Special thanks to Steven and to Kent for sending these in. If you’ve ever struggled with coming up with fresh ideas for [tag]youth baseball training[/tag], try these out!
From Steven…
One of the more popular [tag]baseball drills[/tag] my kids love is a pop up drill using a tennis racket and tennis balls. Each child is placed in the outfield, and a [tag]baseball coach[/tag] hits a high “pop up” with a tennis ball using a tennis racket.
The kids know that the tennis ball is not going to hurt even if it hits him/her. The pop ups allow the coach to reinforce the idea of catching the ball with two eyes, two hands, and two feet. (Try catching a tennis ball pop fly with a one-handed grab. It will pop out of the glove 9 out of 10 times.)
The kids do a great job of moving their feet to get under the ball.. They also learn how important it is to watch the ball off the bat and keep their eyes on the ball the entire time it is in the air. Finally, as mentioned, the kids learn the importance of using two hands. (We even make a competition out of this [tag]baseball drill[/tag].)
From Kent…
When teaching players to learn how to slide, have them hold a [tag]baseball[/tag] in each hand so that they learn to slide without putting their hands down to catch themselves.