U10 BP-Practice Format

[va4man]

here is the setup:

four players at the hitting stations: 2 on T, one in the box and one on the bases (sit running)

four INF's taking fungos; one hopping it back to the coach

three OF's shagging balls and tossing back to bucket at second; one catcher behind plate to work on being a catcher

The INF would let the ball through and only field the fungos. OF's do all of the shagging. Pitcher makes sure there is enough lag inbetween pitches for safety.

rotate thm as needed.

would that be to caotic for 9 and 10 year olds? I ask before I try since I have limited practice time and do not want to waste it on a bad format.

thanks for the input.

[UAME]

I've tried some similar formats, but for me the safety aspect makes the setup too inefficient for this age group. When a batter is hitting live, you have to make sure that all defensive players are focused at the plate. Otherwise, you'll get a kid daydreaming / watching the fungo coach who takes a line drive from the BP batter.

This is how I typically do it:

Defensive work starts as positional drills immediately after warmup throwing. (OF, IF, P, C) I usually have 2 assistants helping me, so we'll alternate combining these 4 groups into 3 (one for each coach.) Some days, pitchers/catchers work together, some days pitchers/IF work on bunt coverage & pop-ups, etc. After about 10-15 min. of positional work, we come together and work on team defense. I have the pitcher throw a pitch to the catcher (forcing defense to take their steps, achieve "ready" position at contact), then I hit a fungo from the batter's box. Following adequate group work, I'll convert defenders to baserunners and work on specific situations.

Second portion of practice will be hitting stations, usually 4 locations: one coach/drill in OF down LF line, another coach in OF down RF line, a BP station at home plate while one group works shag for the BP pitcher/coach. This set up really keeps the kids moving. There are usually only 2-3 kids per group = lots of swing reps at each station, plus 2 shaggers really have to stay on the hop to keep the balls picked up.

We always close with about 5 minutes of baserunning / working on our offensive signs.

Grade yourself: If you can't get a team of 10-12 players sufficiently repped in 60 minutes, you've got too much wasted time in your format. Don't fall into the trap that just because you (the coach) feel busy / rushed that the players are constantly getting worked. On occassion, have another parent / coach / observer count how many rep's each player gets and ask yourself: "Is that a sufficient number to expect improvment?"