Wild Pitch Drill
The objective of this baseball drill is to make the pitchers redirect the catchers in the event of a pass-ball or wild-pitch in which the catchers loses sight of the baseball. It is specially important with a runner on third base. If the catcher knows where the ball is this is not applicable.

Make the catcher bend his knees head down (not looking forward) in front of home plate. The baseball coach should be positioned in front of the catcher with the ball on hand. The pitcher should be on the mound. The coach throws the ball left, right or to the back or on the front. And yells “go!” and retires out of the way.

The first movement should be for the catchers to look directly at the pitcher and he should signal with the right hand (if its to the right), left or down as he is moving to the catcher.

You can do variable as having an actual runner on third or time the drill. This drill could save you a game!

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Basically I will place 3 balls in a line 5-7 feet apart pointing to the base or plate.  I will line the outfielders close to the fence lined up with the balls.

After I say “go” the outfielders will sprint to the first ball and throw it home (if that is the chosen target).  After throwing it, charge the 2nd ball follow through and throw to the plate. Charge the 3rd and throw.  This will train them on base hits or slow rollers to the outfield to charge the ball and get it out of the outfield ASAP with runners on.

Another tip to use–doing defensive baseball drills off a brick wall.
Each player can work on individual footwork and techniques.  Instead of getting 10-15 balls on the field, each player can develop his footwork and hands.  The player throws the baseball against the wall and throws the ball back.

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You can go with just two lines for smaller teams.  Four lines keep the players from standing around.  Have two baseball coaches hitting balls to the outfielders from near home plate.  Coach the outfielders to be reacting to the ball when it is hit.  Start with grounders then move to fly balls.

Before the ball is hit, an outfielder from each outfield line steps out of the line and gets set. Once the ball is hit to the outfield, each infielder (shortstop and second base) plays the cutoff man for their respective outfielder.  The two sets of outfield/infield pairs run independently of each other.  Once an outfielder makes the play and throws to the cutoff man, he then runs to the back of the infield line.  The cutoff man throws the ball into the coach and runs out to the outfield line.

You can also add another set of lines for catcher to help the coaches.  Then the cutoff men would turn and throw home to their respective catchers.  You can switch it up from grounders to fly balls.

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Once your players are comfortable with the mechanics of the drill, have them partner up and sit 5 feet apart. Over time, increase the distance, to 10 feet, 15 feet, 20 feet and so on. This will also improve their arm strength and throwing mechanics.

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This is especially good for younger baseball players who are working on the concept of stepping on the base to get an out.  Split your team into two squads, half at first, the other at third.  Each squad has a baseball coach and a catcher near home plate.  The squad gets in a line.  The first player is at the position the rest are in line behind him.

Simultaneously, each coach hits a grounder to their fielder.  The fielder fields the baseball, steps on the bag and throws back to their catcher.  Count off each time the ball returns to the catcher.  The fielder goes to the end of the line and the next player goes to the position to be the fielder.  The process repeats.  First squad to 10 wins.

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This is a baseball drill idea for working on cut off throws. Arrange 4-5 pylons in the outfield at least 15 feet from one another with a baseball on or beside each one. Get the same number of players to spread out on the edge of the infield and randomly number them to be parallel to the number of pylons and balls.

Then, have one player start around 10 feet from the first pylon and on your mark they run to the first pylon. Just before they get there the baseball coach yells out number 3. Lets say at this point this will tell the player at the pylon which numbered player to throw it to. The only thing is they won’t know exactly who this person is. Only the person with that number knows. The responsibility of that player is to raise their hands and yell the persons name or something like “here here”.

The player that is throwing wants to make a good throw to the player that is the cut off guy. Once he completes the throw he continues on to the next pylon (go left to right)

I made this baseball drill up last year because I was finding a few things frustrating:

1. My team didn’t do a lot of talking on the field especially when outfielders had to make a throw into the infield.
2. Players didn’t know where to throw it to make a cut off or the infielders didn’t know who was supposed to be the cut off guy.
3. When throwing to a cut off man, whoever it might be at the time during a game, the ball never ended up to that person.

I found this drill to be a good introduction to cut off throwing, accuracy and improving communication on the field between players.

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This is a baseball drill my young outfielders love.  It can be boring at times in the outfield so this drill seems to get them fired up.

You need a shortstop and a second baseman with a catcher at the plate.  The rest of the players are split in half.  One half in left field and the other half is in right field.

-Coach (at the plate) hits a pop-up (or throws it) to the left fielder.

-Leftfielder immediately throws the baseball to the shortstop (cut-off man).

-Shortstop immediately throws the ball to the second baseman at the base.

-Second baseman immediately throws the ball to the catcher at the plate.

-As soon as the catcher catches the ball,  the baseball coach launches another fly ball, this time to the right fielder, and the cycle starts all over again.  At this time the leftfielder now becomes the shortstop.  The shortstop goes to the back of the line in left field.

Once the play is complete in right field, the right fielder becomes the new second baseman.

This is a non-stop drill.  In fact, I call it a rapid fire drill.  I will use my stopwatch to time this drill.  The drill is not over until every one has gone through and the catcher steps on the plate.  After that, the players switch sides of the field and we start the drill over again.  You will be surprised how much speed your players pick up after a couple of times doing this.

Don’t forget to time the second half of this drill after the switch.  Sometimes your team may be faster on one side than the other.  You can add baserunners to this drill if you want.  I like to have two baserunners, one on third and one on first.  I tell the runners to tag up and go after the catch.

You can add whatever you want to this drill to gain more knowledge on any potential game situation this game can come up with.  The sky is the limit.

It brings so much joy to the outfielder who gets an assist in an out.  As I always stress to my young outfielders, you are very imporant in this defensive setup.  You are the last line of defense.  Your infielders have you to back them up.  All you have is a fence!

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From Allen…
Hitting the cut-off man is real important. This is a baseball drill we use often to reinforce this skill.

I string guys out in teams of four from the first base line to the fence in center and left field. Each team member is about 90 feet apart. Spread the teams out far enough that an errant throw doesn’t kill anybody. They all start on my signal and relay the baseball to the next man all the way to the end and back.

Each player must make accurate throws to the glove side so the relay man can turn that way and not have to turn awkwardly back to the wrong side. They also must give the relay man a target and catch the ball with both hands so the throwing hand is already at the ball.

I good-heartedly rag the slowest teams to finish and most of the time they rise to the challenge with accurate throws, clean catches, and pride that they don’t have to run an extra lap or two for not performing to team standards. Make the players rotate in their line so the same players are not always on the end of the line.

If there’s a bad throw or a missed catch, the ball goes back to the point of the screwup before that team can proceed. It creates competition and teamwork. The kids (middle school) love it, but I wouldn’t overdo it; 10-15 minutes, maybe once or twice a week.

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From Bruce…
Horseshoe Drill

I was blessed enough to play at the D1 level as a baseball catcher and one of the most beneficial baseball drills we learned as catchers was called the horseshoe drill.

We would draw a horseshoe shaped line around outside of home plate with the open side of the horseshoe facing out. We then would practice blocking balls in the dirt by sliding the knee to the outside of the horseshoe to the side that the baseball was thrown to keeping the body low and wide always with the face down looking at the ball (don’t pull your head).

This baseball drill helps to keep the ball in front of you because it puts your body at an angle facing inward toward the plate and causes the ball to deflect inward instead of deflecting off to the side.

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From David…
I coach modified baseball in my school district. One of the toughest skills for my pitchers and first basemen to master has been picking off the runner from first base.  We would practice the traditional way – with a pitcher on the mound, a first baseman, and a runner – but it has never really panned out.

About 3 yrs ago I decided to come up with a new baseball drill to practice this skill.  When we finish our long toss, I bring each pair of players back to a starting distance of about 20-25 ft.  While one line of players remains stationary I have the remaining line across from them move one player over to their left so that the original starting pairs are ‘offset’ in a diagonal line similar to the configuration from the pitcher’s mound to 1B.

The drill begins with all of the baseballs with the players in the same side of the formation.  I then go over throwing from the stretch – explaining that not all of the players may be pitchers but for this drill we need an equal number of pitchers and first basemen.  I start with the pitchers facing home plate and then walk them through the motion – coming set and then looking over to 1B without moving their upper body.  Once they’ve checked out the runner, I have them turn and throw to the first baseman (his partner from the long toss).  We practice both stepping off the rubber and quickly pivoting to throw to
1B.  Their target is the first baseman’s knee closest to the base.

Once the first basemen receive the throw, they become pitchers.  They face CF and we repeat the drill.  We usually do this so that each pitcher makes 5-10 throws to 1B.  We started practicing the pick-off this way and I immediately noticed that my pitchers were able to keep opposing runners much closer to 1B – in fact so close that some teams stopped trying to run on us.  In one game, the other team threw to first probably 15 times through the entire 7 inning game to no avail.  We were
safe every time and successfully stole 5 or 6 bases.  Their runners stayed pretty close to first, only attempted to steal twice, and – the ONLY time we threw to first WE PICKED THE BASE RUNNER OFF!

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