Motivating your Players Beyond Their Comfort Levels
We have so many responsibilities as coaches but one that is crutial is to push our players beyond even what they feels is possible. There are alot of vairables in motivating your players at any level especially when you are talking about the high school or collegient level player. There are a few that I would expect most coaches to be targeting as a key method for motivation but both fit into two broad categories. First, you can motivate your players intrinsically and next extrinsically. I am going to hit up on 2-3 different research based methods for both. I cannot say that either method is particulary better for any coach research supports intrisic motivation as a better long lasting method to motivating players. Extrinsic Motivators- these are motivational factors that have to do with carrying out a desired action with the midset that it is for someone else and not for yourself (Horn, 2000).
Horn, A. J. A. T. S. (2000). Intrinsic motivation: Relationships with collegiate athletes' gender, scholarship status, and perceptions of their coaches' behavior. Journal of sport & exercise psychology, 22(1-4), 63-84. Drill of the Week Tee Work- Staying Through the Pitch 1. Tee Drill Walk Throughs- player starts back behind the tee a couple of steps and will step behind as they walk foward in the batters box to hit the baseball. The hads will work in rythem with their feet. A right handed hitter starts in an athletic position further back in the batters box, steps behind with their right foot, foward with their left foot, and then starts their hands back to load. As their left foot gets down their hands should be back behind their right shoulder in a loaded hitting postion. Lastly, the player stays through the baseball and hits it in the middle of the net in front of them. 2. High Tee Drill- place the tee on a box or elevate it somehow to their nipple or arm pit level. Place the location of the pitch on the outside third of the plate. The batter will now work on getting ontop of the ball and hitting it with back spin into the 3-4 hole for a righty and the 5-6 hole for a lefty. The key is to let the batter see the ball flight and to look for back spin. 3. Down and In Drill- place the tee at its lowest point and work on the inner third of the plate, postion the tee slightly in front of home. The batter will now work on getting into their legs and hit the ball into the 5-6 hole for righties and the 3-4 hole for lefties. The key is to let the batter see the ball flight and to look for back spin on the ball. Front Toss Work- 1. Long's Split the Plate Drill- place a screen perpendicular down the middle of the plate and have the batter stand in the batters box with a bats length distance from the screen. Next, have the coach through front toss between the screen and the batter. The player is working on staying through middle in pitches and hitting them with back spin. If they over extend their arms or creat an early bat release to hit this pitch then they will hit the net and feel the wrong action. Be mindful that the play may cheat and stride in the bucket to get to the pitch location, make sure that the coach monitors or looks for this mistake. 2. Angled Front Toss- because Long's drill emphasizes staying through the inside pitch the angled front toss drill emphasizes the outter half pitch. Start the front toss set up on the opposite field side of the batter and ask the batter on each pitch to keep their stride toward the pitcher and not at the angled front toss. The batter is going to emphsize a deep contact point and drive baseball back through the front toss net or to the opposite field with back spin. Have a Great Week! Coach Brassfield
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