My girls were stopping their swings during games recently and this reminded me that I hadn’t done this batting “basketball” drill in awhile.  We broke out this drill and after only 4 hits with the bb drill the girls were hitting doubles and triples in the next game.

Take half deflated basketballs and place them on a tee. Have the girls set up in a normal batting stance. When they swing it forces them to follow through and shows them whether the stopped the swing or not.

PURPOSE:  This increases the power of the swing but also stops that half swing that causes the ball to just drop on the dirt.  It insures that they remember to follow-through on the swing.

Bunting-
I teach my softball team that bunting is as simple as “catching the ball with the bat”.

To show this, I have the athlete stand in the batters box in sacrifice bunting position squared up to the pitching machine without a bat.  We use lite-flite foam balls and pitch to the batter.  The right handed batter then literally catches the ball with her right hand; a left handed batter catches the ball with her left hand.  Those are the hands that control the location of the bat.

This works really well when trying to teach a right handed hitter to bunt from the left side, because in most cases she usually catches the ball with her left hand anyway.  You could also use a harder ball and have the batter wear a mitt on her catching hand. After a few successful catches or deflections (it is sometimes difficult to squeeze the foam ball with a bare hand), put a bat in her hand.

You should find improvement in eye-hand-bat-ball coordination resulting in improved bunting skills which should carry over to improved hitting as well.

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For example–we might work on picking a runner off of third base.  We would have a line for catcher, a line for third base, and a line for left fielders.

The softball coach would toss a ball to the catcher who would come up throwing to third.  Meanwhile the left fielder is immediately moving to back up the throw.

After the play is completed we rotate.  The catcher hustles to left field, left field hustles to the back of the third base line, and the third baseman hustles to the back of the catching line.  Each player keeps moving and the idea of backing up is heavily emphasized.

The basic idea of working in lines of three or more and emphasizing backing up has helped us a lot and can be used to teach/drill many situations.

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Line up your girls, with four players to a line, stretching from one foul line to the other.
Make three or four lines depending on how many players you have at practice.
The ball starts at the left field line, is thrown to the player in left-center, then thrown to right-center, then to the right foul line and then the sequence is reversed.

When the ball makes it all the way back to the left foul line, the player drops the ball and all of the players rotate up one position with the girl who started on the left foul line running all the way to the right foul line.

Once all of the players have rotated through each position in the chain this softball drill is done.

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Players line up across the field approximately 90 feet apart in a straight line with four in each line (or an even number).
The first player throws the softball to the next player in line then runs to that player’s position and so on down the line.
The last player in line runs all the way back to the front of the line after catching the ball, and the drill starts again until the first player is back in the first position.

When the players get tired, you keep telling them how they are getting tougher and stronger and more accurate–anything POSITIVE to keep them striving for a higher level.  This builds stamina and endurance, and teaches the mind and body to keep going even when are both really tired.

This softball drill has a lot of running and throwing and is a good one to do at the end of practice. I make sure to have plenty of goodies to offer after softball practice as an added incentive!

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Pitchers’ Fielding Practice – Fielding Bunt Balls
Have your pitcher(s) on the mound.
Coach throws out 5 softballs along the 3rd base line from home plate simulating bunted balls.
Pitcher goes through his motion from set or windup–dry or live.
Pitcher goes and fields the furthest ball from home plate first, throws ball to 1st base.
Same pitcher then goes through the same process until all 5 balls are fielded.
The next pitcher goes through the same routine.

You can then use this same softball drill down the 1st base line.

It also works as good aerobic exercise for pitchers.

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Z Ball Drill
Z Ball, Reaction Ball (the ball that bounces every which way), 2 blue and 2 orange (2 different colors)

Split team into two teams for relay race. Throw all 4 balls to the end of the gym and have two players on each team return their color of balls. Once the softball coach has both team balls, the coach throws and the next 2 players chase down the balls.  Fun and great conditioning!

Another drill I use on my girls uses the pitching machine.
I take our pitching machine and line up the girls single file approximately 30 ft from the machine.  I set the machine for 35 to 40 MPH and make the girls face away from the machine.  As I shout “ball” they have to turn around and catch the ball as it comes out of the machine. If they sidestep the ball there is a good chance it will hit the next fielder in the back(ouch).

This teaches our girls to stay with softball and catch it.

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• All you need is a wall (preferably a tall one), indoors or outdoors, and a rubber ball and glove.
• The player is positioned a few feet from the the wall facing it.
• The player throws the softball up against the wall.
• The player must do the drop step and run to catch the ball that has gone over his/her head.
• The distance of the bounce off the wall is determined by the strength of the throw.

This softball drill can also be done with a partner where the partner throws the ball for the other player.  This works well as the receiver doesn’t know how hard the ball will be thrown.

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The first softball drill is a relay drill that focuses on the long hit where the short stop or the second baseman have to go to into the outfield to relay the softball to home plate or second base.

I also do hits down the lines so that the third baseman and first baseman get practice too.  I’ll hit or throw the ball deep into the outfield getting the infielders into relay position. The outfielder catches or gets the ball then throws it to the cutoff player who turns and throws it to the catcher or second base which ever the team needs work on. Start out slow so they understand what needs to happen and where they need to go. Then back up and pick up the pace. Until you just stand at home plate and tell them which base to bring the ball to. Randomly hit the ball deep.

Another one is a softball fielding drill for pop-flies. The fielders stand with their backs to you and you start out throwing the softball to them.  You throw the up into the air like a pop-up, as you throw the ball you yell “ball!”  The fielder turns around and finds the ball and catches it.

Don’t throw the ball right at the player, you’re not trying to hit them. As the fielders get more experienced at this you can back up and/or start hit the ball to them.

This really develops the fielders ability to follow the ball and judge its flight path, increasing his ability to catch the ball.

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With twelve players this is how it works:
1. Nine players are in the field taking their normal positions
2. 3 batters are in the dugout ready to hit.
3. The batter comes to the plate and hit’s off of the softball coach who is pitching.
4. The batter puts the softball in play and if she reaches base safely then she stays at that base and the next hitter swings away.
5. If the batter gets out then she runs to the dugout to get her mitt and goes to the field right field.
6. The fielders then rotate in this manner   RF goest to CF, CF goes to LF, LF goes to 3B, 3B goes to SS, SS goes to 2B,  2B goes to 1B, 1B goes to the pitchers mound and the pitcher goes behind the plate to catch, the catcher becomes the third batter.
7. If there is a player on base and she is out on a fielder’s choice hit by another player then the player who hit the ball is out.
8. The hitters continue to hit until someone gets them out so there is incentive to focus on both batting and fielding.

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I show them the minimum amount that I would like them to do at the beginning of the softball season and then a different player leads each practice and game.

This allows myself and the other softball coaches to spend time at practices getting our drills on the same page and allows time before a game to prepare a field and exchange lineups because the kids know their responsibility and stick to it.

I also have them run the bases prior to each practice.  This serves 2 purposes–first it gets them moving prior to any drills and second it helps them learn the signs of the 1st and 3rd base coaches, as they are telling them to go or stay.

The last thing that you can work on with this pre-practice softball drill is exploding out of the batters box to get them really hustling!

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