Lucky enough that we’ll be able to get some sort of baseball in this year. Practices and hopefully some scrimmages later depending on how things develop with the virus. Anyone have any fun games or drills from past practices? Figure might get some creative ones here versus super serious baseball sites.
You can never go wrong with a good game of pepper. Label it as hand-eye coordination.
Though a lot of our youth baseball, we played workup. This starts with players rotating after each at bat from right field and through all outfield positions, then in to third and rotating through the infield positions. After playing 1st, they move in to bat or work on hitting drills.
The best part about this game is each player learns how to play every position the correct way, from fielding to taking cut offs, and even what to do when not involved with the play. It is a great fundamental learning tool.
Not that they were my favorites, Easter egg hunt and pony express were two that stick in my mind. Easter egg hunt was a 2 or 3 team relay with gloves 5 yards a part and a ball in each glove. Player on each team has to one by one bring the balls back to the starting line, next player puts the balls back and so forth until each player on the team has participated.
Pony Express was a player at each of the infield positions and running the bases trying to tag the guy in front of you. Runner is out when he has tagged someone.
One I always liked was a footwork and hand eye drill for fielding. The player stands about 10-15 ft away from the coach. The coach has two baseballs and throws one to one side of the player. Then once the player catches and underhand tosses the ball back the coach throws another grounder to the other side of the player at the same time. This is done barehanded and you want to emphasize quickness and side to side movement.
Another I really enjoyed was a relay race which improved your catch to throw speed as well as hitting cutoffs. Divide your team into two teams or three if you need to. Space the kids about 60 ft apart (or however far you think is beneficial) in two lines if you have two teams or three if you have three teams. Each team has a baseball. The kids at the beginning of each line start with the ball. When the coach says go, the first kid on each team will throw it to the next one in line until the ball gets to the end of the line, then that player runs it all the way to the beginning of the line and everyone else will move one spot down in the line. Then it repeats. It ends when the players are back in the spots they started. Fastest team wins.
The one I always hated was a conditioning drill called Burma Road. Team stands in a line at home plate. First player sprints to first base, then walks the rest of the way around the bases and goes to the back of the line. Once the last player in the line has gone it starts again only you sprint to second base then walk the rest of the way. Then you sprint to third base and then home. It’s a killer conditioning drill.
If they are younger kids teach them to slide correctly. Feet first. Hands up. Lots of injuries occur because kids don’t know how to slide properly.
Don’t know how old your kids are but when I was in high school (training for college ball) I would put different shapes in different colors on baseballs and have my coach sit about 30 ft away and toss them to me in the cage. I would then repeat the shape and color that I saw on each ball I hit. Very good drill for recognizing/picking up the spin on pitches.
Using a tee and setting it up in the different areas of the strike zone and teaching them to pull an inside pitch (and hitting it out in front of the plate) hitting a middle of the zone pitch back up the middle, and an outside corner pitch the other way (making contact in the back of the zone).
Hope that helps. PM me if you need more ideas.
These are great ideas. When I coached we did team scrimmages where we split into 3 groups. Infield/outfield/at bat. When you hit, you got 2 strikes and a foul ball was an out. You usually had 4 outfielders so it wasn’t easy to score runs. No catcher so no stealing. We usually rotated 3 times and kept score. Losing teams ran foul poles.
We also did hitting drills with a broom stick and wiffle golf balls. It really promoted hand/eye coordination. It was basically soft toss.
Many moons ago when my kids and nieces & nephews were young we’d get together often. We played a lot of hot box. Two bases spaced however you wish and get 1-5 kids to attempt to get from base to base without getting tagged out.
When my brother in Law started coaching his sons team he used in practice for both baserunning and covering a base.
It’s a ton of fun!
Hotbox, teaches how to run down a trapped runner. We used to play for hours as kids
Oldest’s brand new softball bat first batting practice with me earlier today.
Not baseball but thought it was humorous.
Told her it was obvious that my wicked curve broke it 
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Hotbox, teaches how to run down a trapped runner. We used to play for hours as kids
We called it, pickle.
Depends a lot on age, but speed tee work is one of the most efficient ways to work with a larger group. I went to my 8 year old nephews practice and they slowly rotated thru one tee and each kid got like 5-10 swings off the tee for an entire practice. I went home to Chaska (much better baseball program) and they had like 10 tee’s setup with 3 kids rotating thru and they got more swings in 5 minutes than my nephews team did the whole practice.
Hotbox, teaches how to run down a trapped runner. We used to play for hours as kids
The greatest baseball game that teaches so many things that you don’t realize.
Some great ideas. Thanks. A fun first practice in the books.
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Craig Sery wrote:</div>
Hotbox, teaches how to run down a trapped runner. We used to play for hours as kidsWe called it, pickle.
If a guy grew up in the 90s and didn’t yell pickle at the top their lungs, we just can’t be friends anymore lol.
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>SuperDave1959 wrote:</div>
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Craig Sery wrote:</div>
Hotbox, teaches how to run down a trapped runner. We used to play for hours as kidsWe called it, pickle.
If a guy grew up in the 90s and didn’t yell pickle at the top their lungs, we just can’t be friends anymore lol.
Greatest baseball movie of all time.
Depends a lot on age, but speed tee work is one of the most efficient ways to work with a larger group. I went to my 8 year old nephews practice and they slowly rotated thru one tee and each kid got like 5-10 swings off the tee for an entire practice. I went home to Chaska (much better baseball program) and they had like 10 tee’s setup with 3 kids rotating thru and they got more swings in 5 minutes than my nephews team did the whole practice.
TRUTH!! I (we) do only BP at the field to get the kid pitchers used to someone their age in the box and to get the batters used to seeing kid pitching from actual distances to get actual timing down. Otherwise, depending on how many coaches are available, BP is at the cage. 3 tee stations (outside pitch, middle, inside), soft toss, coach pitch stations. (I am talking 10-13 YO) 5 to 6 kids at a time while the others are outside working on whatever else.
Also, multi – faceted drills. We had our 10 YO last night working on pitching, catching, infielding and leadoff/stealing at the same time. One coach working at the mound (pitcher, infielding, and baserunning instruction) and one coach at the plate working with catcher and hitting/throwing grounders to infield. Pitcher pitches to catcher (infielders are working on “1-2 ready” every pitch) the coach at the plate hits or throws a grounder to anywhere in the infield. Base runner is only working on watching pitcher and getting a “secondary” lead every pitch – also watching the coach on the mound for the steal sign. middle infielders are also working on communication on backing up catcher throws to pitcher and if baserunner steals. catcher is working on overall process and throwing to second. After X amount of pitches everyone rotates with the exception of the catcher(limited to time and number of kids that want to learn it). so requires 7 kids and 2 coaches. the rest of the team is working in the outfield on other stuff with a coach then rotates to the infield.
This is with caveat that you are teaching all positions to all kids (10 YO in our association). As they get older you might just rotate kids in their “naturally successful” positions.
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>SuperDave1959 wrote:</div>
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Craig Sery wrote:</div>
Hotbox, teaches how to run down a trapped runner. We used to play for hours as kidsWe called it, pickle.
If a guy grew up in the 90s and didn’t yell pickle at the top their lungs, we just can’t be friends anymore lol.
Exactly. When I moved to this state and people called it hot box I was like what the hell are you talking about? That’s when I began to realize how strange people are here….. 
Many years ago I had a team of 8th graders. As with all teams you had better players, average players and not so good players. It was always challenging to keep the interest of the not so good kids while making the rest of the kids better. I had one kid who was average to maybe a bit above average. But not nearly as good as he thought he was, not even close. The first couple of weeks he would strut around like his last name was Carew or Bonds. He could make decent contact on occasion but noticed he closed his eyes. One day I finally had enough of his BS. I called everyone over and said “I’ll make you guys a deal, I’m going to pitch 5 pitches underhanded to _______ and if he hits one ball fair you don’t have to run at the end of practice. If he hits 2 fair you don’t run all week. If by some miracle he hits 3 fair i’ll run”.
You can guess the reaction! I let them hollar for a while then told them……” there is only one catch, he needs to do it blindfolded.” That brought a bunch of laughs. But I said….i’ll tell him when to swing.
So I rolled one across the plate. Threw another over the backstop rolled another to the outfield all the while telling him he was just missing them!! Next one I rolled across the plate again. I then reminded him that he needed to hit the last ball fair so nobody had to run. You could see the steam and embarrassment rising from his head. 
I told him “Hey I feel bad you are missing the ball, uncover one eye for the last pitch and we will see how you do. Well the whole time he was assuming I was tossing the ball belt high, the last pitch I threw up in the air like a slow pitch pitch, he about screwed himself into the ground trying to hit it.
I told the kids the lesson was you can’t hit what you can’t see. See the ball hit the ball.
I then let everybody go and called the kid over. Told him what I had done, let him know he wasn’t near as good as he thought but if he opened his eyes and worked he could be a decent player. He was pissed but I didn’t care. Anyway the rest of the kids had fun and it was a good way to break up practice and learn a little something along the way.
Oh man some memories…We played the game flip a lot in high school and college….Kind of a baseball version of volleyball except players get knocked out until their is the last man standing.
Oh man some memories…We played the game flip a lot in high school and college….Kind of a baseball version of volleyball except players get knocked out until their is the last man standing.
Oh I forgot that one! We played that before every game in college and amateur ball. Good game.
I coached my daughter’s softball team when she was 13.
That’s all I have to say about that.
One technique we used that worked quite well for the kids to keep their eye on the ball was we would take a marker and mark a 2.5″ circle with either a red, green, or yellow dot. The batter would have to yell out the color as the ball was pitched to them. It worked. The only thing was some parents complained because the $300 bats they bought for their 12 year old were getting marker ink on them.
One technique we used that worked quite well for the kids to keep their eye on the ball was we would take a marker and mark a 2.5″ circle with either a red, green, or yellow dot. The batter would have to yell out the color as the ball was pitched to them. It worked. The only thing was some parents complained because the $300 bats they bought for their 12 year old were getting marker ink on them.
AHHH the good ole days when bats only cost $300!! 
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