Practice Practice Practice.. Unless you have played or coached baseball in some fashion you really don't know how much work it is getting a team ready for games. Parent coaches and players, here are a few suggestions from the Babe Ruth and Cal Ripken League for running a successful practice.
Throwing/pitching and catching station
Have kids play catch together (5 to 10 minutes), or with adults ifnecessary for the younger age groups. Teach proper mechanics: point thefront shoulder toward the target, step toward the target, elbow abovethe shoulder, throw and follow or follow through.Infield station
Go over pitching mechanics (5 min.) – baby step back, turn the foot,lift the leg, release the ball with the elbow above the shoulder,follow through.
Break into smaller groups (rotate once every kid in pitching group is done)
„X Throwing contest – kids throw at a target, net or screen.
„X Playing catch – one group is playing catch with kids or adults;play “21” or see who can throw and catch the most times in a row; seewho can throw the farthest and/or who can successfully play catch atthe greatest distance.
„X Pitching – from a mound or rubber (5-10 pitches per kid unless time allows for more); coaches catch.
Go over proper way to field a ground ball – wide base, butt down, hands out in front, fingers pointing down.
Go over proper way to field a backhand – basic principles apply(wide base, etc.); don’t twist the glove, squeeze it and bring itstraight to the center of the body
Go over throwing after the catch (try to give all instruction in 10 minutes)
Break into smaller groups (rotate every 5 minutes or so)Outfield station
„X Basic groundballs – roll each kid five basic ground balls (canhave multiple lines going) with the kids holding the proper ground ballposition without standing up for all five (have each kid go throughseveral times; increase speed and distance of rolls as necessary).
„X Backhands – roll each kid five backhands; have each player gothrough at least twice, holding the backhand position until they havecaught five; younger kids can put a knee down to make sure they aredoing the drill properly.
„X Throwing after the catch – set up three cones in a straight line,one as a starting point, another for the release point and the third asthe follow point; kids get a ball, assume the ground ball position,shuffle to the first cone, throw at the second cone and follow past thethird cone; the coach returns the ball and the player catches it withtwo hands out in front.
Hit ground balls (go until you need to rotate to stay on schedule)
„X After the fundamental stations, break the kids into smallergroups with a coach hitting balls to each line. Go through severaltimes with the players just putting the balls into a bucket. Then gothrough several times with the players fielding and throwing to a coach.
Go over basic fly ball fielding mechanics – catch with two hands, above the head so you can see the ball go in the glove.
Go over the basic ground ball fielding mechanics – still with a widebase, butt down and hands out in front; can catch with opposite footfrom the throwing hand extended forward as long as the player is notrunning through the ground ball and has a wide base and the glove outin front.
Go over the crossover step and catching balls on the run (all instruction should take no more than 10 minutes.
Break into two groups (10 minutes each)
„X Thrown fly balls – coaches throw fly balls to the players untilthey are all comfortable catching properly; adjust height of fly ballsas necessary.
„X Rolled ground balls – coaches roll ground balls to players whofield them like infielders first and then with one-foot forward; adjustspeed and distance of rolls accordingly
- After a while start moving the players side to side, working on the crossover step but not catching on the run.
Pass patterns (remainder of time)
- After a while start moving the players side to side,stressing the importance of getting to the spot quickly, getting undercontrol and getting in front of the ball
„X Break into as many small groups as you have coaches available –kid tosses the coach a ball and assumes a ready position; coach says“go,” player crosses over and takes off; coach lobs a “touchdown pass”to the player; the coach should stop the player if the crossover stepis done incorrectly.
„X Go in both directions, with players catching multiple balls crossing over each way.
„X If there is time and the skill level is high enough, the dropstep can be introduced; the drill is the same, but starts with a dropstep and the ball is thrown more directly over the player’s head.
Hitting station (all of these drills are discussed in archived articles; you can do up to 10 minutes at each station)
Soft toss – standard toss drill, think “loose hands, quick bat.”
Tee work – standard batting tee drill, focusing on weight shift: “You have to go back to go forward.”
Stickball – use the Ripken Kinect bat and smaller balls to improve eye-hand coordination and timing simultaneously.
Free hitting or short toss – if you have a batting cage, eitherthrow or have a machine pitch to the kids (no coaching here; all of thecoaching is done in the above drills); if you don’t have a cage, usesponge-runner balls and do short toss from the front (have the kids whoaren’t hitting shag balls).
Timing
If you add up the time involved in eachof the stations, you most likely will run beyond two hours. That’s whyyou want to build cushion time into your schedule. You want to makesure that each kid gets an equal opportunity and plenty of attention.It also is important to not feel rushed during the variousinstructional segments and to be able to actually have time to coachthe kids during the drill sessions.