Fastpitch Softball Coaching Cheat Sheet: 50 Common Situations to Practice

Fastpitch Softball Coaching Cheat Sheet: 50 Common Situations to Practice | StacieMahoe.com

Fastpitch Softball Coaching Cheat Sheet: 50 Common Situations to Practice
by Stacie ~ June 24th, 2013

50 common fastpitch softball practice situations
In case you need ideas for what to work on in practice, here’s a cheat sheet of 50 common situations to practice…

Defensive Situations

No one on
Runner at 1
Runners at 1st & 2nd
Bases loaded
Runner at 2nd
Runner at 3rd
Bunt coverage
1st & 3rd
Pick offs
Rundowns

Baserunning Situations
Running from 1st (less than 2 outs)

pop up
ground ball to left side
ground ball right side
line drive
deep fly ball

Running from 2nd (no one on 1st, less than 2 outs)

pop up
ground ball to left side
ground ball right side
line drive
deep fly ball

Running from 3rd (no one on 1st/2nd, less than 2 outs)

pop up
ground ball to left side
ground ball right side
line drive
deep fly ball

Running from 2nd (with runner on 1st, less than 2 outs)

pop up
ground ball to left side
ground ball right side
line drive
deep fly ball

Running from 3rd (with bases loaded, less than 2 outs)

pop up
ground ball to left side
ground ball right side
line drive
deep fly ball

Running with two outs from all bases

pop up
ground ball to left side
ground ball right side
line drive
deep fly ball

Coverages

Outfield Coverage
Infield Coverage
Bunt Coverage
Steal Coverage
Pick-off Coverage
Passed ball Coverage

Other

Pop Up/Fly Ball Priorities (calling for ball)
Defensive Signals
Pitching Signals
Hitting Signals

JAD said:

Baserunning Situations
Running from 1st (less than 2 outs)


ground ball to left side
ground ball right side


Running from 2nd (with runner on 1st, less than 2 outs)

ground ball to left side
ground ball right side


Running from 3rd (with bases loaded, less than 2 outs)

ground ball to left side
ground ball right side

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I'm not too sure you need to run separate drills for left-side vs. right side in the above situations.

MacLobo said:

I'm not too sure you need to run separate drills for left-side vs. right side in the above situations.

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Disagree. You want them to learn to think about the specific situation and circumstances (preferably before the play happens!) so they don't blindly run into an easy out!

Greenmonsters said:

Disagree. You want them to learn to think about the specific situation and circumstances (preferably before the play happens!) so they don't blindly run into an easy out!

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All 3 of those situations are force-outs. I guess you can go over avoiding a tag if the ball is fielded in front of the runner, but not sure you really need to practice it too often.

I think thats a great list, it could be used as a test for older teams. Have the girls write next to the prompt how to handle each situation, coaches can focus on the areas that more girls get wrong.

MacLobo said:

All 3 of those situations are force-outs. I guess you can go over avoiding a tag if the ball is fielded in front of the runner, but not sure you really need to practice it too often.

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In younger age groups, it could turn into a number of different scenarios. Even with just the possibility of a hard hit grounder getting through the infield creates a lot of variables for the kids to run through and process.

Humdinger said:

In younger age groups, it could turn into a number of different scenarios. Even with just the possibility of a hard hit grounder getting through the infield creates a lot of variables for the kids to run through and process.

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True, and in the younger age groups those girls aren't going to be able to process all those variables. I'd rather spend my limited practice time working on fundamentals, as opposed to running from 1st when there's a grounder to SS vs a grounder to 2nd. But, that's just me.

I agree with you. We work on some scenarios, but a much condensed version. Basically with balls to each side of the field rather than every position at this age.