8u practice and drills

Snapperny said:

Am I misunderstanding the drill? I like this idea, but I am not sure many of my 7 & 8 year olds throw accurately enough to have a legit chance to knock over a water bottle at home plate when throwing from shortstop or second. I'm pretty sure it would take me 2 or 3 throws for a direct hit!!

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For the less experienced players, you can hit the ball slower so they can charge it and be closer to home plate for an easier throw at the bottle. The more experienced players will get a harder hit ball making it tougher to field and creates a longer throw. Just experiment with the distances so each girl has an opportunity to get a point for their team.

Snapperny said:

Good idea for a thread...and some good drill ideas.
I'm coaching 8u this year also & I plan to set up my Bow-net with the strike zone attachment for fielding/throwing drills. The girls can work in 2 lines and make it a game to see how many "points" they can accumulate. 1 point for fielding the grounder, 1 point for getting the throw into the "sock" part of the net, and 3 points if the throw is in the strike zone. I find that kids like it to be a "game" and they feel less like your forcing them to learn.

I agree 100% that you need as many stations as possible so the girls aren't standing around getting bored. The problem is that this requires 3 or 4 adults to run the stations. Often it's only me & one assistant coach at a practice. I guess you have to hope for some willing/helpful parents. I find it funny how some parents don't want to help out & clearly don't practice with their daughter at home, but wonder why their kid hasn't learned to catch a fly ball yet .

Does anyone run any stations that you can set the kids up on to practice without needing a coach to stand over them while they do the drill...for those times when there are only 1 or 2 coaches trying to run 3 or 4 stations?

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The Ultimate Hitting Machine http://www.ebay.com/itm/baseball-softball-hitting-aid-batting-tee-soft-toss-machine-pitching-machine-/181572401408?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a468ef900 can be used in a hitting station. Kids would first have to be shown correct way to use it, but after they catch on, it is very easy to operate by themselves. This machine really helps kids this age develop good hand-eye corrdination and timing. It works similar to a kid tossing the ball in the air to them self, and hitting it as it starts back down. Only difference is, this machine tosses the ball in the air by tapping down on the launch pad with toe. Will definitely help improve their hitting. Also, here's a video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZk9-Ggf0ok

good stuff ya'll thought I'd use like a 2 liter bottle or a milk jug for ease or maybe a big stuffed animal

I do the water bottle drill. But I use a trash can instead. Bigger target. Later the target gets smaller. I mix it up. Say we have 12 girls at a practice. 4 go to the hitting stations. 4 of the girls at second, 4 at short. I roll the girls in and out. When they are done hitting they go to second. that group goes to hit, so on and so fourth. I put the trash can at first and have the girls getting grounders and throwing at the trash can/first base. Then we switch the girls. The ones at second are now at short and vice verse. Starting the same drill over We keep score. Hit the trash can on the fly 2 points a hop 1 point. Then I move the trash can to third, repeat. Then home. It covers a lot. Keeps the girls moving and is fun. The girls have to throw from where they get the ball. It helps getting the girls charging the ball. All you need is an adult to get the balls off the fence and roll then home so you can keep hitting.

I like to work on throwing drills as part of warm up. Pretty much like socaldad says. As they get better I like to have them throw farther. Toss grounders and pop ups to each other as part of warm ups.

Catching grounders is the hard part for most kids. You have to get them in the correct position this will take more time for some than others. I like the triangle drill. It works. Also the bare hand drill. I stress for the kids to have there knuckles down in the dirt when doing this. It keeps kids from not putting there glove all the way down on the ground for grounders and keeps there glove in front of them.

At the hitting stations I like a lot of Tee work. Different sized balls are great. Have Tee's at different heights. Mix it up but teach a good balanced swing. (they can get more technical at 12 and 14U) The kid can hit 10 balls into the fence, then go to the next station. At the end there is a parent to do soft toss to the girls. It only takes a few min for a kid to get 40 swings in.

If all goes right we can do all these things in an hour. The AC and I take turns. One day thew hit grounders, while I work with the hitters. The next we switch. I do need two parents to help with fielding balls off the fence and to do the soft toss. That usually is not too hard to find. After that we work on positions and other things such as sliding, running bases, etc. We might do some coach pitch hitting.

To end the day we play POP FLY HERO!!!! The girls love it. I throw a tennis ball high in the air. Each girl takes a chance at running and catching the ball. NO GLOVE. The girls that catch the ball try for another. If they miss. They sit down and cheer for there team mates. The last one standing wins.

Next. I never run a practice with out the AC. If a kid gets hurt and god forbid has to go to the ER. There has to be someone from the team there to watch the kids.

Snapperny said:

Am I misunderstanding the drill? I like this idea, but I am not sure many of my 7 & 8 year olds throw accurately enough to have a legit chance to knock over a water bottle at home plate when throwing from shortstop or second. I'm pretty sure it would take me 2 or 3 throws for a direct hit!!

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We use two buckets stacked on top of each other...they get one point for hitting the bucket, two for making it fall and three for getting both buckets to fall!

This will be my first year coaching 8U, so I love hearing everyone's suggestions. I have coached baseball up to 14U and spent the last three years coaching T-Ball. I plan on using many of the same drills I used for the T-Ballers with some twists for the more capable players. I also use the large trash can as a target for some end-of-practice throwing contests. Instead of cardboard, I have an old plastic tarp that I like to use on the outfield grass to teach sliding.

Don't forget about baserunning drills with the younger players. They are easy to introduce and popular with the kids. Baserunning is a good station to plug into your practice plan when you're short on coaches and only have a less experience coach or random parent available. Add a baserunning group to an existing fielding drill to raise the stakes and add some difficulty when your players are ready for it. Even if your league rules favor station-to-station baserunning, try to teach running through first base and home plate, rounding a base when appropriate and when to take the extra base.

It has already been stated but... Keep them separated and keep them busy! 8U girls like to bunch up and talk about everything but softball. We like to split up into groups. We split up the infield and outfield and work on fundamentals. Properly fielding ground balls in the infield dropping the ball in a bucket and run back to the line. Then incorporate fielding, footwork and throwing to target. Outfielders will catch pop ups. Head on, then to each side. Then we swap them up. Outfielders come to infield and so on. Then we set up different hitting stations. Tee, soft toss and live pitching. Then last we run bases. Several times to first with running through the bag then turn and look. Followed by rounding first and picking up the 3rd base coach. When it gets warmer, we will start the mystery cooler reward. If they each hustle we will reward them with some dipping dots at the end of practice. Eight year olds will push themselves to the limit if they know they will be rewarded with dipping dots! Good luck and have fun!

Nani Lauriano Luculescu said:

We use two buckets stacked on top of each other...they get one point for hitting the bucket, two for making it fall and three for getting both buckets to fall!

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This is what I used.

For longer throws remove the top bucket.

Snapperny said:

Am I misunderstanding the drill? I like this idea, but I am not sure many of my 7 & 8 year olds throw accurately enough to have a legit chance to knock over a water bottle at home plate when throwing from shortstop or second. I'm pretty sure it would take me 2 or 3 throws for a direct hit!!

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I agree... Other advice was great though

I did something very similar to this a few weeks back but put a twist on this drill.

For 8U in my area, the bases are 60' apart. What I did was have the girls form 3 lines. One at each base. Then what I did was take 3 orange cones and placed each one about 30' from home plate in the direction of each base. I then took at bucket and turned it upside down at home plate. Then I took one of those cheap plastic jack-o-lantern trick or treat orange buckets with a face on on top of the bucket. Each girl is carrying their own ball and at the start of their turn they put their ball on the cone and go back to their starting base. When everyone is ready, I yell go and they run from their base to the cone, pick it up their ball and throw it at the pumpkin head at home plate. After the throw they have to go get their ball and rotate to a new line. While the ones that just threw are getting their balls, the next girls in line are putting their balls on the cones and getting ready for their turn. The rounds go really fast when everyone has their own ball and 3 are throwing at one time. Whoever can knock the pumpkin head off the bucket gets a piece of candy after practice. They get two pieces if they hit the head so hard that the head flies back and hits the backstop. We had quite a few get 1 piece of candy, and had a couple good throwers that almost got the pumpkin head to hit the back stop for 2 pieces. The girls had a blast with this and it teaches them both throwing skills and fielding as they have to run up on the ball. I kept telling the girls that the pumpkin head was smiling because he didn't think anyone could hit him. Judging by the impact of some of those balls, it's no wonder that pumpkin was missing some teeth