Little League Baseball – Infield Drills

Coming up with new ideas for little league baseball can sometimes be a challenge. Here’s a baseball drill sent in by Tom that is a

great overall infield drill and it works well for all ages.

From Tom…
I’m happy to share a drill I came up with to get the whole team involved with fielding, throwing and catching in the infield while I

give my catchers work on throwing down to 2B.

By the way, I frequently remind my players that the most common errors are fielding and throwing, and that it’s vital to success that

we make the routine plays “routinely”.

You really need two catchers and eight infielders to run this drill. Everyone will rotate and the catchers will take turns throwing

down to 2B.

I place a coach on the mound to start the drill with an overhand pitch. I place two players at every other position on the infield.

I start the drill with a pitch to home. The “first” catcher squats behind the plate to receive the pitch and make a throw to the SS

at 2B. (For now, the second baseman just learns to position herself to backsup the SS.) The SS makes a catch & tag, and then with

good footwork makes a strong throw to 3B. The third baseman makes a catch & tag and throws home to the “second” catcher. He hands the

ball to a coach at home who hits a grounder to 3B. The third baseman fields and makes a throw to 1B.

The first baseman returns the ball to the coach on the mound and the drill starts over again – beginning with the “second” catcher.

All infielders rotate counter-clockwise after each turn – 2B moves to the SS position after backing up the throw to 2B, SS follows

the throw to 3B, 3B follows his throw to 1B after fielding the ground ball, and 1B moves to 2B after the catch. By the way, I don’t

allow SS or 2B to move until the ball hits the catchers glove – they must sprint to their spots. If the throw from home gets by the

SS, I expect the second baseman to make the stop and throw to 3B. The second player in line at 1B & 3B should be prepared to back-up

bad throws and keep the drill moving.

It’s fun to watch once they learn the drill and get in rhythm, (which might take a few practices with a young team).

VARIATION:

1) The second baseman cuts the throw from the catcher at a spot halfway between the mound and 2B and makes a quick throw to 3B on the

run. (SS still goes to 2B as before to backup the throw) The drill continues as above.

Baseball Practice Drills – McDonalds Drill

If you’ve every struggled with fresh ideas for baseball drills for kids, you MUST try this out!

It’s called the McDonald’s drill. The kids really enjoy this part of practice.

Ok, we line all the kids around the perimeter of the infield.

The coach is hitting ground balls to them one after the other from home plate. The kid has to field the ball and make the throw to

1st without error. The kid is allowed 3 errors, after he commits 3 errors there out of the game.

Last man standing is the winner. He can make an error fielding or throwing. The guy that plays 1st, has to make the throw to 3rd.

“Any” bad throws in the infield is an error. After each round, the kid has to call out the number of errors they have committed. In

later rounds you can hit hard grounders to test them a bit, or test their range.

The last man standing wins a $5 McDonald’s gift certificate.

We have also called it the Potato Ole ~ (Taco John’s) game as well, because if a kid is scared of the ball and plays it off to the

side and not get in front of it, we will yell OLE~!

Youth Baseball Drills

Here are two baseball drills I like.

For fielding, have the kids take off their cap and hold it in their mouth (biting on the bill of the cap) then roll or hit soft

grounders to them. This forces them to field the ball in front of them, and not wait until the ball gets between their legs to try

and stop it….works great.

For batting get a bag of uncooked beans (the little white ones) and toss them to the kids (about 10 feet away). The kids hit away at

the beans. Even though they are small, and don’t fly straight you’ll be suprised how fast the kids learn to hit them, developing

their “batter’s eye.”