Gamification in Baseball/Softball Practices

Post date: Sep 7, 2014 5:33:46 AM

One of the buzz words in today’s business world is gamificiation. Gamificiation is applying gaming techniques and gaming elements into non-gaming contexts. Some of the largest companies today use gamification for their workforce and customers. The reason for this is that gamificiation engages and motivates people to achieve their objectives in a fun, competitive way. While there is no real need for gamificiation during real baseball and softball games, gamification is a great way to get baseball and softball players motivated during practices and private batting instruction.

One of the most common issues I see with baseball and softball players during my batting lessons is they struggle to keep their head down once making contact with the ball. If a player is batting and gets in the habit of watching where the baseball/softball is hit, s/he will end up pulling his/her head up too early and will usually miss or pop-up a ball. To help with this, I use my mini basketball (which was mentioned in my last blog.) However, sometimes just telling my students to look at the basketball when they are done swinging is not enough. To help players become better baseball and softball hitters, I use gamification. I assign points for things during their swings. For instance, every time they keep their heads down, they get a point. However, if they DON’T keep their heads down, I am the one that gets a point. The instant difference of using gamification is amazing!

Some other ideas for practice using gamification can be found here.