There are many different philosophies on the strategic and mechanical aspects of baseball. However, there is one concept that all baseball coaches will agree on regardless of competitive level: quality practice is essential for any team to have the best chance for success.

Today + Today + Today = Career

In Heads-Up Baseball (Ravizza & Hanson, 1995), it is written that one's career is the sum of all todays. This being true, there is quite possibly no other factor as paramount in the pursuit of success as practice. Coaches and athletes spend many more hours on the practice field than in competition. Practice does not make perfect, practice makes permanent, and quality practice gives you the best chance for quality performance. The purpose of this article is to share some of the techniques that we used at The Robur'58 Baseball Club in Apeldoorn, Holland to help improve the quality of our practice sessions. These techniques can be modified and used by coaches at all levels to help improve their practice.

Before Practice

Failing To Prepare, Is Preparing To Fail

Legendary UCLA Basketball coach John Wooden has written that many times it would take him twice as long to prepare for a practice as it actually did to conduct it (Wooden & Jamison, 1997). In keeping with this, we feel that the most important aspect of quality practice is the time and energy put into its preparation by the coach. Remember that by failing to prepare for a quality practice, we are preparing for a quality failure.

The fist step in preparing for a quality practice is assessing the needs of your team either through previous practice or performance. After the assessment is made, it becomes critical to establish goals for each practice. Next, a detailed practice plan needs to be developed. Spending the time before practice on these elements will minimize your stress levels because you will know what you want to accomplish and when you will do it. Preparing for practice ahead of time also increases motivation, intensity, direction, and time management. Incorporating activities in practice that are in accordance with your pre-practice goals and objectives will help set the stage for quality practice.

A detailed practice plan should consist of clock time, as well as the time it will take to complete the activity (i.e., 5:00 - 5:45 p.m. [45min]). This will allow players and coaches to know how much time they will have to practice in that area and will help them to be the most efficient with their time. The activity should also have a specific name (e.g., front toss or quick hands), so players and coaches will recognize the activity and be on the same page. Having a diagram of the facility with an outline of where the different drills or stations will take place, and a chart with the players' names and specific rotations of where they should be at a given time will help in time management. Also each player will be accounted for and will be held responsible for knowing where he (or she) should be at all times.

Writing down the specific equipment requirements (e.g., number of balls and bats needed, pitching machine speed, etc.) will also help to eliminate confusion or last minute scrambling. Remember also to build in time for equipment set up and take down, transitions between activities, and water breaks.

Posting the practice plan as soon as possible, so that the players can see what is expected of them, can help them to get mentally prepared. For example, they can start to use their visualization skills to see themselves performing the way they want to that day in practice. Sticking to the practice plan and keeping practice to the specified time can also help players stay focused and minimize undue stress they may feel about being able to respect academic or social commitments scheduled for after practice.

Goal Setting Cards

The importance of warming up the mind for practice should not be overlooked. A technique that we have found effective is incorporating pre-practice goal setting into our warm-up routine. To do this we print out a nametag for each player's bag with his name and general contact information. This tag is then laminated and attached to each player's bag. The athletes are each given a dry-erase marker and are asked to write their individual practice goals on the back of that tag before they leave the dugout to go physically warm-up. Some sample goals include: (a) to work on refocusing during practice when they catch themselves drifting away, (b) to throw good low strikes in the pen, or (c) to aggressively go the other way in batting practice. This simple procedure allows us as coaches to walk through the dugout and check to see what each player will be working on that day. We are also able to quickly verify which athletes are mentally prepared for practice, and those who have not taken responsibility for this preparation.

The Robur'58 Romp

A technique that we use to help get players focused for practice is called the Robur'58 Romp. The Robur'58 Romp is a 15-minute time period before practice starts to allow for the athletes to joke around, play games with teammates such as flip, two ball, and pepper, or to let them do whatever they need to do to get mentally focused for practice. This is also a critical part of the teambuilding process as it allows time for players who may not often see each other off the diamond to interact and communicate about things outside of baseball.

Glass of Water Demonstration

A technique that we use to help get players centered and focused for practice is the idea of quieting the mind of all thoughts not relevant to the present moment, which is the day's practice. The athletes shut their eyes and imagine their minds are like a glass of water fresh from the tap and loaded with cloudy air bubbles. The players then inhale deeply through their nose and from the belly, exhaling slowly through the nose, while trying to imagine that with each breath their minds are becoming clearer and clearer just like the glass of water. This process may only take one or two minutes, but it can pay large dividends by helping both players and coaches get fully focused for practice and ridding their minds of unwanted thoughts and distractions.
Black Death or Silent Practice

This technique which is typically used in the beginning of practice during the warm-up and stretch period prohibits talking by the players. For the 12 to 17 minutes that the warm-up and stretch takes, the athletes are to be as quiet as possible by eliminating the distraction of talking. This is an opportunity for them to become fully focused on the task at hand and get mentally prepared for practice. It is important to point out that this technique is not punishment, but rather a strategy to help them learn to focus.

This technique is also beneficial for coaches during a practice (i.e., after the warm-up and stretch) because instead of wasting valuable practice time confronting the team about their inability to focus, the coach simply informs the team that they are not as present and focused as they need to be and as a result they will be silent during the next 15 to 20 minutes. Thus, this technique can be used in any practice situation (where verbal communication is not a priority) to help athletes improve their focusing skills.

During Practice

Drill Cards

Sometimes as coaches we take for granted that our players are on the same page with us and fail to evaluate whether players know what they should be working on with each specific drill. A way to check athletes' understanding about the purpose of a specific drill is to ask them to individually provide this information on an index card given to them by the coaches. If the athletes' interpretations are off-base, the coach can take the time to re-explain the purpose of the drill and/or answer any questions that the athletes may have. This can be important because when the players know what it is they are working on with each specific drill, the opportunity for quality practice is greatly enhanced.

20 Second Drill

The 20-second drill is used to demonstrate to players that if they are willing to take responsibility, they have the ability to control their levels of attention and focus at any given moment. To get started, we ask the players to commit to giving 20 seconds of totally undivided attention. Most will be able to do so. Then the players are told to do something different from what they were doing 5 seconds ago. We then ask them to notice how the energy level in the group is different from what it was 10 seconds ago. This is what quality practice is all about. The athletes are told that they need to catch themselves when they drift and bring their focus back to the present moment by using the 20 second drill. You can also let their focus wander again and ask the athletes individually what they did to turn their focus back to the present and lock in.

This technique also helps coaches when they notice that players are not focusing as much as they need to. By informing them that they need to give 20 seconds, it will let the players know that you as their coach know they are not focused and need to lock in. This also helps, in a pre- or post-game talk, when you are going to make a critical point and want everyone's attention. We typically only use the 20-second drill two or three times a day, and will keep our important information within that time frame.

Video Taping

The visual image is a very strong one. Using videotape to analyze and model behavior works as an effective tool for teaching mechanics, and can also serve as a motivator. If athletes are in a slump, they may have a difficult time trying to image themselves playing well. Developing a personal highlight tape from practice or games in which the player performed well will give the player a positive image that they can use to help with their imagery. Also, the video may help struggling athletes regain their confidence. When using this technique be careful not to let the athletes pick out only the negative things they are doing. Instead try to emphasize the positive aspects of the performance as much if not more, than what the player is doing poorly.

Game Like Simulation

Though it is difficult to mirror the intensity, stress and pressure of an actual competition in practice, there are things that we can do to make the practice environment more game like. Keeping score, using situational simulation, and having consequences for the losing team are all techniques that will enhance competition in practice. Another way to simulate game like situations is to practice overcoming adversity by doing what we call "throwing in the monkeys." Changing the conditions, manipulating the score, making unfavorable calls, and letting the athletes fail will not only let them practice handling adversity, but will allow you as a coach to prepare them for the difficulty that can often hit during a game and cause a team to fold or start pointing fingers at umpires, fans, the hot dog vender, or teammates. We tell our athletes that there will be adversity and unfair calls in games. We practice dealing with them so that when they turn up in games, we are prepared and know how to react.

Crowd Noise or Music

This is an interesting technique that many college football teams use to get their team ready for the loud and crazy environment in which they often play. Having a tape of crowd noise can be effective in allowing players to practice dealing with a "hostile" environment, or one in which it is difficult to verbally communicate. Crowd noise provides an excellent opportunity to practice working on non-verbal methods of communication from the coaching staff in the dugout to the players on the field.

A similar strategy involves the use of Classical or very soft music which can often make a person feel mellow or sleepy. At different points throughout the season we will play this music during practice and use it as a distraction for our players to learn to deal with. They will often ask "How can you expect me to focus during practice when you are playing Beethoven?" The response is usually, "The same way I expect you to focus when we are in the 9th inning of a double header, it is raining, and you are called on to pinch hit after sitting all day, by taking responsibility for your thoughts, focus and attention, by using the 20- second drill."

Competitive Conditioning

When it comes to conditioning, many athletes are turned off by having to run foul pole to foul pole, or around the warning track. The monotony of many types of conditioning can lead athletes to give their less than best effort. When we condition, we try to make it as competitive as possible for the athletes, and will usually award the losing team with a special duty of sweeping the locker room or carrying extra equipment. One game that has been popular has been Ultimate Baseball in which the two teams compete in a game of Ultimate Frisbee, but while using gloves and a baseball instead. Sometimes we will use no gloves and a tennis ball, or have players who catch right-handed switch gloves with someone who is left-handed. Breaking out the football and doing offender vs. defender sprints between pitcher and position players is popular as are relay races up and down the stadium steps. Everything is timed or counted allowing coaches to evaluate the progress and effort of their players, as well as leading to a more focused and competitive conditioning session.

Motor Learning Meets Baseball

There are three types of practice schedules used in sport (i.e., blocked, variable and random) with each yielding different types of results. Blocked practice which involves executing the same skill for a given number of times in succession (e.g., a pitcher working on location throws 30 fastballs to the right side of the plate, then 30 fastballs to the left side of the plate), typically results in short term success and an increase in confidence, but not much retention. This means that the pitcher will do well hitting spots during their 30 pitches, but when they get in a game like situation and have to move the ball around with each pitch, he will experience less control than during the blocked practice.

Variable practice sessions would have the pitcher throwing 5 pitches to the left side, then 5 pitches to the right side, repeating this process until he has thrown the 60 pitches. Variable practice will lead to less immediate success and, subsequently, less immediate confidence than the athletes who are practicing in a blocked manner. However, the athlete who trains in a variable manner will be more successful at retention, and will be performing the skill in a more game like situation. Perhaps the best game like practice is that of random practice. Random practice entails the pitcher throwing 60 pitches in a completely random order, preferably called by the catcher. Random practice is the least effective in terms of immediate success, but most effective in retention. Thus, the coach and athlete should look to the objective of the practice session (i.e., short-term success and confidence building vs. long-term success and consistency) to decide which type of schedule is best.

During batting practice, pitchers usually execute their pitches using a blocked schedule. Therefore, the batter receives consistent 4-seam fastballs (for example) over the center of the plate. Batting practice of this manner is less effective for game like simulation practice because pitchers rarely throw the same pitch in the same location more than once or twice in succession. However, one of the goals of batting practice is to increase a hitter's confidence and the best way to do that in the short term is through a blocked practice schedule where they know what to expect for each at-bat.

After Practice

Jolly Rancher Player of the Day

A fun technique that we use to help increase player motivation is the Jolly Rancher Player of the Day Award. This award is based on hustle, attitude, effort and performance in practice and is announced in front of the team at the practice's conclusion. The chosen athlete gets a small piece of hard candy. The award itself (i.e., candy) is not a big deal, but it represents hard work, good focus and a strong team attitude which are all important to player and team success. Furthermore, the player of the practice is equally if not more important than the player of the game because there is more practice time than game time during a season. If the player is putting in the quality practice necessary to be awarded the practice player of the day, they are giving themselves the best chance for success come game time. We will tally the number of awards given throughout the season, and give out a Jolly Rancher Player of the Year Award at the end-of-the-year banquet.

Blue Angel Debrief

After the U.S. Navy Blue Angel Pilots fly an exhibition show, they will spend two or three times as long debriefing about the show as compared to the amount of time it actually took them to perform it. They critique everything from the way they marched to the plane to the aerial maneuvers performed and use the information drawn from this session to improve the next event. This demonstrates that the post-practice debriefing period is as important as the pre-practice planning.

As coaches, we have to continue to get better. One of the ways to do this is by debriefing after each practice session. We ask the players and ourselves, "What is one thing you learned today that can help you get better?" The staff will then go over the practice plan and change any details that can make practice run more smoothly. We will also assess individual and team performance. From that evaluation, we decide on what to focus on in our next practice session.

Conclusion

The techniques discussed in this article have been successful for us at Robur'58 and in many other baseball programs Worldwide. However, with committed coaches and athletes, they can be successfully used in any sport context. If you have any questions or comments regarding this article, or would like to share a quality practice technique that you have found successful, please send an e-mail to bcain@fullerton.edu.

Bibliography

Ravizza, K., & Hansen, T. (1995). Heads-Up Baseball. Masters Press, Chicago IL.

Sverduk, K. (2002) Conducting Quality Practice Sessions in Sport. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation.

Wooden, J., & Jamison, S. (1997). Wooden: A lifetime of observations and reflections on and off the court. Contemporary Books, Chicago IL