Softball Coaching Techniques – Competition and Rewards

I have found that the more you make [tag]softball practice[/tag] competitive the more the girls like it.   This is one of the [tag]softball coaching techniques[/tag] that I share with all my assistant coaches as well as parent helpers for the team.

Even in the warm up throwing drills we see who can catch the most, who can get the furthest apart, (one step at a time, after every catch), and the girls love it.

To add to that, another idea I picked up is to add a prize.   Everyone likes to win stuff, and by the end of practice all the girls end up winning something, but it seems to add the extra competitive edge and makes the girls push that much harder.   I usually do a grab bag of stuff, but this year to encourage more speed training and cardio work out; one of my prizes is going to be jump ropes.   Each girl will end up winning one but they will work like crazy during practice to do it.

For eye coordination I use a hitting drill, with little plastic golf balls with holes in them and a skinny plastic bat. The player that hits the most, foul or not wins that round.

Great drill for making sure the girls keep their eyes on the ball until it hits the bat.