Little League Softball – Batting Mat and Two Ball Drill

Kevin and Jeff came up with some great suggestions covering [tag]little league softball[/tag] [tag]drills[/tag].   Keep ‘em coming!

Kevin’s coaching idea is for the T-ball age group (or for any beginners).   I found that I was spending a great deal of time trying to explain and/or physically position the players’ feet in the proper places while at bat.   Five-year-olds just don’t understand the concept of “shoulder-width”.   So, my solution was to take an old doormat and place a piece of duct tape where each foot should be placed.   Then we simply placed the mat at the appropriate place beside home plate.   The kids could get in the batters’ box and get into the correct position quickly and easily.    
The mat is easy to make, cheap, and portable.   By the end of the [tag]softball[/tag] season, all the other T-ball teams in our league had either asked to borrow our mat or had made their own.

From Jeff…

I call this the Two Ball Drill:
 
Player 1 stands still with two balls as player 2 is 15 feet away (directly in front of player 1).
Player 1 rolls one ball to the right or left of player 2.   Player 2 shuffles, breaks down, and fields the ball cleanly and tosses it back to player 1.   As the ball is being tossed back, player 1 then rolls the other ball the opposite direction of the first ball they tossed.   Player 2 must now shuffle to field ball 2 claenly and then tosses back to player 1.   You continue this for 12-20 tosses and then switch.  
A good [tag]conditioning[/tag] [tag]drill[/tag] that works best with players 10 and up.