Coaches, which do you focus on put more emphasis on when coaching a team, offense or defense? I wanted to get a discussion of sorts going on here an weigh the pros and cons of different focuses. I will chip in my 2 cents after a couple replies.
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Coaches, which do you focus on put more emphasis on when coaching a team, offense or defense? I wanted to get a discussion of sorts going on here an weigh the pros and cons of different focuses. I will chip in my 2 cents after a couple replies.
Sorry, not a coach but I am confused by your question...
Correct me if I'm wrong but how could a coach not focus more on defense? On offense you have base running, hitting, bunting....and...um.....not sure.
Defense you have coverage when the ball is hit, cutoffs, pitching, catching, the how-to's on that coaches style of who is the cut off, the signals for special plays...etc...etc....etc.....
Is there a coach that focuses more on offense?
Depends on the level. With travel ball, I stopped worrying as much about hitting at about 13u. They got reps in the cage, but with hitting, I expected them to not need a whole lot of coaching. I spent 85% of practice time on pitching and defense.
I'm going to jump on the Practice Defense first bandwagon, with one addition. IMHO among the most important things to practice on defense are bunt coverage, 1st & 3rd plays -- everything included in defending against "small ball". And the good thing about practicing your small ball defense is that simultaneously you can be practicing your small ball offense.
I am also of the firm belief that defense is the most important aspect of a team, and should be practiced often. Hitting is important, but I agree withe catcher's dad, defense wins games at higher levels. If I had to rank four of the major categories of the game: pitching, defense, hitting, and small ball, they would rank from most important to least,in that order.
Ron Polk stated that the object of baseball is to out score your opponent so you better hit 2 times as much as you work on defense.
Good hitters can have bad games, bad weekends, and long slumps. They could hit the ball hard all tournament right at people. A strong defense can be the most consistent part of your game. The higher the level the more you can count on it. 11-12 year olds start getting good at keeping the double play in order, getting the lead runner out, and only giving up run's that their opponents earn. Many time I was blessed with a average pitching staff, but we held runners close and threw them out when they ran, they learned how important straight change was, and keeping a good hitter off balance. And how valuable a ground ball could be.
If you check the box scores, many games are won or lost because of a big inning. And preventing the big inning can be part of your defensive game plan.
While I am a big fan of good defense, no matter how good your defense is...you can't win if you don't plate runs. It's got to be a good balance
If by defense you mean pitching + fielding, then defense is almost as important as offense. If by defense, you mean just what you do with the ball once its put in play, then I say offense is way more important.
Defense, though, really, starts with pitching. Start with lights out pitching that can get K's, weak contact and gives up few if any BB, then basically what you need from the rest of your defense is the ability to make the routine plays. With that you'll be in just about every game. You will have succeeded in making the outcome of the game contingent on just a few pitches.
On the other hand, if your pitcher hardly ever gets a swing and miss, and if guys are regularly squaring him up, and he's handing out walks like it was Xmas, then not much your defense can do for you in that situation and you'll need to out slug the opponent. pure and simple.
The nature of baseball makes it pretty easy to answer this one, IMO. For 21 outs, you are on defense and for 21 outs, you are on offense. Both areas are impossible to master, particularly for HS players. There is never enough time to work on either. Neither can be ignored. We split time. I think the bigger question is how do you maximize practices so you can provide as much as possible for both.
I think in part it depends on the level of ball. At the lower levels most coaches seem to work mostly on defense. As they get to HS ball there is more work on hitting, and offensive schemes (bunting, hit & run, stealing, etc). In HS my son's team spent about half of practice getting 200 swings in (off the T, soft toss and in the cage) on a daily basis. They also spent a good portion of time on defensive drills.
I agree with Slugger Dad - good defensive starts with good pitching. Good pitchers that can get the K's makes it a lot easier on the defense, but a pitcher who hands out walks like its candy or is giving up hits makes for long innings. Then that puts pressure on the offense to out slug the opponent.
Coaches, looking to add to the thread, not hi jack…how much work do you expect players to put in on their own time on hitting and bullpens? Does this factor into how you plan practices?
Old baseball truism is that momentum is tomorrows starting pitcher and I would be surprised if anyone truly believed that anything other than quality pitching is the key to success in baseball. Backing that up with a team that makes routine outs and can prevent runners from moving up or taking extra bases makes for a very hard team to beat. So becoming that team in HS would be a logical goal for any coach and spending whatever time is required should be done.
I am further a believer that very few HS teams have more than 3-5 quality hitters and all the BP in the world cannot change that fact. Any HS team that can actually get down to 7 or 8 and have genuinely tough outs is going to be a great HS team if they can pitch and catch.
