I time it as a way to get my girls to get better and faster and helps to make it more fun.

1)Have the team split up into equal groups and form a line at all the bases & home plate (usually 3 per base & home plate).
2) The drill works with the coach standing on the pitcher’s mound.  He can follow the drill just by turning in circles making corrections &/or encouragement as the drill progresses
3) Drill starts by the softball coach throwing the ball to the first player in line @ 1st base & then starts timing.
4) 1st baseman holds ball in throwing position and moves toward the pitcher’s circle while pretending to watch a potential runner on third.  When they get about halfway to the pitcher’s circle (girls softball-but can be used for boys as well) they throw the ball home, where the catcher puts down a tag and then throws to third base who puts down a tag.  3rd base throws to 2nd base & tags & throws to 1B where the 1st baseman practices receiving the ball in a good stretch toward the ball.  This continues until all the girls have gone through the line at that base.  When the original 1st baseman gets the softball back she flips to the coach on the pitcher’s mound, who then tells the girls to rotate to the next base.

All the girls then sprint to the next base, 1B to home, home to 3B, 3B to 2B, 2B to 1B & then the drill starts again and continues until all kids have completed their a turn at every base.  Once that it is done the coach stop the clock.

Try doing this softball drill under 4 minutes can be challenging!

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I create a cone corridor 15 ft wide by 45 ft long.  I use this corridor as a confined space and place players outside the cone lines at intervals and then create ball movement drills that the players must perfect.

In one such softball drill I line up the players at one end and place two players on each outside edge of the cones at intervals.  The first interval is 15 ft from the player line at the end and the next interval is fifteen feet from the first edge player and on the opposite side of the corridor.  I then post a player at the far end, which is 15 ft from the last interval player. From this particular configuration I can run multiple different drills.

In this drill the player at the far end throws a ground ball hard at the players in line at the other end.  The first player in line must charge the ball, pick it up, and throw it to the first interval player who throws it to the second interval player who in turn flips the softball into the air so that the original line player who is still running the corridor can catch the flip pass and then must quickly throw it to the player at the very end of the corridor before running past him.

This teaches the fundamental of getting quickly to the ball on the ground and handling it on the run in a small space to an outlet teammate who must also handle it rapidly to another team mate who must handle it quickly back to the running team mate who must handle it again and get it to the originating team mate at the end of the line.

Failure results in getting back in line without finishing and suffering the indignity of the jibes from your team mates.  The positioned players are alternated so that all players play all roles.

The corridor positions, tasks and ball movement sequences can all be varied in a thousand ways to create different choices requiring different skills.

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Divide the players into three 4 man squads.
They rotate coming to bat, hitting to three outs, scoring runs.
When three outs, kids go to field, fielders shift, one group comes to bat.

Basically it is a three part inning softball game. They can be competitive, work on infield situations, get lots of batting and running practice.  You can also do two 6 man teams with no outfield.  Hit to out field  is a double unless they are thrown out.

To me the girls need the infield and hitting work most, outfield third which I try to work into a different softball drill.

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Motivational softball throwing drill–
Give kids creative targets for throwing at, and treat it like a carnival game.

We have used targets like stuffed animals sitting in lawn chairs, hula hoops, five gallon buckets ect. I find that it helps keep the kids motivated if they are picking off Winnie the Pooh. Also, they will really rear back a throw the softball instead of aiming it like a dart. We are able to keep kids chucking for 20 minutes and they want to keep going. Obviously, these are younger throwers.

The next softball drill is: Throw the ball into the container
Put a large bin, around four feet wide, on first base. Have the players line up behind second base. Each player then throws the ball towards the bin and tries to bounce it in. If they can throw that far without a bounce, back them up until they can’t. Goal is to teach accuracy even on bounce throws.

Make a little contest out of it to add entertainment value.

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The first softball drill is for working on line drives.  It goes as follows:
I set up about 40 feet away with a tennis racket and bucket of tennis balls.  The players line up and I will take them one at a time at any infield position and line five tennis balls at them and they compete with each other trying to go 5 for 5 in line drives.  The fear factor is not there since these are tennis balls and the difficulty level goes up as the balls will pop out if you don’t squeeze.  The girls really enjoy competing and trying to make spectacular plays.

At the end of softball practice we will play a game of knockout. Have one player at first and a catcher, the rest of players lineup at the shortstop position. Hit ground balls to the shortstop position. The player has to field the softball and make a good throw to first base; make a mistake and your out.

Then we will do a round of pop fly’s with a throw to the catcher.They love the competition.

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We practice with a tennis ball so the comfort level is higher. They know that if they get hit with the ball it is not going to hurt too badly.

I have the players begin with their mitts under their noses out in front of them. I get them to do this because most of the time they are putting their gloves up above the shoulder that is the glove hand.  Be sure that they are able to look over the top of their gloves to see the ball.

I do all of the throwing so I can control the location and speed of the balls. You must emphasize that you need to see the ball and reach out a little bit to receive it.

Be sure the players aren’t snapping at the ball as this will create other problems, the biggest one being they will move their glove and often times will not catch the ball. This softball drill has helped both of my teams.

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Set up–
Rotate your softball players through coaching and base running.
Players line up at the plate as the batter (just take off running).
One player as base coach and 1st baseman playing her position.
Coach it at mound or somewhere in the close infield to make the throw to 1st.
1st baseman makes the play as usual while the base coach is telling the player to stay or go.
The softball coach can make the throw as easy or difficult as desired to challenge the first baseman.
Base coach is telling runner to go on an overthrown ball.

You can also add scenarios such as a bobbled ball in the outfield, or errors at other bases. This is a good softball drill to start with and it teaches the kids to be vocal while they are coaching 1st and is great work for the first baseman.

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My main objectives were to instill love of the game and have fun. The only outcomes I wanted were to use both hands to catch, watch the ball hit the bat and to rotate their bodies when they throw.

For the 8-9 year old girls softball, we had a couple of softball drills that helped with the catch-throw of making relays, baserunning, backing up the play and one to help them think about situational softball without having to make the actual play.

Throw out the Coach
Get three-four kids deep at center right field, second and short. Ball at the feet of center fielder. Go! The softball coach runs from home trying to get to second. Second rotates out to shallow right, short covers second. Relay, relay, tag. Next group. Helps teach muscle memory of rotating on plays not hit directly to you (player-spectators are a big issue in little league), catch and throw and applying tag. Advantage: the coach can slow down or speed up to make sure there is a play.

Pick up the Coach
Put a coach at first and third. Each player takes off from home, staggered start. If first base coach doesn’t send them to second, they run through the bag then trot back home, back of the line. Every second or third kid, first base coach sends to second – they have to pick up third base coach as they are between first and second, who will tell them whether to go to third. Go through the line up a couple of times.

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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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Divide your group into 3 even teams.
One group at home plate, one group between 1st base and the right field pole and the third group between 3rd base and the left field pole.

The softball coach picks up a ball and hits it to the outfield. That signals the girl at home plate to start running the bases while the first two girls in the outfield take off to pick up the softball that has been hit by the coach.

The first girl who reaches the ball picks it up so the other girls can touch the ball. (You can not move if you get the ball first.)  As soon as both girls have touched the ball, the girl on the bases gets a point for every base that she touches.

Competitive and if you have more softball coaches, they can pick a team to hit to as well.

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