suggestions for fun/competitive end of practice drill / game

for 12u rec

back coaching 12u for the first time in about 4 years. I'm looking for suggestions for good end of practice drills or games. I'm really trying to change it up this year and keep everybody involved and interested. Thanks in advance for suggestions!

Some ideas:

Champ or Chump: Girls get there bats, lids and gloves close by. They line up to take a hit off of a coach or machine. They get one swing; if they hit it fair, they go to the back of the line. If they miss or hit foul, they are a 'chump'. They are out of the line-up, but get their gloves and head to the field. In the field they can earn 'redemption' by cleanly fielding 2 or 3 hits (you pick the number). If this is achieved, they can get back in the hitting line. The last person in line is the 'champ'. One note; when there are two batters left, if the first misses or fouls, they hang tight. If the last batter misses or fouls, the second to last gets another chance. This continues until one of them gets a hit. (this description makes it sound more complicated than it is... my girls always love it)

Longest ball: Kids line up with bats and lids. They get three hits. You mark the longest ball with a cone or coach. The one with the longest hit wins a blow-pop or bag of seeds.

Two base relay race: Split the girls into two even teams (if not even, the one with one less will have to pick someone to go twice). Line one team up at home and the other at second. Give each of the first girls in line a ball. The coach says go and each girl runs around the bases and when they reach there starting base, they hand the ball (baton) off to the next player who then takes off and repeats the pattern. The first team to have all their girls complete the circuit wins. (to keep it competitive, try to split the teams up with even speed).

Tennis ball soft ball: Play a game of softball with a tennis ball and no gloves. The girls love it because simple pop flys become a huge challenge and routine throws from second to first are no longer routine.

Great drills One2win. Here's some others that I do:

Over the Line: Teams of 2 (6 teams for 12 girls). All girls wear their helmets and have their glove. All teams spread in the infield and outfield. Draw a line across 1b to 3b (move the line in closer to home plate if your hitters have trouble). First team of two gets up to bat, have one girl either hit off a T or have her partner side toss (preferred). Every hit "over the line" that does not get caught is a point. Every ball that is foul or does not make it over the line before landing is an out. Any fly ball caught is an out, and the team catching gets a point. The two girls on the team rotate until they have 3 outs. After three outs the team goes to infield/outifeld and next team gets up to bat. Girls keep their own score and you move them quickly, it's a rush game. Helmets stay on both batting and fielding to speed things along, all girls use the same bat.

Over-under relays: 2 teams in 2 lines each behind a bat. First girl races to a set point (Fence, cone, whatever) When she gets back she and her next team-mate in line pick the bat up and hold it high, they have to move the bat to the back of the line and then lower the bat to ankle height and move it to the front of the line. Key here is communication, girls must first duck under and then jump over the bat. Once the bat is at the front the next runner (who was holding the bat) takes off.

Wheel-barrel races: Hey it's better then more push ups

Hungry Hungry Buckets: Throw two buckets of balls out over the infield so they're all over. Split girls into two teams. One bucket on 1B, one bucket on 3B. Girls have to pick up the balls correctly (pushing into palm not with fingers) and carry the ball ONE AT A TIME to their designated bucket. Once all balls are collected count balls to determine victor.

-W

We always ran relays at the end of practice. The girls love to compete against each other, so they actually RUN. We ran the two base relay like onetowin described.

Another relay we ran was to divide into two teams, one team on each side of home plate. One team runs up the 1st base line all the way to RF foulpole, along outfield fence to LF foul pole, and back down third base line to home and tag the next runner. Other team goes opposite direction.

One other game we played sometimes was line half the girls between 1st and 2nd, the other half between 3rd and home. They take turns rolling the ball to the other team. Ball must be rolled between the bases. If you fumble, drop, or otherwise miss the ball, you're out. It gets harder as your team loses players. You should see them diving for the ball. They love that game.

Split the team into thirds. One group on first base, One on third base and one group at home.
Players at home hit the ball one at a time either of a tee or side toss.. first player in line on first and third sprint after the ball while the batter runs bases. If hitter reaches home before ball is fielded point for hitting team, if field fields ball before hitter reaches home point for that team. keep all points and rotates through once. Losing team to both foul poles and back second place picks up equipment. I have reduced to reaching second or third for younger teams. The girls love it and it gets them to running full out and is great for conditioning and they don't even realize they are doing it

I use a drill similar to Coach Billy. I break the team in two. One group at home plate and the other at first base. The group at home gets to hit off a tee or soft toss. You go one player at a time. When the ball gets hit, the player from 1st base has to run to the ball and throw the ball back in to a coach who is standing on 2nd base. The hitter runs bases and gets a point for every base they touch before the coach has the ball. It is fun for the girls and you should see how quickly the kids learn to run bases.

My favorite game is "shotgun".

You divide the team into three teams. The first team bats, the second team plays the infield, the third team plays the outfield. You pitch.

The batter gets one or two strikes. The only ways for a batter to make an out are (1) put outs at 1B (2) fly balls and (3) strike outs.

The batter hits the ball. The batter gets one point for every base the batter reaches prior to the ball getting to the base. of course, if the hit ball is caught in the air or the batter is thrown out at 1B, then the batter is out and no points are scored.

So, e.g.: The batter hits a double but gets thrown "out" at 3B. The team gets 2 points, but no out is recorded. The batter then goes to the back of the line on her team for her next time at bat. Next batter hits pop up that is caught. That is one out. So, there are never runners on base at the end of a play.

When three outs are recorded for at team, the teams rotate. Outfield goes to infield, infield goes to bat, team batting goes to outfield.

Lots of fun.

thank you everyone for all the great suggestions. I'll be using some or all of them at some point. Sluggers, shotgun sounds great, might try that tonight.

Thanks again!

Sometimes we play "Cutthroat Bunt Ball" to work on short game (bunting plus bunt coverages).

Split the team into three teams of three or four (sometimes you'll have an odd fielder - we just rotate them in with another player between at-bats but you can play with as few as 9. One team bats the other two teams all play infield. I set up cones down the first and third baselines that my corners are not allowed to cross until the batter shows bunt. I also set one up that the second baseman can't cross going to cover first.

We use live pitching (don't put all your pitchers and catchers on the same teams!) and the hitters are required to execute some form of bunt (straight, drag, sneaky or slash). If they slash bunt and it goes in the outfield I only allow one base to be taken by the batter-runner and other runners since there is no outfield. Each batter starts with 1-1 count. After that all other softball rules apply.

We give helmet stickers to the winning team and the rest do pushups while the winners count.

Used to always end practice with the bucket game. Half the team at first, half the team at third bucket upside down on home plate with a batting helmet on top. Alternate teams to throw ball to knock helmet off bucket, 1 point for bouncer into bucket, 2 points for hitting the bucket in the air, 5 points for helmet in the air. First team to 25 points wins, other team runs a lap.