Hold chalk talk practices in a classroom

Something that separated the Spiders from most youth teams was our Chalk Talk classroom practices, particularly in the winter. They made a big difference once the season started.

You’ve seen the agony from coaches during games. “Why are you not where you’re supposed to be?!” Maybe the coach covered that situation once at practice, on the field, between reps. The kid nodded. He had no idea.

The practice field is a good place for reps and drills. But it isn’t always the best place for deep thought about strategy and responsibilities, so we held several one-hour classroom sessions every winter.

I built a rather crude magnetic whiteboard (it did the trick) with a diamond on it. Nine players get a position. I set the situation: Runners on first and second, one out, a fast runner on second, tie game. Then I’ll say there’s an extra-base hit over the left fielder’s head, and every player moves his magnet to where he needs to be.

Then we talk about it. Did you get it right? If not, why should you be somewhere else? What if the ball is hit harder? Are there any gray areas?

We used the same board for hitting. With a runner on second and no outs, what are you trying to do? What about a runner on third with one out? It’s a 3-0 count with a runner on second and two outs, so you’re going to be aggressive on your pitch. Or would you?

We also used it for pitch calling (our catchers called their own games) and for baserunning and first-and-third defense. What is the other team trying to do, and do we want to let them?

As a result, we were often very crisp on the field. The players understood why they were standing where they were, and that sticks a lot longer than a memorized chart.