My youth softball team loves the drill of Bucket Knock Off.
We set up 2 buckets at home plate and have 3 players stand at pitcher’s mound. Give each of them 14 balls to throw at the bucket, 5 points for every time one of them knocked it over . It made them try so much harder and they could not get enough of it.

Here is the pre-practice routine that we use for the teams that I coach:

Each one of these are 10 reps each and the walks and jogs are between the foul line and 2nd base in the outfield
Arm Swings (hands behind head)
Side Bends
Trunk rotate (full upper body rotation)
Alternate toe touch
Leg Swing
Jog in place pump arms
The next drills are between foul line and second base in the outfield
Walk on toes
Straight leg kick
Knee hug
Butt kick
Lunge walk
Back pedal
High knee skip

I hope these give some ideas to pre-practice and pre-game work outs to get the body going.

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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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Pair two girls up, one on each end of the gym.  Most gyms have a mat on the wall on each end of the gym.  One team starts with the ball (an inside ball and the team to start is decided by the softball coach).  That team takes the ball, and has the full court on their end from the baseline to the volleyball line on the court (usually near the top of the key).

They throw the ball to the other two girls at the other end in anyway they can, hard, soft, bounce, however they wish.  The object is to try to get it past them and have the ball hit the mat.  If the ball hits the mat (gets past the two girls, they are out, and the next two are up).  If the ball bounces off the wall, and goes past the line by the top of key, the other team gets it.  The team is out if the ball hits the mat in any way, shape, or form.

I usually divide the teams up half and half.  Reward for the group of teams that outlast the others can be anything a coach wants to come up with for incentive.  This softball drill helps them work on throwing accuracy and fielding both at the same time.

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This softball drill is basically a water balloon toss. The kids don’t realize they are working on  catching with two hands, moving to the “ball”, anticipating “ball” trajectory, and appropriate speed, hardness, and accuracy in throwing.

Line the kids up in two lines facing each other, each with a partner across from them. Start 3 feet apart. Each pair has a water balloon, and on the whistle, the balloons get passed from one line to the other. Then one line takes a step back, and the whistle blows for the balloon to get tossed back. Players whose balloons break are eliminated. Repeat until you get a winner.
NOTE: Before each whistle blow, rotate the balloons down a pair, with the balloon from the last pair of kids moving up to the first pair. This eliminates any unfairness due to fill amount or shape.

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Kids hate to run, so we make a race out of it.  I get two kids, close in speed and agility.  I start the first one at home and have her run the bases as fast as she can.  Then I start the second player about 15 ft. behind the first one tell her to try and catch the other runner.  It works and the kids love it.  They run faster and come across home plate laughing.  Simple but effective.

Here is another fun softball drill we use at the end of practices. The players form 2 lines. A softball is placed at the foot of each line. Two more softballs are placed approximately 40′ away from them. (This is all on grass). The players are then given instructions on the drill:
Pickup the ball with left hand, run karioke to the second ball, popup slide, drop first ball, pickup second ball with right hand, full sprint back, full slide, hand ball to teammate.

You can mix up the variations to make it interesting and to see who is paying attention and how they are sliding. As each player completes her turn, she kneels until everyone has had their turn. My kids look forward to this at the end of practice. It gets their competitive juices flowing and they all root their teammates on.

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Start off with one player on first base and the rest of the players will line up on the grass behind 2nd base position. The 1st player in line comes forward to the 2nd base position.

I start this softball drill with 2 balls, my catcher has one and I have the other. The first softball is hit to the player at 2nd base. She fields the ball and makes the play at 1st. As soon as the play is made, the player at 1st makes the throw home, then runs to the back of the line. The player at 2nd runs to cover 1st base while the next player in line moves forward to field the next ball being hit. As soon as a ball is hit the catcher flips the other ball me.

This is a fast pace drill and cardio can be increased by moving to short stop position. The time span between balls being hit is about 5 seconds. HAVE FUN!!

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We try to work a healthy amount of conditioning into our softball practice, so after warm-ups, we have them take 2 laps around the field, while cradling a softball. It kills two birds with one stone, and forces them to cradle properly or they will spend much time chasing dropped balls. It also shows the softball coaches, at a glance, which players need more work on cradling.

Swing Drill: have your players use a smaller and lighter bat than usual. Using the back arm only, have the player make full swings; it reinforces the importance of rotating the hips and shoulders.

To get a batter with happy feet to stand still, have them stand on a board (like a 1×6) when batting in practice. It will help them concentrate on their feet until they get that muscle memory we all talk about.

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We play a game called “Thunder”.  Split your squad up into two equal teams (randomly). One team hits first from a tee at home plate, the other team splits up with half to 1B and half to 3B.

The team at bat hits in order from the tee.  They may hit anywhere on the field.  Once they hit the softball, the hitter runs the bases.  Once the ball is hit off of the tee, the team in the field sends 1 “runner” from both 1B and 3B to touch the ball as fast as they can.  Once both players have touched the ball, the hitter stops and you count the total number of bases that she got to before both players touched the ball.

Keep track of the total number of bases once everyone has hit and then bring in the fielding team to hit and send the hitters out to 1B and 3B to field.

The team with the most total bases after a set number of innings is the winner.  To get the coaches involved, assign a coach to each team and let them hit last for each team and run the bases.  This is a fun and competitive  softball drill game that your players love!

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Split the team into to equal groups with one group lined up at short stop and the other group at 2nd.  Stack two buckets one on top of the other on home plate.

Coach will start the competition on the left side hitting ground balls to each of the players one at a time.  The player then makes a throw home trying to hit the bucket.  The player gets 3 points for knocking the top bucket off, 2 points for hitting either bucket in the air, and one point for hitting either bucket on a bounce.

Go through all of the players at short stop and total points.  Follow the same for the players at second base.  Now players switch positions and continue the softball drill.

We usually say the first team to 15 points wins depending upon the time you want to spend on this drill.  As players develop throwing accuracy it actually goes pretty quick.

This softball throwing drill encourages the girls to charge the ball (shorter throw to home) and they figure that out pretty quick!  As they develop in their skills, we incorporate good fielding by subtracting 1 point for not fielding the ball properly.

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To keep the players interested in taking their game to the next level is to demonstrate a new softball drill for them.  Run them through it a few times and then the next time they do it, have players run the drill.  The players are then trying to help each other get the most out of the softball drill and they all learn. This has added benefits for all involved as it is also a great way to form team cohesion.

Here is another idea that we like to do–a team drill that we call six or nine, depending on how many outs we decide we want to make.

Put a kid at every position and the softball coach starts hitting the ball, and the kids have to make the plays.  They need to make six or nine consecutive outs without an  error (physical or mental), or they start over at the beginning.

My team loves this drill and they ask for it all the time.

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