12U Practice Plans

[PASoftballCoach717]

Hello everyone! So I was offered a chance to coach a 12U C travel ball team this year. The team will be made up mostly of first year travel ball players (some have played in multiple tournaments, just never on a year round travel team). I plan on having 12 on the roster and playing at the C level.

I am just looking for some solid, 12U practice plans or drills that folks have used to a success. We will practice outdoors for the next two months and eventually indoors. So looking for drills for either that will work.

Anyone willing to share some good practice plans and/or drills that you like to use at practice for 12U?

Thanks in advance!

 

[BigSkyHi]

This site offers o lot of food for thought and drills

 

[CanOfCorn]

If you are not playing any fall tournaments I would focus on fielding and situational softball at practice over hitting. Hitting is easy to do inside, cut-offs/flyballs/ball-priorities are impossible unless you have a huge space. Assuming everyone has limited knowledge go through each fundamental, don't start hammering fungos before you showed them how to field a ball.

This is a partial list of my progression.

1	Fundamentals (Fly Ball/Grounder Technique, Everydays)
2	Base coverage, Force Out, Tag Out, Pick Off – Feet positing
3	Where to go with the ball (grounders) & set play (front end-back end)
4	Where to go with the ball (flyballs, line drives)
5	Where to go with the ball (extra base hits)
6	Short games skills – fielding short balls (slow rollers)
7	Short game Coverage – How to run the defense (Bunts)
8	Steal Coverage

It starts with how to field a ground ball or catch a fly ball (1). Then positioning and technique of force out vs tag out (2). Then put them together SS-to-1B as a force, 2B-to-1B as a force (that is different technique) but SS-to-2B or 3B-to-2B are similar to 2B-to-1B so you can have multiple stations.

The difference between 4 and 5 are how many bases the batter-runner gets if not caught. Generally at an outfielder they should get one base. In the gap assume 2 bases and you want to stop them from getting more.

One thing that gets most teams suffer from is lack of understanding ball-priorities. If I have a pop-up behind the pitching circle equal between SS, 2B and P, who gets it? You be surprised how often that falls to the ground. Same behind 2B between the CF, SS and 2B. It isn't just pop-ups, a slow roller directly at SS between SS, 3B and P. Who gets that?

If you are looking for drills there are tons of YouTube videos. Here are some of my favorites.

• USA Softball
• Livestrong Softball (Search for Softball, done by Renee Luers-Gillispie)
• Morgan Stuart Defense & Agility or Package Deal (on YouTube or Instagram for drills)
• Trosky Baseball

You can always look up MLB coaches (Ron Washington, or Bobby Dickerson have good videos. I would also do some base-running outside since it is hard to have a full home to home and learn to take leads or tag up.

Schedule one scrimmage double header with a local similar team to just get game experience but work it out with the coach you can talk a bit to kinds to teach.

Enjoy
CoC

 

[bmakj]

my $0.02

DO NOT pitch to one girl (with or without baserunners), or have your pitcher(s) pitch to one girl, or hit balls yourself (or another Coach) with 8 or 9 girls in field for more than say 10 minutes each practice (not at least until you see some game action, and it is evident that situational defense practice is badly needed, and then a coach should hit balls). practice time is precious, time spend standing in the field watching batters swing at WP, take meatball strikes, etc. is wasted time.

Do have a plan, what you want to accomplish, and how you want to do this. in beginning, this will be focused primarily on skills, and then as you see them in game action, coaches can discuss and decide what to work on each practice. 20 minutes planning the practice will make the 90 minutes twice as productive.

do lots of drills focused on skills, in small groups, so lots of repetitions. 2-4 each group depending on the drill (ie 3 fielders fielding ground balls and throwing to 2 girls rotating on 1B is actually two drills at once, and each group should have a coach focused on them and instructing). minimize tme spent standing around waiting for a turn. had a professor whose mantra was 'repetition is good for the soul', I believe it.

the exception may be three cone outfield drill. three cones in outfield in triangle, about 60-80 ft apart,, x girls at each cone. hit/throw/use pitching machine to create pop fly somewhat centered. three girls must all read and start towards the ball AND COMMUNICATE. after the turn, they go to different code back into line. helps them to read ball, the girls in the cones closer to ball source learn how to drop step, etc. this one you need at least 6 girls for, and two coaches, 9 is great if there are burpees or what not for letting it drop. but early on I would simply do lots of pop fliys one per girl (again, 2-4 girls in line, not entire team) until they are getting the hang of reading them, proper footwork, squeezing it, etc. players need hundreds if not thousands of reps reading fly balls to really get a feel for it.

get them some live pitching if possible, but if not at least have a few hitting stations (tee work, bunting, soft toss, these can be with AC and also teach girls how to do this in pairs if possible, should be Ok with this at 12, but always with at least some supervision, to make certain not ingraining bad habits). the idea of tee work and soft toss is to ingrain proper swing mechanics so they are automatic, leaving the girls concious mind free at the plate to concentrate on the pitch, and deciding what to do with it.



as they build their skills up, then you can move to more situational work (Cs throwing out runner stealling, backpicks with the girls who will be at SS, 1B, 3B, etc.

always preach, at 12C level, when in doubt, get the sure out. defenses task is to get off the field so you can generate offense, not load up bases because you kept going for lead runner and not getting them. outs are precious, especially since as a new 12C team, I cannot imagine you have a great deal of pitching depth.