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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Listen, no one is saying kids shouldn’t practice on their own or with their parents on their own time.  Obviously they should.  But there is one “coach” on this thread who thinks it’s ridiculous that parents expect their kid to learn ANY skills during their Little League practice sessions.  Which is obviously a stupid position.

If he doesn’t want to coach any kids but his own, he should simply bow out.  Lots of Dads are eager to volunteer, and he is not doing these kids any favors by refusing to even TRY to help them get better at baseball.  If he wants to get paid for his incredible coaching program, he shouldn’t VOLUNTEER to coach and then not do it.[/quote]

My DH volunteers as a LL coach and he has invested his own time and money in buying equipment to create baseball-related games to work on skills during practices. He enjoys seeing the kids improve and gain confidence. He can watch a kid and see what their strengths/weaknesses are and gives feedback to parents. Hopefully the parents are working with them at home, but not every household has a parent available to work with their kid outside of practice. I’d be disappointed if my DH just wrote a kid off for something that may be no fault of their own.

I also know he’s big on sportsmanship and good attitude even while losing. There is so much more to learn from LL than just baseball. [/quote]

Your husband sounds great.  I appreciate the volunteer coaches who are just trying their best.  I understand it’s a lot of time and sometimes money, and it’s great that so many people are willing to give back, even if they’re not that great at coaching or even baseball.  (And obviously it’s fantastic when they are great, as it sounds like your DH is.)

I take major issue with the guy in this thread who has repeatedly said that if a parent isn’t practicing skills for 6-10 hours per week with their second grader then it’s because they are lazy parents who hate spending time with their kids.  And that as a Little League coach his only responsibility is setting lineups and strategies.  That is a volunteer who will end up doing more harm than good for some kids who might have learned to love baseball with a coach who actually cares.[/quote]

Dude is a jackhole.  I coached rec for a long time and then my son switched to a club team.

The club coach does often say "we will not be hitting at practice this week;  you are expected to find time to hit on your own." But this is 13-14 year old boys on a competitive team.

8u rec is about groups of 3 rotating between 4-5 stations.  It's not hard to do.

- Fly balls
- Ground Balls 
- Tee
- Soft Toss
- Live pitching

Each group get 10 minutes at each station (or 5-6 and have them go through the rotation twice)

Then finish with something fun like sharks and minnows.

This isn't rocket science.  [/quote]

What about fielding situations?[/quote]

Setting aside fielding - you just set of stations that require 4 adults to run.  Now come up with your practice plan with say 14 nine year olds and 1 adult.

You know - because as one recent poster said, it’s about community (though that poster’s community apparently does not include helping out with their kid’s activities.)
[/quote]

I was the poster who commented on community, and I was also the poster that listed out the stations.  So yes, its easy for me to schedule practices that way bc there's never a shortage of adults to help monitor a station.

You make a good point that I would be hard-pressed to run a practice that way without an additional 1-2 volunteers to help man stations.  But if I wasn't getting that, at the very least, I would put out the request on TeamSnap.  The few times I've had to ask for help with something as a coach, I've always gotten a volunteer.

But, since you asked, if it was just me (1 coach) and 12-14 kids.  I would probably do the following, with 4-5 kids in each group:

- infield.  on the knees.  single knee.  on the feet.  glove side.  backhand.  slow-rolling grounders.  No parent needed
- Tee work.  Into the net.  50-75% swings.  Stopping at Contact.  Stopping at extension.  Full swing.  In a group of 3-4, one kid swings, one kid loads the tee, one kid waits.  No parent required
- Front toss.  Coach required.

2 rounds of that.

You would probably have to reconvene the entire group of OF work, but we could keep it moving quickly.  2 lines,  one for ground balls to the OF; one for Fly balls.  Go the other line after you've taken a ball.  It keeps it moving a bit more.

So it can still be done.  You would probably need the first week to go very slowly so they understand what to do at the stations where there is not a coach.  But once they understood that, they can man those stations themselves (even though it would still be better to have an additional volunteer)
- [/quote]

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