Soft toss:
I have found that instead of just throwing one ball at a time, that if we throw one baseball on top of the other at the same time and then tell the player which ball to hit (top or bottom) ball, that hand/eye coordination is increased.
I also will take one ball and hold it above the players head (coaching 13 yr. olds). They will get in their “loaded” position and then I drop the ball at any given time. This seems to create “fast” hands and forces them to keep their hands inside the ball or “short” to the ball.

Power:
We take the tops of 5 tees out of the lower portion of the tee. We then placed “toilet plungers” (haha yeah, cheap toilet plungers) into the bottom part of the tee upside down. On the toilet plungers we place basketballs. (use old ones) Then practicing correct mechanics as we normally would off the tee, we just hit the basketballs into the nets.

This created good baseball hitting  form when making contact with the ball because of the weight they had to hit off the tee. It also created a strong swing while maintaining good mechanics.

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We have the players line-up at the tips of a pentagram (5-point star). The lines are equally placed approximately at the positions of Short Stop, 2nd Base, 1st Base, 3rd Base, and Catcher (home plate). We time the players each week to mark their improvement and error reduction to complete the drill. They have to catch the baseball and throw it to the next station and hustle to the end of that line or they might be in the middle of the next throw (incentive to hustle). The order of the stations are as follows: SS, 1B, 3B, 2B, Home, and back to SS.

The players must go through each station (star point) until the player that started the drill at SS catches the last ball at SS. With our team of about 20 players, we can get through this drill as fast as 90 seconds or as slow as 4 minutes. If a player misses the throw or drops a catch, he must hustle to get the baseball, without help from his teammates, get back to his position before he can throw the ball to the next station. If there is an errant throw, his teammates can “pick-him up” by digging the ball out of the dirt or jumping to catch it.

We do these baseball drills 2-5 times depending on how well we are achieving our goals from the drill. We keep track of the lowest errors and times of the season to compare each week our improvement.

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An oldie but a goody:  Use an old tire and hang it about the height of the kids waist with a backstop or batting cage behind it.  Turn it into a game for the kids that have trouble throwing accurately.  Have them stand back and practice throwing a bucket of balls through the tire. (Remember Nolan Ryan did that for years and look at what it did for him.)

Second:  This is for kids who have trouble keeping their head down and eye on the ball. I took an old pair of youth sun glasses and put a strip of electrical tape at the bottom. This makes them have to keep their head down for batting practice.

Works really good for the T-Ballers.

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Put all players at infield positions, and put a baseball coach to play first base.

Hit ground balls to each spot. The players need to field the ground ball cleanly and make an accurate throw to first. If they make an error they are eliminated from the round and become runners.

Once you have runners, the players need to field the ground ball and throw the player out at first. Last player remaining in the infield wins.

This is a good baseball drill to get the boys to have good fundamentals and speed like a game situation.

We end each practice with this drill. The players look forward to the extra ground balls and competition.

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I divided the baseball team into equal group’s bases on talent and let them pick their team name. We had four different events in the “Olympics”, and assigned a point value for each win. They also got deducted a point if they did not stay in line and for not listening.

The first event was all about speed; we timed each team member as they ran from home to second. Then we add each time together to determine a winner.

Second event was catching. I stood on the pitchers mound and would throw to the standing on home plate 3 times each. The team that had the most catches was the winner.

Third event was throwing. I stood them in a line at the pitchers mound, and had them throw at a baseball on a tee at home plate. The team that knocked it off the most was the winner.

The forth event was hitting. Each kid got to hit three balls, and the team that hit the fence the most was the winner.

Finally, we added up all of the points and deducted the point for not staying in line and not listening, and determined the winning team. I gave all of the kids on the winning team a pack of Baseball cards.

As you can see it is very important to divide the kids up evenly by talent level. The kids had a lot of fun, and even surprised themselves with how well they did at some events (knocking the baseball off of the tee). They all really worked together as smaller teams and showed me just how competitive these little guys are.

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First there is a base hit to the outfield or slow roller in the infield that has rolled to a stop and players position themselves to be pointing to the target they are going to throw to (for example third base to get a runner), and pushing their throwing hand straight down to pick up the baseball.

Split the players into two groups and position the same number of balls at various distances. Give the players a minute to get their strategy together (who’s going for the ball the farthest away, etc.)

Next they line-up in single lines and it becomes a relay. They must each run to the ball, pick it up correctly, be positioned correctly, and make an accurate throw to a designated target (a baseball coach at a base), then run back and tag the next player in line.

We usually position coaches at 2nd and 3rd and run this baseball drill from shortstop to left field. We switch the lines each game to give the players a different throw. We usually do this for the best 2 out of 3.

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1. I have 2 hitter’s coaches divide the team in two.
2. Half of the players on first, the rest of them line up on third.
3. One baseball coach hits the ball between first and second.
4. The player runs and fields the baseball, sets and makes a throw back to home. Then the players run to the back of the third base line.
5. The second coach hits the ball between third and home. The player fields the ball and sets and throws back to second. Then he runs to the back of the line at first.

With younger ages I like it best if you can have someone to catch the ball like a parent or another coach.  It can also be used with coaches throwing the ball to build up confidence in their players.

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In order to learn the basic fielding positions, I have my players stand on home plate and shout “4-homeplate” then run to first and shout “1-first base” next run to second base and shout “2 second base then run to third base and shout “3 third base” and then run to pitcher’s rubber and point to the rubber and yell “pitcher”.

Now, from the pitching circle, every player turns, points, and shouts out the position I ask for (left, right, catcher, center, shortstop etc.) To finish, starting from the pitching rubber and ending at the pitchers rubber, I instruct them to run to each position and shout out as a group the name of the position as they arrive at that position.

Finally, it is time to hydrate, replenish the water loss.

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Drill: Roll and Go
Level: Beginner (works best with 4-7 year olds)

One player is stationed at home plate with a baseball, one player is stationed at the pitcher’s spot, and one player at first base.  The player at home plate rolls the ball to the pitcher, and then takes off for first base.  The pitcher must field the ball, and throw to first to get the runner.

Goals: For the child in the pitcher’s spot, the rolled ball should be easier to field, and the focus is on picking up the ball and getting rid of it to first base.  The first baseman gets to work on receiving throws at first.  The runner should work on running THROUGH first base.

Variations: In the very beginning stages, the baseball coach may want to tell the runner, “Go” a few seconds after the roll to make the plays close at first base.  As the kids improve throwing to first, they can move back to shortstop to start rather than the pitcher’s spot.

Also, you can make this an outfield drill by moving the fielders to the outfield, and having 2nd basemen and shortstop positions.  The outfield should focus on getting the ball to second base (using a cut-off man).  In this version, a coach at first base can instruct a base runner to run through first or round first and go to second.  This gives the runners practice at looking for the base coach.

Kids seem to really like this one.  Several are engaged on one play, and there is a slight competitive aspect to it.

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If you don’t know, yard ball is a game of baseball (just as fun for softball) but we use a whiffle ball instead. This way the ball doesn’t go too far and the action is fast. The diamond size is reduced, I don’t know the exact distances, but I just move them to what seems about the right size, I would guess around 45 – 50ft bases; it would depend on the kids’ abilities. The kids pitch as normal and I use the same rules as softball for their age division so that they know what they have to do. Depending on the number of kids that turn up, sometimes I go catcher for both teams, and sometimes when there are not enough kids, I have them verse their parents; they LOVE that one.

To ensure that they all get in one the action, I have them rotate their positions. I don’t usually have a short stop; that way they have to help each other out and back each other up.

This is fairly quick and generally only takes about 15 minutes, but it depends on how many innings you have. I restrict it to 2 – 3 as the kids want to keep going and we would never leave.

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