Need help on practice plan. 8u

[hitwithwood]

We have a solid group of 7 8 year olds that have been taught the fundamentals of baseball and have played some competitive Florida baseball. I would really like to expand my practice plan and focus more on stations and being more efficient with our time. ny suggestions with drills are welcomed. We emphasize alot on defensive drills

Here are a few things I would like to work more on.

Baserunning drills - breaking down at first, hitting the bag in proper positions, rounding the bag and knowing the ball is, picking up 3rd base coach,

Feet and hands for third, short and 2nd base tags.

Double play drills and having the proper approach and feet and hands. Sliding across bag at short

Pop fly and cut off drills. Any good suggestions?

Catcher drills, blocking baseball properly, etc

Short hop fielding drills

Good station drills for hitting?


Looking a runner down before a throw

[bryan2137]

Pop fly and cut off drills. Any good suggestions?

I like to hit a ground ball to them at 3rd, they throw it to a catcher at home. they take off sprinting towards a cone i have in shallow left center/deep short and i hit them a fly ball. Catch it and throw it to a cut off man around the 1st base area. Then they rotate to the end of the line at 1st to be the cutoff man, the cutoff man comes to home to be catcher and catcher goes to the end of the line at 3rd

Short hop fielding drills

I have a number of drills i do for this, the kids have 2 favorites. They play against each other throwing against a wall with a tennis ball trying to bounce it by their opponent. the 2nd one is done in the middle of the outfield. 2 teams on each side. I run some cones to create a square as well as 2 cone lines down the middle about 20 feet apart. The kids are about 50 feet away from each other. Team 1 throws a ball (soft ball until you're comfortable they wont get hurt) at the other team. it has to bounce beyond the cone line and cant go out of bounds. Team 2 fields it and throws it back. If a ball gets by the opposing team closest player to the ball is out until next game.

These might not be the best drills/games for the kids, but they like them a lot and will do tons of reps and always ask to play them, so thats really all i care about. Doing something they have fun with

[hitwithwood]

Thanks Bryan, I appreciate it.