Thursday, August 13, 2009
PLAYOFF GAME VS MOD SQUAD
THE COACH/GRANDPA HAS TWO THINGS TO SAY.
ONE: WE WANT MR. BLUE TO UMPIRE OUR GAME NOT THE LIGHT SKINNED UMPIRE WHO LOOKS LIKE SMOKEY ROBINSON.
TWO: ALL PC BRICKS IT'S TIME TO STOP SLEEP WALKING ON DEFENSE AND LET'S PLAY SOLID BRICKS DEFENSE. WE NEED TO SETTLE DOWN AND STOP DOING ALL THESE CHANGES. ALSO WE NEED TO TALK ON DEFENSE AND LET ME POSTION THE OUTFIELDERS BECAUSE I KNOW THE HITTERS ON THE TEAM.
THE MOD SQUAD WILL BE GUNNING FOR US. IT TIME FOR US TO PLAY LIKE WE USED TO (CHAMPIONS).
WE NEED TO BE FOCUSED. NO MORE JOKES. SERIOUS BUSINESS, NO MORE TALKING TO THE OTHER TEAMS. JUST SAY HELLO AND GOOD LUCK. OTHER THAN THAT NO MORE CONVERSATIONS WITH THE ENEMIES.
IN THE IMMORTAL WORDS OF BIG DADDY KANE; "LET'S GET THE JOB DONE".
P.S. IF WE DON'T WIN THIS WEDNESDAY, NO FOOD AFTER THE GAME AND GRANDPA/COACH WILL NOT SPEAK TO ANY OF YOU AGAIN AND WILL RETIRE.
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Is that all it takes to get rid of you? I might not be so eager to win afterall!
ReplyDeleteHmmmmmmm... I don't where to begin. Okay, let's start with the umpire. What's wrong with umpire "Smokey"? I thought he was pretty good.
ReplyDeleteAlso, as Miss Princess noted, the threat of Coach Grandpa's departure if we lose may not be the best motivator for a certin segment of our roster. How about something positive and uplifting?
As for our defense, I don't think a lack of effort is our problem. I think it's a lack of comprehensive practice. We've had exactly zero practices with our entire team present. It's hard to fully develop communication and teamwork when we have 4-to-7 players show up for practice. We do the best we can under the circustances.
If there's one thing we can improve without practice, it's aggressiveness on defense. Sometimes it looks like we're back on our heels waiting for someone to make the play. A ball is hit that could be caught and it lands between two of us who expect the other person to make the play. We shouldn't assume someone is going to make the play. If a playable ball is hit, we should be going after it unless called off by a teammate. We've let too many pop ups drop on the fringe of the infield. If we eliminate those, we'll choke off a lot of the runs we've been allowing.
It bears repeating -- we're going to make errors. Nobody is perfect. The best ballplayers in the world drop the ball and make poor throws. And we don't need any blaming or finger pointing. We just need to identify our problem areas and figure out ways to improve them. A big part of it is mental.
On every play, every defensive player has a responsibility. If the ball is hit into your zone, you go after the ball. If it's not hit to your zone, you must either be covering a base, setting up a relay or cutoff, or backing up a teammate. Nobody, and I mean NOBODY, should ever just be standing there after the ball is hit. I understand that some of us haven't played much competitive ball and haven't received extensive coaching on these things. So don't feel bad if you're not sure what to do after the ball is in play. It's not on you. It's on those of us with experience who failed to share our knowledge of the game. We can't go back in time but we can do our best to address it in the present.
It would be vastly helpful if we could get more of us out to practice. Our practices aren't a magic fix for our deficiencies but as someone who has been there over the course of the season, I can make one observation with absolute certainty -- the players who have been coming out to practice each week have made great improvements in their skills.
I can write essays about playing defense (that probably wouldn't be read) but it would be so much more effective to go through the paces out on the diamond where the plays can be demonstrated, practiced, and reinforced through repetition.
We know what we can do to improve our teamwork and become better players. The question is, do we have the desire?
BY NOW EVERYBODY ON THE TEAM HAS SEEN ALL THE OTHER PLAYERS ON THE OTHER TEAMS. WE SHOULD KNOW HOW THE TEAMS WANT TO ATTACK
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