I'm holding some indoor throwing and fielding clinics for our rec league softball players in February. I'd like to set up about 4 stations in a gym and have the kids rotate for the hour. Does anyone have some good drills? I want to get as many parents involved as well, so simple, fun drills to start would be great. I am dividing the groups between first to third graders (age 6 to 8) and fourth grade and up (age 9 and up). Any suggestions are greatly appreciated! Thanks!
Fielding Stations for Indoor Clinics?
- Thread starter PA SB Dad
- Start date
Welcome to Discuss Fastpitch
Your FREE Account is waiting to the Best Softball Community on the Web.
- Jul 26, 2010
- 3,554
- 0
I really like this drill indoors, called the every day drill. It's great with the ages you mentioned. This comes from the NFCA camp. If you have mats available at your gym, it makes it easier on the youngster's knees. I do this drill every other practice with my 12u TB team, they know to wear kneepads to practice, but you can't expect the kids from your rec league to show up with pads on. The mats help, but don't let it discourage you if you don't have mats, kids spend a lot of time on their hands and knees and are much tougher then you are in that regard.
-W
-W
Last edited:
At the start of the clinic I'd recommend some warmup excercises (jog around gym a couple of times, half court sprints, butt kicks, high knees, jumping jacks, etc.). Then have the girls pair up and do several throwing drill progressions.
Target Practice: Put a small stuffed animal on a tee and have the girls throw at it. 1 point for hitting the tee - 2 points for hitting the target.
Bucket drill: Two or more lines of equal teams. On "go" coaches roll grounders to each line. Girl at front fields the grounder, puts it in a bucket next to them, and goes to the back of the line and sits down. Last one in line runs the bucket back to her coach and runs back to the end of the line and sits down. First team with all girls sitting wins.
Target Practice: Put a small stuffed animal on a tee and have the girls throw at it. 1 point for hitting the tee - 2 points for hitting the target.
Bucket drill: Two or more lines of equal teams. On "go" coaches roll grounders to each line. Girl at front fields the grounder, puts it in a bucket next to them, and goes to the back of the line and sits down. Last one in line runs the bucket back to her coach and runs back to the end of the line and sits down. First team with all girls sitting wins.
- Jul 26, 2010
- 3,554
- 0
The nature of the drill will largely depend on if you're trying to get the girls to simply practice a skill (see the target and bucket drills above) or if you actually want to teach and/or develop a skill. Since it's a rec league, and it seems to be a pre-season thing, I'd focus on teaching/development. Having a bunch of kids throwing and catching balls isn't going to do a lick of good if they're all throwing and catching incorrectly.
My advice is to set your stations up so that a skill is taught, and then a drill is performed to repeat what was taught. The bucket and target drills work great IF you have other drills to build up to a full accurate throw first.
-W
My advice is to set your stations up so that a skill is taught, and then a drill is performed to repeat what was taught. The bucket and target drills work great IF you have other drills to build up to a full accurate throw first.
-W
