A drill that many coaches do at the beginning of the season when the team is getting their ball brain back into the game is this simple one just to refresh everyone. The Softball Situations Throwing Drill will allow the coach to call out the situations and the defense simply responds to it after the coach hits the ball.
This is a good drill because it gets the players into thinking ahead to when the ball is going to be hit. We ask them often where the play is before the ball is pitched in a game. With this drill we can give that question to them on their own so we do not have to call it out during games. It is important that the players can make decisions on the field because number one we are not on the field with them, number two they need to react correctly to plays and number three it might be simply distracting.
Softball Situations Throwing Drill
Set up the players at their defensive positions. You can set up the whole field or just the infield but I recommend that you use the whole field because the players who do not field the ball need to move into their correct back up and coverage positions. You can have the players not on the field rotate into their positions or they can be runners until it is their turn on the field.
Call out the situations such as a runner on 1st and 2nd…2 outs as you hit the ball to a defensive position. The team needs to react as if it is a real game. Go through as many situations as you can and get as many defensive positions involved as fielders as you can. The quicker you run through the drill the quicker they will have to react and the more they will have to pay attention.
This is a good drill to add distractions and runners to so that the players have to use mental training skills in addition to their technical and tactical skills.
