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Baseball is a great way for your kids to get outside, enjoy America’s pastime, make friends, learn to compete, work as a team, and improve their skills. It takes more than showing up to find success on the field; the drills and workouts practiced can make or break your team’s performance. Nothing gets a young player more excited than making a great hit, catching an important out, or celebrating a win with their team. Youth Baseball is all about the fundamentals, and to get your team game ready, we have put together a list of some of the best youth baseball hitting drills, fielding drills, and more to lead your team towards success. Check out these games to get your players ready for the season!
Knock Down
Knock Down is a simple drill involving 3 tees, plenty of baseballs, and 3 larger balls of any variety (basketball, soccer ball, softball, etc.). This drill helps improve throwing techniques and builds arm strength in a fun, competitive fashion.
How it works: Place 3 tees at your desired length 10 feet apart (start about one base length away and adjust as your players improve). Place the larger balls on top of the 3 tees. Divide your team into 3 groups. One player will throw at a time and attempt to knock the larger ball off the tee with a baseball. Only one player from each group will throw at a time, and players will rotate inside their own group after each throw. If the large ball is knocked off, the player who threw the baseball is responsible for placing it back on the tee for the next in line. Each group will race each other to see who can knock the larger ball off 5 times. As your players improve, you can increase the distance the tee is placed as well as replace the large ball with something smaller (softball, baseball, etc.).
Hot Potato
Hot potato is one you might be familiar with already, but it works great at improving reaction times and reflexes. All you need is a group of players and a baseball.
How it works: Stand is a circle with your team with one player holding a baseball. No gloves are needed in this drill. The player holding the ball starts by underhand throwing the ball to another player. Each player has 3 seconds to catch and release the ball. The ball can be passed in any order to keep players on their feet, ready to react. If any player fails to catch the ball or fails to throw the ball in a catchable position, they are out. All throws must be made underhand. Once out, players step aside and wait for the round to be over. The last player standing wins.
Scoring Frenzy
Scoring Frenzy is a drill that gets everyone involved and makes batting practice fun. It is one of our favorite baseball hitting drills for youth leagues because it gives players a chance to improve their swing and become more consistent batters.
How it works: This drill is a fun way to make batting practice competitive. It works by rotating batters and giving each player 10 balls to swing at. Every hit is worth points, and the better the hit, the more points are awarded. The breakdown of scoring is below.
- Ground Ball – 1 Point
- Fly Ball – 1 Point
- Line Drive – 3 Points
- Hit the Fence – 4 Points
- Home Run – 5 Points
- Swing and a Miss – Negative 1 point
- Foul Ball – No points awarded (counts as one of the balls hit)
As the coach, pitch the 10 balls in an easy-to-hit manner. Players can pass on swinging if your pitch is outside the strike zone. Have players keep track of the score, and whoever ends up with the most in the end wins. Players can field balls from the outfield while playing this game.
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