Back to Back Fly Ball Drill

• A player and a partner stand back to back.
• One player underhands the baseball into the air and shouts “look” or “now”.
• The opposite player then turns ans searches for the ball in an attempt to catch the fly.

This baseball drill is made easier or more difficult by the height of the ball and by how long the tosser waits to shout the turn phrase.  Rotating partners can add to team building.

Another thing that our kids really like to do are “play” with non-baseball equipment.  During our indoor sessions, we take practice “swings” with a medicine ball.  The batter holds the ball with two hands and makes a good swing throwing the medicine ball to his partner.  The kids added a penalty for dropping the heavy ball or for a bad toss, ten push-ups.

The key is to make sure they are swinging their arms and ball in a good swing plane and using their hips and legs to put the extra push into the swing.  The kids really enjoy it.  Another variation is to see how far you can throw the medicine ball.  Again, the focus is on the power from the legs.

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1. Target practice.
Put a pail or garbage can or something similar in the corner of the gym.
Lineup the players in the opposite far corner and have them throw a one hop strike to try to knock down the pail or to get the baseball into the can. The can will be laid down and face the players.
Winners get a double bubble, candy or prize of your choice. Good competitive baseball drill.

2. Suicides run.
Line up across the gym.
Run to center and touch the line.
Run back to the start and touch the line.
Run to the far end and touch the line.
Run back to the start and finish off with a slide into the wall.

It is a great way to finish off the practice.

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• Two lines about 8-10 feet apart.
• First in line face each other.
• They shuffle together down the floor in good fielding position.
• While they shuffle, they roll a baseball back and forth fielding it barehanded.

We look for good form, hands fielding out front, glove hand down, other hand covering over top. Ball comes up to chest before rolling back to partner.

After shuffling down and back (players get to shuffle to the right and left), they hand the ball to the next pair in line.

Outfield drills are harder indoors, but here is one that my kids love and is very simple.

We use softee balls at regulation size and we start at the end of the gym.  We place a garbage can at the other end of the gym.  The goal is to throw the ball with one bounce into the garbage can.

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Try this indoor baseball drill–a  baseball throwing drill:

Use 2 inch painters tape; make two 20×20 squares on gym wall with a 4×4 square in the center.

Divide the team into 2 lines. Starting about 20 feet away throw the baseball. If they get it in the square it is worth 1 point, bulls eye is worth 3 points. Working on a 2 minute time limit, the ball is thrown hard enough to come back as a grounder to the next player inline.  At the end of 2 minutes the team with the lowest score does 10 pushups then move them back another 10 feet and repeat.

This can be modified to an outside baseball drill by hanging catchers’ chest pads off back stop. The ball won’t return so each play needs to have a baseball and someone at the back stop to keep score and throw back the balls.

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Try this baseball drill for indoor baseball practices.  All you need is (2) batting tees.

Split your team into (2) groups.  A baseball coach will be hitting grounders to the players in each group. They will field them cleanly and throw to a “TEE” you have strategically placed in your practice area, with a ball on top.

Object is to hit the baseball that is resting on top of the tee with the throw. (helps develop throwing accuracy)You can move the tee to any number of positions to simulate where you want your fielders to throw to. Keep score between the 2 groups.

Wall Game –
Hitting drills become more fun with our team when we play the Wall Game. At half court we set up two batting tees. On most high school gyms there are lines at various heights on the wall. Anything that is hit above the line is an out, line drives caught are on out and any ball that hits the wall is a point. 3 outs in an inning and we change from fielding to batting.

This provides work on defense and coverage as well as players stagger themselves across the gym floor. The batters alternate hitting from each team. This flows real well, helps the players focus on hitting line drives and power. More than anything it allows work on defense at the same time as hitting.

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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 Mike…
Two of my player’s favorite indoor baseball drills are two that we call “Knock-out” and “Knock-out Supreme“.
The two versions differ in that in one version four players line up inside the designated lane area of two basket ball hoops(THIS WORKS WELL WHEN DONE ACROSS THE LONG GYM FLOOR UNDER TWO SIDE BASKETS.) The players stand shoulder to shoulder across the end line at the bottom of the lane. One side starts with a softee(indoor ball) they throw the ball into the four players on the other end line. The idea is to throw a ball past the opposing team, if the ball is missed or dropped that player exits the game. If the defensive player catches an opposing players throw in the air the thrower is out. the game continues until only no player remains on one team. We do this as a circuit drill during defensive stuff inside the gym. With about 15 minutes allotted we usually get a winner of 3 of 5 games. We post the wins and losses and the players really compete. (We also provide all of our players with mouth pieces each season) This drill is done after all throwing warmups and catching is completed.

The second verson “Knock Out Supreme” has the same theory, knock out you opponents. Each opponent knocked out scores a run for the hitting team. In this verison one team lines up at half court in the center circle, with bats as there are four softee balls. The opposing team (3 to 4 players) line up shoulder to shoulder on the end line in the lane under the basket facing the hitters. The hitting team hits softee balls out of their own hands(toss -ups) with the intent of driving a ball past the defensive players. If the defensive players miss the ball one player steps out and the hitting team scores a run.

Each player on the hitting team(4) gets to bat until the defensive team catches any combination of groundballs or line drives for a total of three outs. A fly ball is considered an out, any ball blooped over the defensive players is deemed catchable and an out. Once three outs are obtained the offensive team(hitters) become defensive players and vice versa. To add a little hustle after three outs are obtained both teams sprint to their new locations and the hitters can start as soon as all four players have a ball and bat in their hands. Only one hitter can hit at a time, they must stay at the center court circle at mid-court line and if the ball they hit doesn’t stay within the area of the lane lines of the defensive players it is an out.

This drill makes the hitters hit the ball down up the middle and promotes hustle and fearless defensive action. We keep scores and tallies of weekly winners and change the foursomes every other week. This drill is done as a warmup for hitting sequences, tee work and machine hitting.

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From Tony…
The players really like this baseball drill for indoor practice.

I call it TEAM DEFENSE!!!!!

Split Players into two equal teams.
One team will be hitting off a tee, or soft toss, from about 40-50 feet away.
The other team will be playing defense, spread out against the far wall.
The players can spread out any way that they think their team will be successful.  All players must be behind the foul line, for safety.

All players on hitting team get one swing.  If the defense allows the ball to hit the wall behind them, they have to do some sort of exercise– plyometrics, pushups, crunches, etc.  After all hitters have hit, the defense sprints to the side and does the set amount of exercises.

The teams then switch roles. If the defense stops all of the hitters from hitting the wall, then the hitting team, must do the exercise.

The kids really play hard together, and push each other.  We try and get a quick game in every day or so, to keep their excitement.

For safety, we use Incrediballs.  They still fly pretty fast. Great line drive drill for hitters.  They must hit the wall under the 8ft. line on the wall.

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From Harold…
For this time of year, we practice inside. I use the wall drill for my outfielders.  I have my six outfielders stand in two rows, 3 in each row, about 5 feet a part. They turn their backs to the wall, I throw the ball against the wall and I yell “GO”. All the fielders turn around and the fielder closest to the ball yells “Mine” and make the catch.

From Allen…
We have a ground ball baseball drill that we love.

You make three lines and need three coaches.
The first coach throws a ground ball to the left and the fielder must shuffle to the left catch the throw back to the coach.

Then the fielder goes to the next line where that coach throws to the right.

Then the fielder goes to the next line where that coach throws a fly ball.

All coaches do this continuously and the fielders keep switch lines.

This drill works on moving the feet properly to catch any ball and to make good throws.

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From Jason…
I coach high school baseball in Pennsylvania so the early season weather is always an issue.  For us, the entire preseason, most of tryouts, and part of the early season is spent in a small high school gym.  The following are some of the things we have found to do:

1.  Speed and agility.  We stress an aggressive running attach.  To prepare for the season we work hard on ladders, form running, and other quickness drills.  This pays huge dividends in season.  Not only does it make us quicker, but it also strengthens the legs which helps us as hitters and pitchers.
2.  Fundamentals. We drill fundamentals in doors.  We stress fielding techniques, pitchers form and mechanics, swing technique.  We work on reading pitchers pick off moves, and executing pick off moves.
We work on run downs, bunt defense, and 1st and 3rd situations.  By the time we get to tryouts, we have the majority of our plays already installed.
3.  Have some fun.  Indoor practices get monotonous so we try to keep them fun.  We will use Easton incrediballs and play homerun derby, or we play a 6 on 6 game with live pitching where we can work on reacting to and hitting off of live pitching.
4.  Indoors we take a lot of swings.  One of the drills we use involves the use of the Easton Incrediballs and the Easton easy curve balls.  We pull the curtain dividing the gym in two.  We then set up two L-screens on each side, creating 4 batting stations.  We then rotate the kids through each batting station, stressing something different at each station.  We will usually stress opposite field hitting at one station, off speed pitches at a second station, hitting in certain counts at a third station, and mix everything together at a fourth station.  The kids who are not up are bunting on the side.
This is a sampling of the things we do indoors.  We have many other drills we have had to come up with over the years to account for the poor weather we must deal with.  I hope you enjoy.

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