Here are three fun baseball drills you should use to make practice fun for your team. I often save these for the end of practice but occasionally I start a practice with one. I have found the players keep the momentum and try a little harder.
Glove Toss:
Object is to reverse tosses on the coaches command using good low toss without dropping the ball.
4 players get in square formation.
Players start with glove tosses around the square as quickly as possible.
Coach calls out “Switch”, players have to reverse the direction of the tosses.
Side-Step Pass:
Same concept and formation as Glove toss game except using side-step pass.
Suggestions for both games: Have players compete against each other by having multiple groups of 4 going at the same time. Have players count the total number of successful passes, most passes wins, be creative on reward for winning group.
If you don’t have enough for 4 in a group you can improvise with 3 in a group and make a triangle formation.
Pepper Game:
This is a game to Work on hand/eye coordination and quick glove/reaction. Object of the game is to be the last player in the game and successfully field one last hit to be the winner.
4-6 players make semi-circle approx. 10 feet in front of coach in fielding stance w/ gloves.
Coach hits ball back to players at random.
Player that catches the hit pitches the ball back as quickly as possible to the coach who hits it again.
Player that misses the hit ball is out.
Players must give the coach a good pitch to hit; if it is a bad pitch player is out.
Suggestion: Repeat the game 3-4 times. Have players rotate where they are in the semi-circle, don’t go to the same spot to start the game each time. Have the winners of each game play a final game to determine overall winner for the day. You can have a reigning “Pepper King” until someone knocks him off his thrown at next practice.