What do you guys do on rainy days when practice is confined to the gym?
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Drill work on fundamentals, break the game down to its components. Hitting stations, DP pivots, rundowns, pickoffs, C blocking, video anaylsis, instructional DVDs, discuss the mental game, conditioning, etc., etc.
If it's our day in the "barn" we hit. Out county fairground committee let's our baseball and softball teams use a barn at the fairgrounds to hit in. We alternate days with softball. We got two cages and enough room to run soft toss, Tee and other drills around and two indoor mounds for the pitchers. We can get a lot of work done in there.
If it's softball's day in the barn then we either go to the parking lot with yellow dimple balls (if it's not raining) and have an almost full practice OR we go to the gym and pretty much do what flitoide said.
We work on:
Quick, slow, quick
DP feeds / turns
OF communication
Rundowns
If we are struggling in bunt defense, 1st/3rd defense or whatever else. We just line up in positions and walk through stuff.
We work on getting good first steps in baserunning for conditioning.
We wrap up practice with a game of gold glove. I put everyone in a line and hit balls very hard to them. They then have to make a throw to a 1B. Any ball that hits the ground after they attempt at a catch or bad throw puts them out. Last one standing wins.
If it's softball's day in the barn then we either go to the parking lot with yellow dimple balls (if it's not raining) and have an almost full practice OR we go to the gym and pretty much do what flitoide said.
We work on:
Quick, slow, quick
DP feeds / turns
OF communication
Rundowns
If we are struggling in bunt defense, 1st/3rd defense or whatever else. We just line up in positions and walk through stuff.
We work on getting good first steps in baserunning for conditioning.
We wrap up practice with a game of gold glove. I put everyone in a line and hit balls very hard to them. They then have to make a throw to a 1B. Any ball that hits the ground after they attempt at a catch or bad throw puts them out. Last one standing wins.
In addition to the other guys points, we will go through game situations with a small field & throw down bases, have "chalk talks" over various topics (positioning and playing depths, bunt defenses, etc.), take tests over things covered in previous practices, and we end practice with a game we call hockey goalie. It's played with players at each end of the court in front of the pads that they have under and behind the bb goals and 2 coaches at mid court, each with a tennis racket and a bucket of tennis balls. The coaches will smash tennis balls from half court, trying to get the ball past the fielder, striking the pad. If the player stops or deflects the ball they are out and done for the day. If not, they return the end of the line. Last one in (in each line) has to pick all the equipment.
