Practice Plan - May 2006

What are the steps to a successful practice?
by Al Herback and Al Price

Fun Practice Plan Checklist:

• Have a plan
   
• Get to the field 20-30 minutes before the start time so you can spend individual time with players that arrive early
   
• Start the practice on time with a short meeting and share your plan with the team
   
• Run before you stretch
   
• Warm-up before every practice
   
• Introduce a new skill in a progression oriented way
   
• Incorporate the “Throwing and Catching Long-Toss Drill” into every practice
   
• Break down into small manageable groups...more repetitions per player
   
• Teach one skill a practice and do it in 15 minutes or less
   
• Review the skill you taught in the previous practice
   
• Use high activity drills to provide the repetitions players need to improve their skills
   
• Keep hitting practice to 25 minutes or less in every practice
   
• Build in fun games and competitions into every practice
   
• Use stations to keep the lines short and the activity high
   
• Close your practice with a fun competition that involves everyone on the team
   
• Finish with a team meeting to review of the skill taught and provide positive feedback to the players
   
• Finish the practice on time

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Al Herback and Al Price, Authors and Instructors of the Little League Education Program created the “Bubba Throwing” approach to teaching young players how to throw. The training materials they have put together include hundreds of other drills, competitions and fun activities. They also include progressions to help you teach the fundamental skills and guidance on how to plan practices for all levels of play. Please go to www.alandalbaseball.com for more information on the complete program library & to order your own set of training materials. To date, thousands of leagues and over 1 million coaches, managers, players and parents have taken advantage of the training materials.