I run a 10 week baseball practice camp every year for our local baseball organization. This year we have added a very young group (age 6-7) and I am struggling to keep their interest. The area of most concern is the hitting station. Can you suggest games and/or drills that can be used for this age group?
Coach Answers:
You are certainly correct in that these little guys are extremely busy and have very short attention spans. When I coached and had to deal with this age group I set up as many stations as I could. The number of stations often depends on how many people you have helping you.
The Typical Baseball Practice Batting Stations Are:
- Stationary Batting Tee Station
- Soft Toss Station
- Live Batting Cage Hitting
These stations can be done with a couple or three people around the cage, so supervision is very close at hand. And as long as you have access to a batting cage, one of the things I would suggest is to divide it into two or three sections with divider nets and do front soft toss from behind a screen.
I would also suggest that you create stations that teach defensive drills in very isolated parts. What I mean by that is that the player only fields ground balls, catches fly balls, or throws. Make each station independent of the others and have a bucket next to the kid so he can put the ball in it after he catches a grounder or fly ball.
Base running is always a good opening and closing drill for this age group as they love to run. This gives you a chance to teach them certain situations and keep them moving. You can do it individually or as a group. I always teach base running by hitting a ball so they learn when to run by reacting to the ball, as opposed to what I say. You or another coach must be the one that hits the ball and be in control. This works really well if you have three people: one to hit the ball, one to field the ball, and one to be a baserunner that the other kids can imitate.
At Baseball Tips, we have many items that actually would be of value to your baseball practice.
We can help you mix and match batting tees and catch nets to easily build a complete batting tee station, no matter your budget.
Your catch net added to an automatic soft toss machine will create an all-important ability for players to improve ball tracking while reinforcing “being on time” to create hard many more hard hits… all in a small area too!
I am a fan of under-load and over-load batting drills and though we do not offer a lightweight skinny bat, you can simply saw off an old broomstick and add a taped “handle” or inexpensive bat handle wrap and begin hitting whiffle balls or even golf wiffle balls for the more advanced players. As far as over-load training bats, the original and still best is the Bratt’s Bat. Its rich history has even allowed is a place in the baseball Hall of Fame! Its a great product and I am a huge fan!
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