Practice Perfect Baseball AmericAn BAseBAll coAches AssociAtion Bob Bennett, Editor Human Kinetics Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data American Baseball Coaches Association. Practice perfect baseball / American Baseball Coaches Association, Bob Bennett, editor. p. cm. Includes index. ISBN-13: 978-0-7360-8713-1 (soft cover) ISBN-10: 0-7360-8713-3 (soft cover) 1. Baseball--Coaching. I. Bennett, Bob, 1933- II. Title. GV875.5.A46 2010 796.357077--dc22 2009037684 ISBN-10: 0-7360-8713-3 (print) ISBN-13: 978-0-7360-8713-1 (print) Copyright © 2010 by the American Baseball Coaches Association All rights reserved. Except for use in a review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying, and recording, and in any information storage and retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher. 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Box 80 800-465-7301 (in Canada only) Torrens Park, South Australia 5062 e-mail: [email protected] 0800 222 062 e-mail: [email protected] Europe: Human Kinetics 107 Bradford Road Stanningley Leeds LS28 6AT, United Kingdom +44 (0) 113 255 5665 e-mail: [email protected] E4959 Practice Perfect Baseball contents Preface vii Key to Diagrams ix Chapter 1 Establishing a Practice Work Ethic . 1 Ed Cheff Chapter 2 Planning Productive Practices . 9 Keith Madison Chapter 3 Assessing Team Strengths . 21 Terry Rooney Chapter 4 Developing and Motivating the Total Player . 35 Mark Johnson Chapter 5 Building a Pitching Staff . 53 Dave Serrano Chapter 6 Maximizing Batting Practice . 69 Gary Ward Chapter 7 Perfecting Positional Play . 85 Tim Jamieson Chapter 8 Fine-Tuning Team Fielding . 107 Steve Jaksa iv Chapter 9 Preparing for Every Game Situation . .137 Dave Perno Chapter 10 Focusing on the Forthcoming Opponent . 149 Dan Hartleb Chapter 11 Taking Practice Indoors . .161 Bob Warn Chapter 12 Using Equipment and Technology . .183 Gary Pullins Chapter 13 Incorporating Competitive Drills and Games . .193 Sean McNally Chapter 14 Evaluating Practice Sessions . 209 Pete Dunn and Bob Bennett Index 231 About the American Baseball Coaches Association 236 About the Editor 237 About the Contributors 238 v preface Practice is one of the most important things coaches and players do. Practice Perfect Baseball was written with that in mind. No matter the level of competi- tion, both coaches and players will find the information in this book useful for developing sound practice habits. Each chapter has been carefully written to be applicable to players and coaches at all levels. Inexperienced coaches will profit greatly from those who have already traveled the path they are pursu- ing. Veteran coaches will have their practice methods affirmed or uncover new ways to improve practice procedures. A lot has been written about position play, pitching, and all aspects of hitting and fielding, but not much has been written on practice and practice schedules. This book fills that void. Some of the most successful and respected coaches in the United States have come together to produce a book that deals with every aspect of practice. Every coach and player will benefit from the expertise of these authors. By following the advice of these expert coaches, the reader will walk away with a better understanding of all aspects of practice. Because baseball has so many facets, both offensively and defensively, practice organization is sometimes dif- ficult.Practice Perfect Baseball teaches coaches how to organize practice, get the most out of players, best use the allotted time, and assess talent and evaluate practices and games. The scope is broad, spanning how to organize an indoor practice to how to get the most out of each individual practice session. Each author was selected based on his expertise on the specific topic of his chapter. The knowledge and passion of each author leaps from the pages, and the information in each chapter has stood the test of time. Any coach or player looking to develop and execute a single practice session, a series of practices, or a season of practices will be able to find the answers in Practice Perfect Baseball. vii key to diagrams P Pitcher C Catcher CO Coach 1B 1st base player 2B 2nd base player 3B 3rd base player SS Shortstop LF Left fielder CF Center fielder RF Right fielder OF Outfielder IF Infielder B Batter R Runner X Any player, if position isn’t applicable Path of player Path of ball Batting tee Batting tee or hitting sock screen M Pitching machine E4959/ABCA/Key/360963/TwoJay!/R3-alw ix chapter 1 Establishing a Practice Work Ethic Ed ChEff Practice—To perform repeatedly in order to acquire or enhance a skill and to execute skill performances in conjunction with game strategies. Work—Physical or mental effort to reach a specific condition through repeated effort. Ethic—A principle of right or good conduct or a body of such principles. A baseball coach needs to develop a team philosophy that will establish a posi- tive work ethic in the practice environment. The initial process of doing this should focus on defining the body of knowledge to be taught as well as the appropriate methodology that will be used in the teaching process. Coaches can acquire a wealth of baseball knowledge in a number of ways, beginning with their own personal playing experiences. They can also gain knowledge by attending coaching clinics, studying the strategies of respected managers, observing and performing video analysis of skills and techniques being performed by elite players, and consulting the hundreds of articles and books written about the game. However, coaches should always remember that baseball is a rather simple game. Sparky Anderson, one of baseball’s all-time most respected managers, 1 Cheff said it best: “There ain’t no genius ever managed in this game.” Sparky’s hall of fame second baseman Joe Morgan summed up Anderson’s influence on his Cincinnati Reds teams with this statement: “Sparky pointed us in the right direction to win.” Defining the “right direction to win” in the practice environ- ment is what this chapter is about. The emphasis is on defining a work ethic for practices that stresses the char- acteristics of the style of play expected from the players. All of the behavioral traits that a coach encourages his players to project in the practice environment cannot just be a wish list—rather, they must be a set of principles perceived by players as statements of fact. These are the absolutes of practice behavior put forth by a coach, and they should be communicated to players in an emphatic and passionate manner. As in any group endeavor, openness and clarity of com- munication are essential. In our program, the overall goal of our preparation is to ultimately raise the skill level of our players as expediently as possible while always striving to make sure that the team’s competitive level is in line with the talent level. Teams earn the right to compete for a championship based on the legitimacy of their practices. “Vision without execution is hallucination.” Thomas Edison Earning Respect Much has been written and spoken about the importance of coaches gaining respect from their players. I have always believed that it’s a major mistake for coaches to demand respect from their players as opposed to earning that respect. I want to emphasize the word earning when discussing the process of obtain- ing the team’s respect. Respect cannot be successfully demanded from a player just because of a coach’s position of power. Too often resentment and resistance toward the coach become part of the team’s chemistry. Even worse are coaches who in various ways ask for a player’s respect and then put themselves in a compromising situation, the implications of which are obvious. Because the individual players on the team change from year to year, so does the challenge of ensuring that the entire coaching staff earns the respect of the players. The coaches must have a plan for earning respect, and all staff members must stick to that plan. As a coach, I’ve always been very adamant about defining principles relating to all facets of our program. These are the principles that we emphatically believe in and try to live by. All coaches on the staff must demonstrate the ability to communicate effec- tively with every player—regardless of position—about all aspects of every offensive and defensive strategy employed in the program. All the coaches need to have a consistent and definitive understanding of our methodology for skill development at all positions.