Bandana Drill
I prepared 6 blue and 6 red bandanas, wrapped them up and put them into a bucket. When they arrived for training, each one in turn reached into the bucket and pulled out one bandana. These were then their teams. They immediately had that sense of competition and a new determination was instilled in them.

We then had drills where they competed against each other.

Their favorite one was where I gave them a large bucket each, placed half way in the diamond.

They split up with 3 in each team on opposite sides of the diamond. Each one was to take a throw in turn and keep the rotation going until their points total was achieved.
The object was to line up a throw and hit the bucket (5 points) or get it into the bucket (10 points). First team to 50 won.

What it taught them:
Throwing straight and hard.
If they missed the bucket, the throw had to be fielded by their opposite player.
The importance of backing up your team mate – they wasted a lot of time if the ball was missed.
When the bucket was hit, they had to quickly replace the bucket, fetch the ball and get back into position for their next throw.

So – that meant they developed their throwing skills, their fielding skills and backing up all in one drill.

They often continued the game up to 100 points as they improved and just wanted to BEAT the other team.

We let them re-draw their bandanas the following week, so they didn’t always play on the same sides.

Overall, they became sharper and enjoyed the competition aspect.

Feed the Gorilla
Here’s a fun pitching drill it’s called feed the gorilla.

You get two pitchers to double up as a team.
You need a bucket of baseballs. Here’s how it works:

Coach stands 40ft back to catch balls.
One player has a bucket of balls and tosses them to pitcher.
Pitcher throws all balls to coach (feed the Gorilla).
During the pitches the coach observe’s arm rotation, foot work, and balance of pitcher.

Cool thing about this drill–you can get your player to throw 20 or 30 balls and have fun while getting good conditioning. The player should not stop until he has thrown all the balls in bucket.

Water Bottle Slam
Another drill that we do with our pitchers is at the last few minutes of practice.

We set a 2 liter of water bottle on top of a bucket on home plate and have them try to knock it off. We then move the bottle to inside & outside and we keep a running number of points.  It makes it a game and they love the last 10 minutes of pitching practice. PLUS you see them really getting better control of the ball.

Triangle Drill
Groups of 3 players: 1 group on the foul line, 1 at 15 yds into outfield, and 1 30 yds into outfield.

Player 1 throws to 2.
Player 2 catches, turns and throws to 3.
Rotate every 10 throws.

This accomplishes several things at 1 time.
First- throwing and catching (obvious).
Second-footwork.
Third- fast hands
Four- turning and finding your target.

Zig-Zag Drill
Set-Up:
Set three cones out that if connected with a line, it would form the letter Z.  You should vary the distance between and distance from start based on age of your players.
Drill

• We have each player run towards each cone looking for the ball, not knowing if it will be a ground or fly ball.
•  We vary where we place the ball (high, low, front or back, etc.) to ensure they are tracking the ball and reacting accordingly.
•  Once caught, or retrieved, they have to have square up, get a good base and make a good throw back to the coach.
•  Once caught and thrown, they must quickly change direction and work towards the next cone.
• We start working towards the closest cone and typically end with a big fly ball at cone #3.

Goals
Improve footwork / lateral movement.
Improve reaction and tracking.
Improve agility with quick starts and stops.
Improve the transition from running, fielding and throwing.
Improve throwing in game like conditions – find, field and throw.

LEAD SHOULDER & HIP DRILL

•     Position fielder at S.
•     Have 3 markers 3′ or so apart on an angle towards 1st to the left of the fielder.
•     Have the same set up to the right of the fielder as well.
•     Roll the ball to the fielders left side.
•     Fielder fields ball in deep short and aligns lead shoulder and hips towards 1st.
•     Begin crow hop/shuffle step at cone 1, release ball at cone 2, follow thru to cone 3.
•     Runner jogs back to position & repeat for right side.

Coach should emphasize the importance of rounding the ball on the right side to get on a proper throwing path towards 1st.
Variations:  Slide Stepping rt. & lt. side, Crossover Steps rt. & lt. side, Backhand rt. side.

This drill can also can be utilized for 2nd throwing to 3rd or SS and 2nd throwing home.

Dead Ball Drill
We use a drill called “Dead-ball drill” in our junor high practices.  We began using it because for years there was only one coach, and running a baseball practice with one coach requires some drills that the players can do on their own.

With balls peppered around the perimeter between 3rd and 2nd base, the boys approach the balls one at a time with their glove and top hand down, pull it directly up to their stomach, stride twice and throw to first.

The 1st baseman dumps the balls into a bucket, and another 1st baseman carries it back to the left side of the infield when the rotations is over.   2 buckets, 20 balls moving around.  The boys quickly caught on and actually began asking “can we do dead ball today?”

Outfield Cut-Off Drill
Have one player at short stop, one at second and the rest at either left or rightfield.  Coach throws/hits the ball over left field’s head.  They run out to get it, short stop goes out to relay ball in to second base.  Then ball is thrown/hit out over rightfield’s head and second base goes out as the cut off while short stop covers second base.

Baserunning Relay Drill
I created relay teams of 4 players on each team.  (If your team doesn’t have 12 or 16 players, then the coach will determine which of the players needs this drill the least and those players can help with watching the bases to make sure all bases are touched.)

I divide the teams up evenly in terms of running speed.  The coach with the stopwatch yells “go” & starts the watch.  The first runner will run the batter’s box to first base, and must tag the 2nd runner.

Here’s the catch…the 2nd runner must be located in foul territory, 8-10 feet PAST first base, typically where the base umpire would stand.  This reinforces running THROUGH first base, slightly turning into foul territory.

The starting location of runner #2 is also typically where a runner might be after running through 1st base, who is sent to 2nd on an overthrow to 1st !

Runner #2 takes off after being tagged and heads to 2nd base, rounds 2nd, then tags the 3rd runner, who is located 8-10 feet or so past 2nd base, in a line that would be typical for a runner who is rounding 2nd to head for 3rd base.  (Using cones to help the players understand the “rounding” base path works very well for younger players).

The 3rd runner will then run to third and tag the last runner who is located 8-10 feet or so past 3rd base.  The last runner now runs to home plate.  The stopwatch isn’t stopped until the 4th runner gets through home plate to a cone located 10 feet past home plate.  This reinforces running all the way through home plate.

If any runner misses a base, they must go back to touch the base before tagging the next runner.

Set up the teams to compete against each other & the fastest time will earn bragging rights within the squad.  With my 8U team, they earned the right to throw a water balloon at the coach of their choice after practice.  You’d be amazed how hard your players will work to earn that right!

Short Hop Drill
You start 3 players at 2nd base and you have 3 players at 3rd base.
The 1st one in line at 3rd starts with the ball and throws a short hop to the first player in line at 2nd.

The player who throws the ball goes to the end of the line, or to make it a little harder, you can have him run to the end of line at 2nd, running to his throwing hand side.

The player who received the ball at 2nd now throws a short hop to the person in line at 3rd.

We make it a little more interesting by having a friendly competition against each other. We usually play the first to 20 with out a drop.

This drill has really helped cut down on the errors. Our whole team does this drill.

I have the outfielders go against the infielders and they really enjoy beating them. Now when they have a short hop hit to them in the game they play the ball instead of the ball playing them.

Hitting Basics
I’m going to get about 20 whiffle balls and a tee for them to hit off while the prior batter is still in the box.  I will have them hit whiffle balls into the backstop and get the kinks out, get them to keep their eye on the ball, work on rotating their hips and visualize the pitch getting to the hitting zone, then making that swing before they hit real balls.

My goal is to get a bunch of weekend warriors to take extra swings and get warmed up before they hit their first baseball.

Like I said, not rocket science, but it’s an easy way to make a cold body doing unnatural motions warm before it counts, and not waste others’ time.

Practice Game Drill
Here is another idea about getting some real game action in a controlled setting:  Coach pitch to a hitter and have them live hit.  Play out the ball.

If the better is out, that’s one of three outs. If not, the hitter stays on base and plays the situation with the next batter. When there are 3 outs, clear the bases and start again.
The players love this and it is very reflective of real game play.

The players were afraid they were going to get hit by the wild throws or the thrower was afraid they would hit the receiving player with the ball which resulted in wimpy throws going back and forth.  Very few balls were caught and we spent a lot of time running after stray balls.

At the next practice, I came with a bucket of plastic whiffle balls for each kid (ten per player).  We practiced good throwing technique by throwing the balls at traffic cones instead of each other.

No one was afraid of getting hit and everyone got to throw a lot in a short amount of time.  The boys enjoyed refilling their buckets after everyone was empty.  I did not have to pick up any of the balls myself.

It worked really well. I recommend giving that one a try.  We are going to do it again at our next practice.