Practice Stations

Question
I am coaching girls softball ages 7-8.  I believe that the most effective practice would be one that had stations for 3-4 girls per station.  The trouble is I don't know what type of stations to include or what to focus on.  I was told by several people that this league is 80% hitting and 20% fielding.  How to I set up a practice routine for an hour long and effectively coach each girl using stations?  I don't want to have no one sitting around doing nothing, but that is hard.  Please advise me on what to do.  I want to be the best coach in the league, one that goes the extra mile.  Thanks in advance for your help.

Answer
Hi Rusty

When I was managing softball teams I like to spend about a 1/3 of the practice split into small stations. Every few minutes I would rotate the girls until they all spent about the same time in each station.  I would change up the stations with different drills each practice to keep everything fresh.

I suggest you make a master list (or goals) of the fundamentals or skills you want to cover then plan each practice in advance to achieve these goals.  Hitting practice and skill development is important (at any age) but you would be short changing the girls if you didn't work on all the skill set fundamentals - especially at this age.

Instead of trying to list the things to cover in practice or try to explain them in this message please visit the following great links for detailed information & drills that should help you get started.

http://www.syasoftball.com/practiceorg.html
http://www.syasoftball.com/coachescorner.html
http://tinyurl.com/5rf8w
http://tinyurl.com/5zqdp
http://nfca.org/news/?id=1679