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This resource page has been created to provide coaches with activities, ideas, and drills that can be used to promote player development at all age levels. Parents are welcome to use these resources to work with your child at home as well. Please contact taconichillsll@gmail.com with any questions or if you have a resource that you would like to share with others.
This resource page has been created to provide coaches with activities, ideas, and drills that can be used to promote player development at all age levels. Parents are welcome to use these resources to work with your child at home as well. Please contact taconichillsll@gmail.com with any questions or if you have a resource that you would like to share with others.
Keys to Successful Practices
Keep all players active as much as possible. Avoid situations where only 1 or 2 players are active while everyone else stands around and watches.
Make drills as game-like as possible. If you are going to hit ground balls to infielders then have other players be baserunners to make the defensive plays more realistic.
Have fun and challenge players to improve. For example, time players running around the bases at the end of each practice. Use this as an opportunity to focus on proper base running (rounding bases, touching inside corners of each base, sliding, etc).
Start practice early with batting practice as players arrive. Just be sure to instruct players to not make long throws while retrieving batting practice balls until they have warmed up properly. Have a few players throw to warm up in a safe space during batting practice so that by the time that everyone has had a chance to hit everyone has also had a chance to warm up their arms as well. Using time efficiently like this keeps all players engaged and allows more time for game-like drills.
Tee Ball (Typically ages 5 & 6)
Tee Ball (Typically ages 5 & 6)
At this age, the focus should be on having fun while learning the basics of the game.
By the end of a child's Tee Ball career, a player should be able to:
Run the bases in the correct order
Hold and swing a bat
Field a ground ball with a glove
Throw a ball to a teammate
Tee Ball Activities, Ideas, and Drills
Tee Ball Activities, Ideas, and Drills
Start fielding practice with a wiffle ball in order to encourage players to stay in front of the ball.
Coach Pitch (Typically ages 7 & 8)
Coach Pitch (Typically ages 7 & 8)
At this age, we want to improve a player's hitting, throwing, and fielding mechanics. We will also introduce situational defense and base running.
By the end of a child's Coach Pitch career, a player should be able to:
Run the bases correctly when a ball is hit in play
Improve hitting mechanics with a focus on the correct position of each body part
Field ground balls and pop flies with a glove
Throw and catch a baseball consistently with a teammate using proper mechanics
Coach Pitch Activities, Ideas, and Drills
Coach Pitch Activities, Ideas, and Drills
Learn to catch with bare hand with a tennis ball. Focus on the thumb facing down when catching the ball.
Throwing progression:
1) Start with non-throwing hand holding throwing elbow. Focus on proper grip and snapping wrist at a short distance
2) In a kneeling position, throw with arm while keeping the rest of your body mostly still.
3) In standing position, keep feet still and focus on throwing while turning your upper body.
4) Stand with your glove hand side of your body facing your partner and throw by stepping toward your partner and following through.Basic batting stance: Feet about shoulder width apart, knees slightly inside your feet, hands toward back shoulder, door knocking knuckles lined up or with knuckles forming a box (or somewhere in between), back elbow up, hips rotate and body weight shifts during swing which pulls upper body into swinging motion, front hand should be palm down while back hand should be palm up to start swing, wrists turn over reversing palm positions on follow through
Minors (Typically ages 9 & 10)
Minors (Typically ages 9 & 10)
At this age, we want to continue to improve a player's hitting, throwing, and fielding mechanics. We will also increase a player's knowledge of situational defense and base running.
By the end of a child's Minors career, a player should be able to:
Run the bases in a variety of situations (including secondary leads, tagging up, stealing bases, etc)
Improve hitting mechanics with a focus on hitting line drives and altering batting strategy depending on the count
Play and understand the jobs of a defensive position (including using cutoffs, backing up plays, and situational strategies)
Throw and catch a baseball consistently with a teammate using proper mechanics with a focus on building arm strength through long toss
Develop proper pitching mechanics with a focus on accuracy
Communicate with teammates in different situations (including the number of outs and the correct defensive play for different situations)
Minors Activities, Ideas, and Drills
Minors Activities, Ideas, and Drills
Dedicate a lot of time to "live" game-like scrimmage situations. Many teachable moments will be achieved in this type of scenario. To reduce down time, have infield receive ground balls from first baseman and outfielders play long toss while new pitches are warming up. Consider starting every batter with a 1-1 count to increase game-like action. If players are striking out looking too often, have batters start with an 0-2 count to encourage swinging at anything close.
If a player is afraid to catch fly balls, then have them try to use the brim of their hat (while wearing the hat) to "catch" a wiffle ball. This is a safe way to get a player to be comfortable getting their body underneath the ball so that you gradually work toward catching a fly ball.
Majors (Typically ages 11 & 12)
Majors (Typically ages 11 & 12)
At this age, we want to continue to improve a player's hitting, throwing, pitching, and fielding mechanics. We will also increase a player's knowledge of situational defense and base running.
By the end of a child's Majors career, a player should be able to:
Aggressively and intelligently run the bases in a variety of situations (including secondary leads, tagging up, stealing bases, etc)
Improve hitting mechanics with a focus on hitting line drives and altering batting strategy depending on the count, pitch speed, and pitch location
Play and understand the jobs of multiple defensive positions (including using cutoffs, backing up plays, and situational strategies)
Throw and catch a baseball consistently with a teammate using proper mechanics with a focus on building arm strength through long toss
Develop proper pitching mechanics with a focus on accuracy and changing speeds
Communicate with and give advice to teammates in different situations (including the number of outs and the correct defensive play for different situations)
Majors Activities, Ideas, and Drills
Majors Activities, Ideas, and Drills
Dedicate a lot of time to "live" game-like scrimmage situations. Many teachable moments will be achieved in this type of scenario. To reduce down time, have infield receive ground balls from first baseman and outfielders play long toss while new pitches are warming up. Consider starting every batter with a 1-1 count to increase game-like action. If players are striking out looking too often, have batters start with an 0-2 count to encourage swinging at anything close.
Toss two balls in front of a net or fence to a batter. While the balls are in the air, call out which ball the player should hit (for example: top, bottom, or the color if using two different color balls). This is a great way to teach players to adjust to off speed pitches.
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