Free Youth Baseball Drills

Free Youth Baseball Drills for Your Little League Team

Good hitting skills are arguably the most important aspect of winning baseball games. Sure, you need excellent sharp fielders, a quick-thinking pitcher and reliable catcher, but without the hitters actually getting the ball out there into the field, it would impossible to tally up the runs on the scoreboard and the wins in your team's record. Adapting these free youth baseball drills into your practice regime will improve your hitters' skills in a variety of areas.

For these free youth baseball drills, you will need to set up 4 different hitting stations spread out along one of your outfield's foul lines. This approach will allow more players to practice their swings at a time, and will allow different hitters to see where their strengths and weakness are.

4 Youth Baseball Stations For Success

Divide the team into groups of 4, where one player is the pitcher, one is the catcher, one is the batter, and one is the fielder. After they have a chance to complete the first station, each player rotates one position to the right so that each player will have a chance to practice each role.

At station one your hitters will practice their bunting skills with wiffle balls. The pitcher will throw 12 wiffle balls at the hitter, who must bunt each of them using one of the many bunting techniques used by your team. If the hitter does not bunt 8 of the 12 pitches they must remain at the station and try again until the designated number is successfully reached.

At station two, hitters concentrate on hitting pitches on the inside part of the plate. The pitcher must throw their pitches towards the inside of the plate, and the hitter is to use a short, compact swing to connect with the pitch. The hitters should concentrate on keeping their strides short, remaining soft on their feet, keeping their front sides closed, and maintaining a strong rear foot pivot. If all these things are kept in mind, the result will be crisp, clear line drives. Once the hitter has achieved 6 hits like this, then the players may rotate.

Youth Baseball Drill Stations 3 and 4

For station three, the focus will be on hitting pitches that glide over the middle of the plate. Here, the pitcher must try to throw a series of balls that fly directly into the middle of player's strike zone. At this station the focus is on keeping the contact point on the bat closer to the front shoulder to achieve a sharp line drive or solid ground ball as opposed to a pop-fly, which can be costly since they are considered to be an easy-out during game play. Again, after the hitter successfully bats 6 good line drives or grounders have the players rotate.

At the final station hitters concentrate on hitting pitches thrown towards the outside of the plate. The pitcher throws a series of balls that pass through the outside zone of the plate. The hitter must try to connect with the ball deep in the strike zone, which can be a difficult feat to achieve. The most common mistake made at this station is hitting the ball too soon. Make sure your hitter waits until that ball is deep in the strike zone where the contact point is low down on the ball. If contact is made in the right place, the result will be a clear right side line drive or grounder. Have your hitter smack 6 of these before rotation the players through this difficult section of the free youth baseball drills.