Coaching Youth Softball – Mini Field Practice Plans

Traditional wisdom and practice ideas for coaching youth softball can get a bit stale. Here are two ideas sent to me recently that will pay dividends with your youth softball players. Very creative–give them a try!

From Lisa…
I coach a 9-10 yr.old girls minor team. One of my assistant softball coaches does this great lesson with the girls. He lays down some gloves on the ground for bases, and has the girls take positions on this mini field that he has created. Now he can give the girls situations on this field and really keep their attention because of the close setting. No need to yell across the field. Our girls are all very new to the game, so this has given them a better understanding of who covers when and where. It has taught them to back each other up. Then, when we take it to the real field they are doing the same! Maybe not original, but it makes our softball practices fun.

From Mark….
We where having a hard time getting our 10 and under girls to slide. So we bought sliding mats and created a rating game. The team rates each girl’s slide from 1 to 10. It was a lot of fun and the girls started sliding a whole lot more!

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