Practice week 1/Geared up 2.0

This week marks the first full week of 7U practice, with sessions on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday for roughly two hours each. Friday night's practice is at West Raleigh and is for one hour only, 5-6, and includes just hitting.

One of 7U's favorite drills early in practice has proven to be Around the Horn. This is when Coach Sean moderates a session of chatter between the coaches about the day's biggest sports topics...oh wait, that's a different Around the Horn. In the 7U version, three players go to each base (if you're a math whiz, you already know that one base has four players), and they try to whip it from base-to-base at an ever-increasing rate of speed, making good catches and throws each time. So far, the team record is 28.2 seconds, set Wednesday night at Kentwood. Coach Sean added a little spice to the drill by offering for the coaches to do five push-ups for every time the team got the ball all the way around without dropping it. For the record, the rest of the coaches were not consulted about this plan.

Much of the rest of the on-field time has been spent on defensive situations, knowing the proper cutoff plays, and being aware of how to handle any given outs/runners spots that might occur in a game. On Thursday, 7U also got some on-field hitting time, as most everyone took some live swings against the machine.

That same machine will be used this weekend in the tournament in Clemmons. The schedule for those games has been released, with the Saturday times set and the Sunday times dependent on Saturday's outcomes. Some of the other teams in the tournament will be doing coach pitch, but 7U Blue will be using the machine to ensure Coach Eric doesn't need Tommy John surgery soon speed the adjustment, since that same machine will be used in the district and state tournaments. 8U Red will also be in the Clemmons event. Although the two teams won't play each other on Saturday, it's possible they could reprise last Sunday's meeting in Wake Forest on Sunday in Clemmons.

Thursday night's practice also included a very important event: jerseys.

 

White jerseys were given out after practice. And yes, if you look at the above photo a little more closely, you will notice that some of them are a little on the big side:

No, Bryce is not modeling a new West Raleigh All-Star style. That's actually Coach Kevin's jersey. You know you are big-time when even the coaches get jerseys. Coach Sean was especially excited to get his new duds.

Friday's practice could potentially include even more gear. Hats would be an especially welcome addition, since the proliferation of different minor league hats in the dugout makes it really hard to do the cheers. One of the toughest parts of last weekend's tournament was when 7U tried to do the cheer that includes the line, "Go you mighty _________," which sounded a little something like this: "Go you mighty RiverbatMudBeeThundapperLookulls."