Here are two of my teams’ favorite softball practice drills. The first drill, the shuttle drill, teaches them how to go after a dead ball. The next one, the juggling drill, helps them learn better ball control when the ball is in their glove.
The Shuttle Drill
1. 3-4 Balls placed in front of of player at the head of the line. She runs and lays the ball where she first started.
2. She repeats this until all the balls are gone.
3. You can do 2 girls at a time so it will become a challenge.
This is like doing the shuttle run we did when I was in school! This drill helps to make sure they are getting the ball from the right side when they go after a dead ball and teaches them to pick it up with their BARE hand–not the glove hand.
Variation: The drill can be repeated and have the players throwing back to another instead of going back to the spot and placing the ball on the ground.
The Juggling Drill
Have 2 girls side by side to compete with each other.
Each girl has 2 balls: one in hand and one in glove.
They move down the field to where the coach is standing.
They take the ball in hand, toss it up, grab the ball in the glove and put it in their hand and catch the ball in hand.
When they get to the coach they go back to where they started from while juggling the ball.
This drill helps in case the ball hits their glove and falls out. They make that second effort to catch it by hand!