I have several [tag]softball practice drills[/tag] that bring fun to our practices. This is one we call “21”. Split the team up into two groups of 6 players.
The following is the same for both teams:
Place a “5” gallon bucket in the corners of the outfield fence. So you should have one in bucket in the 1st base foul line corner and one in the 3rd base foul line corner facing the center field.
Place one cone on each side of the bucket approximately 4 feet out along the fence.
Place two more cones approximately 60 feet away from the bucket toward center field side by side 4 feet apart. This is point where the player that is doing the drill will start from.
Place another cone approximately 6 feet behind these two cones and this is where the rest of the team will line up.
The coach we stand to the left or right approximately 10 feet in front of the buckets and throw(or hit) balls toward the players doing the drill.
The player has to “charge the ball, field the ball with proper mechanics, crow hop to throw, point glove at target and follow through. (The [tag]softball[/tag] coach will assist in correct technique as needed). While the 1st player was fielding the ball the next player in line would advance toward the set of two cones backing up the 1st player.
If the ball goes between the cones team gets one point, if it goes in the bucket the team gets points. All techniques have to be correct in order to be awarded the point. Every time one of the team scored a point the team and coach would shout it out to the other team to add a little pressure to the drill.
After the one of the teams reached 11 points we change up grounders to fly balls. The ball had to be caught in order for the point to be awarded.
The kids loved the drill especially when the score got closer to 21. At one point they would rush to just throw the ball quickly to win but they found out that they had to focus and do all the mechanics right including the crow hop to get the ball to roll all the way to the bucket. It was good to see the kids have so much fun while they were improving their throwing technique. The score ended up being 21 to 19. All the kids were brought together and the two teams congratulated each other simulating the end of a game to show class from the winning team and grace from the losing team. It was a win-win drill.