Setting up a baseball practice plan for your baseball or softball team is the first step to having a successful year.
A little planning and prep on the front end will pay HUGE dividends as your year progresses.
Remember, kids thrive with routine and I have seen it first hand how much more efficient our teams practice when we follow a similar process day after day.
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So, WHY is it important to have a practice plan?
- Organization – for you, your coaches and your athletes. Your coaches and athletes will know what to expect when they show up to the field, they will be more engaged if they know the game plan.
- Practice flow – If you spend time thinking about how your practice will flow from one drill to the next, often times you will find areas to cut out, or add to fill gaps. Knowing how to flow from one drill to the next, and where to insert water breaks is key
- FUN FUN FUN – Having a plan ahead of time makes sure you are maximizing your time on the field, moving quickly from station to station. This will make your practice more enjoyable for everyone!
How do I set up a practice plan?
Setting up a practice plan is fairly easy. Follow these steps for a successful plan.
- INTRODUCTIONS I always liked to start off practice having the kids introduce themselves and answer a random question like “what is your favorite animal’. This is a great team building opportunity and helps the coaches learn the kids names! I’d also use this time to remind the kids of our 3 rules. RESPECT THE GAME, WORK HARD, and HAVE FUN.
- WARM UPS I always kept my warm up pretty simple and the consistent. Each day we all knew what the warm up was. Consistency is key. We would always run the outfield in the straight line, meet at some cones set out and did the same stretches each time. Warm ups was a great way for the kids to stretch out their muscles to avoid injury.
- DRILLS This time is used to make sure the kids are developing in their craft. I like to break the kids into 3 smaller groups. Sometimes its good to keep the kids with similar talent together so they can push themselves. Sometimes its a good idea to mix up the talent, so the kids who are better can help teach the kids that are performing at a lower level. Having smaller groups helps keep the kids attention longer and helps make sure you dont have kids standing around.
- TEAM DRILL Usually we end practice running the bases as a team. As the year progresses we may have time to scrimmage. The end of practice should be used to bring the team back together for an activity that involves everyone.
- TEAM MEETING Always end practice with a brief team meeting. Make sure everyone had a good time, and remind the team what they worked out today. Usually there are some things the kids can do at home to practice the skills they learned that day. Make sure they practice and home, and ask them the next practice who did the drills? This would also be a good time to call out any kid who performed well at practice that day. I would hand out a baseball card to the kids who stood out, to recognize their hard work
Example of a practice plan
See below for an example of a practice plan.
Practice Schedule
515-520 START TIME
Name, Favorite animal
3 rules
- Respect the game
- Hard Work
- Have Fun!
520-530 WARM UP
Run, stretch, catch, ground balls
WATER BREAK
530-600 Drills
- Station 1 Coach Scott – Infield
- Station 2 Coach Jeff – Batting whiffle balls
- Station 3 Coach Ron – Batting off the tee
- Group 1 – Lucas B, Niko, Julian, Shane
- Group 2 – Anthony, Logan, Nolan, RJ
- Group 3 – Jack, Ethan P, Ethan F, Lucas S
WATER BREAK
600-615 BASE RUNNING
STATION TO STATION
What should a good practice plan include?
The practice plan above was very detailed and included some very specific things. First, notice the time. Timing in the practice plan is important to make sure we were on schedule, and started and ended on time. If you want some additional ideas, check out this article for some other baseball practice plan ideas
Also, notice how each kid was assigned to a group, and each coach had a specific task for the drill they were teaching that day. Planning these details out ahead of time really helps make the flow of the practice work seamlessly.
Notice how water breaks were added to the practice plan. If you don’t plan water breaks in, you will have kids asking for water randomly through the practice which really hurts the overall flow.
Baseball Practice Plan Conclusion
Remember coaches… Baseball and Softball are supposed to be FUN. Make sure you schedule in some games and friendly competition during your practice. Kids and parents want to learn the fundamentals of softball and baseball, but it will go in one ear and out the other if they aren’t having a good time.
Be lively, make sure your practice plan is set and you know what you’re doing that day. Make sure your coaches are aware of what practice is going to look like and if you have players that can read, post the practice plan so the kids know what to expect.
Proper Planning Prevents Poor Procedures. The more you plan ahead of time, the smoother your practice will go, and the more fun you and your players will have!
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