How often do you practice?

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If you listened to Bill Lilley's interview, practice is viewed as a key to success. How often does your team have practice or your dd practice on her own during the week?

 

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Well, I didn't hear the interview, though I wish I would have. ?Most of the teams I know practice 1-2 times a week, but if they're traveling most weekends through the summer, where do they find the time for extra practices??? ?Or do they think its necessary if they're playing that often? ?Then, what about the winter? ?If teams aren't playing in a winter league or practicing in an indoor venue, are they able to be as competitive in the Spring as the teams that play year round????

 

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having the luxury of listening to about 3/4 of the interview, it's not about the frequency of practices, but the effort put forth behind...he mentioned the practices arent about "standing around and hitting balls to the girls" but he also has some resources maybe other travel coaches don't have, so keep that in mind

 

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10U Little Yellow Tigers practice about 2x week with about 1 1/2 to 2 hours
Brian Roueabush Black

 

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DD practices on her own every day (pitcher) & usually twice a week with her team. I think quality is more important than quanity. We have 2 coaches that can run a really good practice & when one or the other isn't directing things, it's a waste of time. I'd take 1 hour with either of them over 3 hours of with one of the other coaches.

 

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What impressed me the most about the Slammers was the number of practices they run a week and the fact that all the girl?s show up. 4-5 practices a week shows real dedication from both the players and staff (not to mention the financial burden). I hear that this is the norm out on the west coast where they dominate in fast pitch.

During the interview he described his team as average (4-5 studs, 3-4 average, and the rest in development). It seems clear that there level of commitment and access to top level coaching is the key to there success. I hope that the Slammers are the forerunners for other organizations with this attitude. If so, then it won?t be long before Ohio teams can compete with the top teams in the nation.

With that said, me and my DD now have a new #1 on the Christmas wish list. A 15u team willing to hang up the vollyball/BBball shoes and focus on softball all winter. That subscribes to the Gillis (or Hillhouse) school of pitching, the RVP (Don Slaught) school of hitting, the Kubota school of fielding, and an elite strength training program. They must also be willing to practice daily after school (same as vollyball/BBball) with an indoor training facility. Preferably in NW Ohio.

Is that too much to as for?? LOL

 

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after some complaints with practices (what, a teenage girl has better things to do with her time??? )one of them said, "during school ball, we practiced everyday." So practicing 2-3 times a week shouldn't be a big deal, and probably a requirment to reach that desired level.

but like other posts out there, girls at this age want/have several sports being played throughout the year, like volleyball, basketball, cross country or maybe even tennis (my own included)...and i know parents of other teams are afraid to lay down the gauntlet and be softball 100% ("should we, or shouldn't we" is the real shakesperean quote)..there's nothing inherently wrong with not practicing more, but make the practices you do have that much better...
and lilly of the slammers basically pointed that out (plus, can you imagine being a girl on that team and not showing up? i would feel so guilty, I'd beg for forgiveness with endless wind sprints)...there's no way those girls wouldn't be that good if they didn't go/if their parents didn't make that committment/and they all desired to play with the best (ie, California!)

i guess, in short, the girls/coaches/parents should all meet and iron out that desired goal for the year...do we want to be slammeresque? then it takes A+B and so on...do we want to be a top-notch "B" level team? or do we want to be a competetive community-based team? theres nothing wrong with either of these scenarios, just as long as everyone desires the same thing..this is probably why we have disgruntled parents/players because maybe at the inception, it was "we want to compete at ____ level" but didn't end up being so..can't blame a player/parent for wanting to leave...you can still go out on the field, have fun and win, regardless of the level you play...

 

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With that said, me and my DD now have a new #1 on the Christmas wish list. A 15u team willing to hang up the vollyball/BBball shoes and focus on softball all winter.

Cat Osterman played basketball in high school. So I don't think you nessasarily have to give up everything for softball. ?I'm not saying you dont practice in the off season. ?I'm saying you have to give 100 percent every time you practice or go to ?a pitching/hitting lesson.

 

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Well, I didn't hear the interview, though I wish I would have. ....

A recoding of the interview is at:

http://recordings.talkshoe.com/TC-35639/TS-33731.mp3

 

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In addition to 8 tourneys so far...

Played in a weekday travel league usually 2 games per week.....arghh. Left little time for practice and as a result didnt get as good as i think we could have been.

Any one else feel weekday leagues could be a detriment?

 

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We found that our girls lowered their level of play in the weekday league due to the competition they faced...very detrimental!

 

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Our team practices 2 days per week for 3 hours per practice. No rec ball, no league play, just hard practice to prepare for the weekend.

 

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I think slapspeedsafe is right. I was only on one team that practiced 2 times a week and we were very good. I think the girls get more out of practicing during the week than playing during the week.

 

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I had seen a lot of costly mental errors this season not only on our team but by a lot of other team's girls. It doesn't matter how good your physical skills are if your mental skills arn't kept sharp then errors are what you'll have and practice is what keeps one sharp. It doesn't have to be a team practice, just dear old Dad hitting and fielding with DD several days during the week should help immensley come the weekend. If you want to excell then you have to want to put the effort into it. I honestly don't think the winning teams have that much better talent, they just work harder at it.