Strategy #5 / Awareness - Knowing and using the whole picture

The liner ricocheted off Tim’s glove at first base and bounced toward center field. Tim took off after it and ran it down. Terry, the catcher, had to stay home because of the runner on second going to third and Connie, the pitcher, was backing him up. Tim picked up the ball and saw that the batter had rounded first and come down the line toward second. As Tim looked toward first, he saw that Alexis had come in from right field to help out. The runner turned to go back just in time to see Alexis waiting for the throw from Tim. Good throw, runner’s out. All of the Reinforcement tactics are joined with the appropriate Awareness here.

Comments – How can you teach that? Alexis saw the whole picture – she saw where she might be needed and she got there. Some people seem to have it and others never seem to get it. A lot of the problems are the result of teaching the kids the game in a very narrow way. On the Herons basketball team, Curt is a guard and his coaches teach him all the guard stuff. He has no idea what the center does - who has no idea what the guard does - neither one of them knows what the forwards do . . . . It is important for each of your basketball players to experience what each of his teammates is doing so during practices have the guards play center for a while, the forwards play guard, the centers play forward, and so on. They soon will know what their teammates have to navigate thereby creating better teamwork.

Context Practice – Too much time is spent teaching skills and practicing with many repetitions separate from the real game conditions. This results in having the experience so far removed from the game situations that the practice may not be relevant. One answer is to do a lot of simulated practice with the whole team involved. Make the plays real. “O. K., guys, one out, runner on second.” (And there is a real runner on second) You hit a fly ball to right center. The second baseman goes out for a possible relay, the shortstop covers second, the third baseman covers third, the center fielder is catching the ball, and the right fielder is backing him up. That’s it? Of course not. The other players are also learning their tasks.

Ask this question a lot: What could you have done on that play that might have helped? In the example at the start of this section, Alexis could have seen the play differently. The ball wasn’t hit to her so there was nothing for her to do on this play. Just go back to her right field position and get ready for the next pitch – but she knew better.

Bottom Line – Whatever your sport is, your players have to learn all of the rules and structure, all of the skills, and all of the insight and strategy of the game. Sometimes it’s on the practice field, sometimes it’s on the chalkboard, sometimes it’s on the bench, sometimes it’s on the playing field, sometimes it’s on the clipboard – but it’s always there to do.