Try these two ideas with your team next practice. The first is a drill I call the FBH (Fake, Bunt, and Hit) drill. The second idea is a bunt play that you’ll be glad to use in your next game.
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.