Training AND Practice

People often use the terms training and practice interchangeably.  They are not the same thing.  

If you are involved in a training session, you are receiving new information and ideas, probably from an expert of some kind.  When you try out those new methods and/or mechanics, you are doing so under the watchful eyes of the people who are running the training session.  When baseball players say they are going to practice, they really mean they are going to training because they will usually be under the watchful eyes of coaches who are teaching them new things and guiding their development.

Practicing involves taking the things you have learned during various training sessions and getting the rep work in to make them a habit.  Most often, a person will do this on their own time away from any watchful eyes.

To be a good baseball player (or good at anything else for that matter) a player needs both training AND practice.  

Many players receive heavy amounts of training (private instruction, team workouts, instructional DVD’s, etc.) but never do the practicing on their own time to effectively put that training into muscle memory.  Other players do a ton of practicing on their own but rarely seek out new ways of doing things and sometimes even ignore people who can offer some help.  In their mind, they have all the answers and therefore don’t need more training.

Of course, both extremes do not help the player be all he can be.  

Are you and/or your players getting the proper training AND practice?

Tomorrow’s post:  The four D’s of defense