I feel it is important to keep our softball practices fun to maintain interest and motivation. Here are two fun softball drills that my players love, and equally important–learn from!
Two Handed Catch
To develop eye-hand coordination I have the players take a knee in a radius about eight to ten feet from me.
I toss them whiffle balls and show them how to catch using two hands.
After getting comfortable with whiffle balls I switch to tennis balls. They are comparable in size to softballs but not as hard. After they get the knack of catching with their hands I have them catch using their gloves.
Only after I see that they can get their glove on the ball do I transition to real softballs. It’s fun to watch kids progress from being afraid of getting hit by the ball to having confidence in knowing they can catch the ball.
Find the Ball
This drill is to work on passed balls with a runner on 3rd base.
I have a catcher and pitcher and I place a ball somewhere against the back stop.
I yell “go” and the catcher has to find the ball and toss it to the pitcher who has to cover the plate.
We use live runners or we will find out how long it typically takes our runner to go third to home.
I then count out those seconds to see if the pitcher gets the tag in front of the plate before that time limit.