory).

If your DD has any plans to further her softball "career" after high school, I would advise finding a reputable hitting coach, pitching coach (if she's a pitcher), and sports trainer who are not bound by the idiotic OH$AA rules, and can therefore work year-round with your DD. I think it's unfair to expect a shackled high school coach to be 100% responsible over the course of three months for teaching his team basic, individual fundamentals.

An analogy I like to use is comparing a high school softball team to an orchestra. Everyone learn their individual music part at home (fundamentals), THEN bring all that knowledge to full rehearsal (practice). I've never understood why this doesn't sink in. So much team practice is lost because coaches are forced to do "remedial teaching" of basic fundamentals to high school players who should have learned those basics long ago.

There is a very well known, and very successful, travel organization that hardly practices as a team AT ALL! The players depend on each other to hone their individual skills, then bring those skills to a team effort. Sure, high school ball is a different world than travel ball. But the teams whose members dedicate themselves to getting better INDIVIDUALLY in the offseason (away from their team) are the ones playing late in the state tournament every spring.

 

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Well said Sammy!

 

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We start conditioning 3 days a week in late January .... until then nothing, though we will have about 30 girls playing winter ball. We don't have the facilities really to allow for anything before, the coaches have other jobs even if we were allowed to really do anything more than observe, and many of the girls are involved in other sports, working part-time, etc. I have my doubts that many programs could really pull off an effective and safe conditioning program in the fall that will translate into results in the spring, and which doesn't violate OHSAA rules.

 

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If you take these numbers for OHSAA fastpitch softball, in aproximation....800 teams @ 20-25 girls per team, that is around 16,000-20,000 girls participating in HS softball every year. I would say that only a 1/3 of those participate in travel ball. That would be 5000-6500 girls that participate in travel ball at the HS level, leaving 11,000-13,500 that do not play travel ball.

For these 11,000-15,000 girls, travel ball and specialty coaches are not an option, or they are unaware that they exist. This is where open gyms become beneficial, and a neccessity for the majority of high schools.

The notion that these girls are going to practice on there own, and then show up and play makes for a good fairy tale book, but not a reality of HS sports in general.

Another thing, there is a higher demand for quality paid instuction, than there are instructors. Its hard for travel players to get into a quality instructor, how do we get the 11,000-15,000, non-travel players this instruction?

 

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We tell our kids if you want to be a starter, then we tell them play traveling ball. When we went to the state, 12 girls on the varsity all played on a traveling team. Those that go deep you can see many of the kids playing on traveling teams.

 

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Lady Knights, be careful about using the "WE". ?Good luck in the upcoming season.

643dp: As much as HS coaches would love to work with the girls all year long, the rules just do not permit it, as you have already seen from the above posts. ?However, there are knowledgable parents or individuals that help in the open gyms and weight room. ?They do this for various reasons but mostly because they love to teach. ?Needless to say, this is done with the HS coaches blessing and what is taught is in line with the HS coach's philosiphies(?). ?I would like to know where they find the time or energy though ;D.

If you don't have an individual like this, then it falls on the student and parent to find instruction elsewhere. ?Be it at batting cages or as a free agent in an indoor league or a private coach. ?Then when the school ball starts, the girl is at or above her peers.

As much as most of society wants the schools to teach our kids about everything that is needed to become a functioning member of society, it is not possible and in the end it is still the parent's responsibility.

 

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My highschool had theirs for the first time last night and it was sort of lame. Like we did some good things but the rest of the open gym i thought was stupid. We just did pointless stuff. > so i was mad...ha ha

 

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I was just wondering what high schools have started conditioning already wow I am impressed I have a dd that is in the 7th grade and would love to present this to our high school. Thanks

 

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Over on JJHuddle they are having the same ole yearly discussion on "Open Gyms." ?

Joe A. mentioned

I believe any organized open gym is illegal, even if it's done by parents. It has to be unorganized, ...

?The way I understand the OHSAA rules, is that anyone, as long as they are not HS Board approved, are allowed to come in and give instruction/lead open gym.
That being said, Joe A. could come to my school and "give instruction/lead open gym" with my school players, without consequence, and I could do the same at his school.

 

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Lady_Knights, hit it on the head . Welcome to OHSAA. One other thing that we found out last year. Open Gym must be open to anyone in that school district. So lets say you have the weight room open to your softball team. A Jr high boy could come in and work out.

 

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I have a really dumb question. ?My dd is a freshman next year and I'm now beginning to read all your posts on H.S. softball and the rules. ?I won't lie, I'm confused about most of this......so my question is..........HOW DO I GET A RULE BOOK???? ?Is there one available and how do I get my hands on one?
Also, how did these rules get established, originally? ?Was there a board of elected members that put these rules into place or what? ?
Just curious. ?Figured I'd better start educating myself on something other than travel ball. ?
Thanks!

 

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Ohio High School Athletic Association
website http://www.ohsaa.org/
Rules http://www.ohsaa.org/general/about/Bylaws.pdf