— Baseball is a Game of Movement —
Overview - Practice Plans
The Practice Plans in this section are designed for the ages 11-12 and 9-11 levels of play.
These can also be used for the ‘First Year Player Pitch’ level.*
The full series of practices follows a step-by-step process for training all aspects of team play up through First & Third Defense and Bunt Defense.
The development of the Batting Swing and Pitching Delivery are sewn into each practice.
Batting & Pitching instruction points are in the ‘Playing Catch Practice’ (beginning in Practice #2). Description and training of the Batting Swing is covered in the Batting section (the Pitching section will be added soon).
* For the ‘First Year Player Pitch' level a coach will likely slow down the pace of progression. Just check off what you did and did not cover in a practice and pick up where you left off.
A coach may want to adjust the Skill Building Warm-Up content to stay consistent with the content covered in the previous practice(s).
As we move through the series of plans, some of the drills in the Skill Building Warm-Up reinforces the previous practice’s content.
(Coach/Machine Pitch, and Tee-Ball will be added. In the meantime, much of the content can be applied to younger levels.)
Day 1 address foundational pieces. Beginning with Day 2 we settle into the standard practice format (see the ‘Plan Template’ page)
Days 1-3 appear to have more content than the remaining plans; not more to cover during a practice, but more detail in the descriptions of the content. These first days address much of the concepts that the rest of the season’s teaching will build off of.
Slipping in a ‘Day 3b’ might be a good move, to be sure the kids run though all the content of the first three days.
Days 2-4 introduce the three ‘Skills’ routines that conclude Playing Catch Practice:
Replaying the Ball
Relay Footwork
Catch, Tag, Power Position
These pieces come up often each practice/game. Being disciplined about including these each practice will have your kids playing stellar baseball later in the year. People watching will notice.
by Day 6 or 7 players and coaches become familiar with the routine of the practices and the flow practices improves quite a bit.