Last Practice in the books ...

I enjoyed our time on the field yesterday as we had our last practice of 2011. It was a a productive day as we went over our calls and defensive sets. We worked bullpens and we pitch/hit live. We closed with some competitive 3-2 drill, which ended up being pretty hilarious. One team (I think it was "Team Awesome") was doing leg kicks like the Rockettes to heckle the opposing pitcher.

However, "Team Better than Awesome" took the win for hitting a ball past CF Matt B.. I told them that would pretty much guarantee the win if they made Matt run to the fence. It was the last pitch, too. Perfect.

I wondered what some of our parents who came up as practice was ending might have thought. Has coach gone mad? Or madder .... It looked pretty crazy, but there is/was a method to it.

Here goes: As crazy as it looked, we were competing. Live hitters. Live pitchers. And fielding. Granted, we had some crazy positions out there. But on this last day of practice, the players positioned themselves. Really, I think they are just trying to make me look good, but that is another story.

But we were also doing something else. We were having fun. This is real important. Fun is incapable of being forced. It happens as a by-product of doing something you enjoy ... and it gets even better when you do it with people you enjoy.

Plus, we are ready. Our real work in preparation is now done.

After practice, we talked about the week ahead. I told them what I know. They are as prepared -- not moreso -- than any team they will face next week. Preparation breeds confidence.

This next week, we'll focus on a couple of acronyms that are important to us -- R-E-S-T and
J-O-Y. The first one is how we manage our thoughts; it's how we approach the game ... our DNA, if you will. The second -- JOY -- is how we manage our emotions ("Just like practice" ... "One pitch at a time" ... "Yippee" ... like our last practice.