Effective practice drills for 8u

We had our first tourney yesterday for my 8u team. The girls are all 05 and 06 and 95% have never played in a multi game tournament situation before. We have been practicing together since the first of August. We started out the first half inning of the first game with a 3-0 lead and it went down hill from there. (Ended up 0-3 for the day after getting run ruled by a team that had been run ruled in their previous game.)

The majority of our issues were things we had not worked on. The biggest thing I saw on defense was not getting the second out on a play after we made the first one. They ran their base runners all over us as we would get an out then either hold the ball not watching the other base runners, throw the ball to the wrong base not watching the lead runner, or just generally throw the ball poorly under pressure. There are probably more issues but I think these were our main ones to correct now.

We also had base running issues. Again, we have not worked on this due to working on so many fundamental things in practice and not having time. (I will take ownership of these failures in coaching.)

We have two weeks, or four practices, to work on these issues before our next tourney. Does anyone have any suggestions for drills to get the girls to learn to watch for the second out and to finish the play? I'm not sure if its better to break them down into smaller groups or to work this as a team. It's pretty hard to keep all the attention focused in the group at times but my thoughts are to work with an infield and base runners doing game type situations all together. That would allow us to work on our base running issues and base runner awareness issues at the same time.

Looking for some ideas to help these girls.

First thing is first, PLAY CATCH, PLAY CATCH, PLAY CATCH....then, Put a runner or two on base and do some infield/outfield practice. before you hit the ball tell the girls how many outs and ask wheres the play.

Did I mention to play catch?

4 girl's dad said:

We had our first tourney yesterday for my 8u team.

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It gets better. There is learning curve for 8U teams, remember that most of these girls have never seen these situations before. You'll be pleasantly surprised how quickly some of them pick it up and disappointed in how long it takes some of the others.

Can they make the throws, say 60+ feet effectively? I am betting that is what is holding them back. Also, many times their gloves are too small or aren't broken in, yet.

Seriously, I would cancel that next tourney. People here drop out like flies, if they get trampled on 2 tourneys in a row. Play a friendly instead.

Ask them to show you a 4 seam grip on the ball and see how many can remember. Just knowing how to grip the ball, will help with a lot of those throws.

Try to find a leader, on the team, that will show the number of outs and at least, say "Step on 2nd base, and throw to 1." Be patient, we have all been there.

We do play catch a lot. We start every practice with 15' 30' and 60' throws. Even though there are a lot of passed balls in the warm ups, I have seen these girls complete the glove side drill effectively. I will admit not all of them can throw consistently 60' but all of my infielders can. But not all of them did yesterday.

Most of the errors were just not knowing where to go with the throw because of the aggressive base running.

Thanks for the replies! The girls all had a smile on their faces when it was done so I am happy with that. I'm not pulling out of a tourney because of a bad weekend. We now know how much harder we need to work and what to work on.

Yes sir I know. I also assist on a 10u team and thanks to a good catcher, we keep that to a minimum.

Here is another point. The rules let base runners take off on the coach pitch action but could only advance on a hit. Most of the runners were half way to the next bag on contact. I think at most of the tourneys the rules state you cannot leave the bag before the ball crosses the plate.


Thanks again for the replies. Helps me keep my sanity knowing that this is somewhat normal for 8u.

Does anyone have any suggestions for drills to get the girls to learn to watch for the second out and to finish the play?

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The problem is that the girls are not throwing the ball to the correct base to stop the runners.

My favorite game for this is "Shotgun".

Divide the girls into smaller teams (e.g., 4 girls on a team). One team plays the outfield, one plays the infield and the other bats. Each team gets 3 outs. You pitch.

An out is a swing and a miss, a force out at 1B, or a fly out. A point is scored for each base the runner reaches. So, if a runner gets a double, her team gets 2 bases.

A batter-runner cannot be put out after she reaches 1B. If she is tagged before reaching 2B, her team gets 1 point and she gets back in line to bat. Therefore, runners are always trying for "one more base".

This forces the girls to think in terms of throwing ahead of the runners.

sluggers said:

The problem is that the girls are not throwing the ball to the correct base to stop the runners.

My favorite game for this is "Shotgun".

Divide the girls into smaller teams (e.g., 4 girls on a team). One team plays the outfield, one plays the infield and the other bats. Each team gets 3 outs. You pitch.

An out is a swing and a miss, a force out at 1B, or a fly out. A point is scored for each base the runner reaches. So, if a runner gets a double, her team gets 2 bases.

A batter-runner cannot be put out after she reaches 1B. If she is tagged before reaching 2B, her team gets 1 point and she gets back in line to bat. Therefore, runners are always trying for "one more base".

This forces the girls to think in terms of throwing ahead of the runners.

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This sounds like it would be a good game for any age group.

This past summer I also coached an 8U travel ball team and that was one of my pet peeves. I could not stand to see us chasing the runners around the base, because 99% of the time, we would not make a good throw, and even if we did, we would have to catch it and then also make the tag. There are so many things that need to happen perfectly for those girls to make a play like that, so what we did, is make sure we got our out, and then either ran it towards the circle or made sure we got it to the pitcher. It was alot easier to give those girls their one base, rather than try to get them out and give them 2-3 extra bases. I would just try to work on getting that "for sure out" and then getting the ball back to the circle. I just kept it really simple for them. Yes i still reminded them about the runners and where they can go with the ball, but we avoided chasing runners at all cost.

I like Slugger’s drill and bpeck’s advice.

Let them have a base but stop throwing the ball around chasing the runner. Get the ball in the circle. If the LBR doesn’t stop them the P has a short throw to any base.

The rules let base runners take off on the coach pitch action but could only advance on a hit.

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This is a strange rule. I would find out the rules but I would put someone with a good arm at C and immediately throw the ball to 1st if the batter misses it, that should slow them down a little bit. I am assuming that even on an overthrow or error that the runner is not allowed to advance.