I hope I have this written up somewhere on the web site, but today at practice I brought a bucket full of whiffle balls and some pickle balls and some tennis balls and a Swiftstick and I threw to some of our players.
I was just 15 feet away on one knee and it was great. The SwiftStcick was great as kids could take a million swings without getting tired.
I was able to work on mechanics and a really fun dynamic happened today.
One player missed 15-20 balls in a row. I was throwing them one after another. You could see a flash of dejection and frequently kids get despondent if they miss too many.
This time I said, HEY THERE ARE LIKE 100 BALLS in THIS BUCKET YOU ARE BOUND TO HIT ONE OF THEM.
And lo, the player relaxed smiled and clearly wanted another pitch.
I used some bigger balls and he hit a couple.
Then I said, WANNA TRY A GOLD BALL and he said sure. He missed a bunch and you could see the determination — he kept working at it and BANG he hit a tiny ball and asked for more.
What more can a coach want — it was just FUN.
The combination of fun and repeated reps where we were focused on quality reps made the difference.
