One of the most common questions coaches get at the end of a lesson or practice session is, “How long and how often should my daughter practice?”

While it’s a legitimate concern – parents want to their daughters get the full benefit and they get a better return on their investment – I tend to think they’re asking the wrong question. Here’s the reason: practicing is not actual time-based; it’s quality-based.

Take two players who are at the same skill level and have been assigned the same drill(s) as “homework:”

• One diligently does the homework, being mindful of her movements and attempting to execute the skill the way she has been taught. She does this for 20 minutes three times before she has her next lesson.
• The other goes out to practice for a half hour three days a week between lessons. But she doesn’t like doing drills because it’s “boring,” so she instead just decides to pitch from full distance or take full swings or field ground balls hit by a partner etc. the whole time.

Which one do you think will show improvement in the aspect that needs the most help as well as in the overall skill?

Player two put in more time – an extra half hour to be exact. If time were the only factor that counted she should do better at the next lesson.

But I will tell you from experience, and bet you dollars to donuts, that player two will be the one who is most likely ready to advance further at the next lesson. She may not have put in as much time, but she put in more effort to solve her biggest issues – the one that is most limiting her.

So if she’s a pitcher who was straightening out her arm on the back side of the circle, she is now far more likely to have a nice elbow bend or “hook” as her arm gets ready to throw the ball. If she is a hitter who was dropping her hands straight to her waist before swinging, she’s far more likely to be keeping them up and turning the bat over to get the ball.

That’s because she mindfully worked at changing what she was doing. She is serious about improving so she put in the effort to make those changes.

Player two, on the other hand, actually put herself further away from her goals by practicing as she did, because all she did was reinforce the poor mechanics she should be trying to move away from.

Yes, she put in the time and could mark it down on a practice sheet, but she didn’t put in the effort. Without the effort to improve, the time is pretty much meaningless.

She would have ended up in exactly the same place at best if she hadn’t practiced at all. And she may have ended up further behind because now those extra reps with the wrong techniques will make it that much more difficult to get her to the right path.

If your daughter is going to spend her valuable time on practicing her softball skills, or anything else for that matter, make sure it’s on something that will help her advance her abilities forward.

Have her make the effort to concentrate specifically on the areas that need improvement rather than spending all her time making full pitches, full swings, etc. and you’ll see faster progress that leads to greater softball success.

P.S. For any parents of my students who may think I’m talking about their daughter, don’t worry. I’m not. It’s a big club. But do keep it in mind as you work with your daughter anyway!