Creating efficient, effective baseball practice plans can be more difficult than it sounds.
There
are many moving parts, and because all players need something specific
and specialized to what they’re working to improve, coaches can easily
feel overwhelmed with ensuring that their program is making the most of
their practice time.
Thankfully, conducting a productive baseball practice can be easier than it sounds. The way to do so is by establishing
a practice atmosphere where the players are excited to be there, and
are eager to hone their skills and perform well on the field. And the best way to cultivate this type of practice environment boils down to one word: competition.
Jake
Davis, Rich Maloney, and Craig Rainey are three high-level baseball
coaches who have successfully created competitive practice environments,
and are willing to share their methods to help baseball coaches run
practice that prioritize winning.
Jake Davis - 'High Intensity Practice: Why and How'
Before becoming head coach at Texas’ Ponder High
School, Jake Davis created a dynasty during his seven-season tenure at
Celina High School. His ball clubs were constantly winning their
district championship, and proved to be an extremely difficult team to
beat both at home and on the field.
Coach Davis says this success boils down to the competitive, high intensity practices that he runs on a daily basis.
When explaining why he prefers to run his practices this way, Coach Davis has ‘The Why’s’:
Sharing Athletes
- Many high school baseball players also partake in other high school
sports. And that doesn’t include actually going to school, doing
homework, and maintaining a social life outside of the class. Since
their time is stretched in so many different ways, these athletes
perform best at a high intensity practice that doesn’t keep them for
longer than necessary.
It is a long day -
Given everything that’s already on a high school athlete’s plate, it’s
hard for them to focus on anything for longer than a few minutes. By the
time they get to baseball practice, they’ve already had a very long
day. A high intensity practice gets them engaged and eager to compete.
Maximize Time - Coach
Davis believes kids will get more out of their practices by being fully
present and active for a shorter amount of time, compared to standing
around for two hours and feeling like they aren’t being productive or
improving at the field.
Not a “Stand Around” Sport
- Since his players won’t be at practice for a long time, Coach Davis
wants his players to be active and doing something the entire time
they’re at the field. Keeping them moving means they have no choice but
to be present with the task at hand.
Ownership in the workout -
Coach Davis delegates some practice tasks (such as stretching) to his
seniors. This gives them the chance to be leaders, and makes them
accountable for the focus level and intensity of each practice.
Good for coaches too -
Coaches have families they want to get to, and other lives off of the
baseball field. Therefore, running a short but high intensity practice
is beneficial for everyone.
Coach Davis concludes by saying that his practice averages between 1 hour and 15 minutes to 1 hour and 20 minutes per day.
2. Rich Maloney - 'Infield Skills and Drills'
Rich Maloney has been the head coach of Ball State University
since 2013. Since that time, he has turned Ball State into a perennial
contender for the MAC Championship, Prior to coaching at Ball State,
Coach Maloney served as the University of Michigan’s head coach. In his
combined time at Michigan and Ball State, Coach Maloney has had 75
players selected in the MLB Draft. And he knows a thing or two about
running an efficient practice.
The main focus that Coach
Maloney has when running his infield practices is that his players are
working up to a high intensity. It’s important for his players to start their practice sessions off slowly, focusing on the fundamentals, players revert to the fundamentals that they worked on in practice during big game situations.
Yet,
because Coach Maloney prefers to utilize basic drills, his players have
been practicing some form of these drills since they were little kids.
This repetition leads to a tendency for players to lose their focus and
go through the motions, which will not help them improve.
Coach Maloney bypasses this by keeping a high energy, high intensity practice environment
that ensures his players must remain focused and engaged. By
emphasizing repetition, Coach Maloney guarantees that his players will
be prepared during the game’s most important moments.
3. Craig Rainey - ‘Making Practice Competitive to Compete in the Big Game’
Craig Rainey has been the head coach of Adrian
College’s baseball team for 31 seasons. During his legendary tenure,
Coach Rainey has become a perennial contender in the Michigan
Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA), including winning eight
tournament titles.
A crucial component to Coach Rainey’s success is running his team’s practices as competitively as possible. One way he does this is by keeping score of everything.
Coach Rainey explains that it doesn’t matter how you decide to keep score. All that matters is that whatever currency value you use matters to the players.
For example, you could take away a piece of team-issued clothing at the
start of season, and make players compete and earn that clothing as the
season progresses.
The reasoning for this is that, in a
baseball game, the value within outcomes is obvious because it shows up
on the scoreboard and in the standings. But in practice, successful performance isn’t always so clear.
So Coach Rainey suggests implementing a value system, to make players
understand that there are benefits to practicing the right way.
If
you utilize any or all of these practice techniques to foster a
competitive, high intensity environment to your baseball practices on a
daily basis, you can expect success to follow.
