Practice or Winter Ball

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What do you think is better to play winter ball or practice and do a couple indoor practices or just practice???

 

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My personal opinion is that for the younger age groups winter tournaments can be productive and a help to the team. As teams get to be 14U to 18U I have come to think that it does not serve as much good as a solid practice can do. Building individual skills is crucial and sometimes that cannot be done in a game format. In our case we have the ability to do plenty of hitting off of live pitching during the winter months so maybe that is a difference. I have just found that many of the teams that you end up playing are missing some of their better players due to BB and they end up being a thrown together group. Competition suffers somewhat when that occurs. I know that we would not want to play an indoor event unles we had our entire team.

Now if a team does not have the ability to practice regularly indoors then perhaps getting into a few winter tournaments is the best bet. I see nothing wrong with indoor events at all, I guess you just have to determine what is best for your teams situation.

 

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Here is an interesting take on the subject from Dave over at Girls Fastpitch Softball:

http://www.girls-softball.com/2008/11/softball-classroom.html

 

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I think practicing indoors and playing winter ball is best. With limited indoor space, it is hard to do situational practices consistantly through the winter. If you practice inside you can work your hitting, pitching, footwork, base running, and defense drills. Even if you hit off of the pitching machine everyday, there is NO substitute for live pitching. Playing winter ball helps bring everyone together as a team while getting good hitting work and situational practice. Especially if you are a newly formed team, I think you want them playing together as a team as much as you can before summer tournaments start.

 

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Winter ball is ok for the 10u, 12u and maybe the 14u ages, but once you hit 16u I think spending this time conditioning and doing drills is better in the long run. Especially pitchers - they need to be strengthening legs, working on perfecting current pitches as well as developing a new one. Position players need to be doing tee drills, fielding drills and conditioning. For those who desire to play at the next level you need to be going to camps/clinics and visiting campuses. I know drills are not fun but it's difficult at best to work on fundamentals during game situations.

 

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I agree with Wave and GLTGame. Tourneys are good for the younger levels, and kind of expected by the parents and players, but at the 16U and 18U levels that excitement about playing all winter has subsided, and practice every couple weeks keeps them in the game so they are ready for HS ball then summer.

 

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for winter ball do you mean playing in a weekly event, like say the Batter's Box, or do you mean winter tourneys? As my DD has transitioned into the 16u age bracket and school-ball is looming ahead in the Spring, she's been doing a little bit of all 3.

Practice is always encouraged, if a team can find the space. If not, a committed girl should find the time (normally a committed girl already has a committed dad/mom) to work on skills at home, wether it be weight lifting, swinging off the tee or running. I didnt think that every bit mattered, but now that DD is a freshmen, i can see the hard work has paid off compared to the girls that play other sports or that do not take the time to play competive travel ball.

Anyway, a weekly league serves a mean to an end. Pitchers and catchers get the best amount of work, but outfielders get zero and every girl wants to play short anyway. So, you have to make sure you are playing quality competition, which means a varsity league, but if your DD is 12 and impish, playing against girls that probably have nose piercings and live-in boyfriends is not going to help.

Now winter tourneys is something else entirely. Playing in the right tourneys will pay dividends, if used along with some good practice

 

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Weekly event like spano league and such

 

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being the arrogant know it all travel coach that I am... and being that I have years of coaching experience at the HS level... indoor six on six leagues for HS is for kids that aren't going to get anything else. It would be MUCH better time spent working on fundamentals of hitting, pitching and defense by an experienced coach (like me) that to spend that time playing ball on a diamond with 55' bases. We can do SO MUCH in a 2-3 hour workout and work on the the things we don't have time for in the summer because we want to spend the time on game situations.

I think there are great indoor tournaments with full fields and solid competition. Those should be mixed in too - but I think the training is critical to improvement.

 

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Well kinda knew the way it would go but wanted to see if I was right in what I was planning on doing.
Thanks
Warren Wolff
12U Explosion

 

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Learned early on that only practice can fix poor hitting fielding mechanics. Its also hard to teach game situations during a game. I,ve watched many teams through the years get no better because all they do is play with no practicee.

 

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I have players that have practiced and looked good but in games they are lacking the Hustle.......Some players can not deal with game pressures, that is why I am using Winter Ball to test players for the upcoming season. If they Love the sport and Hustle you have a player, if they lack what a team needs in a Winter league such as Hustle and Spirit the practice is a waste. I believe no one gets enough practice but if you knew how many practices I ran since 2008 started and seen the the outcome results. The coaching is there! but it is what is in the players heart that makes them good. Winter Ball saves heart problems in the spring for me....... but finding the players who love the sport at 14 is tough with so many good teams recruiting. Not saying we are weak out loud but Winter ball has proven to be good already for us, figuring out the real players in games or the players that only Get-R-Done! in practice with no pressure to get a job done when its on the line. Practice is IMPORTANT but TESTING in a Winter League is as well.
TRYING TO GO FULL CIRCLE!!! Hard to work to the top when it rains. Working the plan!