Games or Practice ???

I can fully understand your question. I believe you play as many games as you can. There is no substitute for real game action. You can practice all you want but without seeing and reacting to a live game its just technique. I prefer to have guys who can react to everything because they have been there and done it not simulated it.

Don't get me wrong everyone needs practice to perfect technique. but what are you doing in your hour pregame?

T-Ball you pose an interesting question. I can recall when we were 14 we were a tournament only team and we practiced twice weekly. That worked well because the players were not high school age and we started playing tournaments in March. However with our players now 17 and we are trying to get in approximately 55 - 60 games within 8 weeks the time is priceless because the players also time off just to rest their bodies to prevent injuries. I was looking at our calendar today and we do have practices scheduled between June - August. However, what we have done in the past is have our players report two hours before game time and we set up an infield and go through all the coverages and rotations plus take ground balls and fly balls. That seems to work best for our team.

The pregame hardly counts as practice, IMHO.

How many reps does each player get in pregame?

There is a balance.

I heard Tommy Lasorda relate the following:
"Baseball requires you act with instinct. How do you develop instinct? How do you do this??? Endless hours of practice. Learn through repetition and hard work. Repetition, repetition, repetition.”

With many of the top tier select teams, it is up to the player to get those endless hours of practice in. That is where the individual work ethic comes in.

Texan is exactly right.

you get the work in during the week (mon- thur)

Our guys better be at the cages 2-3 times a week. We put them in groups and they are"encouraged" to hit together.It is totally voluntary.

they also need to lift 3 times a week. this is very difficult for our select guys due to travel and tournaments. The ones that want it will get it done though.

Texan said the key words "individual work ethic"
When we have a good spring is when we have a majority of our kids that have the individual work ethic.

I can tell you if we are going to make a run deep into the play-offs or if we are going to struggle to get in the play-offs just by looking over at our batting cages during football practice. If we have a bunch of kids working after school then we will always go at least 2 rounds. If we dont have many hitting after schhol we will struggle to get in. It is like clock work for the last 6 years.

It truly is amazing how accurate that it really is.


INDIVIDUAL WORK ETHIC

quote:

Originally posted by ctiger:
The ones that want it will get it done though.

I agree that the best will work by themselves, but I think there is a very fine line between working extra and possibly burning yourself out. A couple years ago, by the end of the year, I was ready for it to be over. I love baseball, but there can be too much. Teenagers need to find a balance of games, extra work, and relaxation.