From David…
Here is a outfielder softball drill we call “Quarterback”. Our players love this drill as it challenges them to make a difficult catch!

Drill Purpose: Teaching outfielder to spot and react to fly ball (6 reps each fielder)
Equipment needed: Softball, glove

Have outfielder lineup on foul line facing away from coach
Outfielder will sprint out about 15 yards
Coach will throw softball over right or left shoulders about 10 yards in front of the fielder
Once ball is in the air, coach will call “UP”, left or right

From Stephanie…
Playing ‘hot potato’ with your outfielders….teaches them to think fast and get the ball, but to get rid of it quickly.

Technorati Tags: fast pitch softball fielding drills, outfielder, softball, drill, catch, coach, throw

From Cory…
Here is a great softball drill that works for keeping your head down and your eyes on the ball.  Use an eye patch and cover the front eye during soft toss drill or pitching machine drills then take it off and do the same drill over.

The players really learn to see and follow the ball.

From Brian…
One of my favorite drills is something we call “field, flip, and fly”.

I picked it up somewhere but I don’t remember where.  Anyway the coach hits a ground ball to the short stop who makes a double play flip to second base.

The second baseman then instead of throwing to first to complete the double play he throws the short stop a pop up.  He varies the pop up from behind third base to short centerfield and so on.

I like it because it moves fast and works at least three different skills.

Technorati Tags: softball training aids, practices, softball, drill, soft toss drill, pitching machine, drills, coach

From Rob…
Hey, I’m new to coaching, but I found that I had a problem with my 7 & 8 year old softball team.

They field the ball just fine, but they will sit back and wait for the ball.  As you all probably know, the other teams keep beating out the throw.  So I came up with a little drill to help with this.

I had each infielder charge on the ball as soon as it was hit.  Not run in full speed, but get moving in the direction of the hit ball.  So no matter were the ball was hit, they had to charge.  We then added runners to spice it up a bit and low and behold, they were getting it.  They also were able to get to more ground balls than before.

I know that this seems to be a basic drill, but it sure helped my players perform better.

From Rachel…
One of our favorites is to hit the ball either to right or left side.

Game: Coach or kiddo pitch, teams equally divided, all players to right of 2nd (or to left depending);
all players hit,

no outs kept - just runs which are counted going from home to 1st to 2nd to home to score.

Technorati Tags: drills, softball and coaching, coaching, softball, field, throw, drill, infielder, runners

From Greg…

I would like to add a softball drill I made up this year. To keep it short I call it the (SCHOOL NAME) Drill.
Just a little bit of everything rolled into one, at the end of every practice we run the Hawks drill-

I place 3 balls along first base-approx 6 ft apart & a coach on 1st. Girls start at home plate 1 at a time, sprint to first ball and throw to 1st, then back to touch plate, run 2 second ball throw to first, back to plate and third ball the same, after throwing third ball they sprint back to plate, touch plate then sprint around 1st & 2nd (like hitting a double) still have their gloves, after rounding 2nd they take a ground ball from coach hitting from plate then they throw to 1st. Sprint to 3rd take another ground ball to first, then they put there glove down and start on third with a lead off or two, then they steal home and slide,after they hit home they sprint to third and before they can get there gloves back they do 15 push ups and a complete lap around the field.
Any miss throws,missed touching bases etc they go to the end of the line and redo it until they get it right.

Technorati Tags: coaching and softball, softball, drill, practice, sprint, throwing, coach

From Mark…
One of the things that I have found successful in my softball practices, is to incorporate a hitting cycle/stations into everyday practice.
Below are the drills that we do, I realize that many of them are listed in your drills pages, but I have put them to great use over the past few years and it has led to our team maintaining a team batting average of over .320 for the past 5 years.

Here are the stations: (can use in any order, I usually use 6-10 per day and time the players, 2 minutes hitting per station, 30sec to change hitters, 2 min for 2nd hitter and 1 min to change to next station)
1.       ball bounce – bounce tennis ball from 45 deg angle, trigger/load on the bounce
2.       overhead drop – tosser stands on chair and drops ball into the hitting zone, player must be triggered before ball is dropped
3.       rear toss – tosser squats at 45 degree angle behind (off of back leg) hitter and tosses ball into the hitting zone
4.       soft toss – tosser squats at 45 degree angle in front of hitter, toss to left hip, belly button and right hip to emphasize hitting to all fields
5.       rapid toss – tosser tosses 5 balls in rapid succession, 5 sec break and 5 more balls
6.       2 color ball toss – tosser holds 2 different color balls in same hand and tosses both into hitting area while calling out a color to hit when tossing
7.       whiffle golf ball toss – use a whiffer stick (large dowel or broom handle) toss rapid fire or one at a time, can use 2 colors as well
8.       tee swings – use regular tee and work on fundamentals, I have players say out loud the swing progression, trigger-stride-swing
9.       double tee – use a double tee to emphasize follow through and keeping the bat on plane through the zone (can use 2 tees if no double is available)
10.   inside outside tee – set up 2 tees, one in front of plate on inside corner and one at rear of plate on outside corner – have players hit both balls in rapid succession
11.   high tee – place tee on bucket to work on high pitches (ie rise ball) – hitter must keep hands high through the zone
12.   knee tee – use short bat or choke up on reg bat, utilize left hand swings only then right hand swings (important to keep opposite hand out of the way, right hand behind back when swinging with left hand and left hand across chest when swinging with right hand.
13.   instructo swing – we use the Griffey instructo swing everyday – helps players work on taking hands to ball without dropping their hands
14.   stay back tee – use the stay back tee to work on keeping the weight back and prevent hitter from lunging forward and losing power
15.   pitching machine – set speed at appropriate level, have hitter take 5 swings from the plate, move up one step (replace front foot with back foot) 5 more swings, continue until player is 20 feet away and then back track – works on bat speed
16.   net/wall swings – place nub of bat against stomach and end of bat against net, make full swings keeping hands inside
17.   pitch recognition – have hitter stand in batter’s box while pitchers work on all pitches, hitter triggers and watches ball into catcher’s mitt, hitter attempts to call out what pitch is thrown before catcher catches it – will help with timing and identifying spins
18.   short toss – coach pitch from 20 feet behind screen, work on swinging at good pitches and hitting to all fields.

I have incorporated weighted bats into several of our hitting drills, specifically #’s 1,2,3,4,5,8,9,10 – I use the weights that attach to the nub of the bat and the wraps that go around the handle, do not use weighted sleeves or donuts.

It is important that you take the time to explain each drill to the players as to how they are to do the drill and what they are to accomplish from it.

Technorati Tags: practice plans, softball hitting, batting average, softball, hitting, drills, hitters, swing, pitch, coach, drill

From Mike…
The only way to get young players to perform fundamentals as well as drills correctly is to show them how to do it. Although, some coaches make a huge mistake.

When a player is performing a drill and makes a mistake, this is not the time to show the rest of the team what the mistake was. This is the time that you show the rest of the team, including the player that made the mistake, how to do it correctly.

If a coach shows the rest of the team the mistake, the players will focus on the mistake instead of doing things correctly, sometimes this will cause players that see the mistake to make the same mistake. Show the players the right way to do the fundamental or the softball drill, not all the mistakes that may happen.

Technorati Tags: coaching tips for softball, coaching, drills, drill, softball

What you need – Two players will stand in front of the catcher, each with a ball in his or her hand. 

How this drill works – One softball player will flick a ball at the catcher’s mask and the other will toss a pop up somewhere within the catcher’s range.  The catcher must shake off the ball in the mask to find the pop up and to make the catch. 

Catchers can get hit with the ball a lot during the course of any game, but they still need to be able to react in those situations to the play that is going on.  This drill helps in one aspect of that.

Result – Your catcher is going to be much better prepared to handle some of the different situations that happen during a softball game – in spite of some of the outside distractions.

Technorati Tags: softball catching drill, softball

What you need – You need to separate your softball team into groups of four.  Line up the players from the first base line out into left field (as the diagram below will show).  Put the infielders in the middle two spots, because it allows them to work on their relay throws.

How this drill works – With the first person on the first base foul line, they throw it to player number two.  Then player number two throws it back to number one.  Then one to three, back to one again. 

This goes on to the fourth player and the back to three, back to the third player, and then the second player, etc. 

If, at any point there is a dropped ball, overthrow, etc., then the drill starts again from the very beginning.  This can mean a lot of throws for the player in the one position. 

Once you have gone through the drill once, you can switch the players up in order, and they can rotate who starts at the number one position.

Result – This drill will once again reinforce the importance of making good throws to the players on the team.

Technorati Tags: softball drill, softball