Share your best practice drills

Share with all of us some of your best and/or most fun practice drills: Here are a few I like to incorporate into my practices:

"Last Girl Standing" - all players take turns getting one pitch to hit the ball to the grass in fair territory before the defense can make an "out" by fielding the ball cleanly or catching the pop-up or line drive. If batter does not get it to the grass, they play defense. The defender can bat again if they make an "out" on a batter. The last girl standing wins if she "validates" her at bat by hitting the grass and not getting out.

"Bunt to the box" - with chalk, make two 6 ft x 6 ft boxes about 10 feet in front of home plate. Box A to the left side of the infield and Box B to the right side of the infield. Two teams. Each team gets 1 point for bunting the ball successfully in the box. Alternate bunting to different box each round. First team to 10 points wins.

"Water Bottle" - Team 1 at Short Stop position, Team 2 at 2B position. Set-up two ball buckets one on top of each other on home plate. Place a 5 gallon plastic water bottle on top of the second bucket. Alternate hitting ground balls to the teams. Player has to cleanly field the ball and throw home trying to either hit the bottom two buckets (1 point) or knock the water bottle off (3 points). If the player does not field the ball cleanly (e.g. the ball gets past her to the outfield grass) she needs to make the throw from where the ball comes to rest. First team to 15 points wins.

star drill - follow your throw. IMO nothing is more important to work on than making hard accurate throws, after full warm up (including throwing warm up) first drill we usually do is star drill 5 stations, Catcher, SS (in the hole), 1B, 3B, 2B (in the hole). Station at home throws to SS and follows their throw goes to end of the line at SS, SS to 1B, 1B to 3B, 3B to 2B, 2B to home, repeat. They basically have to move quickly because in one more throw there will be a throw coming right across the middle at them if they don't get to the next station. Every throw is ~75' and represents the longest throw that position typically makes. We usually let them run through it a few times then time it like you would around the horn.

"Bunt to the box" - with chalk, make two 6 ft x 6 ft boxes about 10 feet in front of home plate. Box A to the left side of the infield and Box B to the right side of the infield. Two teams. Each team gets 1 point for bunting the ball successfully in the box. Alternate bunting to different box each round. First team to 10 points wins.

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I do this game but with hula hoops. Then we have hula hoop competitions. Whoever has it up longest wins.

SnocatzDad said:

star drill - follow your throw. IMO nothing is more important to work on than making hard accurate throws, after full warm up (including throwing warm up) first drill we usually do is star drill 5 stations, Catcher, SS (in the hole), 1B, 3B, 2B (in the hole). Station at home throws to SS and follows their throw goes to end of the line at SS, SS to 1B, 1B to 3B, 3B to 2B, 2B to home, repeat. They basically have to move quickly because in one more throw there will be a throw coming right across the middle at them if they don't get to the next station. Every throw is ~75' and represents the longest throw that position typically makes. We usually let them run through it a few times then time it like you would around the horn.

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This is a great drill. We do a modified version of this called the Tornado where you set up the infield defense (but no pitcher) and coach hits a ball to SS; SS throws to 2B; 2B throws to 1B; 1B throws to 3B; 3B throws to Home. Each players follows her throw and the player in the outfield is rotated into the defense through SS. Repeat.

SoCalSoftballdad said:

Share with all of us some of your best and/or most fun practice drills: Here are a few I like to incorporate into my practices:

"Last Girl Standing" - all players take turns getting one pitch to hit the ball to the grass in fair territory before the defense can make an "out" by fielding the ball cleanly or catching the pop-up or line drive. If batter does not get it to the grass, they play defense. The defender can bat again if they make an "out" on a batter. The last girl standing wins if she "validates" her at bat by hitting the grass and not getting out.

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This sounds fun but I don't understand how you get down to 1. Every time a girl fails that mean a defender made an out and there are more batters. I must be missing a detail here.

Mr T said:

This sounds fun but I don't understand how you get down to 1. Every time a girl fails that mean a defender made an out and there are more batters. I must be missing a detail here.

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Since the batter only gets ONE pitch to hit the ball to the grass in fair territory, there are at least 4 ways she can get out without having her ball caught by a fielder: 1) she swings and misses; 2) she foul tips; 3) she hits the ball foul; 4) she hits the ball in the infield and the fielder does not field the ball cleanly (i.e. she makes an error on the play).

The goal of this drill is to a) help the batter be very aggressive at the plate and hit the ball hard; b) give the fielders an opportunity to make an out and get another opportunity to bat again.

The players love it.

Thanks, I gotta try this one. I had a similar goal and half-baked idea for such a game, but this sounds perfect.

[feeling pretty dumb for not figuring out the rules!]