Baseball Drills & Coaching Tips » Uncategorized

Youth Baseball Practice Drills – Jug and Bucket Drill

kenny — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 22:01:33 +0000

Here is one of the youth baseball practice drills that my younger players really enjoy at practice. It works on fielding along with the throwing. We call it the jug and bucket drill.

Jug and Bucket Drill
Set a 5 gallon bucket upside down on home plate. On top of that put a jug (laundry bottle, milk bottle) put some sand in the bottle so the wind doesn’t blow it off.

Have the players form two lines at a minimum behind the pitching mound. Have two people stand about 10 feet to each side of the bucket with a bat.

The person with the bat will hit the ball on the ground to their line and the player will field the ball properly and then throw it properly to try and hit the jug off the top of the bucket.

The team gets one point for hitting the bucket and 2 points for hitting the jug (no points if the ball hits the sand first).

The first team to 15 wins and the other team has to run the bases (of course the correct way). You can use any type of reward system.

We make sure that the players are throwing the ball properly and hard. This teaches them to react to the ball, field it cleanly and throw correctly.

They always ask if we are going to do the jug and bucket drill in practice today.

Coaching Youth Baseball – Team Captains & Communication

kenny — Wed, 25 May 2011 23:53:29 +0000

As I’m coaching youth baseball, to keep their attention and make practice important to my players (7yrs –9yrs old), I select team captains and give them a job that would be important to them.

I give them criteria for being captain, for example: They need to show that they are paying attention and listening when I am talking to them, which in turn keeps them from disrupting those around them, or if I see that they are improving in a certain area. Then at the end of practice we choose a goofy drill to make things light-hearted and show them that their hard work will pay off!!

To promote communication I line the kids up side by side on the outfield foul line and either throw or hit grounders and fly balls between them so that they have to decide who will get the ball and who will call off and back up.

They have to yell out their decision so that they are communicating with everyone. It gets them to envision the invisible boundaries and not to cross them. That they can’t all get the ball all of the time.

And you can make it fun by calling out the person you want to catch it at the last minute and see if they can adjust quickly!!!

Training for Baseball – Youth Training Drills

kenny — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 12:19:44 +0000

One of the many challenges in coaching youth baseball is training for baseball. With kids you can meet this challenge by keeping the drills fun and often competitive. By keeping this fun they don’t even realize they are doing training and conditioning drills.

Infield Drill
One infield drill I do is have a base runner and an infield; no pitcher.

When the coach says “GO”, the runner starts around the bases.
catcher throws the ball to 2nd, 2nd to 3rd, 3rd to 1st, 1st to SS, SS to home.
Then reverse, home to SS, SS to 1st, 1st to 3rd, 3rd to 2nd, 2nd to home.

The object for the infield is to beat the runner home. This drill is pretty fun for the kids and they really get into the competition.

Running Race
My ideas are pretty simple but they work. Kids hate to run, so I make a race out of it.

I get two kids, close in speed and agility.
Start the first one at home and have him run the bases as fast as he can.
Then start the second player about 15 ft. behind the first one.
Tell him to try and catch the other runner.
It works; the kids love it. They run faster and come across home plate laughing. Simple but effective.

Baseball Batting Drills – Golf Ball Hits and 4 Station Hitting

kenny — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 22:48:08 +0000

I like making practice fun while doing baseball batting drills with the younger players. These are two favorites that I use frequently with great results!

Golf Ball Hits

I bought a 24 pack of plastic golf balls and several rolls of white athletic tape. I taped all the balls with the white tape and used a red permanent marker to draw the seams on the balls.

Next take a skinny broom stick and tape it up as well. At practice I pitch the little balls to the kids who use the broom stick to hit with.

They have fun with the challenge of hitting the small balls and it helps with their hand eye coordination. Fun drill.

4 Station Hitting

You need a total of 4 groups of 3 players

Three tee’s located around: 3rd – 1st – Pitching mound
Third Base Tee – base working/hitting inside pitch
First Base Tee – working/hitting outside pitch
Pitching mound - hitting (above ball) line drives up the middle

Note: use softballs with one hitter one feeding tee and one shagging (from each station) with gloves

Additional (4th) group hitting is live pitching w/Light-Flights with hitter back against backstop. The players waiting are using hitting stick or doing dry swings.

Baseball Pitching Drills – Hand Break

kenny — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 21:16:58 +0000

This baseball pitching drill is one we use frequently. It is a pitching fundamental drill called Hand Break. We want our pitchers to learn to break your hands in a swinging motion.

Drill: Set a baseball on a table, or something about waste high, a couple of feet behind the pitching rubber. We tell our pitchers that to swing from the stretch to “High-Cock” they need to swing in the shape of “Angel Wings”.

Here’s how we start: Pitchers work from the stretch without the ball. During the hand break we want both hands to go down then swinging out together with the palms and thumbs down. Have them stop at the bottom outside corner of their “Angel Wing” motion, and pick up the ball.

This teaches them to keep their palms down at this point. Then let them finish their throwing motion from their. Balance will also be taught with this baseball drill as their weight will have to stay back to stay balanced in the ball “pick-up” position. They must stop their whole body motion to pick up the ball, then restart to throw.

Technorati Tags: baseball pitching drill, baseball, baseball drill

Baseball Conditioning – Gut Buster Drill

kenny — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 18:08:41 +0000

With off season here and the weather turning cold try out this baseball conditioning drill for conditioning indoors. This can be done on a basketball gym floor with no problem; I call it the Gut Buster Drill.

We make up teams of 4. We place rows of baseballs on the floor. 1 on the first foul line, 1 on the half court line, 1 on the foul line on the other end, and 1 on the end perimeter line.
Then the players have to pick up the 1st ball, bring it back – place it on the floor, then go get the ball on the half court line, bring it back and place it on the floor, then go get the ball on the foul line on the other end, bring it back and place it on the floor, finally – go get the ball on the far end of the court and bring it back and place it on the floor.

The next person in line has to put the balls back – one at a time. The next player picks up the balls and the last one has to place put them back.

To increase the difficulty of this baseball drill, you can also do this while they have their gloves on too.

The team likes the competitiveness of this baseball drill.

Technorati Tags: baseball conditioning, baseball drill, baseball

Baseball Hitting Instruction – Fence Batting Drill

kenny — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 23:37:11 +0000

This baseball hitting instruction was sent to me from Down Under. Give it a try to see the improvements in your team’s batting skills. This is a baseball drill that works great for my 11 and under baseball team here in Australia.

Fence Batting Drill
I get my boys to use a modified “baseball bat” which is a piece of broomstick about 22 inches long, with duct tape wrapped heavily on one end for weight.

I have them grip the “bat” properly (gripping the untaped end) and stand about the length of the “bat” away from a wall or fence. Then, they simply swing the bat, slowly at first, and gradually build speed till a full swing develops.

I find this helps to shorten the swing arc and increases the bat speed at the same time. I have developed quite a few power hitters from this simple baseball hitting drill. Fair dinkum!

Technorati Tags: baseball hitting instruction, baseball drill, baseball, baseball hitting drill

Baseball Throwing Drills – Throw, Roll, Scoop

kenny — Fri, 08 May 2009 19:11:18 +0000

These baseball throwing drills are favorites with youth teams especially but don’t be fooled. All players can benefit, no matter what the age.

You start with the players lined up along one of the baselines in the outfield with a ball and glove.

The baseball coach stands near center field with a glove. The player throws the baseball to the coach. Then the coach rolls the ball to the player while the player charges toward the coach. The player scoops the ball on the run and throws it back to the coach and keeps running towards the foul pole in the opposite field. The coach then throws the player either a line drive over his head or a pop fly.

This baseball drill teaches the player to make a long accurate throw, charge and scoop a ground ball, and how to run down a ball hit over their head.

Technorati Tags: baseball throwing drills, baseball coach, baseball, baseball drill

Indoor Baseball Drills – Throwing Drill

kenny — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 00:21:07 +0000

I’ve been getting a lot of requests for indoor baseball drills recently. Charles, one of my subscribers, sent this one. Give this a try to jump start your baseball season!

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.

Technorati Tags: indoor baseball drills, baseball, baseball drill, baseball throwing drill

Baseball Training Drills – 4 Corners Drill

kenny — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 13:39:40 +0000

I’ve gotten a whole bunch of requests for baseball training drills over the past few days. Here’s a baseball drill that Jim sent in. Keep ‘em coming!

From Jim…
A great pre-game or pre-practice baseball warm-up drill:
4 corners drill

Divide players up into 4 groups, 12 players works great, 3 in each corner.
Groups should be about 30-40 ft apart.
Groups should be placed on the field in relation to each base, basically set-up a smaller diamond.
Home plate group starts. Player in the front of the line rolls the ball to the guy in front of the 3rd base group.
3rd base guy fields the ball with proper mechanics, does a proper pivot, throws to the guy at 2nd base position.
2nd base catches properly, pivots and throws to 1st base guy, who catches, pivots and throws to home plate guy, who starts again by rolling.
As each baseball player completes his function, he runs to the back of the line where he threw the ball to.

Stress crisp, chest-high throws, good pivots, quick hands and quick runs between positions.

Technorati Tags: baseball training drills, baseball drill, baseball warm-up drill, baseball