John Miller, who is playing and coaching for the Brussels Kangaroos in the Belgian 2nd Division and is a reporter for a big American newspaper, is now also the Little League Commissioner for Belgium. He is also back chronicling the 2010 season in his “Old World Pastime” column on Mister-Baseball.com for a third straight year.
I turned 33 last week and, as a baseball coach, my age is making me a bit more stubborn, a bit more principled about a few things I believe in. I admit I still don’t know much about nothing, there are mountains yet to climb, but what I do know, well, of that I am becoming more certain.
There is one baseball training idea above all that I realize I believe in. Call it Movement. We have a sport that, at times, is static. We have a society that is increasingly static. Last week, I indulged in a three-hour Playstation session with my 21-year-old brother Jacob. It’s a lot of fun, but it is less than athletic. Such are the habits of our time.
When kids exit society and step onto our stage, why would they not keep on doing what they do? Static is who they are.
And so, please, Movement. Coach is catalyst. He is the first mover, the igniter of the flame. As a coach, there is no excuse for not making movement happen. Over and over again. Whatever you do, there should be energy and pace on your baseball field. Everybody should be acting or reacting. Swing, swing, sprint, pitch, field. Quick, quick, quick. There is no excuse for being slow.
In Europe, where kids don’t grow up with baseball, it’s important that their moves be part of a baseball or baseball-like game, and that they understand the game they’re playing. Forced to react fast, they will, and they will learn fast. And they will have fun, and your job is done.
Movement is less valuable when spent on drills only tangentially related to baseball. The more experienced the player, the more you can veer away from making the game click on the field. But if an uninitiated kid is swinging a bat during soft-toss and doesn’t really understand what he’s doing, besides swinging the bat, well I’d argue that’s not building a baseball player.
And so, in the name of Movement, at practice, I’ve been toying with fun fast-paced variations on nine-on-nine baseball, especially when you don’t have players to play a full game. Here are my favorites so far:
- 1. 3×3 Extreme Baseball. Two teams of three. Soft-toss to hitter, who hits and has to run around the bases before the three defensive players throw the ball to three of the four bases. If he does, he gets a run. Otherwise, out. Three outs per inning, then switch. Try it: this game is terrific for conditioning.
- 2. Right-Field Baseball. Two teams of 3-5 players. Soft-toss or tee. Any ball hit to the left of second is an out. Score a run by getting to second. Last night, we had 10 guys, so we tried a variation. We put a traffic cone at shortstop. Any ball to the left of that was an out. And you had to make it to third base to score a run.
- 3. Multi-team Baseball: Three or four teams of 3-4 players. Pitch, front-toss or tee. One team hits. The others play defense. Rotate.
I’m playing around with other ideas. Whatever they are, they will have to fit into the philosophy of Movement. Because that is something I believe in.
Share variations on classic baseball at oldworldpastime@gmail.com