Back to the Gym

After a two-week, forced hiatus -- thank you, Mother Nature, for all the snow -- we're going back to the gym today. And, I'll tell you, I'm a little afraid for the focus level.

I grew up in the suburbs between DC and Baltimore, but my family moved Richmond when I went to college. These past few weeks have brought winter storm after winter storm of nightmarish proportions to my little hometown in Maryland. And needless to say, the majority of my friends from home have been in and out of work for nearly a month. In fact, the majority of my friends from home are teachers and haven't been work at all in nearly a month. Whereas I can't say that I don't envy them, I do feel bad for them from time to time. How do you deal with a class-full of kids who can't remember the what they were working on before the break, let alone the day that they last went to school?

Now today, I'm facing the same troubles of all my teacher friends: How do I get the girls back on track when we finally get back into the gym? (So maybe that's why I feel so empathetic towards my friends who just had a month-long surprise vacation while I continued to work?)

I've got both teams before we break up into offense and defense; and today's a 14s day on offense. I spent all week trying to figure out how I can keep a gym-full of 13/14-year-olds on track and I'll admit my plan's not genius. I'm not even sure it will work. But it's short and it's all that I've got right now: introduce a new skill. Of course, we'll run them to start and then we'll break up into O/D groups. Then, the 14s on offense today get to sit with yours truly and talk about..."the short game" of softball. What's on the agenda, more specifically?

• How is softball different from baseball?
• What is "the short game?"
• What is bunting?
• Why do we bunt?
• How do we bunt?
• When do we bunt?
• What is drag bunting?
• Why do we drag bunt?
• When do we drag bunt?
• What is slapping?
• Why do we slap?
• When do we slap?
• What is drag slapping?
• Why do we drag slap?
• When do we drag slap?
• What is swinging away?
• Why do we swing away?
• When do we swing away?
• Why & when do we we:
• Hit and run?
• Bunt and run?
• Slap and run?

Of course, I only have 20 minutes scheduled to cover all that -- so we may not get through it all. I'd at least like to get to a point where the girls understand when and why to bunt and slap. And if our "pitching" coach (he doesn't coach the pitchers but he can pitch to batters better than the rest of us) agrees, I'd like the girls to start at least slapping in his live hitting station.

Other than that, the plan's pretty much the same. A few tee stations, soft-toss stations and bunting off the machine.

So, we'll see... Wish us luck.

And happy Valentine's Day, by the way. I almost forgot. ;)