Guys need to play more baseball.

There’s a reason the greatest player development system in the world (MLB) has its players play a million games. They know that game experience is everything.

Does it take time? Yes. Does it sometimes seem like the coaches aren’t doing enough? Yes. Does it work? Yes.
Here is why it is integral to play more games:

1. Experience
You must make the same mistake 10 times with things that only happen on the field.

Yes – work on your swing in the cage; work on your pitching technique in the bullpen or indoors.

BUT! You have to do that with the pressure of a 3-2 count and the bases loaded. You have to mess it up a bunch of times, then use that experience to know what not to do – for example: don’t overthrow as a pitcher, or expand the zone as a hitter.

Here’s a concept:
How do you teach someone to ride a bike? Is it possible to describe the feeling to someone of balancing in the air? You can’t. Instead, riding a bike is the absence of falling. To quickly teach someone how to ride a bike, teach them how to fall. Once they know how to fall, they can then know how it is distinct from not falling, i.e. balancing in the air.

Playing baseball is the same. You have to know the distinctions between failure and success. And much like riding a stationary bike is distinctly different than riding a real bike where you can fall and get hurt, game situations are distinctly different because you can fail and there are consequences.

If you fail a bunch, you finally realize that maybe you should stay down on that grounder, or you should lay off the low spinning pitch. There is no preparation for life and baseball greater than experience.

2. Playing more leads to discoveries.
A friend once accidentally picked up a bunted ball in a game with a split-finger grip and threw it to first. The ball nose-dived towards the ground, and he thought, “Wow, that would be a great pitch.” He rode that split-finger to an 11-0 record one year in college and became an All-American. All because an accident born out of experience.

3. Playing baseball is fun.
Yes, practice can be and should be enjoyable. But it needs to be in service of playing baseball. If you only practiced and never played, there might be some level of enjoyment, but for anyone playing organized baseball, the games are what makes it all worthwhile.

Free play is well-known to be a prime developmental learning tool for young athletes. When they get older, it’s deemed not serious enough, despite the same exact learning that occurs.

The problem with playing baseball games in practice is that it is too slow. Here are some models for getting the best of both worlds – fast-paced practice, combined with real game play.

Batting Practice:
• Have a BP pitcher who throws lots of strikes.
• BP pitcher throws from the stretch, and quickly gets to the next pitch.
• Make players throw the ball to first in BP.
• Don’t chase fouls or bunts – throw the next pitch.

Intrasquad with a real pitcher:
• Hit fungoes between each pitch to infielders and outfielders.
• Have pitchers warmup mostly in the pen, and only take a couple of warmups off the mound.
• Have baserunners practicing steals
• Have the outfielders play shallow, so they practice going back on balls.
• Have three teams of 4, with eight players in the field, and a batting order of 4.

Modified game with a coach pitching
• Keep different scoreboards:
Teams with most hard-hit balls.
Runs
Least defensive miscues.

The point is that versions of live-pitched games are the ideal environment to learn. Fungoes, BP, bullpens – they are a supplement, but not a replacement for learning the game, experiencing the game, making distinctions between being focused and un-focused, relaxed vs. too tight, slowing the game down vs. speeding the game up.

Real Games
Look at it like pro ball – don’t get too high, nor too low. Realize the ebbs and flows of success over a season – it’s not football. By playing the long-term development game, not only will you win more games overall, but you’ll get better at a higher rate than your opponents. And thus, be your best when it’s most important – in the postseason.