Drills and games a fun way to run a practice

Even elite athletes take extended periods off from running or hack around doing fun workouts. They are meant to rejuvenate your body, stimulate your mind, and give your body a break from the rigors of serious training. Yes, barefoot running is a workout! Keep the pace easy and take the next days off from running barefoot.

Most of the strength benefits of barefoot running can be realized in a mile run per week or two half-mile runs. This workout is best done with at least five people. In a single file line, the last runner in the group has to catch up to the front of the pack. She then becomes the leader and can run as fast or slow as she wants to. Different paces are encouraged to vary the workout and keep things interesting. Find a local track club, group of friends, or round up your old running buddies and hit the roads.

Preferably run on a track, the Dice Workout is a fun way to break up a hard day and is usually reserved for when you are not in a race-specific training period.

For this type of workout, m intervals work best. This is a fun workout that develops your intuitive sense of pacing. In this drill, players work on their speed and agility by completing an obstacle course that requires baserunning, throwing and hitting skills. This drill is a great way for coaches to finish practice, as it incorporates some conditioning and builds team energy by getting all of your players involved.

The purpose of this drill is to introduce competition into your practice, while also practicing several simple offensive and defensive skills in a high-pressure environment. This drill incorporates many of the skills often overlooked in winning baseball games: focusing on baserunning, sliding, and making accurate throws.

Coaches should have a stopwatch to time the players for completing the obstacle course, starting as soon as the player makes contact off the tee and stopping once the player touches home. When coaching this drill, be sure to not let your players cut corners or sacrifice their mechanics to get a better time.

The first thing to focus on is to not allow your players to get lazy with their first tee swing. We do not want our hitters just making lazy contact or rolling the ball over to the shortstop in order to get out of the box quicker.

This is one of our favorite defensive drills for infielders. Similar to the obstacle course drill, we use this drill to promote competition among our infielders, while also getting a ton of ground ball reps in a short amount of time.

In this drill, players work on their fast-twitch movements and get comfortable with fielding ground balls and keeping the baseball in front of them at all costs. The goal of this drill is to stay in the goalie box, fielding the baseball cleanly and keeping it in front of them for as long as they can. The purpose of this drill is to make your infielders work! Focus on fast-twitch movements and pushing your players to make tough plays. After spending a few minutes in the goalie box drill, your infielders will feel much more comfortable with both routine ground balls and those web gem plays on hard-hit balls in the gaps.

When coaching this drill, be sure to avoid hitting balls too predictably. With less time to react, human beings your players included are always trying to pick up on patterns. Our standard daily infield drills generally consist of glove side, right at them, and backhand. This drill is designed to get rid of that predictability.

Move balls from side to side, and find a good groove of making your players move and work to keep the ball in front. The idea behind this drill is very simple: we want to teach our hitters to hit the ball hard and do damage. While we spend a ton of time working on mechanics and the correct swing movements, this drill is a fun one to see who your team leaders are when it comes to hitting the baseball hard.

When coaching this drill, be sure not to let your hitters allow their mechanics go out the window. To prevent this, you can make the first two rounds game-like swings, and then, in the final round, let your players experiment a little to see if they can improve their number. For example, let your players incorporate a higher leg kick, or something different in their swing that they think could help their score. For more information on this, check out our post on the swing movement spectrum.

If your player has a small leg kick, encourage them to try it at a Level 10 and see what the result is. Also - challenge the dribbling team to dribble exclusively with their weak hand, or to work on certain moves at each line intersection.

Make it easier: Give the shooting team two balls so that they can get more shot attempts up quickly. A physical, competitive basketball drill for kids - where success will come down to effort, toughness, and whoever wants it more. Be safe! While we want players to go hard, they still need to be aware of their teammate and make sure they are not diving out of control. Make it harder: To really challenge players, force them to win a loose ball to get off the court - otherwise they stay on, and must keep going against new teammates until they can secure a loose ball.

Make it easier: To make the drill slightly easier, you can allow the offense to check the ball to the defense and start from there, rather than just wherever they win the ball. You can also have the defense play with their hands in their shorts pockets to allow more freedom of movement for the ballhandler. Try to make the matchups as even as possible in terms of size and skill.

Make it harder: You can also have games of 2 on 2 or 3 on 3 - just call out the numbers and have the players play to 3 points for the win. Make it easier: Wait an extra beat or two before throwing the ball out, giving the players a little more time to react and set up on defense and offense.