It is important that baseball coaches know a number of drills that not only teach the game, but drills that involve as many players as possible. Otherwise, boredom and screwing around is the result, when kids have too much down time. The following fits the bill for both objectives of teaching base running and keeping a number of players involved. This base running drill also fills the bill of adding some competition to a team’s practice.

After stepping on second base, the fielder throws to first to complete a double play (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Maybe the most important base running skill is the secondary lead, which is the additional steps runners take once pitchers begin their home delivery. This secondary lead is the edge runners  need to break up double plays, go first to third, as well as the difference between being out or safe on close plays.

Secondary Base Running Drill

Coaches set up a few extra bases beyond first base, so a few players lead off together. With a pitcher on the mound, players take their normal lead off. Once the pitcher delivers a ball (or an imaginary one to home), runners take two hop steps towards second base. Upon the ball reaching the hitting zone, a coach who is standing in the batter’s box, claps his hands or fakes clapping his hands. Runners take off for second base, as with a batted ground ball with the clap but with the fake clap, they head back to first base, as with a swing and a miss. The drill helps players to practice the timing of their secondary hops, the decision making of go or stay, having their weight landing on the right foot and with the timing of taking off towards second on the batted ball.

After players have the rhythm of the drill, the competition begins. As players take off for second after the clap, the first player to get to a designated point before second base is the winner. However, players, who are picked off because they ran on the fake claps, are eliminated from that rounds competition. An elimination tourney is fun to find the team winner for that day.

Note – the winner is determined short of second base so that it is not the fastest runners, who win, but the winner is the one who gets the best jump after the clap of the hands.

It bugs me to see kids warm up throwing nonchalantly. It’s not that I expect them to play catch super quickly, after all it is just warm up time. However, there is no reason to catch the ball incorrectly and to take forever to return the ball to their catch partner.

Team Throwing Warm Up Practice

Mike Leake plays catch before game three of the 2009 College World Series (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I call this pre practice or pre game throwing the “one thousand one rule and I inform the team of this rule the very first day of practice. While playing catch, even at home with mom or dad, players are required to catch the ball with one or two hands, as indicated by the location of the throw, and have the ball on its return by the time they can say, “one thousand and one.”  This is not the quick hands (quick feet) throwing drill, when players see how quickly they can throw the ball back and forth.

However, with this drill coaches will observe better throw-and-catch habits, without a lot of wasted time during pregame throwing.

Teaching ball players the importance of backing up throws and batted balls is necessary, as well as coaching players to know where to be backing up on those batted and thrown baseballs.

Infield-Outfield Practice Drill

Carlos Prichard of the Redcliffe Padres avoids a runners interference from a batted ball by leaping over it. The defensive team is the Narangba Demons. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Take a normal infield-outfield practice, but before hitting the ball, coaches give a numbered signal to the defensive players. One finger raised means players intentionally miss the batted ball; two fingers mean players intentionally throw the ball away after fielding it and no fingers has players make the plays, as in normal practice. In this manner, coaches can see if players are in the correct backup positions, especially outfielders, and instruct where players should be backing up when not done correctly.

Of course, even better is to run this infield practice with base runners with helmets on, so players

Practicing every aspect of the game is essential to coaching winning baseball, even when bad things happen, as backing up all missed and overthrown balls.

Many hitters I work with say they use the whole field when they hit. Unfortunately, this may not always be good because:

Good hitters take outside pitches and hit them the opposite way, hit balls in the center of the plate up the middle and pull inside pitches. Bad hitters do it differently – they pull outside pitches and are usually late on inside pitches, going to the opposite field with those. Pitches in the middle of the plate are liable to go anywhere for batters with incorrect swings.

(LOC) (Photo credit: The Library of Congress)”]There is no better sign of the bad swing mechanics than this occurrence, especially for kids who have good hand eye coordination and those who are big for their age. They can get away with the incorrect swing up to a certain age, but it starts to catch up with them around junior high school age, if not before.

The point is that coaches and players should be aware of which pitches are being hit where, especially in batting practice. When this hitting the wrong pitches in the wrong direction occurs, players should work on improved swing mechanics, before it is too late. Hitting off a batting tee placed in different pitch locations is a good start to this improvement. Practicing hitting balls to the correct fields in batting practice, no matter the speed of the pitches, is the next step. When players can hit balls to the correct fields, better baseball swing mechanics are present and the chances of long-range success are enhanced.

Baseball, Outfielder, 2004, by Rick Dikeman 03:43, 16 September 2004 . . Rdikeman . . 360×540 (56,673 bytes) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Outfield fielding drills

1. Fungo and batting practice drill – Of course, the first responsibility is to catch any ball, be it a fly ball, line drive, or ground ball that comes into their area. The first step is to hit a variety of “fungo” balls to outfielders to help them learn to judge fly balls and line drives, as well as fielding ground balls. Along with this outfield drill, coaches should have fielders play batted balls during batting practice, as in a game, to get more game-like outfield practice.

2. Communication drill – Learning to communicate with other fielders on batted balls is paramount for safety reasons and for getting outs. Coaches should set up infielders and outfielders and hit (or throw) fly balls between players, teaching them to call for balls, get out of the way when others call it, who is in charge on mutually called balls and backing up after getting out of the way. Using the same yelled words on balls is necessary. Generally, “I got it” and “Take it” are the terms to use, should be yelled loudly and more than once.

3. Back up Drill – Outfielders must learn to back up all thrown and batted balls in the infield. This is practiced with simulated base running situations. Coaches hit infield practice with, or without runners, while outfielders practice backing up all batted and thrown balls. Coaches direct outfielders on where they should be on each game -simulated play.

4. Groundball outfield drills – there are four plays outfielders must practice on ground balls to the outfield.

A. Down on knee – for plays with nobody on base outfielders drop their non-throwing side knee to be sure the ball cannot get by, before hopping up quickly to return the ball back to the infield.

B. On balls that require a throw to nail a possible, advancing runner players aggressively charge balls and have their glove side foot out front when catching the ball in the middle of the body before taking a strong crow hop and throw. It is important to note that outfielders feet are staggered more than when catching this ball than infielders’ footwork on normal ground balls

C. Spin drill – outfielders often have to cut balls off in the gaps, or down the lines, only to have to spin and make a quick, strong throw to a base. Outfielders are hit balls to their left and right to practice this catch, spin, and throw outfield drill.

D. Do or die play – when players need to charge balls “all out” they catch the ball at full speed on the outside of their glove side with glove only (not two hands) and take a double hop on their throwing side leg as they gather themselves to make a strong throw. This is called the “do or die” because it generally means the game is on the line and players have to be super aggressive to throw the runner out. Allowing the ball to possibly get by them is of no consequence as the game is over if they miss it.

5. Cut off drill – very important for successful outfield and team play is the ability to hit cutoff players for possible relays. Coaches take an infield and outfield practice, with or without runners, as infielders practice lining up to the correct bases as outfielders practice throwing to and through cut off men.

6. Tag up fly ball drill – coaches set up base runners and have them tag up on fly balls, as outfielders practice getting behind the ball, moving into it, catching balls on their throwing side with two hands and throwing to the base that the runner is advancing to.

7. Shoestring, dive or slide drill – it is difficult to practice dive plays because of the risk of injury. However, the practice of shoe string and sliding catches can be done with soft hit fly balls where players practice whether to reach and make a shoe string catch or slide, as into a base, and catch balls. Any headfirst dive practice should involve players moving only a short distance, so the risks of hard-falling injuries are minimal.

8. Crow hop drill – Many kids try to get rid of the ball so quickly when strong outfield throws are necessary that they do not take a strong crow hop necessary to get the most on the throw. Learning to take a good strong outfield crow hop is best practiced up close at first  and when playing catch, before moving back and practicing the crow hop on rolled balls. It may be best to have young players exaggerate this crow hop at first and set up like a pitcher with the high knee lift, before stepping forward to throw.

9. Long arm throw drill – many kids short arm the outfield throw instead of taking the time to get a strong, long-armed throw off. Similar to the previous drill and combining this with the crow hop drill, players begin with both arms extended and hop on their rear foot a few times until the coach yells throw.

10. Fence drill – having kids approach the homerun, or foul ball fence, to catch fly balls is best done with players standing near them before coaches throw balls up near the fence. Practicing jumping to catch these balls is a fun and necessary to include when doing outfield drills.

For coaches, who are not proficient with hitting balls to outfielders, it is best to throw balls instead when practicing outfield drills to get more repetitions. Young outfielders must be taught to anticipate which base to throw balls before  plays so no indecision occurs and the ball is thrown back to the infield or base as quickly as possible. As mentioned, outfield practice is often “taken for granted,” but good baseball coaches insist on doing these valuable outfield drills.

Motivational Monday Tip of the Day – Definition of Pushing

I hear this statement from parents and coaches often, “He/she never wants to practice.”

Motivating baseball players, especially talented ones, who seem uninterested in working hard, can be frustrating for parents and coaches.  Pleading for kids to practice more and pushing them to do what parents and coaches want them to do, usually turn kids off even more. No absolute solutions exist to motivating players, but pushing leads to the end of kids wanting to keep playing baseball for very long.

The good news is that most every adult agrees with this. The bad news is that adults do not notice the difference between pushing and motivating because pushing is hard to define, so many adults fall into the pushing syndrome trap.

Johnny Evers (1881 – 1947), Major League Baseball player and manager (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Definition of pushing – when adults put more emphasis on a certain area of a child’s life (baseball), to the point where success is more important for the adult than for the child.  

What to do?

Treat every aspect of kids’ life, where effort is important, with the same emphasis. Being casual about youth working hard in school, but being adamant they practice baseball more, is the start of the “pushing “syndrome.


Keep things in perspective – realize that when kids display a good work ethic with other activities (schoolwork included) but not with baseball, everything is OK.

Remain Positive – parents and coaches, who remain positive and optimistic with “lazy” players, have the best chance of seeing unmotivated players turn into motivated ones in the future.

Nudge them with realistic but non-judgmental words, as “long term success only comes with practice” is better than the common pushing words of “You have to practice more.”

After hitting the heck out of the ball one at-bat, I asked my teammate what the pitch was that he hit, and he replied, “I don’t know, I just saw it and hit it.” Wow, that was impressive.

sports pic (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Recently, I asked one of my students, if she was having any trouble with inside or outside pitches, or high or low ones – she replied in a dead serious manner, “I don’t get those.” Equally impressive, I must say. The point both hitters made was that they get in such a zone when hitting that they are not always sure what pitches they get, but they know which ones are good and when they get them, they put a great swing on them.

Oh, if only hitting was that easy. As a hitting coach, though, that is what I try to drill into batters’ heads – there is only a ball and in such a zone when hitting in games, that players just see the ball and hit the ball. Any swing thoughts other than that, are negative, and are only for batting practice.  

Communication on the baseball diamond is crucial for not only getting outs, but also for keeping players healthy. The key to baseball communication is the ability to have quick words spoken and words that all players know the meaning of. These “yelled” words must be loud, and clear, so players know exactly what other players’ intentions are at a moment’s notice. For example, the usual spoken communication between defensive players on fly balls is, “I got it,” and “take it,” said by the player who is calling for ball and the player who allows them to take it.

Once again, spoken loudly and clearly, and more than once, is what baseball coaches “drill” into players, so outs are the result and injuries avoided. As mentioned, the communication words must be agreed upon beforehand. When different words are spoken than those practiced, confusion reigns.

Another common baseball communication is informing defensive players which base to throw the ball to. Once again, this information must be quick and clear to all. With that in mind, numbers are assigned to the bases. Instead of yelling first, second, third home, the bases are one (first base), two (second base), three (third base), four (home plate). These may seem obvious to experienced baseball people but coaches must practice this base calling technique with all players. Using the wrong term may cause the hesitation in players that leads to losing outs.

Base Calling Drill – Coaches set a player at each base and start a ball with one player, before yelling out a number, one through four, at which time the player with the ball throws to that base. Upon catching the ball, coaches yell out the next number, etc…

Most ballplayers do not like to run laps, do sprints, or do much conditioning for baseball, but baseball requires better conditioning than many think. Sprinting 60 or 90 yards, as going from home to second or third base, requires fine-tuned athletes.

Skymark Stadium in Kobe, Japan, from the outfield bleachers (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

However, most players love to throw runners out at home plate from the outfield, as that is one of the most exciting plays in baseball.

A fun drill that works to condition the legs and arm at the same time is to have players set up in the outfield and hit ranging fly and ground balls to them, with the intention of throwing runners out at the plate. Obviously, their arms and legs get a good workout without them even realizing the main intent of the drill. Setting them the distance from home where they can make the throw in the air or with just one hop is ideal before hitting balls.

Of course, players should loosen their arms and legs beforehand, and this is good drill at the end of practices. Running and long toss at the same time is great baseball conditioning.

I cringe inside when I ask players what positions they play and their answer is catcher and pitcher. The reason I do not like hearing that is threefold. First, the arm action of a pitcher and catcher are different, as catchers need to develop a quick-release and a compact arm action. Pitchers, on the other hand, do not need a quick release but rather a smooth, rhythmic delivery. Secondly, catchers need to develop quick, short steps to get rid of balls quickly, the opposite of the pitching delivery. Finally, and maybe most important, teams generally have two catchers on a team, meaning there is no way to rest catchers very often after or before they pitch, which can lead to arm tiredness, if not injury, from overuse.

Craig Tatum (#15), catcher for the Baltimore Orioles, prepares for the game. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Of course, at the very young levels of baseball, this is not always a big issue. However, as players move up, and especially when playing multiple games of travel baseball, the risk of arm injury increases for kids, who are both pitchers and catchers. With this understanding, it is necessary for players, with the help of parents and coaches, to make a decision to pitch or catch.