Baseball Drills & Coaching Tips

One of my baseball coaching philosophies is that the better we play catch, the better we play baseball.  Here are baseball drills to improve throwing motion.  For me it is ALL about catching and throwing.

Stage 1: wrist flips
This isolates forearm and wrist/10ft/7-10 throws/throwing knee/point throwing side elbow to partner-shoulder height/raise forearm and release ball to partner with flip of wrist.

Stage 2: full arm motion
This isolates throwing arm, upper body and core/10ft/7-10 throws/throwing knee/point glove side shoulder towards partner/full range of motion and follow-thru/bring glove up towards chest.

Stage 3: no step catch
This isolates upper body, core, upper legs/30 ft/7-10 throws/hips & shoulders towards partners/front foot open with toes pointing to partner/back foot blocked off/ full range of motion and follow-thru/bring glove up towards chest.

Stage 4: regular catch
This is full throwing motion/30-60 ft/10-15 throws/proper mechanics/plant foot/move feet to ball.

Stage 5: long catch
Introduce crow hop/60-90 ft/10-15 throws/increase intensity of throws/proper mechanics/balance and accuracy/move feet to ball.

Stage 6: functional catch
Introduces specific fielding position for throwing motion/30 ft/10-15 throws/begin with baseball in glove/get a good 4 seemed grip/proper mechanics.

Stage 7: quick catch
20 ft/10-15 throws/good footwork/catch on throwing side, turning glove shoulder to partner/quick exchange.

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If you’re looking for free youth baseball drills to really jump start your team, try this Relay drill. This is a great baseball drill for the catchers.  Younger catchers really need to understand that they are also the “coach” on the field.

THE RELAY DRILL:
Hit some baseballs deep and some balls shorter, (left and right too) so that the fielders are challenged and the relay player gets a feel for when to go out, stay put, or come deeper into the diamond to properly position themselves for the relay. The baseball coach between home and first hits grounders to the kids at short and the coach between home and third hits grounders to the kids at second base.  The kids field and throw to a receiver by the coach who hit them the ball.

They need to practice knowing when to have a player cut or throw home and they also need to practice the skill of making themselves heard.

You can explain to them that they need to understand the strength of the arm of each outfield player and that they must consider how deep the outfielder is when deciding whether to have the infielder cut or not.  This is also true for the relay person in that they need to understand the strength of the outfielders arm to determine where to position themselves for the relay (and of course when to know that there is no need for a relay) .

My experience has been that most catchers at first are not comfortable with talking (yelling out) loud enough to be heard.  With the catcher by your side, this is a great time for the coach to communicate with the catcher.

Since the kids love to compete, to make this more fun, you can devise a way to keep score for each team.

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Are you trying to find a way to make baseball practice more fun for your youth teams?  Here are two youth baseball coaching tips that have livened up practices for us and the payoff has been terrific.

I started having the boys run the bases at the end of each practice and timed them to monitor their progress.  It seems like a very small thing, but the boys always looked forward to trying to beat their previous time, and they improved a lot over the course of the season.  I’m convinced that this was responsible for turning many would-be singles into doubles, and doubles into triples, and even a couple of ITP homers.  It’s certainly not a revolutionary idea, but has been very effective with our younger players and a great way to close out a baseball practice.

We  also do a “base race” where we split into two teams as fairly as possible and have one group start at 2b, the other at home, and then have them run a relay around the base path. It takes a few times to get the teams selected so as to keep it close, but once we got it right the race outcomes were pretty even.

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Here is one of the baseball drills that I like to do to practice good throws to the cut off man and making sure that they throw it to the glove side so the cut-off man makes a smooth quick throw.

Line up 5 players about 40 feet apart. Start on the 1st base line and stretching through the infield and out to the left field fence. The guy on the 1st base line starts with the baseball. He throws it to the next guy who turns and throws it to the next guy and so on all the way out to the fence and then the same thing on the way back.

They practice throwing to the glove side of the player and the player catching it pivots and throws it to the glove side of the next player.

This is a fun baseball throwing drill to do as a competition with 2 or 3 teams racing throwing down and back. If they drop the ball they have to throw it back to the last player that caught it before they can proceed.

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When I’m asked for good youth baseball coaching tips, I like to share one of my favorite baseball drills.  It is a fun baseball drill for the entire team.  We call it “King of the Diamond.”

Split your team up into two.
1 team of (6) starts on the defense side. Everybody must play in the infield.  No catchers or pitchers, baseball coaches can handle that.  2nd team of (6) starts on the offense.  Let the players make their own line up.

The objective of the game for the Defense:
Have the ball beat the runner home.  The defense must throw the baseball and step on their base in this order, 1st base, 2nd base, 3rd base then home.  If the ball beats the runner then the runner is out.  (Go through the entire line up of 6 players).

The objective of the game for the Offense:
Hit the ball hard then make it home before the ball.  Have the runners do their best to hit the inside corners of each base.  They are always going for home runs in this drill.

This drill works on throwing accuracy for the infielders and base running for the hitters.  It’s a drill of speed but you always have to remind the Defense that the ball will always beat the runners on good accurate throws.  This is a good way to end the last 20-30 minutes of practice.

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