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Fastpitch Softball Drills and Tips

25 Strong Swings

This is something that can be done while players are waiting for their turn during hitting drills or stations.  All they need to do is give 25 good, HARD swings in a row.  Not necessary immediately after the other, but one good strong swing, then set up again, and another good hard swing, etc.  Each time concentrating on sound hitting form and mechanics as well as swinging has hard and fast as possible.

25 doesn't sound like a lot, but players will probably be getting tired toward the end.  Eventually you can work up to 30 or more.  You just don't want them doing so much in one set that they are too tired to swing properly and to execute a nice solid, strong, hard, fast swing.


Quick Toss for Bat Speed
This is just like regular soft toss where a coach or another player is positioned across the plate (facing the batter).  They toss a ball into the strike zone to the batter's contact point and the batter is hits into a net or can hit out into the field where defenders can field the ball.  The location of the toss is very important in soft toss drills because it's part of the batter learning where proper contact point is. 

However in this soft toss drill, you would gather up a bunch of balls (half a bucket usually works great) and toss them one right after another.  The batter will have to swing hit the ball and quickly get their bat back into position to immediately swing again because the next ball is being tossed.  Half a bucket is plenty to start off with at first as you will see that your players will probably be tired by the time you get to the last few balls. 

You don't always have to use regular softballs, you can also use wiffles or tennis balls, etc.

With younger batters you may find that they throw all mechanics out the window in effort to hit every ball.  Therefore, with younger batters especially, you must watch the how quickly you toss as well as how long you run the drill.  Half a bucket may be too much.  Again, you don't want the speed of the drill or the length of it to cause a serious break down in their swing mechanics.


Frisbee/Lid Drill
"Pitcher" stands about 15 feet away from the batter and throws a small frisbee or tennis ball can lid or any other type of plastic can lid toward the batter.  You notice a difference in how the lid flies depending on which side is up when you toss.  Change it up to increase the challenge to the batter.  You can use regular bats, thundersticks, or speed bats. 

Players seem to view these types of drills as "more fun" because it's not just the same old hit the ball routine.  Plus these lids are not big and round like softballs, so they do encourage development of eye-hand coordination and the concept of watching the "ball" all the way because they are a bit more challenging to hit. 


Run to First
This piece of advice may sound silly at first, but remember to include drills where your batters are hitting the ball then running to first.  So many times we get caught up in running the players through different types of batting stations that they are only hitting and never hit, then run.  However in the game, they not only have to hit the ball, they have to run to first as quickly as possible too.  If you never practice this, you're batters may not be getting out of the box as quickly as they could.  You may even see a slight pause between the hit and the run down to first.  Just remember to have them practice what they will actually be doing in a game every now and then.  It doesn't even need to be off live pitching.  Heck, you don't even have to have them actually hit a ball.  You can line them up with thundersticks or speed bats (or lengths of pvc pipe even) at home plate and have each player swing then run down the line to first base and do this as part of your baserunning practice.  Just make sure batters have their helmets down and they give the player in the box enough room to swing and discard the bat.  Do not let the players waiting for their turn be right up on the player swinging.

Go to our page of Defensive Softball Drills: Free Drills for Defense

Find additional drills at...

eteamz - Find various fastpitch softball fielding, hitting, pitching, conditioning drills, and more at eteamz.com.

Coaching 1.0 Drills - Great webpage containing over 100 fastpitch softball drills for hitting, fielding, throwing, and more.

Recommended Resources
Defensive Softball Drills by Jacquie Joseph.

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