Here are two of free baseball practice drills ideas to try with your teams. The first drill, the shuttle drill, teaches them how to go after a dead ball. The next one, the juggling drill, helps them learn better ball control when the ball is in their glove.
The Shuttle Drill
1. 3-4 Balls placed in front of of player at the head of the line. He runs and lays the ball where he first started.
2. He repeats this until all the balls are gone.
3. You can do 2 players at a time so it will become a challenge.
This is like doing the shuttle run we did when I was in school! This drill helps to make sure they are getting the ball from the right side when they go after a dead ball and teaches them to pick it up with their BARE hand-not the glove hand.
Variation: The drill can be repeated and have the players throwing back to another instead of going back to the spot and placing the ball on the ground.
The Juggling Drill
Have 2 players side by side to compete with each other.
Each player has 2 balls: one in hand and one in glove.
They move down the field to where the coach is standing.
They take the ball in hand, toss it up, grab the ball in the glove and put it in their hand and catch the ball in hand.
When they get to the coach they go back to where they started from while juggling the ball.
This drill helps in case the ball hits their glove and falls out. They make that second effort to catch it by hand!