Thread: Best use of Indoor Batting Practice time

We had our first indoor batting practice last night and I'm curious how other coaches structure the time? I know there isn't much to do indoors but I'm looking at any ideas on how to get more girls involved more of the time. I don't have a problem haivng 2 or 3 waiting but hate to see 5 or 6 girls standing around.

Thanks,
Chris

We are having the same issues. We have an indoor facility big enough to have 4 cages and a simulated infield. But we are struggling with how to run hitting drills. If we have 10 to 13 girls we may have the majority doing tee work and one or two doing front toss or hitting from a machine. The problem is having enough "coaches" watching and teaching the girls on the tees, it gets pretty chaotic, and the girls are on the tees a long time before they rotate to the "live hitting". We are a 10U team so we are still teaching fundamentals.

I have a couple of girls taking dry swings. Also, you can do dry bunts and then, dry slaps. That can keep a lot of girls busy. If you still need more stations, have them do sit ups, push ups, etc.

One more station that I sometimes use, is having them learn to hit fungo.

Our group hitting sessions are each an hour long and can handle around 30+ players. We have a large organization (usually five teams) and offer two different session on one week night.

Players stretch and then do "dry swings" with coaches checking players and discussing with them each what the "student" needs to be working on that night --- only correct one thing at a time!

Then players are put into groups of two at the tee stations (one feeds a tee, other gets their swings in), a couple at the agility stations and one each at the Toss, Cage stations. One player will rotate at a time to the next station. (We try to put them groups according to team, left-handed, etc.)

We have 19 stations set up which include: Big Ball Tee, Regular Tee (2), Batting Cage (2), Strike/Ball Drill, Wrist/Forearm flex, Inside Tee, Bunting Batting Cage, Outside Tee, Jump Rope, One Handed Tee, Water Break (2), One Handed Tee, Dot Mat, Inside/Outside Tee, Soft Toss, Bunting, Agilities (Ladder, Line Jumps, Hurdles, etc.).

Parents run cages, Soft Toss, Strike/Ball Drill. Coaches either help at a station or roam around checking on players and keeping track of when to rotate to the next drill usually after a player has about 15 swings in a cage. There are usually 2-3 coaches roaming. It is about quality not quantity.

We do have a large area to do this type of sessions, but you can get creative with the actual stations (might do a sliding station, base running, etc.).

This is in addition to individual sessions, slapping/lefties and team practices.