Softball Drills & Coaching Tips

If you’re looking for softball infield drills, give this one a try. This one is great and works on the one of the tougher parts of the infielders, the mental game.

There is no time for day dreaming with this one or watching the other players.  To really get the pace going have your softball coaches pick up the pace of the hitting.  Emphasize all aspects here: the throw, good and sharp, the fielding with the emphases on the quick release, two hands.  We will time our players and get them to release the softball within 2 seconds.  The best part is about 5 minutes to each position and it keeps all players working and thinking:

Infield softball drill: (2 hitters) all fielders at bases and SS

Hitting coaches should take a position with one to the right of home plate and one to the left of home plate:

1st round: 1st coach hits to 3rd who throws to 2nd with 2nd baseman covering
2nd coach hits to SS who throws to 1st

2nd round: 1st coach hits to 3rd who throws to 1st
2nd coach hits to 2nd who throws to SS covering 2nd

3rd round: 1st coach hits to SS who throws to 2nd with 2nd baseman covering
2nd coach hits to 1st who throws to 3rd

4th round: 1st coach hits to 2nd base who throws to 1st
2nd coach hits to SS who throws 3rd

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Here are two softball hitting drills I use frequently and the improvements are immediate. I drill my players on how picking the ball up early is the difference in a good hitter and a great hitter.

So many young hitters who are seeing live pitching for the first time don’t understand the concept up seeing the softball. They initially think the you “pick the ball up” after it’s released from the pitcher’s hand.  Obviously if the pitcher is showing you the ball way back behind her ear that’s when you want to focus on seeing the ball.

I get on the mound and walk through where my hitters need to be focusing on picking the ball up.  I use terms like “see the ball early”, “read the writing on the ball”, “focus on the ball” and it helps remind them of the instruction I’ve given them concerning seeing the softball as early as the pitcher will show it.

We noticed our kids have great eye-hand coordination.  We think it is contributed to having our players bat the opposite way for a session of softball practice. This makes the player really see the ball because its not a natural swing. This should be done with slow pitching at first gradually increasing speed.  This also helps with softball players who have a tendency to step out with their front foot.

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This coaching philosophy – softball idea is not really geared to playing the actual game of softball.  However, it HAS helped our softball team’s mental attitude tremendously.

As we all know 90% of softball is a mental game rather than a physical one.  We try to achieve an outing for the team once a month but at the minimum we plan an outing at least every other month.

The outing includes the entire team and softball coaches going and doing something for fun for the day. We take turns picking what we do for fun but some of the things we have done include, bowling, going to the movies, going to a theme park, paint balling, a trip to the lake and sometimes it is just to get together to swim for the afternoon and grill hamburgers and hot dogs.

Getting the team together in an atmosphere outside the ball field has really made a difference in the team’s mental attitude not only towards the game of softball but also towards each other.

They come to softball practice with a mentality of eagerness and wanting to be there to learn and are very receptive to new ideas. In addition, it has really made them come together and gel as a unit.

They are very supportive of one another and there is never a sign of negativity between players. It is very refreshing.

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I started these warm ups for girls softball last year.  I  was getting tired of watching all the balls go scurrying past the players as they were playing catch in warm-ups during softball practice.

I lined up everybody about 20’ apart, and made them throw on my command.  The goal was to throw the softball to their partner and back 10 times without any bad throws or catches.

After making it to their partner and back, the girls have to yell what number they are on.  If anybody dropped the ball, everybody had to do 10 push-ups, again on my command.  Then we started over again at 0 and had one side of the line move down 1 person to switch partners.

We do this for about 15 minutes, alternating the punishment between push-ups, sit-ups, crunches, jumping jacks, etc.

The warm-ups improved and the conditioning results were immediate.

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One of my most effective softball practice ideas is to have my players act as the coaches.  Through out the softball season I have intersquad scrimmages and/or situational plays with pitchers, fielders, runners, batters. I have players rotating as the first base, third base and bench coach.

This allows the players to make the calls that we would make in the course of a game. It helps the players see the game from a different view. It really opens their eyes to the little things that we pick up in the course of the game. They then are able to use things during actual games.

There is one softball drill that I don’t do offend enough, but the girls love it. Base stealing and learning how to slide. Every drill focuses on catching, throwing, etc. Sometimes these get boring and the girls want more.

Here is a trick I use to get my softball players to slide properly:

Get into a three (3) point stance like you would in football. Kick your right/left leg out in front landing on your rear-end.
Hands in the air like you’re signaling for a touch-down. I explain and show the kids so they get the proper form.
This teaches the proper approach and slide form.

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