Open Practice: Team Drills to Simulate Game Pressure

with Sandy Montgomery,
Southern Illinois University- Edwardsville;
2015 Ohio Valley Conference Champions;
2015 Ohio Valley Conference Coach of the Year - 5x Conference Coach of the Year;
2007 NCAA D-II National Champions; over 980 career wins

Are you finding it hard to coach all aspects of the game? Too many drills and not enough time? If so, then this is the video for you! Sandy Montgomery has developed a drill system that allows coaches to coach all parts of the game and save time during practice.

In this 'open practice' video of an actual 'live' practice session, Montgomery creates game-like situations that involve the whole team, allowing you to work on any specific scenario you feel your team needs. Montgomery demonstrates the use of a front toss drill series to maximize the performance of your hitters, base runners, and defense in a competitive practice environment.

Front Toss Rotational Reps

The game of softball has so many scenarios to cover, and sometimes you can't work on all of them at practice. Coach Montgomery presents a live game-speed drill that combines three different skills into one practice drill that will prepare your defense for unique situations that may occur during a game. This drill and its variations allow you to:

• Give your hitters a chance to get BP reps and productive situational at-bats under game-like pressure with live runners.
• Train base runners how to react to and read live balls off the bat and run bases against an active defense.
• Prepare your defense with a large volume of situational repetitions and work on game strategies in a controlled environment.

Montgomery shows how to split into groups or rotate individually through all the stations while getting high-intensity reps at each one. This segment demonstrates how practical the drill is at working on any phase of the game (excluding pitcher defense) in a fast-paced, pressure-packed manner.

Infield/Outfield Pressure Reps

Game pressure and practice pressure are two completely different things. Montgomery teaches you a fast-paced team drill that creates defensive pressure and requires your players to communicate and hustle while working on reacting to a hit ball and making throws to all bases. The coach dictates the pace of the drill to help create game-like pressure and anxiety, which forces players to overcome adversity.

• Infield/Outfield Whole Team Pressure Drill - Montgomery demonstrates this drill using multiple players at each position, which allows the entire team to participate. Even though only one ball is in play at a time, everyone is involved in each play and must maintain their focus to know what their responsibility is on each batted ball.
• Infield/Outfield Starters Only Pressure Drill - This drill is a variation of the whole team drill in that it utilizes only one player per position, yet still maintains the fast-paced pressure defense concept. All players make throws to all bases throughout the drill and outfielders work on appropriate backups.
• Indoor Infield Pressure Drill - This variation explains how the same drill would work in an indoor facility, which allows you to see how to create the pressure defense drill with limited space available.

Throughout this 'open practice', Montgomery and her assistant not only explain the drill, they give real time feedback to the players during and between reps while still maintaining the pace of the drill. It's this pace and pressure which helps to create a level of anxiety that players will learn to work through as if they were in a game situation. She also explains what adjustments can be made by the fungo hitter to put additional pressure on a team by keeping the reps unpredictable.

Efficiently organizing an offensive practice in a team setting is a challenge for even the most experienced coach. With this video, Sandy Montgomery provides you with an excellent solution!

69 minutes. 2017