Ideas - OF drills for indoor winter training

[rjnashburnva]

Curious if anyone has good drills for OFs during winter indoor workouts. We have a decent size space but the ceilings are not too high so it limits lots of flyball work.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.
BTW we are a 12U travel team.

 

[CoachKevin]

You can work on several aspects of OF play during indoor practice. You can work on proper footwork (drop step, changing directions, ect), proper flyball fielding (running through the ball), proper groundball fielding (situation based; knee to the ground, runners going, do or die). Talk about which base to throw to and when (sometimes you can throw behind a runner and catch her sleeping).

We also did some fun games with the folded up bleachers; Catching the Homerun Ball, really funny watching them try to jump and catch at the same time.

 

[chinamigarden]

Coach Kevin beat me to it. Drop step and change of direction drills.

Teaching them to run on the balls of their feet, also tracking a ball into their glove. I would have them run routes like a football receiver and lead them with the ball so they got used to tracking the ball while running.

 

[Amy in AZ.]

Two lines of girls about 20 feet apart. They are facing a wall. The first person in the line throws the ball high against the wall. She runs to the end of the line, the next girl catches the ball and tosses it against the wall. And so on..

Shoe string catches. The girls are in a line, facing me. I am on a bucket with a bucket of balls. I toss the ball out in front of he first girl. She tries to scoop the ball before it hits the ground. She gets the ball, goes behind me and puts the ball in the bucket. In the meantime, the next girl has gone. The girls will eventually be running in a circle. Then, have the line come from the other direction.

 

[rjnashburnva]

Thanks - some great ideas. The footwork and change of direction drills are a good idea. In our outdoor practices we started doing a drill called the "hustle drill" and I am going to adapt for indoors. Saw it on a video on fastpitch.tv - Fastpitch Softball Outfield Drills - Carol Bruggeman - YouTube
It has worked really well outdoors.

- throw 4 consecutive balls to the player
- short right; long left; short left; long right
- quick progression, works on footwork forward and back

 

[rjnashburnva]

I like the catching the homerun ball drill. Something different and fun

 

[Amy in AZ.]

On the same idea, as the hustle drill. In partners, one person tosses until the other person misses. I call it Hot Foot. Even the most unathletic parent can help a kid do these. Try to reach 20 catches.

 

[bobbyb]

We use to do the wall drills with tennis balls....even had the girls face away from the wall...then on go..they had to find the ball in the air and react. They loved it.

 

[doublesteal]

we has a similar issue with space its a nice size but the roof prevents a lot. One of the best drill we have foundis have the girl line up sigle fil on the far end of the gym facing you. Whne you say go they tuck and run towards the opposite side like they are going for a ball in the gap. We started throwing the ball towards where they are running (don't forget to have them switch to the other diection after a few). After they got the concept down I worked on throwing the ball further so they would have to angle (I spent so much time unsuccessfully stressing angles oudoors but this drill seemed to really help them get it). We have progressed to hitting the balls out to them so they can read it off the bat.

Its actually amazing that after a few weeks a drill this simple has the using angles and tucking thier gloves until they are at the ball

 

[RichK]

Planning to work on outfield dives and figure 4 slides this winter indoors, starting on knees close to the ground, try to make it comfortable with pads etc, but just getting them used to getting on the ground....