I won't detail every practice we do, but this was our first outdoor practice so I'll give everyone an idea of where we're starting.
IMO our biggest problem last year was simple throw and catch issues (I should be clear that that wasn't our only major issue). Our practices indoors had focused on fundamentals like fielding a ground ball properly, the correct footwork on going back on a pop fly, how to crow hop, and footwork around bases when we're out in the field (where your feet should be when you're receiving a throw in different situations). We also hit into a net each practice and went over some basics for pitching, but fielding was far and away where most of our focus was.
The weather today was nice enough to allow us to practice outdoors for the first time this season. Practice has had a different pace and tone than at any point last year and I warned the players that it goes to another level when we get outside. I think they quickly learned that I wasn't kidding.
Today almost all of our attention was on catching and throwing and I think the message went out to everyone that it's vital that we can catch and throw (I know that seems obvious). My goal is to have everyone throwing accurately and catching the ball up to 70 feet (bases are 60 feet so my thinking us 70 feet should cover almost all throws). We started at 40 for today's practice just to get them familiar with baseballs again after only using tennis balls while indoors. I broke kids broken up into 3 groups of 4 in boxes with the cones spaced 40 feet apart. They simply threw the ball around the square focusing on speed and accuracy. After giving them a minute or two to get used to the drill if the ball hit the ground either the person that made a bad throw or the person that dropped it did 5 pushups. After a couple of minutes the coaches didn't even have to say anything they just did the pushups and the drill didn't stop.
From there we broke down into three stations: one station to handle grounders, one station to work on pop flies, and one station to work on a simple relay drill I came up with. 4 cones in a line with 60 feet between the first and 2nd cone and then 40 between each of the other cones. A coach would feed a ground ball to the 1st player who would charge the ball, crow hop, and throw to the 2nd person in the relay, who would then fire it to the 3rd, and then down to the 4th would who then make a tag on an imaginary runner. They had quite a bit of fun with it and when we started wagering pushups between the players and coaches they started getting serious and their competitiveness went up a notch.
I ended practice with a competition using that same relay drill. 3 teams of 4 competing to be the first to get to the end of the line. Each player has to make a throw in the line so if there's an overthrow the person that was supposed to make the throw still has to chase the ball and make the throw. First team to 3 points won while the losers gave me a lap. I knew anything that added competition to what the kids are going would be popular, but they really enjoyed this and got into it. After the last round with only some minor encouragement the winners joined the rest of their teammates on their lap. This drill will get more difficult as we progress. I was easy on them with this today, but eventually we'll be doing 70 or 80 feet on the first throw and then 60 on the next two. Then to score a point it can't hit the ground at any point along the way.
The players seemed to have a great time even though it was probably the hardest practice a lot of them had ever experienced. Chris even mentioned it was way better than being a Blue Raider.
All in all I thought it was a solid practice. We're still right about where I expected us to be so we're progressing nicely. We have tons of work to do and 13 practices left before our first game (I can't believe we only had 8 before our first game last year), but I even have parents and Mark talking about winning games this year. After two years of losing every game I'm not too worried about expectations getting out of control. I think everyone is getting a bit excited about the improvements they've seen in the players from last year.
Monday I'm rewarding them for the good practice with a chance to hit and pitch a bit, but the fundamentals of fielding will still be the primary focus and will be for the next couple of weeks.