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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When I have girls that are afraid of the ball, or girls that don’t move their feet to the ball, I use this softball drill.  I put them, one at a time, up by home plate, facing the pitcher, and I  throw grounders to them.  I first throw them softer so they can get a feel of the ball, then I get harder and harder as the throws keep coming.  This teaches moving the feet to the softball, and the backstop catches the ones that get by, and it teaches soft hands for the balls that are hit, or thrown pretty hard.

When coaching j.v. high school softball, some of the girls have never played before, so their throwing and catching skills can use some help. I get a line of girls at second, and a line of girls at short. I get a catcher for both lines. I hit each line a grounder, and they have to field the ball perfectly and throw the ball back to the catcher perfectly for them to receive a point I go through each line about three times, and the line with the least points has to run or put away the equipment.

This really makes the girls focus on making good throws and good fielding.

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This first softball drill works really well with helping the girls field grounders. Have them take their gloves off and field the ball with their bare hands.  It lets them get used to the feeling of using both hands and they have to keep their eye on the softball in order to stop it.

A favorite bunting drill is to draw three semi-circles in the dirt in front of home plate and assign a point value to each area based on where it is best to try and place your bunt. Each player gets 5 bunts and they add up their point value. The girl with the highest total get bragging rights and gets to skip the practice ending wind sprints. It’s a great drill that takes a boring activity and makes it competitive and exciting.

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I call this softball drill “Efron or Jonas”.  When the girl is running and just about 1/2 way I stand at 3rd and hold up either a picture of Zac Efron or one of the Jonas brothers.  They have to call out who they saw.  I don’t hold up the picture until they are half way.  Their observation skills improved instantly.

We added another part because some of the girls were looking as soon as they started running, so we put a softball coach at 2nd and he has two stuffed animals.  So they have to call the stuff animal out and then look and call Efron or Jonas.

The girls have fun with this one!  If you’re coaching a young softball team, try it out.  Results are immediate.

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I have them get in their normal spots (R, C, L) as I hit them softballs from home. I put a bucket on second base and their throw has to land in the bucket.

I turn it into a game between them. Every time they get a ball in the bucket they get a point, but they have to field it cleanly and call the ball. If they do not, but still hit the bucket it doesn’t count.

I also place the bucket right in front of home where the catcher would be when there’s a play at home. I lay the bucket down and they have to one hop it in to the bucket. Same rules as before.

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Quickness drill–
This softball drill start off with 3rd baseman & 1st baseman. Hit a grounder to 3rd who throws to 1st, 3rd then moves to short. Grounder hit there & throws to 1st, move 2nd grounder, hit & thrown to 1st, move to 1st & original 1st baseman moves to end of line and original 3rd base moves to 1st.  The kids enjoy this softball drill because it moves quickly.

Fielding-
Player stands in front of the softball coach with eyes closed. Coach then calls out left or right and then throws a pop fly just out of player’s reach or “with lots of hustle” barely within players reach. Player then opens her eyes and runs to the softball—with glove tucked until she reaches or almost reaches the ball. This seems to develop hand-eye coordination again as well as teaches player to run with mitt tucked until getting to the ball.

Wobble balls—
These are rubber balls that are NOT round. I like to throw ground balls to my players using these. They never know where the ball is going to bounce and it forces them to stay in a good athletic position on the balls of their feet. It also forces them to watch the ground ball entirely into their mitt.

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The 9 to 12 year old girls seem to love this Relay drill. Split the girls into three groups. Form three parallel lines ( five in each line). Space the girls out about 20 to 30 feet apart. Starting from front to back, throw to the glove side and the girl must then turn to glove side to continue the relay.

Award points to the winning softball team. Then rotate. Any drops or wrong turns disqualifies that team from points even if they complete first. Teaches kids how to set up their relay target and also teaches to turn to glove side when relaying.

As you know, younger girls and even some with experience seem to have a difficult time judging how to correctly go back on a fly ball hit over their heads. We actually use a football either indoors or out as it helps them be able to better judge which direction to turn. Then of course when it seems they have caught the knack of it, we have them put on their gloves and do the same with the softball over their heads. It seems to really help!!

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We use of piece of pvc pipe and you can even wrap a towel around it. A long stick will do also.  Have the player hold the stick behind her back with her arms curled up under it where it rests between the tricep and the forearm.  Have them start with feet square then have them put weight on right foot (for right hander) with left foot coming up off ground, pivot the foot then push off of the foot having the foot come all the way through like the follow through.  Keep doing this non-stop for 30 yards.  Then do it again.

The girls don’t think it is much fun but it really helps them develop the lower body technique involved in softball pitching.  Its also something they can do at home and takes no equipment.

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Competition Relay Drill

1      2      3           4          5       6

I separate the girls into two teams, with up to 6 players on a team. One team stretches from the 3b side of home plate all the way to the left field foul pole. The other team stretches from the 1b side of home plate all the way to the right field foul pole.

The ball starts in Player 1’s glove. At the whistle, each team starts.
Player 1 throws the softball to player 2. Player 2 receives the ball correctly and throws to Player 3. After Player 1 throws the ball, she quickly moves to Player 2’s position. After receiving and throwing the ball to Player 3, Player 2 moves quickly to Player 3’s position, and so on. When Player 6 receives the ball, she sprints back to the original starting position. Here is the order of players from right to left after one complete cycle: 6,1,2,3,4,5. After two cycles, it would be 5,6,1,2,3,4, etc.

If the ball is dropped, or it is a bad throw, the ball is retrieved and thrown back to the last player who received the ball correctly, not from where the ball is picked up or dropped.

This is a competition and relay is over when Player 1 comes all the way back to her original position (1,2,3,4,5,6). When Player 1 sprints all the way back to home plate, all of her teammates sit down. The first team to finish completely and correctly, is the winner.

In our case, the losing team does push-ups, crunches, etc. or the winning team does not have to do the end of softball practice conditioning, so there are repercussions for losing.

I have done this softball drill with tennis balls and no gloves, softhands and softballs, and any other way I can adjust it to change it up a bit. You can decrease the number of players and keep the length the same and you can do this drill indoors if you are in the gym area. I also do it more than once with the losing team’s captain picking a player (except that team’s captain) from the winning team and the winning team’s captain picking a player (except for the captain and the recently “traded” player) from the losing team.

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