I received this suggestion for a defensive drill for [tag]girls softball coaching[/tag] from Melanie.
Here’s a drill I use for all age groups and they all have fun and it works!
You can run this [tag]softball[/tag] [tag]drill[/tag] with as many girls as you want and have a couple of groups working at the same time.
Here’s how it works.
1) Line about 5-7 girls up in a semi circle with gloves on their hands, give one player a ball.
2) Have their feet shoulders width apart, and touching their teammates foot to the right & left side of them.
3) One teammate will be the batter and be about 7- 10 feet in front of them in the center of the semi circle of girls.
4) Next the batter will take the position as if they were going to slap bunt or bunt the ball toward the group, and that’s your choice or have them work on one or the other or both if you want.
5) The batter–The object is for the batter to work on [tag]bunting[/tag], or slap bunting the ball on the ground toward the players, they need to make contact with the ball even if the ball that is tossed to them is bad or good! This will help them keep their eye on the pitch and work on moving the bat up land down, in or out.
6) The Players are to stay in the down and ready position at all times for the ball. The object for the [tag]defensive[/tag] player is to not let the ball get past them and work together as a team to keep the ball in front of them. Now, whom ever the ball is bunted to will catch it and then they will then quickly toss the ball back to the offensive bunter, and the bunter hits the ball again back to the defensive girls, again and again. This will continue until someone misses the ball and it gets past them.
Now you can make a game of it. Once the girls get the idea of what they have to do, you can make it a bit more challenging for them by doing this:
If the defensive player(s) that goes for the ball and touches the ball and it gets past them they are out of the drill, and then they will wait for the drill to end, and when the last defensive player standing wins they now become the batter.
I hope you have fun with this drill!!