Hey!!! It counldn’t hurt!

Not a bad pick up for the White Sox, given that Pierre played in 145 games for the Dodgers in 2009, batting .308 with 31 RBIs and 30 stolen bases. He received a lot of playing time when Manny Ramirez was suspended for 50 games last year for steriod use.

Place a player at third, second, first and home. Everyone else lines up at home plate.

This youth baseball warm up drill starts with a player at home throwing to third then sprinting to third. The player on third throws

to second and sprints to second, the player on second throws to first and that player throws home. With younger kids this is hard,

but they get better and faster at this baseball drill as they master it.

The key is to keep the players moving and raise the intensity of the drill once they get better at it. This is a good way to begin a

practice in that it gets the players loose and focused.

It is good to position coaches and volunteer parents near the bases with a bucket of balls in case of overthrows, to keep the drill

going.

This is good for confidence in younger kids and shows them that they can make the throws under some pressure.

below sent in by Kent and Roger (very creative!).

From Kent…
I use this baseball drill to teach the progression of squaring a ground ball, backhanding or forehanding it or diving for it.

I use a machine to place ground balls in the hole. Have the players move them in to a position that challenges them. After a few

attempts we have them move stop where the stop must be made with a backhand or forehand stop. Then more of a distance to teach them

to lay out or dive for the stop.

After each progression has been completed a few times we mix it up. We work this drill from all positions in the infield and have

each player take one turn then rotate. Also you can have a player play any base to teach a quick recovery into a throwing position

and the release of the ball as they throw to the designated base.

From Roger…
I have a player stand in between two cones about ten feet apart. The player breaks down and I roll a ball towards the player off to

one side and the player has to slide over and get in front of the ball. The player must then get the ball back to the coach. As the

ball gets to the player I throw a second ball to the other side of the player and they have to slide over in front of this ball and

pop up and make a good throw back to the coach.

that is working well.

Monkey In The Middle

This helps my players, when throws come in from the outfield, to quickly relay the ball. Also helps on double plays.

Imagine a tic-tac-toe board. Place a person in each box with three balls, one given to each person on the end of the row. To start,

that person throws to the one (monkey) in the middle row. She then throws to the person on the other end. Then that person throws

back to the person in the middle and then throws to the person starting the sequence. Then the process is repeated.

This starts slow and speeds up as you go. What this helps develop is that the monkey in the middle turns towards the person throwing

the ball with their throwing arm side. This allows the ball to come into the gloved hand, across the body. This will allow the

throwing hand to be behind the ball ready to throw as oppose to catching the ball out in front of you, and having to then turn the

body towards the target.

The coach must watch and correct each player when they step toward the thrower with their gloved hand because they will!

your team.

Here is one for the group:

Outfield 5-Point Drill

Setup: Bucket on Home Plate, 4 base runners at 2B, 4 in LF, and 4 in RF (medium depth)

Coach hits one hopper to the outfield alternating between LF and RF.
2B runner takes a lead and attempts to reach home before the ball hits the bucket.
Outfielders are awarded 2 points for hitting the bucket, 1 point for a throw online but over the bucket, and zero points for an

errant throw or if the runner beats the throw.
The first outfielder to reach 5 points wins the round, and the groups rotate stations. Repeat 3X and a water break.
This is a challenging drill: great for conditioning, accurate throws, and the players love the sound of hitting the bucket.

Variation of this outfield drill: Include a Pitcher and Second baseman and work on ‘Cutting’ the ball to second on Coaches command.

Coach’s Perspective: I get a good look at the player’s setup, catching motion, crow hop, and throw.

me know what you think!

From Gary…

I just returned from a coaching clinic and I picked up a few good batting tips.

1) Video tape everything and play it back to track progress and show teaching points.

2) To help players learn how to keep their eye on the ball all the way to the bat, ask them to point to the exact spot on the bat

where the ball hit. Most cases the player will be 4-6 inches off in the beginning until he learns to keep his eye on the ball all

the way in.

3) For right handed batters, teach them to pull their right elbow back away from their body and bringing it through by having them

emulate the throwing motion of “skipping rocks”.
Using a baseball have them throw the ball into a net in the same way they would skip rocks.

4) For right handed batters, teach them how to keep their hands close to their shoulder (not out and behind the shoulder) and to snap

their wrist by having them emulate throwing a frisbee with their left hand.

5) Make sure the batter takes an “attack” approach/stance.
By this we mean keep the front shoulder low at beginning of swing and during the “toe step” to produce desired weight shift from back

leg to front leg and to produce a longer swing on the same plane of the ball that will result in more line drives and less pop ups.

baseball practice. Try them out and let me know what you think!

From Brett…
Soft Toss Scrimmage:

Put a defense on the field and have the rest of the players in the dugout ready to hit.

Treat it just like a game, but a coach kneels beside the hitter and soft tosses the pitch.

“Play” 5 innings and switch.

This give the players a lot of looks at game situations. You can stop and explain different things as you go. It moves pretty fast,

so it doesn’t take up the entire practice.

Have the tosser make sure they are varying the location of the tosses to keep all fielders involved.

From Moses…
Here goes:

Place 3 runners at 1st, 2nd, 3rd.
Place a player coaching 1st and 3rd. Have Parents in the out field.

Throw or use a pitching machine to throw the ball to the outfield. Depending on what base the runners are on and how many outs there

are determines what the runners do.

Example: 1st base go half way, go if ball is dropped, return if ball is caught. 3rd base tag-up as soon as they see it is a flyball;

go when coach says go.

From Judd…
We usually finish off baseball practice with this one. It is designed to teach the players how to judge pop-ups and the proper way of

letting every one know that you are going to “call” it. It’s called simply the pop-up drill (although my youngest daughter sometimes

refers to it as the “pop-up of death” drill).

I have the whole team gather around me in a loose group-stretching their arms out so that they are at least arms length away from all

the other players. I then randomly throw the ball up in the air.

The players then have to decide if it is one that they can catch and then “call for it”. They are awarded points for “calling” for

the ball loudly, making the catch or stepping back to allow someone else who has called the ball to make the catch.

The first player to 10 points get to sit down. This continues with me alternating where I throw the ball until everyone has reached

10 points. The player who finishes last then has to run the bases while the rest of the team cheers loudly for him, and some times

even chase him around the bases.

This teaches them to judge pop-ups, take control of a fly ball, as well as avoid collisions with other fielders. My kids love

this-especially the ritual of chasing the last one around the bases. Hope this will be helpful. So far I am really loving some of the

drills that I am seeing-especially the ones that become games and contests. I find that my players much prefer these kinds of drills.