Fast & Effective Baseball Practices
The 75-Minute Youth Baseball Practice Plan

A youth baseball season should be fun and rewarding for both kids
and coaches. Baseball practices should be the most exciting and rewarding
part of the entire season. In order to accomplish that goal a coach must
come prepared and organized to every practice with plans that are effective
engaging every player on the team through fast paced fun drills and
competitions that never lose your team’s attention. For the next 6 weeks
we’ll be providing a series of practice plans designed specifically for kids
age 9 to 12 years old. The objective is to provide you with structured plans
with a variety of drills and competitions that save you time and keep your
practices fresh and fast paced throughout the season.

There is little reason why practices should last more than 90 minutes.
We recommend a 75 to 80 minute practice with no downtime or standing
around. We accomplish this by running a variety of consecutive drills that
last no longer than 10 minutes. We also break the team into individual
position drills (infield, outfield, & catchers) for a segment of the practice
before bringing them together to conduct group fielding and batting drills.
We recommend running no more than two 10 - minute pitching drills after
the team practice is complete. This first particular practice does not provide
pitching drills, but all practices presented in the weeks ahead will have
specific pitching drills that emphasize throwing accuracy, balance, agility,
coordination, and technique.

Two of the keys to a season of successful practices are having the
correct amount and type of equipment at every practice, and the proper set
up of all practice stations prior to your team arriving to the field. The
following provides a recommended list of equipment to conduct successful
practices:

• Agility Ladder (available at www.performbetter.com) or substitute by chalking out two connected parallel rows of nine squares (24 inches wide by 19 inches long)
• Two Agility Balls (can be found at most sporting goods stores or available at www.performbetter.com)
• 4 regulation baseball bats
• 4 batting helmets
• 4 wiffle ball bats
• 40 baseballs
• 160 regulation wiffle balls
• 160 plastic golf balls
• 24 regulation golf balls
• 50 short cones (3 inches)
• Two 6-inch, two 12-inch, & two 16-inch cones
• Chalk or paint to mark field
• One set of bases
• One trash barrel
• Two 3-foot long half round molded foam rollers (available at www.performbetter.com)
• Six 6-inch hurdles & six 12-inch hurdles (available at www.performbetter.com)
• One stopwatch
• One to four whistles
• One measuring tape

A short fast paced practice will not only save you time but will also make
practices the most enjoyable and rewarding part of your season. Good luck
and enjoy.