HS Coaches,
How often do you use classroomdiscussion/teaching with your team?

What topics do you use/go over during this time?

Last year we discussed:
1)specific rules. Each player had previously drawn a rule to research and then present to the team.
2) Team goals and rules. The players came up with their goals and rules.
3) Hitting philosophy. I have a powerpoint that we go through on this.

I think we need to do more with this. I have a talented team right now. All but one return next year. The problem is that talent alone is not enough in our District. There's plenty of that, but I think if we concentrated on the mental part we could really benefit.

I'm going to be putting in a lesson on visualization , but what other things should I look at?

I also use a lot of classroom time and powerpoint with my pitchers and catchers talking about mechanical absolutes, controlling counts, philosophy, pitch sequences (I do not call pitches) and the pitcher/catcher relationship. I have done this at the beginning of the season in the past, but now I am going to do it in the middle a few times as well.

I use it when it's raining out; so some seasons we spend little time in an indoor classroom and some we are in there way too much... I'd rather be out on a field with balls and bats and teaching; I do acknowledge that some things can get taught well indoors (it still depends if they are listening and will they apply it)

We have our hitting cage on a balcony and have to share the main gym with the softball team. When we have to go in due to the weather, we typically, let softball have the cage first and then we go to the classroom. We do everything from signs, to video work. At times we even spit the teams up offense and defense with coaches talking to infielders in one room, outfielders in another and hitters that need one on one video work in yet another. We do this for 1 HOUR! I don't think you can expect much from athletes that want to get to work playing.

We have powerpoints, video of MLB players, video of our players, and various worksheets/handouts that we use. We want to be efficient in this time and we for sure don't want to give the impression that this is what we HAVE TO DO while the softball team uses the facilities. It has to have a purpose.

When I coached high school baseball, I use to love the classroom time. I started out coaching JV, and I found some of those kids to struggle when trying to "learn on the job". By taking it to the classroom, drawing it up on the board, it somehow seemed to sink in for the kids who weren't getting it the first time.

I especially enjoyed going over position coverage assignments on the chalkboard.