It is a difficult task to ready a team for a season with a handful of practices. Practice organization is the key to get the most out of your available practice time. Come to every practice with a plan. Well-run softball practices should achieve three objectives:

1. Improve players’ basic skills in throwing, fielding, hitting, and base running.
2. Improve players’ advanced skills in areas like looking back runners, executing rundowns, hitting the cut-off, turning the double play, etc.
3. Provide opportunities for players to execute the basic and advanced skills in game-like situations.

At practice, every minute is important. Practice should start on-time and be organized so no player is standing around idle. This practice guide will focus on helping 12U Travel Division Coaches run effective, age appropriate practices. It assumes 2 hours are available for practice. It is meant to serve as a guide. The times can be adjusted for longer or shorter practice times. The ratio of time spent on each element can also be adjusted to help you customize each practice to meet your teams specific development needs.

Fundamentals, drills and a coaching checklist are available on the Mansfield Girls Softball website on the Coaches Corner page. Review the following prior to your first practice.

Warm-up – 5 Minutes

Warm-up should consist of a light jog and some stretching. Have the players take a jog around the field. This should be a light jog and not a race. After the jog, arrange the players into a circle for stretching. After the girls learn the stretching exercises, allow one of the players to coordinate this activity in subsequent practices and games. Alternate the responsibility of coordinating the stretching to a different player for each practice and game.

Throwing – 10 Minutes

Throwing consists of paring up the players to have a catch. Each pair should throw parallel to all of the other pairs. The players should start close together and gradually move apart as their arms loosen up. During the throwing exercise, work with the girls on proper throwing and catching fundamentals. Make sure the players use proper technique on every throw and catch. As the players become more fundamentally sound, work in different throwing drills into the second 5 minutes of this practice exercise.

Defense – 45 minutes

Break the team into small groups. All groups should be practicing skills at the same time. After players complete the drill in a particular group, they should rotate to the next group. Basic skills and advanced skills should be worked on during this time. The percentage of time spent on basic skills can be reduced as the players build proficiency in those skills throughout the year. Basic defensive skills include fielding grounders, fielding pop-ups, making throws, and catching thrown balls. The first 30 minutes of the defensive time should be spent on basic skills. Perform the Grounders drill with two groups and the Fly Balls drill with the other groups. The pitching machine can also be used to provide consistent fly balls. Other fielding drills for basic skills can be rotated in for the Fly Balls drill. The last 15 minutes of the defensive time should be spent on advanced defensive skills. For the 12U Travel Division, these primarily consist of making and receiving throws for force outs, making and receiving throws for tag outs, and hitting the cutoff, making a relay throw, 1st and 3rd situations, steal attempts, pickoff attempts, and rundowns. They also include pitching and catching. However, the majority of a pitchers practice time should occur outside of the normal team practice. The team should be broken into six groups. Use the Force Play drill at first base with two of the groups and use the Making the Tag drill at third base with two of the groups. Use the Double Relay drill in the outfield with the fifth group. Rotate the players through the groups so they each get an opportunity to perform each of the drills. The last group should have the pitchers and catchers. Only your pitchers and catchers should rotate through this group. The pitchers should pitch the ball to the catchers who should practice “framing” the ball. Other catching drills should be rotated in.

Water Break – 5 minutes

Offense – 40 minutes

Break the team into three groups. As each player completes a drill in one group, she should rotate to the next group. Perform the Hitting drills with the first two groups. The majority of time should be spent on the Toss drills. Work in other drills as necessary. The first group should be positioned on the right field line in the outfield and should hit towards center field. The second group should be positioned on the left field line in the outfield and should hit towards center field. Position the other players from these two groups in the outfield to retrieve the balls and relay them back in. One player should receive the throws and to feed the coach. Use several balls in this drill to keep the hitter active. The fielders should rotate to the relay position, then the receiver position, then to the batter. Once the player bats, she should rotate to the next group. Use the pitching machine or pitch to the third group. Position the batter at home plate and let her hit towards the field. Position the other players in the group in the infield to field the balls and throw them into the pitcher. After 35 minutes, bring all the girls to home plate and use the Base Running drills to work on base running.

Game Situations – 15 Minutes

Assign players to each defensive position and make the remainder of players runners. Use the runners to create game situations. Practice offensive and defensive situations. Rotate players between defense and running. Teach both sides at once. Teach the girls to make the outs. Focus on the lead runner.