Softball Running Drills

[tag]Softball running drills[/tag] used to be one of the weaknesses in my repertoire.   But I was able to turn it around by using this idea sent in by Phil.

From Phil…
I coach adult women.   They “HATE” [tag]base running drills[/tag] so I needed to find one that takes less than five minutes and incorporates several different aspects of [tag]base running[/tag].

What I do is divide the players into two groups.   Half of them line up at home plate and the other half line-up halfway between home and first.   My assistant [tag]coach[/tag] hits a ball into the backstop.   At the crack of the bat the first player in line at home runs through first base trying to beat out a grounder while the first player in the other line rounds first and goes hard into second.   They remain on those bases.

At the next crack of the bat the next two players in line do the same thing while the player on second takes off and scores while the runner on first rounds second and stops at third base.   We now have the bases loaded.   On the next crack of the bat the two runners at the front of the lines take off as do the runners from first and second.   The runner at third must tag up.   I will yell “go” when the runner coming from second is half way to third.   The runner from third has to beat the runner coming from second to home.   They usually have to hustle because the runner coming from second has a head of steam going.

Each time a player crosses the plate they go to the back of the opposite line they started from the previous time.   We do this [tag]softball[/tag] [tag]drill[/tag] 5 minutes each practice as it is a great warm-up drill as well.