For the mighty, mighty 5U Padres, we are officially two practices into our season. I captured my thoughts before AND after the first practice on video. Anyone that’s coached youth baseball (youth sports really) will relate to the controlled chaos. Along with that, I shared 8 lessons learned. Can’t wait for the next Padre party!

PRE-PRACTICE-THOUGHTS

1. Practice is the Easy Part – With the lack of daylight, we have a 4:00pm practice start time. That means I picked up my son at 3:15pm (at least for the first practice), and left the house closer to 3:00pm. I had to bring a change of clothes, a snack, his baseball gear, and then everything we needed for practice. And as my nickname is the Dugout Captain, that means I had to load up my bag with tricks – name tags for kids, flag to post in the ground so parents know which team we were, baseball cards for giveaways, etc, etc.
2. The OTHER stuff is hard work – Luckily, my co-coach is a teacher, football coach, and all-around great guy… he reminded me that we need to finish practice with team-building exercises.  Stuff like, “Say something nice about the person to your left.” or a “player of the day (+ why)” This not only brings the Life Lessons into our Athletics, but it gets everyone saying each other’s names and breaking down any barriers in communication.
3. Repetitions are Going to be a Real Challenge – We have 13, five-year olds. First, that’s too many five year olds 🙂  I have to imagine the goal for each team was 12 and there simply were an odd number of registered athletes that meant each took 13. That said, at our first practice each athlete got roughly six swings! That was with two tees, two backstops, two coaches manning the tees, and two coaches manning the lines for safety purposes. Quickly, I ordered a third tee and intend to break the team into 3, 4, even 5 hitting groups going forward. At the second practice (last night), we used: Tee #1, Tee #2, and Soft-Toss-Wiffles. I did the soft-toss, which was great to quickly see who is tracking a moving ball and anticipating the arm-swing of soft toss. All-in-all, I was encouraged at their ability to track the ball and make contact.
4. First Practice Focus is STRUCTURE – I really liked what we did. We focused on laying out the flow for practice, the expectations for athletes and their families, and took our time to make sure that all athletes were comfortable with the STRUCTURE of practice. For warm up, that meant learning the layout of our warm up area and an opportunity to move slowly back and forth across it. We involved baseball movements during our warm up, with an emphasis on the fielding triangle (called “the alligator mouth eating grass”). Forthrowing, we introduced our line structure and footwork cones through Hula-Hoop Throwing.  Basically, it was 80% learning (to follow direction, use cones to create order, be aggressive) and 20% throwing technique. And this explains why we only got six swings per athlete – the focus was on learning the stance, batting tee approach, on-deck safety, and handling the bat around others. I’ll be working hard going forward to make sure we increase the number of swings per athlete.
5. The 5-Year Old Wall – My guys hit the wall at just under 1 hour, 15 minutes. Especially my own kid, who got whiny, cold, and tired just after the hour mark. Luckily, baserunning keeps kids warm :), we can move quickly, and jack up our coaching energy up to power through the last station of practice. I have plans for a couple 90-minute practices next week, and I’m realizing I need to be flexible and pay attention to the focus level. That said, I’ve been happy with athlete focus through two practices.
6. No Partner Throwing – This drill worked great. And the series will be effective. #1 – legs, #2 – arms, #3 – put it together… and all involve pegging the assistant coach standing in the outfield. Parents like the structure, athletes ALL get to throw every repetition, and we’re getting instruction while also warming up.
7. Wait, We Hit Off a Machine? – Who’s idea is this: 5U athletes hit off of a machine?!? I guess I’ll keep my mouth shut on this and see what we can do to coach up the athletes in the next 15 days. Sheesh. Seems like a bit of a stretch for about 11/13 athletes on our squad.
8. This is Gonna Be Quick – Two practices per week (at least until games start) means two shorter work-days and a frantic pace in general. With dinner, bath, books, bed pretty much right after we get home, Mondays and Thursdays are a blur. With my unique schedule, my weekends are virutually non-existant. Saturday AM Coaching Clinic, Saturday PM Coaching Clinic… Sunday AM church and family, Sunday PM Coaching Clinic. Add to that Wednesday evening coaching clinics, a full load with Dugout Captain, and two small humans aged 5 and 2. I can already feel that these next three months are going to fly by.

My goal this season is to be present at every event – to lose myself to the kids at practice! So far so good, two practices down and I’ve prepared well. I don’t say that to boast, I say that selfishly. My opinion is this: If I prepare well, I GET to coach. If I don’t, I’ll pay for it in frustration, stress, and anxiety. Those 5-year olds can be vicious and I intend to be prepared before going into battle with them.  Mighty, mighty Padres… I’ll see you Thursday!

POST-PRACTICE-THOUGHTS

Annnnnd, what the heck!! One more video to share as I’m getting dangerous with this blog technology.  This one is much less entertaining (no kids to bring chaos-energy into the mix) and was filmed on Saturday after a morning clinic with CSA in La Crescenta and an afternoon with Toluca Baseball.  Off to visit Ramona Pony Wednesday night!