The Pitch Behind Drill

The purpose of this drill is to prevent timid hitters from backing out at the plate.

The timid little league batter always seems to assume that backing out will automatically prevent him from being hit by the pitch. He usually starts his getaway before he has any notion of where the pitch is really headed. I have had some success against this tendency by throwing behind the timid batter’s back. After all, he will get plenty of these pitches at the little league level, and you don’t want him backing into them and getting hurt.

Start out using spalding or tennis balls. At first, throw a lot of pitches behind him, then gradually decrease the frequency of these pitches as he starts to break the habit. Soon he will realize that he had better not back up until he sees where the ball is really going.

This will make him safer and more confident at the plate. And while he’s watching the ball more closely, he’s going to realize that he doesn’t have to hide from the good pitches, but can stay put and hit them.

Little League Baseball Practice Plans – Use of Practice Time

Time is one of the biggest assets a coach has, but it has to be used appropriately. This is especially true when setting up little league baseball practice plans. 

When a coach arrives to practice unprepared or overwhelmed, athletes will immediately pick up on that and follow suit.  Pretty soon, you have endured a frustrating, useless baseball practice.  Everyone leaves in a bad mood, realizing that nothing was accomplished and blaming someone else.

When coaching, your job is to lead your players through drills, improve technique, prepare them for competitions, and build self-confidence and team unity.  If you do not have your practice planned, none of these things will occur.  Just like a teacher, a coach must have a “lesson plan” of sorts.

Certain things should be kept constant in practice.  There should always be time for a warm-up and stretching at the beginning of a practice.  During this time, you should help your team transition into “practice mode” and focus on the work at hand.  You should help them prepare their bodies sufficiently for the physical exertion ahead and help them concentrate on what they individually need to improve.

Little League Baseball Games – Soft Toss Scrimmage

Thanks to Brett and to Moses for sending these little league baseball games practice ideas. They includes some fresh ideas for

baseball practice. Try them out and let me know what you think!

From Brett…
Soft Toss Scrimmage:

Put a defense on the field and have the rest of the players in the dugout ready to hit.

Treat it just like a game, but a coach kneels beside the hitter and soft tosses the pitch.

“Play” 5 innings and switch.

This give the players a lot of looks at game situations. You can stop and explain different things as you go. It moves pretty fast,

so it doesn’t take up the entire practice.

Have the tosser make sure they are varying the location of the tosses to keep all fielders involved.

From Moses…
Here goes:

Place 3 runners at 1st, 2nd, 3rd.
Place a player coaching 1st and 3rd. Have Parents in the out field.

Throw or use a pitching machine to throw the ball to the outfield. Depending on what base the runners are on and how many outs there

are determines what the runners do.

Example: 1st base go half way, go if ball is dropped, return if ball is caught. 3rd base tag-up as soon as they see it is a flyball;

go when coach says go.