When coaching young kids, I think that it is important to teach the correct way to throw. We all know many [tag]baseball throwing drills[/tag] to facilitate this.
One little tip that I learned a few seasons ago was to stress the importance of thumb placement on the ball. It should be dead center on the bottom of the [tag]baseball[/tag]. Many young players grip the ball as if they were picking up a dumbbell. This usually means that they throw it out of the side of their hand. Placing the thumb directly centered underneath the ball when throwing facilitates proper arm and wrist movement.
In order to help my players visualize this I hold the ball against a vertical surface and ask the child a question. “If you were going to nail this ball to the wall where would you place the nail?” Every single time they point to the center.
Here is a [tag]baseball drill[/tag] I picked up from one of our other [tag]baseball coach[/tag]es, and the kids love it. It’s called the Bucket Drill.
Place 2 buckets on home plate. (One on top of the other).
The bottom should be weighted with something in it and the top one should be empty. We split our squad into two teams and place one team at the 6 position and the other at the 4 position. We hit them ground balls alternating teams with each hit. They are to field the ball and try to knock the top bucket off with their throw. They get 1 point for playing the ground ball correctly, – 1 if they misplay the ball, 3 points for hitting either bucket and then 5 points if they knock the top bucket off.
First team to 21 wins. This is by far their favorite baseball drill.