It's baseball season again, and all is well. At least it feels that way. I'm looking forward to seeing the Mustangs out on the field today.
I thought I'd take a few minutes to tell you about how we practice, or rather, how we want to practice. We are seeking the perfect practice always. Like perfect days and churches, however, perfect practices are reserved for a heavenly field. But in any event, here is what we are looking for:
When we practice, we come prepared to work. We are on time, and the practice starts on time.
Everything we do at practice has a purpose. The talking and teaching always have a purpose. Warm-up is vital and a learning tool itself. We are working each moment on the task at hand because each task matters.
When the coaches or another teammate is talking, we are listening. Every minute and experience of our practice time is valuable. Our practice time is precious.
Each player is important at practice. We need our teammates to have a good practice. Our focus at practice is primarily on those things that are team-oriented, or require teammates for the best results.
Unless we are taking a short break, we are not standing around. Instead, each one of us is working ... always. If we are not working for some reason, that is about to change.
If you look, each player is involved in an exercise/drill/teaching event in some way. Even our on deck hitter is getting ready by practicing his routine. Instead of ten players standing around shagging balls and talking like some teams do, we might have three, or even two. And these players are working on fielding, too. Also, a coach will often be hitting balls to the shaggers between BP pitches.
We go hard. We understand that (unless we are warming up) for an exercise to have value, it must be done at or near full-speed.
When teaching is going on, we are listening. We are also listening when our teammates are being instructed. This is so very important, because often such teaching allows us to objectify our own situation and learn something really valuable. We know that we can learn a lot at all times, and we are looking for that opportunity. Again, practice time is precious and we are looking for ways to maximize this practice time always.
The days of mindless hacks, throws, and infield practice are over. Everything we do has a purpose.
As players and coaches, we are always looking to improve the way we are doing something. We ask questions of ourselves first.
BP is different. Each swing is purposeful, just like a game. We allow time between pitches for a batter to use his routine, breathe, and focus. In games, we are not able to ask the opposing pitcher to put a meatball right where we want it; so, we practice accordingly. We work on our approach, looking for our pitch, hitting the ball hard where it wants to go, and mastering our two-strike approach. We learn to make opposing teams adjust to us, rather than the other way around. We become comfortable with our approach and working the count. We work on this in practice.
If we need more swings or throws, we find a way to get that done in a way that allows our teammates to stay focused on the task or exercise at hand. We remember the importance of our work at home.
Practice is a great time to practice becoming comfortable with being uncomfortable. Excellent performers know the importance of this.
We learn to love practice, and thus we get better. Even if practice is not going as we would like on a particular day, we find a way to make the practice better for ourselves and our team.
Fielding practice emphasizes making routine plays as they will be made during the game. In a game, a fielder can't loop a ball to first with no game pressure. So, we limit such activities in our practices.
In all things, we are trying to simulate game-like conditions.
Our bullpens are measured. We chart every pitch. Why? This is what happens in games. Our charters stand in the box. Our pitchers are used to throwing with batters in the box. Catchers use bullpen time to work on their skills and blocking balls. We are going to be able to throw a strike at least 2/3 of the time, and then we move on to master other areas of the plate. We work our off-speed pitches as we would in a game.
If we make a mistake, we may do pushups or run. Why? It's certainly not to embarrass or prove that we are "hard". Rather, we are learning to play as in a game. Mistakes in games usually have consequences, too. Remember, our goal is to be prepared to play in a game. If we are afraid to make a mistake, mistakes will ensue. We aren't afraid of mistakes, so we are free to succeed. That's the mindset we are cultivating.
We jog between stations and drills. We never walk on a baseball field. We respect our teammates, opponents, and the game too much to walk on the field.
We work on our weaknesses and learn to make them strengths. We know what our strengths and weaknesses are. We find our "unsweet spot" and focus on it on our tee work.
We are always learning, always trying to get better. We adopt the mindset of a student. We set goals for what we want to work on in practice. We come up with a personal practice mission, and then we check ourselves: How did we do?
We want to have success when the games start, but we know that success begins today ... on the practice field.
Success is found in disciplined, unrelenting focus on the task at hand.
This is how we practice.
We are seeking excellence ... on the field ... off the field ... everywhere.
We are the Mustangs.
See you on the practice field ...
Coach Rut
