In order to maximize your development as an athlete and to maximize your practice time it’s important that you employ what I like to call progressive practice. Basically, progressive practice is when an athlete or coach sets up a practice session so that the athlete begins with the most basic movement and then gradually progresses to more and more difficult movements. In other words, you want to start with the most basic of drills and then work your way up to the more difficult ones.
I have found that most athletes don’t set themselves up for success during their practice session primarily because they jump right into the most difficult drill first. During this drill they expect to make corrections in their mechanics and are unable to make any changes. This causes the athlete to become frustrated which inhibits the progress and development of the athlete. Let me see if I can explain what I mean. Many times athletes or coaches jump right in and begin batting practice off of a machine or batting practice pitcher. The belief is that they want to practice in the most “game like” setting. They try to make practice as real or as close to real as they can. The problem is two fold: 1) When the mind and the body are put in game like situations it is impossible for the body to make changes. The mind will tell the body to perform whatever it has practiced the most. As a result there is no improvement because the body is simply reacting in order to hit the ball. 2) Since baseball is such a game of fine motor movements where small breakdowns in mechanics can create a big difference in performance it’s important to start off easy in a controlled environment to program the body to perform perfect mechanics in a game. What I mean is, even if the athlete isn’t trying to make changes but rather just preparing for a game the athlete should start with easy drills first in order to get the body “dialed in” to perform proper movements in the game.
Athletes and coaches alike put way too much emphasis on “game like” practice. They feel that if an athlete practices “game like” then they will be more prepared for the game. You see this at the youth levels a lot in the form of having the kids hit at the speed you are going to face in a game. We have to remember that the most successful athletes in baseball are the ones that repeat proper mechanics the most often. Knowing this our goal should be to set ourselves or our athletes up to repeat these mechanics. The way we do this is to perform progressive practice so we can get our fine motor movements dialed in before we perform in a game.
This is why the tee is so valuable in hitting. When the ball is moving the mind can only focus hitting the ball and not on the mechanics of the swing. If a hitter begins his day on the tee they can get their swing “dialed in” and then slowly progress to more and more difficult drills. Ideally an athlete should start on the tee and once the feel like their swing is sound they should then progress to front toss or soft toss. Once the hitter feels like they are repeating their swing properly from front toss or soft toss they can then move back to live batting practice or hitting off of the machine. The same can be done on defense. For infielders you can start with easy, underhand, rolled groundballs. Once the athlete feels comfortable then you perform 50% groundballs, this is where the coach is halfway between the player and homeplate and is on a knee hitting easy groundballs. Finally, the coach then backs up and hits full distance groundballs.
If you are trying to develop your athlete or your skills you will use progressive practice a little differently. You will always start with the most basic drills and when you feel comfortable or you are able to repeat your mechanics easily then you progress to the more difficult drill. If you do progress to the more difficult drill and are unable to perform your mechanics consistently then you back it down to the previous drill. This will allow you to develop repeatability and make it easier to perform the more difficult drill.
If you really want to improve you must take the time to start slow and build your way up. You can still take 100 repetitions per session but instead of 100 swings on the machine take 40 on the tee 40 of front toss and 20 off of the machine. It might be a little more boring but over the long run it will be much more effective.
