Coming up with new ideas to [tag]coach little league baseball[/tag] can sometimes be a challenge. Here’s a tip from Joe that has worked well.
Here is a [tag]baseball[/tag] [tag]drill[/tag] I created to a) teach and b) make it fun.
Cookie-Jar Drill
To teach kids to snap their wrist when they throw, I told them it is like putting their hand in the cookie jar to grab a cookie (I had first heard this used for shooting a basketball, but the concept works for both).
Show them how to create a L with their throwing arm so the elbow points directly to the ground (the upper arm (i.e., bicep) is parallel to the ground, the forearm/hand is perpendicular.)
Reinforce the use of the 4 seam grip and then simply snap the wrist forward creating the correct ball rotation (show them how the ball should rotate with a visual by using both of your hands to demonstrate the rotation).
Split the teams evenly and put a bucket (i used a Home Depot paint bucket about 2 feet tall) about 5 feet in front of them. The kid at the front of the line must use the proper grip and wait for the coach to say go (otherwise it becomes chaos).
1 point is given for making the shot into the bucket (unless they blatantly did not do the drill correctly) and the game goes to 10 (or whatever). I try to go through the lines at least 2-3 times.
After the drill, I grabbed out a container filled with cookies (and pretzels since you never know what kids can eat) and had them replicate the motion one last time with a quick snack.