Baseball Practice Drills

Andrew's Favorite Practice Drills

Specific Drills I’ve found to be very successful in 8U

Learning how to catch-  Use a tennis ball for this drill.  Have the player keep their throwing hand behind their back. From about 10-15 Feet, Toss the tennis ball to the player.  Main instruction-  teach them to use fingers up, teach how to track the ball, by explaining “high five” the ball as it is coming towards you, Then introduce trying to grab the ball at the moment the balls is coming into their palm.  Repeat until they become proficient at catching the ball barehanded, then reintroduce the glove.  Make sure the avoid the “bucket catch” where the turn their palms up towards the sky to try and catch the ball.   I found by trying to keep their throwing hand in their back pocket will alleviate the temptation to bucket catch.

Fun throwing Drills

Bucket stack.   Stack six, 5 gallon buckets. 3 on the bottom, 2 on the 2nd row, 1 on top.  Or you can make your pyramid bigger.  Split the team into two.  From a distance, have each player throw one ball at a time with the goal of knocking the buckets over.  First team to knock all the buckets over, win.

Hang two rings on the fence that are roughly 2 feet in diameter,  you can make a ring using ribbon by threading it through the chain link in a circle.  Split the team into two.  From 30-40 feet away.  Have the players one at a time from each team throw a ball with the goal of getting the ball inside the circle.  Award a point system.  Each ball the makes it into the ring is worth X points.   Once everyone has throw the ball.  Team with most points Wins.

Fun Fielding Drill for ground balls-  Cut 10” rings out of cardboard, or use rings from the sporting goods store.  Line up players at 2nd base and have a coach at first.   Players will insert their hands into the rings.  One hand on top will be palm down, one hand on the bottom will be palm up.  The will field the ball with their bottom hand, and the top will close down ontop of the ball as they field it.   Using the rings around their wrists.  Keeping the wrists against the ring will keep the ring in place,  Roll the ball to the player,  as the player goes down to field the ball.  When they close both hands over the ball the ring will fall through their hands and the player can make the throw from 2nd base to first base.  This is a great tool and drill to teach how to use both hands like an alligator when fielding ground balls.  

You Can teach 7 and 8 year olds cut off situation basics.  Explain the basic situation of where to throw a ball from the outfield into 2nd base with no runners on.  Split the group into two.  Send one group to left field, one group to right field.  Select one player form each group to come in and play 2nd base and Short stop.  Switch the players up every 4-5 rounds.  Give everyone the ability to play the infield position.    Throw the ball into right field and coach the players in the infield on what to do.  2nd baseman will go out towards the right fielder and ball to be the cut off player with his hands in the air yelling “CUT CUT CUT”.  Instruct the shortstop to cover the base for the relay throw coming from the 2nd baseman.     Reset the players and then throw the ball into left field.  Instruction the shortstop to be the cut off and set up between the leftfielder and 2nd base.   Instruct the 2nd baseman to cover the bag and take the throw from the shortstop.  Repeat this drill and switch out players.  After the first round kids usually pickup what they need to do and you can speed up the pace.

2 Tee Drill is great for all ages.  Place 2 hitting tees together.  Place the ball on the front tee,  then setup the 2nd tee about one foot behind the first tee.  Bring the 2nd tee without a ball up,  just under the same height of the first tee with the ball.  Instruct the player to swing and hit the ball on the front tee without hitting the tee behind it.  This is a good drill for those swinging up at the ball (Upper Cut) and help train a more level swing.

Soft toss with tennis balls.  Coach will be on one knee or bucket sitting across from the batter.  Coach under hand tosses the tennis ball into the strike zone area just around the front hip of the batter.  Have the batter hit the ball into the chain link fence on the foul line side.  Make it fun and give points.  0 points for swing and miss, 3 points for hitting the ball into the fence,  10 points for hitting the tennis ball through the chain link fence.   A tennis ball will go through the chain link when it is hit just right.


Specific Drills I’ve found to be successful in 10U/12U

D2 Weave (Double Play Drill).  Split team into two groups.  Half goes to shortstop, the other half to the 2nd base position.  This is a double play drill that can be chaotic.  I found by keeping the speed of the drill up.  Players will naturally find their footwork and timing when turning this double play drill without having to teach it.  The basics of this drill, have a full bucket of balls,  have a coach at first base, and coach at the pitchers mound.  Have one player from each position step up to play, the remainder of the group stays back to give them enough room.  You will Roll the ball to either the 2nd baseman or shortstop.   Which ever side you roll to,  the opposite position will run to cover the 2nd base bag.   The player with the ball will underhand flip or overhand throw depending on how far they are from the base to the player covering 2nd.   Teach two hands to receive the ball and that player will make the throw to first.  The weave name in this drill comes here.  The players will flop sides.  The player who just played second base, will go behind the players to the shortstop side, and the shortstop position will do the same only going over to the players lined up at 2nd base.  As you go through this drill, start slow for 2 rounds,  then the coach rolling balls to the players can speed up drill by rolling balls right after the players make the throw to first.   Coach the players coming up next that theyhave to watch the coach rolling the ball,  not the players doing the drill right before them.  Speed of this drill will make it more successful.  The more you do it, the better the players get at understanding how it works.

Base Running Relay  -  Split into two teams.  This drill emphasizes  the importance of getting extra bases.  When a ball is hit to the outfield, the mindset should be more than one base at a time.  Line up on group in the left hand box, one group in the right hand box.  Coach will stand at the pitchers mound, you can use tow baseball bats and click them together to mimic the sound of the bat hitting the ball.   At contact.  The player in the left hand box will round first, run to and stop at 2nd base.  The player in the right hand box, will run through first base.   Each player will stay at those bases.  Coach will click the bats again,  Player on 2nd will run to home plate.  Player on first will run to 3rd base.  The players in the batters box will follow the same direction.  Left hand box to 2nd base,  right hand box to 1st.   At this moment, Bases should be loaded.  Continue several times through the order and have players switch boxes as they com back across home plate.

Fun Games for post practice (last 15 min)

TIC TAC TOE Relay-  Take baseball bats and make a tic tac toe board with the bats.  Split kids into two teams.  One team is gloves, other is hats or balls.  On a time start, one runner from each team will run to the tic tac toe board 40-60’ away and drop their glove or hat into one section.  Then race back to their teammates.  Runners cannot leave until their teammate crosses the line.  Team who finishes with 3 in a row first wins.

STEAL THE BACON-  make 2 teams.   Have a item like a ball or a glove in the center of the field.  Each team will line up in a straight line about 10 feet from the ball opposing each other.  If you have 10 players,  5 will be on each side.   You will assign each player from each team a number from 1-5.   As the coach will be the caller.  You will call out a number between 1 and 5.   The players with that assigned number from each team will run and grab the object with the goal of getting it back across their own side without being tug by the other player.   You can call multiple numbers at one time as well to make it more interesting.   Goal of the game, get the object in the center and get safely back to your side of the field without being tagged.

CLEAN THE FIELD-  Line up foam or whiffle balls.  Split up into two teams.   On the word go or whistle,  teams will race to the balls and throw them into the opposing teams “Field”  after 60 seconds the team with less balls on their side win.

BASE RELAY -  Split into two teams.  One team goes to 2nd base,  2nd team goes to home plate.   On the word go or whistle.  The first runner from each team will leave 2nd base and home plate.  When you run a lap around the bases and return to where you started, the next runner will go.   The first team with all their runner to cross their starting spot wins.