How to Make Baseball Practice Fun and Effective
Baseball practice can be an enjoyable activity or it can quickly become a joyless endeavor in negativity, and all of this is directly in response to how the scheduled practice session is approached by those planning the event. Regardless of the age of the participants sports is supposed to be fun, and while it takes effort and diligence in practice to succeed during games the need for a relaxed atmosphere during practices cannot be understated in importance. In short, dull, boring and tedious practices only lead to a diminished zeal for the competitive events and can often lead to a team that simply goes through the motions when it counts for real.
Baseball practices can be fun and effective most easily if well organized and planned far in advance of the actual practice session. This begins with baseball coaches that have a strong knowledge of their team’s strengths and weaknesses and allow the required time to create an agenda of specific areas that need improvement. This is not only approached from the perspective of the team goals but as it applies to the improvement of each individual player. Once these goals have been clearly established it becomes a simple matter to address them each singularly, and then determining how each can be presented to players in a practices with the maximum positive outcome for the time allotted.
Following this, it becomes the task of everyone involved to make practices a labor of love rather than to just engage in labor. Players should have a say-so in how practices are approached, but not to the point of where practices become a comical activity devoid of structure and achievement. Communication is the key to fun and effective baseball practices, and coaches that rule their team with an iron hand often find they have not only lost the respect of their players but have created an atmosphere of apathy. The fine line that needs to be tread is the one that creates a team concept while still maintaining the principle that success in sports is best achieved through effort.
The fun aspect of baseball practice is best created when each session is light-hearted and filled with friendly competition and good natured ribbing between players and coaches. A few well placed moments of levity during practice can be the perfect fuel to overcome the tedious aspects of any repetitive endeavor, and a coach that allows jovial personal interaction is certain to turn individual players into a team and more importantly – friends.
