8 Fun Baseball Drills

To become better as a baseball player, you need to work outside of team practices and games. These fun baseball drills allow your player to get the reps they need to continue to improve while using game challenges to help the player understand their proficiency at a certain skill. Use these fun drills as a way of getting in more work doing baseball drills at home.

Infield

Five grounders in a row

Five Grounders In A Row is a quick grounder drill used to reinforce good glove/receiving habits. Start your player in a strong fielding position and you are directly in front of him about 12’-15’. Roll 5 grounders in rapid succession at your player, allowing for him to field the first one and discard to the throwing hand side then immediately receiving the second and so on up to 5 grounders. Since the grounders will come fast, it is important not to make the player move to field them, you are just working on glove work. Pay attention to form here with the glove and throwing hand securing the ball.

Try 4 rounds of 5 keeping score.

Outfield

Wide receiver

One of the most fun drills kids will ever do is the Wide Receiver Drill. It may sound simple, but kids absolutely love this and it’s a great skill builder (It’s also fun for the thrower!). You are the quarterback and your player(s) are to your right about 20’. They run a post pattern, which means they run straight ahead for about 20’-25’, then break left at a 45 degree angle left. You throw them the ball after they make their break left and they have to run and catch it. Then switch sides and start them from the left and the run the post to the right. Simple. Throw underhand to start with to get some loft under the ball and switch to overhand for full speed drill.

Try 5-10 reps at each side.

Variations:

For younger kids:  Use wiffle balls or tennis balls and have them catch bare handed. Something soft or light so if they miss a catch, they won’t get hurt.

For more advanced kids:  Throw the ball a bit harder and make it a line drive. If done on a grass field, kids will want you to make them dive for it.


Hitting

Line drive derby

Line Drive Derby is seeing how many line drives your hitter can hit consecutively. Work in groups of 5 pitch sequences, how many line drives can your hitter hit out of 5 pitches. Pitches can be whiffles, underhand front toss, in a cage, in your backyard, overhand, etc.

Wiffle tee home run derby

Find a spot where your player can visually see where he needs to hit the ball to, realistically. Place a tee relative to that spot to challenge him at that distance.

Try 3-5 reps for each player per at bat. If they get a streak going, let them keep going!

Pitching

Pitchers ladder

Mechanics aside, just throwing the ball and trying to hit a target for kids can be helpful. The Pitcher’s Ladder consists of throwing to a target at varying increasing distances. If you are able as a parent to squat down in a catcher’s stance, start your player out close, 30’ (depending on age, you may want to start closer or move back further). You can pace this off with 10 strides. Then move back to 36’. Then move back to 42’. Then move back to 48’. Then end at 54’. This can even be done standing as the receiver, as long as your player has a target (your glove).

You will find that when players play catch, they tend to be more “Free and easy” with their throws. When they have to hit a target, they tend to tense up more and “Aim” the ball rather than throwing it. This drill will help them get a better feel for how they need to pitch in game situations.

Play catch to warm up

30’ - 5 throws

36’ - 5 throws

42’ - 5 throws

48’ - 5 throws

54’ - 5 throws

The better they get, begin to keep track of how many times at each distance they can hit the target. Add or subtract distances based on performance.

Catcher

5 tennis balls

The 5 Tennis Ball Catching Drill is throwing 5 tennis balls in rapid succession to your catcher. Start your catcher in his stance and he simply catches the ball and drops it immediately straight down, then receives the next throw, up to 5. This sounds simple, but catching a tennis ball in a catcher’s glove is not the easiest task. They are very bouncy and the catcher must be able to squeeze the ball at the proper moment to secure the catch. There is your positive reinforcement. This can also be done with real baseballs at the older levels, but for teaching purposes at the youth level, this is an excellent drill.

Try 4 rounds of 5 keeping score.

First base

3 high 3 dirt

First off, make sure 1st baseman is stretching to the ball with the proper foot on the bag. For righties, it’s the right foot on the front part of the bag. For lefties, it’s the left foot on the front part of the bag. First priority for 1st basemen is to catch the ball. See the ball flight first, then step to the ball, keeping rear foot on the bag.

Throw 3 balls high, then 3 balls in the dirt (making sure to keep the balls away from 1st baseman’s body). When throwing balls in the dirt, try and make them a short hop to catch, they are easier to catch. Stress the need to anticipate a bad throw. For more advanced training, you can lengthen the hops or throw the short hops directly at the 1st baseman.

Source URL: http://www.baseballzone.com/fun-baseball-drills

Baseball was Rocky Marciano’s first love

Before he discovered boxing, Marciano had dreams of being a professional baseball player.

He was a typical youngster during the 1930s, spending countless hours with friends playing baseball and football.

Before Rocky Marciano embarked on a legendary boxing career, he was a well rounded athlete who took full advantage of living on Dover Street, which is close to Edgar Playground.

Being the undefeated heavyweight championship with a 49-0 record is what Marciano will always be remembered as, but his introduction to sports came on the baseball diamond.

Whether he was playing for an American Legion or a CYO team, Marciano was one of the top young players during his early days in Brockton.

 So devoted to baseball was Marciano that he drove to Fayetteville, N.C., in 1947 to try out for a minor league team affiliated with the Chicago Cubs.

When Marciano didn’t make the cut following his discharge from the Army, he went back home to Brockton and started on the path of a boxing career that brought him to the top of the sport.

 “He was always a long-ball hitter with a very weak arm’’ said younger brother Peter Marciano. “He had good mechanics, but he couldn’t throw at all.

 “How ironic: The same right arm that was so powerful for him to knock out all those fighters was too weak for baseball.’’

 Marciano was joined by a few friends from Brockton for the springtime trip to North Carolina where they all made a bid to join the Cubs’ organization.

It was about a month into his stay that Marciano learned he was not good enough for the minor leagues, and he eventually returned home.

“He didn’t have a great arm, but he could hit the ball a mile,’’ said Marciano’s brother-in-law, Armond Colombo. “He was very slow of speed and that held him back. He was a better-than-average baseball player, though.’’

Marciano was a starter for the Brockton High School football team during his sophomore year, playing center and linebacker for a team that is now nicknamed the Boxers in his honor.

According to the book, “Rocky Marciano: The Rock Of His Times,’’ by Russell Sullivan, Marciano was one of the top players as a sophomore in 1940.

“He was only a sophomore, but he played nearly sixty minutes a game all season,’’ coach Charlie Holden is quoted as saying. “He was a rough, tough, powerful kid of about 155 pounds who never got tired and never got hurt.’’

One of the top plays made by Marciano that season, according to the book, was a 65-yard touchdown he scored after intercepting a pass against New Bedford High School.

That season would be the end of Marciano’s football career, though, as he left school during his sophomore year and went to work.

 Marciano kept playing baseball around in the city and got a taste of boxing when he was in the Army.

“He made the statement one day that if you win a fight, you got a weekend pass,’’ said Peter Marciano. “He wins by knockout in the first round, and every week, he got a pass and he kept winning to get passes. That was his motivation.’’

That was the foundation for a boxing career that would be one for the ages. It was a sport that Marciano had little to do with before joining the Army as he was happier to be on a baseball field in Brockton.

“He never thought of becoming a fighter, never talked about it,’’ said friend Nick Sylvester, who lived in the same neighborhood. “He never gave any indication about it.’’

Baseball’s loss, though, became boxing’s gain, and Rocky Marciano went from being a catcher behind the plate to an expert thrower of punches.

Source: http://www.enterprisenews.com/article/20110611/News/306119858

10 Best Speed and Agility Cone Drills

Speed and agility training drills are designed to work all your leg and core muscles, as well as the tendons in your body.  It is important to train at a level that is equal to your game intensity to help increase your performance and to minimize injury. Cone drills build leg strength and explosion on their one, but it is your intensity and rep scheme that will change the work load.


X-Drill
The X-Drill works multiple sports postures; change of direction, change of footwork and change of angle.

123 Back
This is a reaction drill that you can do with a training partner or coach.  The goal is to react with speed and sprint to the correct cone.  You have to think and accelerate, this is a great way to simulate the defensive aspect of sports.  The video shows how to set up the drill and how to perform it.

3 Cone / L-Drill
The 3 Cone or "L-Drill" is one of the most popular combine drills used to measure speed and agility.  This drill requires multiple changes of direction in a small space.  For more info, check our blog on the in depth instructions on this drill here.

Pro Agility Shuttle
Also known as the 5-10-5, this is the most popular combine drill used to measure quickness and agility.  This drill require 3 cones, with a series of complete changes of direction.  See our in depth technique training on this drill here.

Run-Shuffle-Run
The ability to transition in and out of a lateral shuffle is very important in sports like baseball, tennis, basketball and football.  This drill works on getting in and out of this position with speed.

Cone Alley v.1
There are three versions of cone alley, all with the same cone set up.  The first version works on getting in and out of the back pedal with a slight angle.

Cone Alley v. 2
Version 2 of cone alley adds a hip rotation by cutting in and out of a cross over.  All three versions of Cone Alley work great with the OverSpeed Trainer 360 for added training.

Cone Alley v.3
Version 3 of cone alley adds a lateral shuffle to a spring and crossover run.  This is a highly dynamic drill for all sports.

Staggered Shuttle
The staggered shuttle is an abbreviated version of the pro agility shuttle.  This is a quick change of direction that forces you to get your footwork set into a powerful position.

Run-Shuffle-Shuffle-Run
A shorter version of Run-Shuffle-Run, you are working on changing direction with a lateral shuffle.  This is another great drill for defensive players and has added training effectiveness when used with the OverSpeed 360 Training Cable.

Source: http://www.kingsportstraining.com/blogs/training-blog/8269753-10-best-speed-and-agility-cone-drills

Teach Your Child to Think Like an Olympic Athlete

The Olympics are magical and inspiring. We watch with amazement the unparalleled feats of human agility, grace, strength, and beauty. We know that those athletes live in a different stratosphere from our world, but what do our children think when they see these phenomenal human beings being cheered by the world, receiving medals and thunderous applause, only to get frustrated when they can’t perform like that in their own sports? 

As an anxiety therapist who works with children struggling with sports performance and perfectionism—there is so much our kids can learn about their own lives from the Olympics. Our children can wish for the super-human talent, the near perfect skills—those may be out of reach—but what is absolutely in your child’s grasp, where the level playing field truly lies, is in the mindset of an Olympian.

That mindset is the gateway to their great success.

Are Olympians immune to thoughts of doubt, dread, self-criticism, pressure, and perfectionism? No, these superstars have the same thoughts that we hear in our mini-vans driving our own kids home from sports, and that I hear from kids in my office each week. The difference between the giants and mere mortals is not the thoughts; the difference is what professional athletes train themselves to do with these thoughts. In sports, managing the mind is as important as managing the body. Practicing mind-management yields what United States figure skater Jeremy Abbott describes as “mental toughness.” I think of it as mental agility—being flexible in your mind to put your focus where you need it most.

It is just that toughness that allows Olympic athletes to tune out the billions of admiring viewers and the pressure of representing their country to the world, and keep eagle-eye focused on the task at hand. Cultivating the mindset that allows that focus is a true feat that athletes of all ability levels can strive for—and achieve. Here are eight ideas to get your child started:

1.    Don’t think success or failure, think growth: Psychologist Carol Dweck distinguishes between a fixed mindset (focused on proving oneself constantly—each moment proving worth or lack thereof) versus a growth mindset (focused on improving, with the understanding that improvement is constantly underway through practice and even mistakes). Successful Olympians have a growth mindset. If you notice, there is a lot of similarity between the way they respond in those on-the-spot interviews whether they’ve just set a world record, a personal best, or missed the mark: they stay close to the specifics of their performance. They focus on what they were working on form-wise, strategy-wise, or their technique. They understand that moment was one data point in an ongoing (wonderful) work in progress. Teach your child to focus on the big picture of improving, not over-interpreting the importance of any one game or meet. This way he can focus on his game, rather than getting derailed by the constant pressure of proving himself with every move.

2.    Think trends and outliers: We all prefer to succeed; we don’t love losing. When our favorite figure skater falls (though as we saw in the men’s figure skating, you can still win gold!), we know that the falls are an exception—they fall outside the “trend” line of what is typical for a person’s performance. Help your child distinguish between what is typical for her and what is rare, or an exception. She may be able to learn from her mistakes or outliers, but shouldn’t assume or conclude that these low moments are somehow the truer marker of her ability. A bonus: Keeping the meaning of these outliers small is exactly what allows athletes to recover from them quickly, without missing a beat.

3.    Don’t fall for the trap door trick of losing talent: When kids understand about trends and outliers they are less likely to fall for what I call the “trap door trick of losing talent or ability.” Inevitably when children mess up, they don’t look at the specific cause, they go global: I’m stupid, I stink, I’m an awful player.  It’s as if a trap door opens up underneath them and all the talent and ability they had before the mistake goes right down the shoot. Ask them what really changed: Did they lose all of their talent, or did they just make a mistake or struggle with this one instance? Ask them if the pros lose all of their talent or ability when they mess up. Talk with them about what athletes say in those on-the-spot interviews—they don’t say something global like: “I totally blew it!,” they focus on the details: “I got a slow start out of the gate,” or, “I didn’t keep my feet tucked in the jumps”—essentially their reaction to a mistake reads like a to-do list for their next practice; so it can, and should, be for your child.

4.    The smartest move: Turn off your head: One of the best pieces of advice I’ve heard about focus in sports came years ago from Olympic figure skater turned sports commentator, Scott Hamilton. He describes how when you get out on the ice, you have to turn off your head, you can’t focus on thinking, remembering every step, every move, every instruction, you just have to turn off your brain and in his words, “skate stupid.” If we tried to ride a bike by telling ourselves exactly what each foot should do, we’d fall for sure; we need to not interfere with what has become—through practice—automatic for us. When kids are thinking about what they’re doing on the court or the field, they may be overthinking their technique, but likely they are thinking: What are other people thinking of me right now? Am I playing well enough? You see it in their face—they’re analyzing: doing the post-game recap instead of playing. Playing is playing, analyzing is analyzing—there’s a time and place for each, help your child keep them separate. Help them find their way to get into the flow of the game, turn off their head, don’t over think, play “stupid”—it’s the best way to play smart.

 5.    Practice is for everyone, even the pros:  We know that Olympians devote every minute of their lives to training: they eat, breathe and sleep their sport. Many kids want to just be “great” at their sport but don’t want to practice—they just want to be there. They may believe that that their heroes don’t have to practice (or don’t realize how much!), that they are just naturally great, or once they’ve achieved a certain greatness—it’s permanent. Ask your child how many hours she thinks professional athletes train each week, and why. Professional athletes train at least 40 hours a week. Wait—but they are professionals—why do they need to keep practicing? Because ability is about improving your skills—goodness or even greatness is not an endpoint that you achieve and you have arrived. As masters know, their work is never done. Encourage your child to track his progress in specific areas every few practices so he can see the benefit it provides.

6.    Look to your heroes: When an Olympian has had a tough run, he looks to his coaches and other trusted advisors such as parents or teammates for their input. It’s not a weakness to get help, seeking the wisdom of others builds a broader base of strength. Coaches can see things that we can’t see, and know things that we don’t know. To help your child recover from a disappointing day on the field, have him identify his dream team of consultants—favorite coaches, athletes, a grandparent perhaps and run his day past his board. He can imagine (in his mind) what advice they have for how to accurately interpret what that disappointment really means and what he can do about it. He might imagine too what his dream team does when they experience disappointment. Finally, he can also learn to be proactive and ask his coach for additional pointers.

 7.    Find a coaching voice that you like (and treat yourself that way, too): Children are often very self-critical and hard on themselves; to help them see how unhelpful that is, it may be easier to do that from a distance. Ask them which coaches they thought were best in the Olympics—or in general in their experience—ones who get angry and yell when you make a mistake, or ones who stay calm and show you exactly what to do to improve your game? Next, bring it back home: Ask your child how she can be that coach for herself—what does she want to be saying to herself in her head when she’s going into a game? What does she want to be hearing in her head if she has a mis-step?


The Sochi Olympics will be over soon, but the lessons you can teach your child from them can be a springboard to a strong mindset that will serve your child for a lifetime. Practice, perseverance and physical training are essential, but not the whole picture, in the words of figure skater Jeremy Abbott: “Once you’re out there, it’s all about the mental game.”

Source: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/worry-wise/201402/teach-your-child-think-olympic-athlete

Sleep And Athletic Performance: How Just An Extra Hour Of Rest Can Make You A Better Athlete

If vigorous exercise makes you a better sleeper, can more and better sleep make you a better athlete?

According to Haley A. Davis and James B. Maas, Ph.D. and their new book, "Sleep To Win!", the answer is yes. Davis and Maas recently joined host Ricky Camilleri to discuss the importance of sleep for athletic performance -- and healthy, everyday functioning -- on HuffPost Live.

"We take professional athletes and we give them one more hour of sleep," Maas explained in the clip above. "We make sure every night they're getting a good night's sleep, and we make sure they don't get up too early in the morning. Even at the pro level, these people are amazed that their performance actually improves when they add that extra hour of sleep."

But how do you add an hour of sleep without cutting into practice time? Turns out, it might not matter. Healthy Living caught up with Maas earlier this month, after the release of the National Sleep Foundation's annual Sleep in America poll, focused this year on exercise and sleep.

Teams that traditionally have practiced twice a day perform better skipping the morning practice if it allows athletes to get enough sleep than sticking with two sessions, says Maas, a former fellow, professor and chairman of psychology at Cornell University. In fact, a number of professional sports teams, most notably the New York Jets, have changed up their practice schedules in order to afford players more time for shut-eye.

Just like with cognitive memory, sleep seems to solidify muscle memory as well, he says. But the big benefits don't take place until somewhere around the seventh hour of sleep, he says, an hour many athletes and casual exercisers are missing out on.

"Sleep is food for the brain, sleep is fuel for exercise." he says. "Sleep is simply not valued in our 24/7 society. We treat it as a luxury and it's a necessity. If you sleep longer and better, you can be a better athlete overnight."

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/26/sleep-to-win-athletic-performance_n_2935705.html?utm_source=aug+external+&utm_campaign=read+experiment+track+subjects&utm_medium=email

Fathering a Passion for Sports

The 2014 World Cup is in full tilt. Billions of fans are watching the action, rooting for their favorite teams and players in this burst of nationalism and athleticism. The World Cup also gives us an opportunity to consider another feature of fatherhood: the role of dads in facilitating their children’s sporting interests.

I know from experience how much a father can do for his son in the realm of sports. My dad took me to countless games and practices in ice hockey, football, baseball and soccer. In retrospect (this wasn’t as clear at the time), the devotion to drive teammates and I to games an hour or more away or to early morning ice hockey practices was remarkable. He stepped in to be my ice hockey coach during a year when the team would have folded without a coach volunteering. He helped as an assistant football coach another year. He made sure I always had opportunities, even when the equipment and travel cost more than the expenses warranted.

This past year, I watched my daughters, aged 8 and 10, begin their soccer experiences. They enjoyed the team experience, post-game snacks, and playing (more than practicing). While one was content to watch a ball after kicking it, the other displayed an aggressiveness and spark that was not taught but came from some deeper well. My wife helped as an assistant coach when one team was in jeopardy of folding without a volunteer coach stepping up, and I became a referee for both of their leagues and games. In that capacity, I did what my dad and many other fathers have done before: foster their kids’ sporting experiences in part to also foster their kids’ social development. If the kids act inappropriately, the whistle blows.

The world of fathers and their children’s sports activities has aligned cross-culturally and historically more often with sons than daughters. In a cross-cultural survey of sports activities, of 248 sports identified in 50 societies, males participated in far more of these sports (95%) than females (20%). The contrast was most stark when focused upon contact sports like wrestling, with males participating in 57 contact sports, females 2. In cross-cultural perspective, most male sports participation was not for idle fun either—it was training for success hunting or in coalitionary violence. Consider buzkashi, as featured in a recent NPR piece (npr.org/buzkashi), in which an Afghani man’s prowess knocking around a dead goat’s headless body while riding horseback could also help hone his riding, hunting and fighting skills. Even for sports originating in England, like soccer or rugby, the saying that “the battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eaton” suggests some of the important military function of boys’ team sports participation.

Sports can serve other ends. For team sports, they can enhance a child’s social development and motor skills. There is no I in team. You’re only as good as your weakest link. Think of all the mantras you’ve heard a coach utter, and there are nuggets of social wisdom embedded, many encouraging a player to give her or his best effort and to sacrifice individualism for the benefit of a larger social group.

Team sports can also manifest the glories and anguishes of group identity. For World Cup fans, that means rising and falling with your favorite team, maybe waving the flag and painting your face. It’s not the first time this has happened. While there is debate about the details of Mesoamerican ball games, archaeologists have found the remains of countless of these beginning to appear 3500 years ago, and well beyond their origins: some of Phoenix today sits atop ball courts, they reached east into the Caribbean isles, and they extended south to today’s Nicaragua. Reconstructions of these games suggest they may have been important opportunities for intergroup competition to (literally) be played out by men, encouraged by fans, with sports betting another piece of that puzzle (and long before Vegas).

In the U.S. today, some aspects of sports continue to show sex-specific patterns. Both males and females are physically active, but males are more likely to choose to play in team sports, particularly at older ages. Just as researchers did at various recreation spots in the U.S., the next time you are at a public park, notice who’s running or stretching alone, and who’s involved in a pick-up basketball game. Yet male involvement, even in the U.S., in team sports diminishes with advancing ages. As they grow older, more men, including fathers, become more likely not to play the team game, but to watch it on TV or to foster their kids’ playing it. So now there are plenty of fathers who may share a beer with their grown son while watching their favorite World Cup match (even beer commercials portray this father-son bonding). My dad no longer drives me to practice, but we talk about the Denver Broncos offseason moves, and whether another Super Bowl is in the cards for Peyton Manning (who is a dad, and whose football career was fostered by his football-playing father).

So whether your favorite World Cup team wins, this may be an opportunity to thank dad for cultivating your sporting spirit.

Source: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-evolving-father/201406/fathering-passion-sports

TIP: Try This Simple Tip For A More Engaged Game Of Catch

The other day my five-year old son, Carter, asked me if I’d play catch with him. When we started to play, he wasn’t catching and throwing the baseball very well. When I threw the ball to him it glanced off his glove, popped in and out or he wouldn’t even get a glove on it. When he threw the baseball back to me, it was all over the place. I was spending most of my time running after his wild throws.

Carter didn’t seem to be concentrating on our game of catch. A bunch of the neighborhood kids were out running and riding their bikes around, so I figured he was a little distracted. I knew it wasn’t a case of him not wanting to play ball at the moment, because he was the one who asked me.

Make It A Game Within A Game
Then I tried one simple thing. I said, “Hey Carter. Let’s see how many times we can catch and throw the ball without dropping it.”

It was amazing how much more he concentrated on catching and throwing the baseball. The first round we made it to 32. Then 73. Then 97! Before adding this little contest into our game of catch, I bet we didn’t make it to five good catches and throws in a row.

Concentration
It was so funny to see him concentrating on watching the ball all the way into his glove. Then again when he threw it back to me. He did an awesome job of stepping toward his target and looking at my glove the whole time. Plus, he had a lot of fun with it!

I can’t wait to try this at his next practice. I don’t know about you, but my little guy gets distracted a lot while playing catch before practice or games. A lot of times he pays more attention to his teammates playing catch with their dads instead of playing catch with me.

Source: http://www.sportsdadhub.com/try-this-simple-tip-for-a-more-engaged-game-of-catch/