From Brenda…
A baseball drill that I like to run works on throwing and catching and running the bases.

You place a baseball player on every base including home and you have one runner. When you say “go” the runner tries to run the bases and to beat the ball back to home plate before the throwers get it around the bases.

The throwers must tag the base before throwing to the next base so that a bad throw or missed ball must be brought to the base before thrown to the next base. Also, if the runner misses a base he must go back and tag it before continuing.

This baseball baserunning drill is a fun competition. You can also decide if you would like to allow backups for the base players or if they must chase the ball down themselves and run it back. You can have several runners and several groups of throwers and switch after each turn.  Have fun!

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From Bert…
Simple and fun strength and coordination exercises to do at home. These two simple exercises, which can be performed at home, help address two of the areas Ted Williams preached were the most important when it comes to making consistent contact: wrist strength (for bat speed) and hand eye coordination. (Williams also preached hip rotation, but that was for power.)

Wrist strength exercise – Have the baseball player grip his favorite bat at the butt end, as he or she normally would when holding the bat. Start the exercise with the bat in the right hand, the arm fully extended, parallel to the ground and in front of the ballplayer, and holding the bat in the vertical position.  Keeping your shoulder and elbow still, slowly rotate the wrist to the right until the bat is horizontal (parallel to the ground) – do not allow the bat to go past horizontal. Now slowly rotate the wrist to the left until the bat is once again parallel to the ground on the other side (the bat movement will resemble that of a mechanical metronome). Start out with 3 sets of 3 (in each direction) with both the right and left hand. Work up to 3 sets of 10 with each hand. Also, increase the bat speed as the ballplayer’s strength allows.

Helpful Hints:
Before starting the exercise, take a few moments to –
Warm up wrists by simply shaking them gently and loosely for about 10-15 seconds. Warm up and stretch the shoulders and elbows. If the ballplayer finds the bat is too heavy to perform the exercise properly, choke up a bit.
After the strength exercise sets are completed, stretch the wrists by doing one more set, but this time, as the ballplayer brings the bat from the vertical position to the horizontal position, allow the bat to slowly pass below the horizontal position thereby gently stretching the wrist. Perform 1 set of 5 reps for both the right and left hand.

Hand-eye coordination exercise – Holding the bat with one hand (the power hand (right for righties, left for lefties) somewhere just below the middle of the barrel, bounce a ball on the sweet spot of the barrel (this baseball drill will also teach the ball player where the sweet spot is). Try to do this ten times without missing. Do three sets of ten (it will take several tries). It may be hard at first, but with practice the ballplayer will be able to do it relatively easily. This also helps discipline the ballplayer to try to watch the ball hit the bat.

Helpful hints:
It may be easier to start out holding the baseball bat with both hands, but eventually work back to one.  It is fun to have a contest at baseball practice to see who can bounce the ball the most times without missing.  Do this drill outside or indoors where you can’t break anything (the balls tend to fly around, especially at first)
You will see the results at batting practice and at the plate – quicker bat speed and more consistent contact.

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From Ryan…
This is a baseball drill I use at every other practice:

1. Start with only the infield on the field, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, Shortstop, and Catcher
2. All other players’ lineup in foul territory off of 3rd base
3. Coach hits the ball to the Shortstop who fields the baseball and makes the throw to 1st, 1st then throws to 2nd, 2nd to 3rd, 3rd to catcher
4. During this process, each position follows his/her throw i.e. Short becomes 1st, 1st becomes 2nd, 2nd becomes 3rd, and 3rd becomes catcher, catcher goes to the end of the line.
5. A player in waiting becomes Shortstop and the process starts all over again.

If a player fails to make the fielding play or the throw to the other position, he then goes to the end of the line of players waiting.

This is a very fast paced baseball fielding drill and works on making fielding plays and throws to positions

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From Bruce…
We have a baseball drill that we like to use frequently.  We call it “Crush & Rush“.  It’s a lot like a star drill only with ground balls mixed in.  This is how it goes:

Divide your team evenly at each base and home plate.  Start at any base (say home), the first player throws a hard grounder to the player at third and follows the throw (sprint hard) to back of the line. The player at third gathers the ball properly as if a hit grounder and then pivots and throws as if making the out at second and follows his throw.  The player at second receives the throw and throws a grounder to first (again follows the throw), first gathers, pivots and throws to home.

Continue this rotation as many times as possible without errors.  Note, the additional players at each bag simply replaces the player ahead of him making a throw giving the sprinter a little break.  After several revolutions try reversing the direction, this will generate a lot of errors initially but they will soon recover.  If you’re an evil baseball coach, you can send the team on a quick jog to the outfield fence and back whenever an error occurs.  A couple of jogs to the fence brings some quick focus to the practice.

I find it to be a great baseball drill for accuracy and good throwing and ground ball mechanics.  The pace is brisk and the kids really start talking it up and calling for the ball once a few rotations get going.

Plan on a good reward for a job well done.  They will have earned it.

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From Steven…
One of the more popular baseball drills my kids love is a pop up drill using a tennis racket and tennis balls.  Each child is placed in the outfield, and a baseball coach hits a high “pop up” with a tennis ball using a tennis racket.

The kids know that the tennis ball is not going to hurt even if it hits him/her.  The pop ups allow the coach to reinforce the idea of catching the ball with two eyes, two hands, and two feet. (Try catching a tennis ball pop fly with a one-handed grab.  It will pop out of the glove 9 out of 10 times.)

The kids do a great job of moving their feet to get under the ball..  They also learn how important it is to watch the ball off the bat and keep their eyes on the ball the entire time it is in the air.  Finally, as mentioned, the kids learn the importance of using two hands.  (We even make a competition out of this baseball drill.)

From Kent…
When teaching players to learn how to slide, have them hold a baseball in each hand so that they learn to slide without putting their hands down to catch themselves.

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From Wayne…
This baseball drill worked for my team last year when we were struggling with fly balls.

-Team run with their gloves on. Players had a difficult time chasing down baseballs running with arm and glove extended. Run taught them to tuck the glove and extend only when going to catch the ball.

-Tennis balls hit with a tennis racket and bounce the ball off of their heads (helmets on of course). When they became proficient we added a level of difficulty. Bounce the ball off their head and catch the ball. This taught them to get under the ball.

-We also found playing catch with a football, to the left and right and over their shoulders taught them the proper form to chase down baseballs.

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From Dan…
Pick Off baseball drill

Split your baseball team into two lines. One on first base, the other on second. Each player has a glove. The player on first base leaves the base running, and throws to the player running from second. The first player swings out and goes to end
of line at second. Player at second catches on the run and throws to first. As the player from second throws the player at first starts running, catches and throws on the run. First time half speed is recommended.

From Nickel…
I just wanted to share a baseball baserunning drill I started using with my kids last year.  Base runner on first and third, pitcher stands in a full wined-up, depending on which hand your pitcher is. He will start the motion the same way, but he will step back with the other foot. This will make him a fielder allowing him to throw it to whomever he wants.

The idea is to get the guy on first to start taking off and you can do what you wish with the baseball.

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From Tom…
A baseball drill I found the kids love is a form of “Pepper“.

I use it before and between baseball games to kill time and warm them up.

Basically I take the team, line them spread out across in front of me, and hit them a ball.  If one of them makes a play on it, they have to complete the effort, then pitch it back to me so I can hit to them again.

If they make a move and don’t complete, or they bobble or miss it, they are out.  I was amazed how much they work to do well and be the champ.

From Shane…
This is a baseball catcher drill–

I have my catcher crouch in position without a glove and I will toss a tennis ball at them to catch. It sounds easy but it take can take a few times to get the hang of it. The baseball catcher can’t just hold his hand there because the ball will bounce off. The catcher has to give a little to catch it.

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From Randy…
Here are 2 ideas we use training for baseball.  I coach a 10u team.  This works real good before a game to get a lot of swings in a short amount of time.

Put about 5 to 6 of your players in a circle about 10 to 15 ft. apart for this baseball drill.  The thrower is in the middle of the circle and throws a couple of pitches to each batter them moving on to the next hitter.  This keeps things moving and the players can get a good amount of cuts in before the game.

Also, there is a new practice golf ball on the market that is great for baseball hitting practice.  They are called ‘ALMOST GOLF BALLS”   They are harder than the small plastic ones but not as hard as a real golf ball.   When you throw and hit them, you get a more accurate flight to the bat and off the bat.  My team loves to hit them plus the smaller balls make them concentrate on seeing the ball all the way to the bat.  You can find them on-line or at your local Golf shop. They run .99 a piece or usually 3 dozen for $29.99

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From Monty…
This is a baseball hitting drill I use with my team.

Bunt Game
Draw numbered boxes in front of home plate — 0 points too close to home plate, 0 points too close to fielders, 1 point for about 5 feet from the plate, 2 points a littler farther away, up to 3 points for spots down the first- and third-base lines.

Divide into two teams. Coach pitches, and each batter gets one pitch to get the bunt down. Alternate pitches to the teams and keep going through the lineup until the score reaches 21. Losers take a lap or whatever penalty or reward the baseball coach wants.

From Skip…
This soft toss baseball hitting drill is designed for the batter to wait, keep their weight back.

Put a cinder block where home plate would be.  The batter takes their normal stance with the cinder block representing home plate.  The feeder stands behind the batter and bounces a ball on the cinder block so the ball comes straight up.  The batter must wait until the ball is on its downward motion. The batter swings at the ball.  Good baseball drill to have batter keep weight back and wait for a breaking ball.

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