PRACTICE 20

During the season, the goal of practices is to refine the fundamentals that are in place. Every practice you hold should include some time for work on situations. Bunt plays, special plays, any that apply should be covered. As the girls continue to progress, you can add more things, like a back-hand drill, the find-the-fence drill and how to push bunt or slap hit from both sides of the plate.

Congratulations on committing the time to teach the girls the right way to play the game. As a coach, there's nothing greater than to have one of your kids come up to you in later years to tell you she made her middle school or high school team and thank you for teaching her how to play softball.


First 15 Minutes (Warm-up)

Use the standard warm-up routine: stretching, moderate jog to a finishing sprint. Then, catching, throwing and ground-ball lines. Always stress mechanics. Make sure you leave plenty of room between each girls during warm-ups. If you have time, you can add the pop-up drill to your warm-up routine.


Next 2 Minutes (Water Break)

Keep your players hydrated with a water break. But have them hustle back on the field.


Next 10 Minutes (Split Them Into Groups) 

Split up the girls, you take the infielders and have your assistant coaches work with the outfielders. You will hit grounder after grounder and have them throw to different bases, increasingly expanding their range. Work with your middle infielders on taking throws at the back of the bag to protect themselves from oncoming base runners. Teach them how to put a tag on a runner. Teach your first basemen how to straddle the bag and shift their feet to properly stretch for a throw. 


Next 10 Minutes: (Work on Situations as a Team)

Bring the groups together and work on situations as a team. Review every skill and special play. Work on your outfield cuts and relays. During this time, you begin to teach your base runners how to read the ball in the air. Or you can teach your outfielders how to crow-hop to get off a good strong accurate throw. 

In additional practices, you can take this time to work on live hitting, or hitting stations or just bunting or slapping. The goal is to add more than previous practice, building the girls into better players and people.


Next 2 Minutes (Water Break)

Keep your players hydrated with a water break. But have them hustle back on the field.


Remaining Practice (Water Break)

If possible, always end with a softball-related game. I've offered some in previous lessons. Here's another one, similar to the Baserunning Relay you used in the first practice:

Softball relay: Create two teams. Place a teammate on each base, about six feet off the base in the baseline. The girl at home is holding a softball. On your command, she races to first, takes a proper turn - cutting the corner of the bag - and hands the ball to her teammate. She races around second and hands the ball to her teammate, who races around third and hands the ball off to the girl, who races home. The quickest combined time wins (you may have to run it twice to involve everyone).  For good measure, you can start having the losing team run a lap. That makes it a little more interesting.