Defensive Indoor Drills
Three Player Weave (conditioning, eye on the ball, coordination, soft hands) Start on an endline of the basketball gym floor with three across. Explain that this drill takes a lot of coordination and teamwork. Using a safety softball (no gloves) each player is to run the floor weaving in and out soft tossing the ball to one another during the weave. The weave is like doing monkey rolls on the ground only the weave is done while running. Players in threes should be at both ends of the gym. If the ball is dropped you must go back and start again. Each group of three should go three times.
Yours/Mine (Outfield/Infield) Two players, get plenty of space in the gym, one player throws the ball up while the other calls "mine" or "yours". A ball that is dropped or mis-played both players run outside the basketball lines back to their position and continue the drill.
Texas Leaguer (Outfield) Two players, get about 10 yards in between one another. One player has the ball and tosses short where the other player must hustle to catch it about 6 inches off the ground. The player who catches the ball then runs back to the spot and does the same for their partner.
Blindman (woman) Two players, using a gym wall, one player is about 20 feet from the wall (back to the wall) the other player with the ball is about 10 feet from the wall facing it. The player with the ball throws the ball against the wall and shouts "now' when the ball hits the wall. Their partner turns anD finds the ball in the air and must catch it while in the air. 5 reps then switch positions.
Lightning (Larry Shay LarryShay21@yahoo.com) We have groups of 3 start on the freethrow line, facing the wall and the 1st girl throws into the wall. 2nd girl fields properly and comes up throwing for the 3rd girl. 3 or 4 times thru to work on fundamentals then it gets fun. Girls continue but spread it out alittle on their throws and they are forced to use backhands and footwork, add in some line drives or short pop-ups and you've got a great game for all. If they miss then their out play till the last one is standing or error free. Use your own imagination.
Hitting Indoor Drills
We use the Hitting station concept during our indoor practices. We will set up specific stations to work on specific areas of hitting. Variety on a day to day basis keeps it interesting for players and they don't get bored. Make your players always wear a helmet while hitting.
3 Plates (3 tees, 3 Safety Nets, Helmets, Hitting Station) One station uses 3 plates. Tees are set at various heights, a player must go through the rotation of hitting the ball at various heights in 25 seconds. This develops a sound stance. And we watch where the bat head extends yet maintain the technique of the swing. Bat head location is paramount any large body movement to adjust is immediately dealt with on an individual basis.
Dow Rods & Golf Balls (Safety Nets) If you want to improve hand eye coordination get some dow rods and whiffle golf balls, do all the soft-toss drills you can think of and you will notice better hand/eye coordination.
Indoor Hitting Drills From Larry Shay
Genesee County Softball Exposure Camp
We have developed a indoor program with stations for our hitters. This project took some time and energy and was only developed because we couldn't get our batting cage put up until March and we didn't want the girls to wait until spring to begin swinging. We even tried to rent an inside swing facility but at 150.00 an hour it was a little steep. We turned a negative into a positive and are holding two clinics a week. One for varsity and the other for middle school and J.V. swingers. This all takes place in a elementary gym, which is 35 feet by 55 feet. We were pretty imaginitive and use space wisely. We have 5 stations in the gym and 2 stations in the hallway. The girls keep coming back and they are already swinging like its mid-season. We are currently working on a short compact swing. I can help you in the developing of these stations and you can apply your own batting styles. These stations are thrown together with some things we got in the training closet and some things we had laying aroundthe house. The total cost was about 25.00 for 5 stations. We used some old balls, bungy cords, milk jugs, mini-tramps, woodendowels and some old hitting tees.
#1. Step and wait: From Mark Wilkinson Hamilton Southeastern H.S. This drill uses partners and soft toss. As a high school coach, I have a problem with girls striding early and transferring their weight to their front foot before they swing. The feeder says "step" and the hitter strides and keeps her weight back. after a short pause the feeder tosses the ball and the hitter swings. This separates the stride and the swing and allows a girl to understand that her weight can stay back when she strides. The hitter is allowed to shift her weight to her front foot with the swing.
#2. Fake out This is the same as the step and wait except the feeder says nothing. The feeder fakes the toss to make sure the hitter is not transferring weight too early. After a couple of fakes, she feeds the ball. It is the feeder's responsibility to coach the hitter about keeping her weight back. This gets to be a contest with the girls. Mark Wilkinson Hitting Coach Hamilton Southeastern High School Fishers,IN coachwilk@iquest.net
1) Conditioning: This is a variation of the right to left shuffle, instead of 1 player standing and doing all the rolling while the other shuffles, both players, standing 10-15 feet apart shuffle clockwise in a circular pattern maintaining the 10-15' diameter. Roll a ball to the other, leading them slightly. Can use 1 or 2 balls at a time. Can use bare hands, a fielders board or glove. Reverse directions after 30 sec or so. This drill conditions the legs and practices ground ball fundamentals.
2) Fun and games: 2 teams lined up 50' apart and 50-60' from coach hitting grounders using 7-10 balls. Each team has their
own coach hitting grounders with same # of balls. 5 gal bucket set half way between coach and players about 20' off to side.
Hit grounder, player return ball to bucket, then goes to end of line. If you boot the ball, must run it down, this is a race. When all
balls are used by coach, hustle to dump the balls back at coaches feet and return bucket to spot. Go through several buckets.
Whichever team finishes the prescribed # of buckets first, and returns last empty bucket to the spot, wins! Submitted by Jim
Chain, 16U 'SPORTS STOP' team from the Greater Stark County Fastpitch organization in NE Ohio.
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Hit The Bouncing Ball: Last weekend, I went to a coaches clinic and heard Ralph Weekly, Head Coach at University of Tennessee-Chattanooga and Assistant Olympic Coach say that he and Mike Candrea, University of Arizona Head Coach, agree that this is their favorite hitting drill: Bounce Toss - The tosser bounces a tennis ball to the specific contact point and the hitter hits it into the net. When the tosser releases the ball, the batter does the loading (i.e., slight inward turn of front shoulder and front knee) as they would when the pitcher begins her windup.