Follow the Ball  
We start with a player at 1B, 2B, 3B and Catcher with a line of kids at shortstop.
We hit a ball to the shortstop who throws it to 1B.
After she throws the ball she sprints to 1B.
The girl playing first throws to the 2B covered by the second baseman, and she sprints to 2B.
The girl at 2B throws it to 3B covered by the thirdbaseman and she follows her throw, and the girl at 3B throws the ball home to the catcher.
She follows her throw to home.
The catcher catches the ball and flips to the coach and sprints to the back of the line at shortstop.

We emphasize hustle, moving to the ball and running.  It gets a lot of work done in a short period of time.

We also do the same thing with an outfield position.  The line of girls is in right field.   We hit a line drive to them and they throw it to 1B.  We do not have a 2B during this one and the SS is covering second.  The catcher sprints to the back of the line in right field.

Zig-Zag Drill
Set-Up:
Set three cones out that if connected with a line, it would form the letter Z.  You should vary the distance between and distance from start based on age of your players.
Drill:

• We have each player run towards each cone looking for the ball, not knowing if it will be a ground or fly ball.
• We vary where we place the ball (high, low, front or back, etc.) to ensure they are tracking the ball and reacting accordingly.
• Once caught, or retrieved, they have to have square up, get a good base and make a good throw back to the coach.
• Once caught and thrown, they must quickly change direction and work towards the next cone.
• We start working towards the closest cone and typically end with a big fly ball at cone #3.

Goals
Improve footwork / lateral movement.
Improve reaction and tracking.
Improve agility with quick starts and stops.
Improve the transition from running, fielding and throwing.
Improve throwing in game like conditions – find, field and throw.

The Last Man Standing OR The Buckner Drill
The drill works like this:
Place 2 cones 10-12 feet apart.
The players all get in a line.
The first player is up (no gloves) creeps and gets down and the coach who is 40-60 feet away, fires one grounder after another to the player (total of 5).

The player has to field cleanly (she just tosses the ball to the side) nothing gets by, no ball between the legs (hence Buckner).

If she makes five, she goes to end of the line, if she misses she is out.

All of this continues until there is just one man left standing. It’s fun, the players love it AND it does help!

Softball Batting Practice Drill
1.  Grip: Players must be able to grip the bat properly. The bat grip resembles that of an axe.

2.  The bat must be held across the base of the fingers.

3.  Light pressure on bat is a must, as pressure will increase as contact is made.

4.  The middle knuckles of the top hand align between the middle and last knuckles of the bottom of hand.

5.  Proper stance – The first to a great swing is one’s stance. It must be stressed to the players that the stance should be what is comfortable, and not what looks best.

6.  Ready Position or Batting stance as follows: At the batters’ box step into it and do a pre-swing routine. Separate feet at shoulder width. Feet must be paralleled with toes aligned parallel to inside edge of home plate.  Bat must be held over shoulder at 45* angle to horizontal.  Bend top half of body forward from waist to bring weight onto both feet and then flex knees slightly.

Certainly, the knees must be flexed with the weight centered on the inside of the feet. The knees will slightly bend in towards each other, actually knock-kneed where balance is the primary objective.  The batter then should have a clear mind and focus on seeing the pitch from the release point into the hitting zone.

Swinging within the strike zone and watching the bat hit the ball is a must.  Once the swing is mechanically sound, the batter needs to master the mental aspects of hitting where fixing his attention hitting becomes mighty important.

7.  Aggressive hitting must be encouraged on the principle that every pitch is going to be a strike down the middle and contact has to be made with the ball, where the only decision the batter has to make is not to swing at a ball outside the strike zone.

Bucket of Balls
Drop 10 base balls in the area where an infielder might have to make a play.
For extra fun add a stop watch to time speed. It also brings in a little competition for the fastest time.

The infielder as quickly as he/she has to get every ball and make the play to first.

The 1st baseman has a bucket to collect the balls accurately thrown to him/her.

Coaching points:
- Repetition of plays to first for any infielder.
- Best time for every position (each position should have its best time record, distance plays a role)
- Accuracy of throws.
-Best times so far 8yr old.
2nd base 22.3 secs.
Shortstop 23.8 sec.
3rd Base 24.7

Lots of fun, excellent skills improvements and never dull!

Face the Base
I hang the bases on the backstop and use them as a target for the kids to throw to.  It really helps us look as they throw the ball to see what they need to improve on.
At the end of their throwing motion I would have them Face the Base to complete their motion.

Fielding and Hitting Drill
This is a simple drill, but allows players to get a lot of fielding and even some hitting work over a short period of time.
You have 3 players per group; a hitter, a tosser, and a fielder.
The fielder should stand about 30-40 feet away from the hitter.
The hitter chokes up and uses a short swing.
The tosser, kneels and tosses balls to the hitter from the side.

As soon as the hitter hits one ball, he qucikly resets, and the next ball is tossed.  The fielder must field the ball, toss it to the side and quickly get ready for the next one. After all balls have been hit, players switch places.

This drill can be run for 15 minutes or coach can set a certain number of rounds.

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Bonus Ball
Have your players line up at second or third and field ground balls and throw over to first–for example we play a point system. The coaches hit ground balls or fly balls to the players and then they throw over to 1st.

If they catch a fly ball it is worth 2 points, catch a ground ball it is worth 1 point and if you make a good throw to first and the first baseman catches it you get another point.
The first one to 15 wins but the catch is, if you miss a ground ball or miss throw to first you lose a point.

The winner of the game gets to pick the next baseball drill we do. This keeps all the kids active and wanting to win because they get to pick one of the next drills we do.

Pickle Drill
Set up enough stations for 3 kids: 9 players would be 3 stations.
Each station has two orange cones about 30′ apart. Distance would increase if older kids were to play.

I give the ball to one person in each station but the baserunner doesn’t know who has the ball.  Each baseman is on a cone with the baserunner in the middle.

The object is for the baserunner to reach a cone without being tagged.  The baseman will run after the runner and act like she has the ball even if she doesn’t.

If the runner goes in the direction of the baseman with the ball she’ll tag him out.

If she goes in the opposite direction she’ll throw the ball to the other baseman and hopefully she catches it and tags her out, and of course the pickle starts until the runner either makes it to a cone or is tagged out.

All teams that tag out the runner stay on the field until the only one team remains.

“Get Dirty”
Areas of Focus:
Infield
Speed (lateral/explosive)
Vision and Throwing
Conditioning

Instructions:
All players begin on third base, coach or player at 1st base.
Ball is hit in the gap of third base and short stop, player fields ball and throws to first
Player continues to run toward second base and ball is hit up the middle
Player runs to first base and the ball is hit in the gap between first and second
After completion, players rotate from first to third (in the opposite direction)
Two rounds is ideal as an infield drill

Key Area of Focus:
The balls hit are not to be an easy catch – they are choppers and moving rapidly.
Players have to dive, or lunge for the ball.

These are opportunities for the players to stretch themselves and build confidence on getting the balls that are not hit directly at them.  Once the ball is caught, player must balance and then throw.  Ball is hit as soon as player throws ball.

Softball Warm-Up Drill
I stand at home plate.
The pitchers mound/shortstop girls field the ball from me and then throw to first.
The next girl in each line is the outfielder backing up the fielder.

Once we’ve done a few minutes of this, I take two players at a time and make them base runners (they alternate) who have to try to get to first before the fielders can throw them out.

I make the base runners start at the backstop fence farthest from first base.
I’ll let the base runners go two or three times each and then cycle through new base runners until everyone has had a turn.  If there is an odd number of players, I’ll be a base runner.

Coaching Throwing Tip
I make the girls throw 50 good throws in a row (without the ball touching the ground).  I use that to keep their concentration up.  During games as we approach the last few outs, I remind them by saying “this is like throw #45 – keep your focus!”.  This helps them concentrate through the end of the game.