Youth baseball is about teaching players the fundamentals of the game. Learning to hit, pitch, field and throw is far more important than winning the game. When coaching youngsters the game of baseball, you should give them drills that will help them become players and explain the reasoning behind using these drills.
1-2-3 Drill
In this drill, each fielder will get three ground balls. The fielder will pick up the grounder and throw the ball to first base. He will throw the second ball to second, as if to get the runner at second base on a force play. On the third ball, the fielder will pick up the ground ball and throw it home to get the runner at the plate. This will help young fielders get used to fielding ground balls and throwing it to different spots on the field and doing it with confidence.
Up The Middle Drill
In this drill, the batter tries to hit the ball up the middle. The importance behind this is that it teaches the hitter to wait on the ball and then drive it up the middle. A hitter becomes much more versatile when he can hit the ball to all fields and not just pull the ball. Place an L-screen in front of the pitcher's mound. The pitcher throws 10 pitches to each batter during batting practice. The hitter's goal is to hit the screen with a line drive. If he does, he gets 10 points. If he hits it with a ground ball he gets two points. The hitter who accumulates the most points after 10 swings wins the drill.
On The Run and Throw
This drill is for outfielders and it teaches them the importance of throwing the ball after they make a pick up of a ground ball or after they catch a fly ball. Many youth or midget league baseball players hold on to the ball because they are unaware of where the ball should go next. Before bringing your players out to center field, make sure they know that that they must fire the ball to second base on a base hit or try to get the runner at third if there had been a runner on first. You don't tell them where to throw as the drill is in progress. You tell them ahead of time. Hit each fielder five ground balls. On the first they will throw to second base, on the second they will throw to third base and on the third they will throw home. On the fourth and fifth balls, you will put runners on base and the outfielder will have to decide on his own before he throws the ball. This drill is about catching, throwing and learning to make the correct decision
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