Practice Drills and Games

Question
Hello, I am a new coach and I am looking for new drills and drill type games to perform at my practices. I coach a team of 11-12 year olds that have inermediate to experienced levels of talent.

Thank you

Answer
Eric,

Thanks for the question and good luck. I have been in your shoes and it is very rewarding to see the kids improve and enjoy it. Work and repetition is the key. My team is presently at 14 year old level, but we still do the same core drills at every practice that we did when they were 11-12.

I recommend going to a local baseball store or go online to a store like baseball express.com to find some practice planning materials.  They will have drills and practice tips.  Also, you can prescribe online to free tip sources and get emails regarding tips.

Our practice goes something like this:
1-warmup throwing and stretching
2-run 1 lap--we don't run a lot in practice-you don't have a lot of time to actually practice, so conditioning is not a priority.  Have the kids do this on their own.
3-Infield drills
-around the horn-players are positioned in lines at each base and they throw the ball, accurately and quickly, from base to base.  We usually do this for about 5 min.
-ground balls-we use 2 coaches to hit and 2 coaches to catch (don't use a player to catch up for you, this is a waste of his time)  We position half the players at SS and half at 2B positions.  Coaches at lined up on lB side of home plate hitting to SS position and 3B side of home plate hitting to 2B position.  Hit ground balls to players.  They get more reps this way.  We will do this for 10-15 minutes and each player will get 15-20 ground balls.
-outfield drills-We do the same as infield. All the players go into the outfield and field fly balls.
-fielding--put players at respective positions and do fielding.
-Hitting-we have our players do a lot of hitting outside of practice, but you should hit every practice, so you can see who is hitting.  We also have our kids do tee work and soft toss hitting into a screen to groove the swings.  Most of our players do take private hitting lessons as well.  While you are having batting practice, have your pitchers off to the side working on pitching.  You need 2 catchers as well to get catching work in.  The pitchers and catchers work, 2 by 2 with one coach with them to monitor.  The other players are hitting and shagging to a bucket. This saves time.  Each player gets 10-15 cuts and then rotate. The catchers should either hit first or last every practice. That is the fate of the catcher.
-Other aspects of game plan-base stealing, bunt coverage, pickoffs, etc.. are covered at the end or as needed.

I hope this helps and I hope you have a great season.

Mike