Coaching Softball - How to Run a Bad Practice

I've got to vent. Bear with me.

Have you ever driven by a park and saw a softball practice run by a well-intentioned but rookie, untrained coaches most often at the recreational level?

IT'S SOOOOOOO BAD! They are textbook examples of how NOT to run a practice. Their practices are…

- boring
- unproductive
- NOT fun
- don't teach much
- a waste of time

These awful practices are the perfect recipe to send kids to soccer instead of keeping them in softball.

It's no wonder that softball is losing ground to soccer!

I just can't stand it anymore.

I have been in softball almost 20 years and things are just not getting any better despite ALL of the resources being available!

That makes me mad.

Plus, I hate soccer.

But serioulsy, you have seen these awful practices where coaches place 9 kids on the field in each of the position and there is 1 kid taking batting while the other ones are "waiting forever" to field a ball?

They might as well take a nap - it would be more productive.

We should fire those coaches. They do more bad than good to the game by making kids run away from it from boredom and feeling incompetent because they can't play the game.

I know. I know. Every coach is well intentioned and deserve a chance. I also know that volunteer coaches are hard to recruit.

But seeing that kind of ineffective, unproductive, and boring practices just drives nuts!

Each coach MUST have a minimu level of competency to make practices:

- Fun
- Productive
- Effective
- Focus on learning the basic skills

Plus.. they must be planned and prepared AHEAD of time. Too many coaches "just do whatever" when they show up for practices with no plan in mind to begin with. Just bad, bad, bad!

Sorry - I had to vent on this. I feel better now!

Who loves ya?

Marc
"Your Softball Peak Performance Coach"