Fun games for 10U practices

I'm coaching a new 10U team and practices will begin soon. I want the girls to work hard and improve each and every practice but I especially want them to have a good time and continue falling in love with the sport. Do you guys have suggestions for fun games that can be done after learning new skills that will emphasize what they've just learned but in a fun/entertaining manner? Thanks in advance.

Some skill competition games can be tough at that age. I always did knockout games with hitting at the end of practice. You get one pitch and have to take a ball or hit it in fair territory to stay in. Take a strike, foul, whiff, etc. You are out for that round. Goes quick at 10u. Works great with bunts too. Anything you can turn into competition.

shelbysdad said:

Some skill competition games can be tough at that age. I always did knockout games with hitting at the end of practice. You get one pitch and have to take a ball or hit it in fair territory to stay in. Take a strike, foul, whiff, etc. You are out for that round. Goes quick at 10u. Works great with bunts too. Anything you can turn into competition.

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Yep. We used to do that one a lot. We called it "Survivor". It was helpful for helping young players develop an aggressive mental approach at the plate.

Another game...

Stack 2 ball buckets on top of home plate. Split the team into two groups, with 1 group at SS and 1 group at 2B. Coach rolls a ball to the first player in line. Player fields the ball and tries to hit the buckets with their throw. If they hit the bucket, their group gets a point. You can encourage the players to charge the ball, but it's advised to give them a limit of how many steps they can take after they field the ball.

Eric F said:

Yep. We used to do that one a lot. We called it "Survivor". It was helpful for helping young players develop an aggressive mental approach at the plate.

Another game...

Stack 2 ball buckets on top of home plate. Split the team into two groups, with 1 group at SS and 1 group at 2B. Coach rolls a ball to the first player in line. Player fields the ball and tries to hit the buckets with their throw. If they hit the bucket, their group gets a point. You can encourage the players to charge the ball, but it's advised to give them a limit of how many steps they can take after they field the ball.

Click to expand...

The first game mentioned we called "last girl standing" and once you were out you played defense and could get back in the game if you fielded the ball cleanly before the ball reached the grass or if you caught a fly ball/line drive. I used to pitch to them from about 25 feet without a screen but after 10u, you were putting your life in danger.

The second game is great, but we would hit the grounders to the girls and instead of a bucket, we used a 5 gallon empty plastic water bottle on top of the two buckets which makes an incredible, unmistakable sound when the girls knock it off the bucket. You get two points for hitting it, only one if you hit the buckets.

We did one on our last team, they called it the angry birds game. They'd set a bucket upside down with an angry bird stuffed thing on top (2 sets like this). Divide the girls in half, have them throw at the angry bird. If they hit the bucket and knocked it off, they got 1 point. If they hit the bird itself and knocked it off I think it was 2 points. They loved that game.

Another one we've done was a relay. Again divide them into 2 teams, evenly spaced across the field. First girl gets the ball, throws to the 2nd girl, who throws to the 3rd, etc. all the way down the line then they send it back. It's a race, but form matters too so the coaches are watching to make sure they're turning the right way to throw, etc.

IME, girls who love softball also love to compete so their favorites always seem to be contests/competitions.

ETA: my older daughter's 12U baseball team does a running relay they really like. They hate running the field to warm up, but love this, go figure. Line up half at home, half at 2nd. On GO, the first one from each base runs 2 bases. The next in line can take off as soon as he crosses the 2nd base (ie, 2nd runs to home, home runs to 2nd). Usually the coach does this one 2 or 3 times because the kids all want to do it again.

Rocketech1 said:

The first game mentioned we called "last girl standing" and once you were out you played defense and could get back in the game if you fielded the ball cleanly before the ball reached the grass or if you caught a fly ball/line drive. I used to pitch to them from about 25 feet without a screen but after 10u, you were putting your life in danger.

The second game is great, but we would hit the grounders to the girls and instead of a bucket, we used a 5 gallon empty plastic water bottle on top of the two buckets which makes an incredible, unmistakable sound when the girls knock it off the bucket. You get two points for hitting it, only one if you hit the buckets.

Click to expand...

I forgot about the re-entry rules on the hitting game. We did that, too.

We used to do a 5 on 5 bunt only game. (Catcher, 1st, 2nd, SS and 3rd) Girls could only bunt to get on base. The coach pitched. We have had some of the most competitive games even when they knew the bunt was coming. Runners really have to work hard to get down the line and fielders have to work hard to eliminate mistakes. Smack talking is allowed for this game.

coach pitch and catch scrimmage. You can play 4-5 innings in 45 minutes. If you don't have enough for OF have parents help. You get baserunning (except stealing), but more important a lot of real situations and some basic hitting . It's 100 times better than just hitting balls to them.

Hopefully these have a few good ideas:
http://www.discussfastpitch.com/coaching-softball/13642-fun-drills-8u-team.html
http://www.discussfastpitch.com/coaching-softball/22410-looking-practice-warm-up-ideas.html
Drills First Update
http://www.discussfastpitch.com/coaching-softball/15159-practice-competition-drills.html

We like to end practice with base running or low glove drills for conditioning. To avoid the last repetition, you need a player volunteer and a condition must be met. The girls are usually apprehensive because they do not know what to expect, but they do understand the consequences of failing what the volunteer is about to endure.

My favorite is to have the batter place the bat end cap down on the plate, run 10 quick circles around the plate while staring at the knob. Immediately, they grip the bat and prepare to hit. If they can make contact, no extra rep., if they miss completely, one rep. to finish up practice. You can make them hit a fair ball depending on their age and increase the number of circles around the bat. You can also have the volunteer player catch a fly ball (assuming player has a mask), hit a Towny Townsend disk, throw a ball from a certain distance attempting to hit a bucket, have two players complete a simple throw and catch, etc.

Last, no one has ever been injured and the parents and players get a good laugh.