Hard Practice = Fun Games

I know every kid and player loves game day, but as a coach I absolutely LOVE practice days! I eat them up and can't get enough. Those are the days I live for. Practice is where I earn my title as Coach.

Sure, there is a little bit of coaching required during the games, but those days are mostly for the kids. If I have put in a lot of work on practice days, then less work will be required of me on game days. And in my opinion, this is the way it should be.

This past week the coaching staff for the Athens High School fastpitch softball team intentionally practiced the team hard. There were a handful of things that we knew the girls needed to work on, and we set out to rep those skills over, and over, and over again. It was our intention to create a highly organized practice plan with no standing around time, everyone fully engaged, high energy, and fast-paced. Whenever a player took a rep off and did not give maximum effort, she was held accountable for it and coached up immediately on the spot, then she was given another opportunity to perform the task with improved effort.

I'm sure there were times during these practices when the players probably wanted to cuss at me or one of the other coaches. We pushed them. We made efforts to keep it fun and enjoyable, but they worked hard. Those two things – JOY and HARD WORK – do not have to be conflicting elements. They can and do co-exist among those who rise to the top. The best LOVE hard work.

When practice and preparation is tough, grueling, demanding, repetitive, highly organized, and fast, then the games will seem easy to play. And they will most certainly be a lot more fun to play! On the flip side, if practice is easy, unorganized, slow-paced, casual, and boring, then don't be surprised when the games are hard, not fun, and players get overwhelmed under pressure.

We put them under pressure in practice because we know that pressure situations are ALWAYS going to arise in games. If they aren't prepared for that kind of intensity due to having never experienced it in practice, then they will buckle during the games.

Coaches, that's on us. We own that failure.

Take some time this week to sit down and write out as many situations you can think of that occur during a game when a player is going to be under pressure and feel like time is speeding up. Their heart is going to be racing and their nerves are going to be at peak level. What are some of those situations that result in a high percentage of failure? What are some things that occur during games that frustrate both you and your players?

Now that you have your list, it's time to sit down and write out how you are going to simulate all of those things in your practices. In what ways can you put your team and players in those situations in practice in order to make it feel as much like the game as possible. Of course, you will not be able to perfectly duplicate it. There is nothing quite like the pressure of an actual game. But this is where you earn your title, Coach. Your job is to prepare them.

What are you preparing them for? Game success. That's what they want. They want to be successful on game day. The only way our players are going to be successful on game day is if their coach applies extra pressure to them on practice days.

Don't just recognize the value of practice, you have to LOVE practice. You have to come to practice energized, and ready to be fully engaged with your team every minute of the time you are together.

Welcome each of them 10 minutes beforehand with a handshake or fist-bump. Give plenty of high fives and "atta boys" and "atta girls" during the practice. And then leave them with a handshake or fist-bump and a reminder of how their intent to get a little better in practice today will be evident when we lace them up vs our next opponent.

Coach, they may hate you on practice days. That's okay. Because they will love you on game days. Most importantly, they will love you twenty years from now, when they look back and are thankful for the work ethic you forced them to develop on those preparation days. They will find that all of life mirrors their athletic experiences. The consistent grind of daily preparation – physically, spiritually, mentally, emotionally, intellectually – will put them on the top of their game every day.