These are a couple of my [tag]softball coaching tips[/tag] that I use when the attention spans are lacking at practice. Use these sparingly so the novelty doesn’t wear off!
When I’m working mostly w/ 6U & 8U girls, it seems like their attention gets very lax when they are batting, and their bat speed suffers a little bit. Or they go through the motion, with no real-follow through.
M tip to increase attention, bat-speed, and follow-through is to put my hand over the plate, right where the ball would be, and ask them to hit it. Make sure you move your hand. But if you try this a number of times, it’s amazing how fast that bat moves off their shoulder, into position, and across that plate when they try to hit the moving hand.
Occasionally the girls are really flat or distracted after a busy school day. Recently, they were warming up throwing & missed balls were rolling everywhere. Spur of the moment we created a competition using Starburst & Lifesaver candies to make most repetitive catches a competition.
The girls perked up, and started focusing on what they were doing just to get the small reward. Save the reward system for when they really need it, but on a day with distractions or a lack of self-motivation, we were happy to get in a good workout. Besides, if the [tag]softball coach[/tag]es work hard, they get candy, too.