First Scrimmage.

We had our first scrimmage this past Sunday. We played a lower level single A team and it was quite an experience for me. I made my first lineup card and had my first coaches meeting. It was completely informal but still, it was an experience. We played a team called the Topeka Force. I won't get too in detail about the game but it was easily our game. The final score was 4-4 (we had to quit due to time and sunlight). We had about 10-12 hits as a team and committed no errors in the field. The other team however had no hits and no errors. No hits!? Yep, no hits for their entire team. My 3rd inning pitcher did not do well at all. He gave up about six walks and hit two batters. If it were an actual game and our record were on the line, he would have been pulled much earlier. I had a few coaches in my ear asking why he hadn't been pulled yet but I wanted to test him. He got himself in to that mess so I wanted to see if he could get out. I went out there and had a mound visit with him and he ended up striking out the next batter. Then he fell back in the same routine of walking hitters. Other than that subtle ugliness, the game was ours if it were an actual game. Especially if it were a full seven inning game.

Live Pitching vs. Live Hitting

The second practice of spring break was a day for my hitters to see live pitching for the first time and my pitchers to face a live hitter for the first time. I thought the concept was perfect but maybe it was a little too early... my hitters could hardly hit anything and my pitchers were not throwing strikes. The mound we were using was a little messed up and it was pretty hard to see on the field as a hitter because of the sun but nonetheless that discouraged my team's abilities. We ran out of time fast as the sun went down and we took a long time warming up. Countdown to opening day is 11 days away.

Baseball Swag

The first day of spring break practice had a pretty good turnout. There were 6 of 11 boys there and that was more than I had expected. It was a specialized practice to enhance already learned skills. I felt it was time to teach the boys some baseball "swag." Not in the sense of dressing and apparel, but in the sense of making some web gem type plays. I taught them how to properly field a slow roller and make the off balance throw. (As seen below)

Ferocity & A Concerned Parent

Our Tuesday practice started out phenomenal. We did infielders work and my infielders got a lot of reps (to make up for all the work the outfielders got on Sunday). We were racing against the sun set though and we only had about an hour and a half of practice time. We worked on all in fielding and making good throws to first base. Followed up with double play practice, and in all honesty I am very proud of how they turned the double plays the majority of the time.
The second half of practice was cuts again to refresh. The effort they put in to it was piss poor. After about fifteen minutes I was enraged and ready to explode. I was yelling at kids and saying things I shouldn't have said. I cut practice short and had them run for punishment. While they were running I was screaming out reasons why we won't win if we don't do the little things and the other coaches joined me.
After practice a parent came up to me and talked to me about something I had said to her son. The other Head Coach was with me while we were talking and we spoke to her. It wasn't a big deal but it was another situation that was brand new to me. Everything is cleared up but it certainly caught me off guard.

Cuts & Flys

Last Sunday was our first day outside in quite a while and the kids were ready to go. They did their pre-practice warmups and were ready to hit the field. One of the key components of being a successful baseball team is the ability to consistently perform a perfect and complete cut-off. It's quite an art to make a perfect cut-off routine. Even in the major leagues they still don't have perfect cut-offs every time. The drill went pretty well and they learned quite a bit. Throughout the season we will constantly refresh because, again, to win games, you have to be able to perform a good cut-off.
Throughout the cut-off drills my outfielders got a lot of fly ball practice. They desperately needed that as well.
Practice was basically over after that. We did some running and called it a day.

Breathless

I'm sure you've heard of the term "Good Cop, Bad Cop." The boys normally see me being good cop, but Tuesday I was the bad cop. We had an intense conditioning session before practice officially started. I told them, "What you are about to do will not be fun. It will be difficult. I am testing you guys. How hard you can be knocked down and how strong you can stand back up." Then we begun out conditioning which lasted about 25 minutes. They were beat afterwards.
We moved in to throwing and playing catch and I was getting very aggravated how many bad throws were being made and how many people were dropping balls.  So we did our four corners drill, the same one I posted a video for, and they had to go around the horn five times perfectly (per group) and if they dropped the ball, they had ten pushups as a group. This stacked up and some people did over 100 pushups Tuesday. I'm over all the dropped balls. They have pressure now and have punishment if they fail to execute the simplest of tasks for a baseball player to execute.
After that, we only had 45 minutes of practice remaining. I took pitchers in groups of two and had a catcher catch for me. The pitchers had their first time off the pitching mound this season and the catchers caught a real live bullpen session for the first time. I was pleasantly surprised with how well the pitchers did. The catchers need more work but I figure that will come in time.
We will be outside next practice and I look forward to sharing my experience this weekend.

Also, we unveiled our new uniforms. I think they look really nice.

Picture taken by Tracy Jepson

"Forget What He Just Told You & Relax..."

Have you ever been building something up before, making it just the way you like it; or just finished organizing something so perfect it fits your mold perfectly? Well I have, and it's called my team and their hitting. The same dad I wrote about a couple weeks ago made another appearance at practice and insisted on changing things up. One of my players was struggling to do what was asked of him while hitting, and some tempers got a little flared because of lack of listening ability and execution. His hitting round was not very good to say the least. So when I called the next player in to hit, (I was throwing batting practice) I see that the dad called him over to chat. My player was over with him for at least 15 minutes. I could hear most of what was being said but I couldn't say anything because I was tending to the rest of the team. He was telling my player all this nonsense that is not at all right and there's no use for my players to know right now. He was saying stuff like, "Listen here, pitchers are way too good right now for you to go up to bat with just one approach," (WRONG). "You need to always look for a different pitch whenever you're up to bat, after every pitch," (WRONG). "Get in the pitchers head, stare him down, even point your bat at him," (SO WRONG I CAN'T EVEN EXPLAIN POLITELY). So after their little talk, I had the other coach pitch and I called my player over to the other corner of the gym. I told him, "Forget what he just told you and relax. Literally forget every single word he just told you. None of it was right and if you listen to him over me, you will not be playing."

I do like the parent though, I really do. He's a very nice guy. He just doesn't know what I know and he's stepping over his bounds as a parent when it comes to coaching. He can tell his own son stuff, but he shouldn't get in the way of other people.