T-Ball Throwing Drill
Group Knee Position – Throwing & Catching (All Kids) 10 min

Kneeling Throw (1 knee or 2 knees….teaching arm position, grip, and wrist action)  (align by skill level once we learn skill levels a bit more) (** use as many parents as we can for this drill to pair up with kids)

CATCHING – Thumb to thumb; Pinky to Pinky; move left; move right; COVER UP the Ball or Squeeze it (* use 2nd hand to secure AFTER ball hits glove)

THROWING – Grip the ball with 2 or 3 fingers on top for bigger kids; thumb on the bottom; otherwise use 4 fingers or all 5 if small hands

DEMO 1-KNEE Throw and the L-Shape

DEMO the Load & Fire  (Load…spread feet athletic position; FRONT Foot point to target; BACK foot 90 degrees) Elbow or glove pointing to target; ball stretched out behind you toward ground  push off with back foot; foot and arm come forward together as glove hand tucks into your side.
Come over the top like you are hitting the “little man” in front of you on top of the head.

Follow the Throw Drill
Position a player at 1b, one in RF, one at C (with no catcher gear on), one at 3B, and any excess players to form a line at LF.

The coach hits a ground ball to 3B. It is scooped up by the 3b who throws it to 1st base (Note: The excess players standing in line at LF will be acting as a backup should the 3B miss the groundball).

The 1B catches the ball while stepping on the first base bag. The RF is backing up the first baseman. The first base turns and throws to home plate where the catcher will then practice covering the plate and tagging out a phantom runner.

The 3b, after throwing to first, follows the throw and becomes the RF. The RF, after backing up 1B, now becomes the 1B. The 1B, after throwing home, becomes the catcher. The catcher, after giving the ball back to the coach, goes to the end of the line in LF.   The player that was standing first in line at LF now becomes the 3B.

After all players get a chance to complete the cycle you can then move the line to SS, 2B, and the pitcher’s mound.

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.

Ball Tracking & Conditioning Baseball Drill
I line up some outfielders along the foul line about ten feet behind third base (they all have a ball).  I or one of my coaches stands in the middle of the field (approximately ten or so feet behind 2nd).

The first guy in line starts jogging toward the coach, as he reaches him he flips him the ball and starts to sprint toward the first base foul line (this drill is in the outfield but follows the path of the infield).

Once he starts to sprint the coach throws him a fly ball, in which he must track down and catch.

As he flips the ball to the coach the next guy starts to jog out, so there is no real down time.

Once this drill has been ran a few reps, we then start making the catches more difficult by throwing balls over their back shoulder while they run.

It’s a great way to teach outfielders to track balls and a conditioning drill all in one.

Basketball Drill
One good inexpensive idea that helped many of my players was to soft toss using a half flat mini (or full sized basketball) into the net of our batting cage during our batting practices.

This helped reinforce the idea of hitting\driving through the ball on contact as well as finishing the swing.

Doing this simple drill produced an almost immediate difference in the amount of power my players hit with turning the routine hit balls into hard hit laser shots  they were more difficult for our opponents to handle in the field.

Can You Hit This Drill
My 14 u team was struggling to see the  ball.  We began working with whiffle balls, then went to ping pong balls, then pinto beans, then navy bean and now lentils.

If ya player can see and hit a lentil he can hit a baseball.  Our batting average at the plate doubled after using this drill.

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.

FBH Drill
I call this the FBH drill (Fake, Bunt and Hit Drill). This is not slapping. You stay in the box On the field with a machine or real pitcher. The batter gets points up to 10 pts +1 -1 depending on where he FBH the ball.

Here’s the trick (better to use the machine for accuracy of pitches and confidence building before a real pitcher throws to them).

Just before the machine pitches the ball the player shouts out where he is going to hit the ball. I.E. 3rd, 1st etc.
They get to 10 they win; if he calls 2nd and hits to 3rd -1 you get the idea.

You can also shorten it to 5 or any number you wish it makes it fun.

I suggest the machine for safety reasons. This way your pitcher can’t get injured, the infielders can stay back and the coach can control the ball feed to the batter behind a screen.

4 Watch the Bunt Play
Another thing that we work on is a play that I call 4 watch the bunt. The pitcher throws a pitch out to the catcher while the third baseman collapses toward home plate for the bunt.

Then the shortstop sneaks in behind the runner at third base for the throw back to third base for the out.

This has been very effective for us; we average at least a pick off every game or two. The nice thing is that it really can be a rally killer when you have a kid in scoring position and he is thrown out in this fashion.

“Get Dirty”
Areas of Focus:
Infield
Speed (lateral/explosive)
Vision and Throwing
Conditioning

Instructions:
All players begin on third base, coach or player at 1st base.
Ball is hit in the gap of third base and short stop, player fields ball and throws to first.
Player continues to run toward second base and ball is hit up the middle.
Player runs to first base and the ball is hit in the gap between first and second.
After completion, players rotate from first to third (in the opposite direction).
Two rounds is ideal as an infield drill

Key Area of Focus:
The balls hit are not to be an easy catch – they are choppers and moving rapidly.
Players have to dive, or lunge for the ball.

These are opportunities for the players to stretch themselves and build confidence on getting the balls that are not hit directly at them.  Once the ball is caught, player must balance and then throw.  Ball is hit as soon as player throws ball.