From Kris…
Here is a variant of a common baseball drill.  We do it a lot early in the year more for conditioning and arm strength.

Position
- 1 baseball player at 3rd,
- 2 players at 2nd - 1 runner and 1 fielder; the runner holds his glove because he’ll need it
- the rest of them are in left field.

From behind 3rd, hit a fly ball to left field.
The “runner” on second has to tag-up.
The LF throws to 2nd for a simulated tag out
Fielder at 2nd hrows to 3rd for an attempted real tagout.

The rotation:
Player that was playing 3rd, runs out to LF and gets in line.
The runner is now the 3rd baseman.
The fielder at 2nd is now the runner.
The LF had to run in and be the fielder at 2nd.

The kids love it because there is very little standing around.  I like it because it works on outfield catching and throwing, infield throwing for a tags, timing of a tag-up and sliding, the infield catch and tag.  There is a lot of running.  Although the boys don’t seem to mind.

The first couple of times it’s kind of chaotic, but once the kids catch on it is a blast.
We even keep score by giving a point for good throws, and subtract a point for leaving too early on the tag up, or being thrown out.  The kids always love some competition.

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From Jamie…
T-Ball Drill–The Speed Skater:

We line up in the outfield to do this baseball drill.  Then I have them jog (slow)….I will yell out “Left hand” and they will drag their left hand on the ground, continuing to jog….I will then yell out “Up” they will then begin to jog again….I will yell out “Right hand” and they will drag their right hand on the ground.  We would continue this drill for about 5-10 minutes weaving left and right, circles.  Let your imagination take control.

This is a great t-ball drill…it breaks up the conditioning routine, builds lower back and leg strength, increases flexibility, and reinforces the importance of getting the glove all the way to the ground whether in the outfield coming up on a grounder and making a throw or in the infield “attacking” the slow grounder.

I hope this helps….I haven’t seen many baseball coaches do it, but it was something we used to do in the old days and I have passed it on to my players.

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From David…
One baseball drill for conditioning our players like is a game we call two person touch.

Half the team at home plate, other half split on 1st and 3rd.

Soft toss to a team member at home, he runs bases until both of the team members (1 on first and 1 on 3rd) run and touch the ball he hit, his team getting 1 point for each base he can touch prior to the two players reaching and touching the hit ball.

After they touch the ball the players switch from 1st to 3rd, each player hits once and each player will run for the ball twice.  Then switch the half teams and have the others hit.

(Variation:  let the players who are running after the ball pick it up and throw it to the other player running)  Players have fun competing, but get a good run too.

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From Robyn…
I have a baseball drill that my 10 year olds love to do. It’s the first thing that they ask to do when practice starts; although, I use it as a reward at the end of practice. It’s a grounder’s game that they LOVE.

You may have already heard about it but this is what I do:

-Split the team in half
-Use bats as the boundaries on each end (4 total - 2 each side)
-Space the bats about 20-30′ apart and they line up between the bats facing the other team so it’s 6 against 6
-Hard grounders are then exchanged between teams
-If the ball gets thru, that player is out
-This continues until one team (or both) is down to 1 player - then if the team with one player stops the thrown grounder from going thru, he can pull in another teammate…bumping the advantage of that team up to 2 players
-The first team to lose all the players, loses
-The teammates can back each other up as long as they don’t go behind the imaginary line between the bats - so the player can charge the ball and the team can back him up

The winning team gets to choose what the losing team does - laps or base sprints. They LOVE making this decision.

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From Ray…
Everybody moves baseball drill:
One of the drills that I use for my catcher and corner fields start with a batter on 1st base less than 2 outs.

Bunt situation ball is fielded by either corner.
Catcher, when sees that the baseman are going to field the ball, runs to 3rd base.  3rd or 1st fields ball, throws to 1st for the out.
2nd baseman who is covering 1st throws to 3rd where the catcher is ready for a tag play on the runner whose was on 1st sliding into 3rd.
3rd baseman covers home in case of an overthrow and the 1st baseman is backup.
Right fielder backs up 1st, left fielder backs up 3rd and center fielder backs up Short stop at 2nd.

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From Greg…

I would like to add a baseball drill I made up this year. To keep it short I call it the  (SCHOOL NAME) Drill.  Just a little bit of everything rolled into one; at the end of every practice we run the “Hawks drill”.

I place 3 balls along first base-approx 6 ft apart.  A coach on 1st, players start at home plate 1 at a time, sprint to first ball and throw to 1st, then back to touch plate, run 2 second ball throw to first, back to plate and third ball the same.  After throwing third ball they sprint back to plate, touch plate then sprint around 1st & 2nd (like hitting a double) still have their gloves.

After rounding 2nd they take a ground ball from coach hitting from plate then they throw to 1st, sprint to 3rd take another ground ball to first, then they put their glove down and start on third with a lead off or two.  Then they steal home and slide. After they hit home they sprint to third and before they can get their gloves back they do 15 push ups and a complete lap around the field.

Any missed throws, missed touching bases etc. they go to the end of the line and redo it until they get it right.

This may help some, may not, but I coach high school and they make a fun game out of this.

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From Robert…
A baseball drill that I like to do is for conditioning and helps with mechanics and arm strength we play long toss with footballs. If you throw it right it helps strengthen the arm as well as working on your mechanics.  We do this in the gym during our pre season. We have two groups QB’s and WR’s .The WR we use like outfielders going back on fly balls.

It brings some fun to the practice as well as getting a work out.

From Bradley…
Well we use several drills and I am sure some of which a lot of other coaches use.

I was having a problem with them dipping with their swing or upper cutting. So what we do before we hit off Tees is I have my batter slide the bat behind their back holding the bat to where it only allows a small bit of the sweet spot sticking out.

I have them practice with twisting and making contact with the ball on the Tee. It not only has helped with the swing but it has also taught them the proper way to use their hip and drive through the ball and finish a swing.

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From William…
My idea isn’t really so much a baseball drill but it’s a way to take advantage of warm-ups.  Keep in mind I’m dealing with 12 year olds but I’ll bet many of the same aspects apply.

1)  We run what we call squares.  Think of a square the distance is up to you.  1st length we sprint.  2nd length we practice the cross over step as if we were stealing then keep going along cross over step until we reach second, 3rd length we sprint, 4th length we jog.  We do this 4 times to get out hearts pumping
2)  Then we stretch out arms and legs.  — I’m sure you know all the proper techniques
3)  Then we toss the ball
4)  Lastly what we call the Quarterback Drill

Each kid takes a ball.  Half on one side of the OF half on the other.  2 coaches in the middle.  The kids throw the ball to the coach and begin to run toward him.  Coach rolls a grounder.  Kid flips back to coach.  He should be about even with the coach now.  A kid continues his run and runs a football pattern coach throws ball as a QB would throwing him a pass.  The kid is now on other side of OF and he gets in the other line to run towards the second coach.  Around and around they go.

It’s great warm-up.  Gets the hearts pumping.  The kids are practicing one long throw to coach in the middle.  Picking up a grounder and most importantly for me is catching the fly ball over their heads with the QB throw.

At this age kids have trouble judging fly balls and running with their gloves down etc.  Great way to practice this.  Even with older kids I’d bet it would be a way to get in running with a little extra excitement.  Also allows for jogging and then a quick sprint catching the fly ball which is also good practice for older athletes.

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From Tim…
Want something a little more challenging than suicides?

Have your team run 8-6-4-2s.
Line up your team on one sideline.
They have 60 seconds to complete 8 back & forths between the sidelines
Each time they get to the sideline where they started they count up 1, 2, 3, etc…
If they make it, give them 30 seconds of rest being sure to breathe in though the nose and out the mouth.
Next they have 45 seconds to complete 6 back & forths.
Rest.
30 seconds to complete 4 back & forths
Rest
15 seconds to complete 2 back & forths

If they don’t make any one of sets, they start all over again.

From Rusty…
To keep practice moving, create a frenzy pace, increase teamwork, communication and to incorporate conditioning during practice, have smaller groups 2-3 with a conditioning station as one of the stations.  2-3 people shagging live hitting ensures that no one stands at the bucket, but they have to move and use teamwork to keep the pitcher supplied with balls. Also, less numbers in a group means less standing around.

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From Beto…
My baseball drill targets hand eye co-ordination.
Growing-up in a small neighborhood in Southern Arizona, with approximately 15 kids ages ranging from 7 to 12 we were always looking forward to Spring and Summer to play sandlot baseball.  During the Fall and Winter we developed a game called “Suicide” a game similar to hand ball.

To play suicide you need a Tennis Ball a minimum of three players (the more the better) and a big brick wall (this obviously works better if the floor area between the players and the wall is hardwood, concrete or pavement).  All Players line-up horizontally approximately 20 feet parallel to the wall. The player with the tennis ball throws the ball at the wall (without bouncing it before it reaches the wall). If the player bounces the ball he has an out.

Once the airborne ball reaches the front wall and bounces back another player must catch it with his throwing hand.
If the players drops the ball he must run towards and touch the wall before the next player’s throw beats the runner to the wall.
If the throw beats the runner, the runner has an out.
If the runner beats the throw, the runner is safe.
When a player accumulates 3 outs he stands at wall as a target for the rest of the players.

Every player must throw at the target (Player with 3 outs) once.
Once every player had his turn, you must start over.
No-one wants to be the target so all players do their best to catch the ball and make a good throw.

This develops good hand-eye co-ordination, good throwing speed, and accuracy.  Since a tennis ball is soft no-one ever gets hurt.

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