Soft toss question for young players

[bluefan89]

Hey:


I am wanting to break my coach pitch team into 3-4 stations at upcoming practices.


With using soft toss with this group age (7-9) what ype of "ball" would you suggest using real baseball (could be dangerous for mis hit balls), tennis balls, wifflle balls, etc.

Could anyone share a few stations that they use in their pratices that work for players? I have read some of the sites on the web on drills, but would like to hear about tried and tested ones?

Thanks

[Ursa Major]

Don't you guys use some kind of 'soft' ball in games? Two of the most prominent are "Soft Strike" balls and "Incrediballs". Very soft but baseball sized. They're a little lighter than real balls, so they tend to bounce out of fielders' gloves.

Other balls you can use are wiffles, wiffle golf balls (promote focus because they're smaller), and pickle balls, which are like light rubber balls, but don't travel quite so far.

As far as drills, I like working on a hierarchy of practice, from dry swings to tee work to soft toss to wiffles to real BP. But, at that age, I wouldn't have everyone work through the same progression. Kids will be at different stages, so you should assess what each one needs to work on and construct a drill accordingly. Hopefully you can draft parents to come out and do that drill with that kid.

But make it fun. One thing you sometimes need to impress upon kids is that hitting isn't just making contact with the ball -- sometimes you just have to try to smack the snot outta the ball to get your load and rhythm down. One of our best 9-10 y/o drills came when a shrewd dad/coach showed up with a big plastic club bat -- you know, the ones that are about 20" long and have a barrel that's six inches across. He threw soft toss with wiffles and had a casual contest to see who could hit the ball the farthest. Not having to worry about making contact allow the kids to just whomp on the ball, and they had a ton of fun.

[Baseball gLove]

My 8 year old is in an 8U division. We use regular baseballs. Proper soft toss: I toss from about 30 degrees in front of the batter, show the batter the ball, toss it somewhat firmly toward the batter's front hip. We run 3 stations for hitting. 1st hit off the T, 2nd soft toss, then live pitch, repeat. Through 4 games my slowpoke son has 2 doubles, 7 RBI's and is batting .500. He should have 3 doubles, but stretched one hit to the right center fence to a single. I said he is a slow runner.

[bluefan89]

Sounds like good advice.

I like the idea of breaking them into groups according to ability, some of the 7 yr. olds are well below the ability of the 8 yr. olds. in batting and fielding.

So I guess the real baseball can be used, just didn't know if it would be as good as say some of the other types of "balls". The idea of using the golf wiffles so that they focus on contact is a good idea.

So say in the 12 man roster, break them in to groups of 4......while 4 of them are practicing soft toss, should the other groups either be doing fielding drills, and basework?

We only have one small field to practice on so I guess the fielding and base runners can work the infield part of the field together?

Any other suggestions on soft toss or practice activities, please let us know.

Thanks

[callyjr]

So say in the 12 man roster, break them in to groups of 4......while 4 of them are practicing soft toss, should the other groups either be doing fielding drills, and basework?

Any other suggestions on soft toss or practice activities, please let us know.

Thanks

We have 3 stations with 3 or 4 kids each, we have one station hitting baseballs, each kid gets 7 balls(good or bad) the 7th ball the kid runs to 1st base, next kid is up. It goes fast, we go through 4 times, the kid that hit the balls goes and picks up his balls after running to base. Station 2 is wiffles, front toss from 10 feet or so. each kid gets 10 balls and the next kid is up, its the other kids job to make sure I have balls to throw so they are all doing something. 3rd station we have an outfield 3 ball drill going.

Most kids are getting 30 or 40 swings at the wiffles and 28 swings at the hard balls, thats better then the normal 10 or 20 most coaches give a kid. Then we usually will have some sort of scrimmage every couple practices or so, so they get a few more swings then.

[jbolt_2000]

I coach a group of 9-10 y/o with two 11 y/o kids (they didn't make the cut to majors).

We are finishing up our 4th week of practice. We started the season with stations like others said. I think this is best in the beginning especially since it keeps kids moving and not standing in line for more than a minute or two.

I have 14 kids on my roster and I try to break them up into 3 stations (maybe 4 if I have another coach to help). They rotate stations every 10 minutes. I start with soft toss into a net with real baseballs. With soft toss they wont get hurt from a real baseball. You are tossing it about as hard as you would to a 2 year old, and in front of the batter's front hip (this is where they would normally hit the ball from a pitch). This drill works on their timing and loading/exploding. If I dont have a net, then I have them hit wiffle balls or tennis balls into the fence (never use real balls for hitting into a fence). The kids like the tennis balls because they sometimes get stuck and it becomes a competition of who can do it the most, plus it still accomplises the meaning of the drill.

The next drill I do is tee work to again work on loading/exploding and folling through with the swing. This is good because you dont have to focus on throwing the ball, so you can use your attention to work on mechanics with the batter.

The third drill is my swiftstik using golf ball wiffle balls. This is for focusing on hand eye coordination. Seeing smaller balls with a smaller bat while still using a normal swing. I like this one alot too, because the kids compete to see who could hit the wiffle ball the farthest.

I also use a tool called the Hit'N'Stick. This is just a long pole with a plastic ball thing on the end and the kids it while you old the other end. This is good especially before games because a kid can get 30 swings in just a couple of minutes. You dont have to go chase down or collect balls and you are right there to help them on their mechanics. This kids like this one too because you can really feel when you get a good hit.

The other thing I do is before we get into live hitting/fielding. I will have them play a game of soft toss baseball. So we field the entire defense and I soft toss the ball to the batter. The get about 3-5 hits and on the last one they run it out while the defense tries to get them out. This is good because again you are working on the mechanics of the batter and the defense is working on fielding. The defense gets alot of work in because most of the batters hit the ball everytime. Its not like live pitching where you throw 15 pitches and the batter hits two of them. Bottom line - it keeps everyone moving. And at this age and at 7-9 y/o it is important to keep them moving.

[Baseball gLove]

Sounds like good advice.

I like the idea of breaking them into groups according to ability, some of the 7 yr. olds are well below the ability of the 8 yr. olds. in batting and fielding.

So I guess the real baseball can be used, just didn't know if it would be as good as say some of the other types of "balls". The idea of using the golf wiffles so that they focus on contact is a good idea.

So say in the 12 man roster, break them in to groups of 4......while 4 of them are practicing soft toss, should the other groups either be doing fielding drills, and basework?

We only have one small field to practice on so I guess the fielding and base runners can work the infield part of the field together?

Any other suggestions on soft toss or practice activities, please let us know.

Thanks

We don't break them into groups by ability. The kids' hitting has progressed very rapidly. The team manager (who had been preaching squish the bug) was very surprised at the progress of the kids.

One of kids on the team is a lefty with zero previous baseball experience. I had him getting his foot down at release, short and inside the ball and had him using his body to swing the bat. He was starting to drive the ball nicely. The problem is that the dad, decided he wanted his son to hit the ball like my son, so he was having his son reach way back, arm swinging and wrapping the bat (my son doesn't do these things) , virtually destroying his new mechanics. I had the kid back to short to the ball, long through the ball at the last practice. I need to have a chat with his dad.

My son had developed a slight case of homerun-itis and had started to drop his back shoulder. I had it on tape so I was able to show him which swing has more power. He was back to hitting linedrives at the last practice. If only he could run faster.

[bluefan89]

I coach a group of 9-10 y/o with two 11 y/o kids (they didn't make the cut to majors).

We are finishing up our 4th week of practice. We started the season with stations like others said. I think this is best in the beginning especially since it keeps kids moving and not standing in line for more than a minute or two.

The other thing I do is before we get into live hitting/fielding. I will have them play a game of soft toss baseball. So we field the entire defense and I soft toss the ball to the batter. The get about 3-5 hits and on the last one they run it out while the defense tries to get them out. This is good because again you are working on the mechanics of the batter and the defense is working on fielding. The defense gets alot of work in because most of the batters hit the ball everytime. Its not like live pitching where you throw 15 pitches and the batter hits two of them. Bottom line - it keeps everyone moving. And at this age and at 7-9 y/o it is important to keep them moving.

Good stuff Jbolt and others.

I have to get some wiffles but have lots of tennis balls may do that soft toss with fence this weekend (need to get net).

I have the hitting stick for softball and have used it with my daughter.....guess it would work for baseball...just a little bigger target for them to hit.


So the only fielding to work on stopping balls and catching flies is when you have the soft toss station with live batting?

We have some that are pitiful fielders so I might have to do a little more fielding with these guys.


Thanks and more opinions and plans are appreciated.

[jbolt_2000]

So the only fielding to work on stopping balls and catching flies is when you have the soft toss station with live batting?

We have some that are pitiful fielders so I might have to do a little more fielding with these guys.

No this is not the only fielding work they get, by far! We still have plenty of defense work throughout the practices. But during hitting practice it helps the defense get into "live" play. And it keeps kids from standing around, waiting their turn.

The thing is, if I pitch to my kids (or have a kid pitch) they maybe hit 2-5 balls out of 15 pitches (some are more but this is pretty average). This means that if its just hitting, then I have 13 other kids just standing around doing nothing or goofing off. There isn't that much room where we practice to have live hitting and other drills, so when its live hitting thats all we can do.

So instead of standing around I put them on defense. Now, again, if its live pitching they hit 15%-30% of the time, so the defense is still sitting, doing nothing for 70%-85% of the time. Now if I switch this to soft toss-live hitting, then the kids hit 80%-100% of the balls which means that the defense is fielding as many balls.

This is only on occasion though. We usually stick to drill work and then move to live situations. What I mean by that is, everyone does hitting drills until time is up, then I have 9 fielders on defense and 5 kids ready to hit. Either I pitch to them or they pitch to each other (our level is kid pitch). The hitters will get to either hit, walk or strike out (I try to make it as real as possible). This also prevents the defense from getting bored, since it puts runners on base to watch. If they strike out, they get to the end of the line of 5 and hit again. We usually try to get a fast rotation in their so that everyone gets at least 2 at bats (exluding strike outs or walks).

Aside from that, if not all of my players are at practice, say I only have 9 kids. Then we go with live hitting, 15-20 pitches each and run it out every hit. One kid goes up to bat while another is on deck, and the rest on defense. If I dont have enough players to field the defense than the idea is to leave first base open and the players have to throw to me (the pitcher) to get the out. With fewer kids, this can go real fast. I dont like throwing 15-20 pitches to kids with a full roster as it takes way to long, kids get bored, and not everyone gets to hit more than once in a session.


But to answer your question about defense - we still LOTS of defense work outside of hitting practice.

[bluefan89]

Got ya Jbolt......


We have like 90 minutes for each practice 2x a week before season starts.

So can some of you that have done this a bunch check out my practice.

While everyone is coming in I have players short toss to a partner. Then we do a little run around the field to get the blood pumping.

We come in to together and divide up into (3 groups if all show up)

Group of 4's

1st group goes to outfield where coach rolls or hits balls to each outfielder they then throw to relay person and relay to coach.

2nd group works on soft toss into net or fence (wiffles or tennis balls)

3rd group works on base work with coach hitting to infielders and making the correct throw to base (coach says runner on first then hits to short stop...etc)


These stations go for 15 minutes and rotate so I think that is 45 minutes (probably close to hour with those having to get gloves, bats etc)

Then we do a session where coach pitches live or soft toss to (2 players in dugout) other 9 in fielding position. Go thru game type scrimmage with runners etc. 5 pitches max. each.


After all have batted end of practice compliment and make announcements about next practice?



Well how bad does this sound.....please make corrections or repremand me however you think it is needed.


Thanks

[Jesse]

We use rag balls. Just take some old rags (socks work well), roll them up, and wrap them with masking tape. These are good because they don't bounce around if using indoors.

[bluefan89]

We use rag balls. Just take some old rags (socks work well), roll them up, and wrap them with masking tape. These are good because they don't bounce around if using indoors.

Sounds like that would be a good idea.....we used tennis balls today for practice into the fence....many sailed over the fence but it worked o.k.