August 2023 – Jet Fisher, Jenks, OK
Question
You practice, train, compete, and might even travel with your teammates – the chemistry on your squad matters! Camaraderie, communication, and trust are essential for winning. What great team-building activities has your team done to build those connections? Give us details, and maybe a specific story showing how it impacts your on-field success….and your fun! Good luck!
Winner
Our July Contest Winner is….Jet Fisher of Jenks, OK!
A 4th Grader at Jenks West Elementary, Jet plays center field and pitches. When not playing baseball, he also loves basketball, fishing, and hanging out with his brother. Congratulations, Jet!
Winning Answer
We always start with a practice the night before we leave for a tournament.
1. Coach has us say one thing we liked about practice, and one thing we want to try and be better at before the tournament.
2. Once we arrive at the hotel, the coach brings all the players together, and hands out bags with positive cards and snacks in them.
3. We head out for a team meal.
4. Game day!
5. Everybody is at the field one hour early.
6. We start by having a team job with a different leader each time. Foul pole to foul pole, then we start our warm up process, high knees, butt kicks, jumping jacks and push ups. Then, we stretch as a team. We have a different leader here as well because our coach wants us to grow up to be leaders.
7. Everybody must high five and tap gloves before we move on.
8. Now it’s on to the team drills. We start by catching balls barehanded, and catching grounders barehanded. 25 for each player. Then we move on to catch – can’t ever have the same partner during the whole weekend. Learn and grow with all your teammates. Once we move to hitting, we field for all the hitters barehand, coach makes us get down and field every ball with two hands. We cheer on the hitters.
9. Coach will bring us together after this. We all have to give information on what we did good during warm-ups and what we think we need to focus on. Coach announces the pitcher, then we play. 10U – we still got a lot of work to do!
10. On to the field. We walk in number order with our bags. We get to the field, we get loose, and we get to work hoping to play well enough to win. The whole game, things will go wrong, but it’s how you handle them with your teammates and coaches that will make you better and be a better team.
11. After every game, we meet as a team. Coach talks, then he picks one player to talk about the game.
12. Then, it’s off to the team meal. We all love eating together. We are FAMILY!!
13. After that, you already know it’s pool time!! Let the bonding continue, and let us continue to be better with each other each day.
Thank you for your time. I hope you enjoyed my story.