Brian Windheim

My kids play baseball here in Sherwood, Oregon.  We don’t play Little League here … we play Junior Baseball.  Practices start in late March, and the season runs through mid-July.  Spring is the rainy season in western Oregon, and lots of baseball fields around here are generally unplayable when it rains.  We’re starting to get more and more artificial turf fields for football, soccer, and the occasional high school baseball field, but youth baseball is grass and dirt.

I coach youth baseball, and I practice in the rain.  This makes me a little less popular with the parents, but the reality of it is this: if you don’t practice in the rain, you pretty much don’t practice.  I don’t use the infield, though, and I have no trouble running an effective practice when it is wet.

There are many things that you can do in the rain, especially if you are willing to set up a temporary field in a patch of grass … like the outfield:

• Baserunning
• Pickoffs
• Bunt coverage
• Backing up the throw
• Throwing drills

I carry multiple practice plans around, and I always have a rain-ready plan.