I recently over heard a college coach chewing his players out. Why? Some college players came to practice in shorts..... WTH
If you have ever played, coached or halfway paid attention..... or maybe just have a little common sense you would know that you come to practice prepared to play. I can maybe over look a T-ball player attending their first practice, but after that a player should know......
Baseball players should arrive a minimum of 15 minutes before practice... Hold up, I said that wrong, players should be ready to begin 15 minutes prior to practice, which means they may need to arrive 30 minutes early...
Ready for a baseball player means is more than just showing up, it also mean having baseball pants & belt, baseball shirt & (sleeves - for me at a temp below 70, though a St. Louis coach of 30 years told me today his magic temp was 80.....) cleats, and running shoes, a baseball cap (worn correctly) glove (s), bat and water.
This is a standard request from T-ball up..... and yet every year you will see players from 9U all the way to college age show up not "ready" to play.
Can you guess the item players most often fail to bring to practice? My experience is players most often forget water.....
After water, (....you know that thing you need to support life....) players fail to have a belt, followed closely by a baseball cap. How do you forget your cap?
Mistakes happen, years ago I had a player named Jordan that never failed to arrive prepared to play. Why/how? His dad created a checklist that was attached to his bag. I watched Jordan faithfully check his checklist when practice was over.....to ensure nothing was left behind and he told me also went over the checklist before coming to every game/practice as well.
We would all probably benefit if we lived our lives with a checklist.....
