Baseball Practice Routine

By setting up a baseball practice routine, you’ll allow your players to anticipate what is to come and orient themselves accordingly. That isn’t to say that every baseball practice should be a carbon copy of the one that preceded it. Add some variety to your baseball practice routine by altering the drills you run, cutting those drills that seem ineffective and replacing them with more effective, efficient ones that focus in on the skills that your team need to better develop.

Ideally, most teams practice in two hours intervals. However it can be difficult to book a practice field for that much time, especially during peak season. This baseball practice routine can be easily adapted and changed for a shorter practice session by eliminating one of the drill sessions and cutting down the time spent on skill development.

Always start your practices with a 15 minutes warm-up that includes both a group stretch and a short span of cardio exercise to get the blood flowing and the heart pumping. After the warm-up I sit my team down for a 5 minute team meeting where I outline the upcoming practice and review the skills we worked on during the previous session.

Following the team meeting, we break off into groups for the first set of drills. These should be quick paced baseball practice drills that require short bursts of speed and work on building muscle memory. This session should last for 15 minutes, though once players get used to the drills it can be shaved down to 10 minutes.

The next activity in my baseball practice routine is a 5-minute long group jog preceded and followed by a water break. This gives the players a chance to interact, build endurance, and gives them a chance to clear their minds before the next part of the practice, the skill development session.

For the skill development session, divide the team into groups based on position or the specific skills that you wish to develop. I like to set aside at least 30 minutes for this part of the practice so that my players have a chance to have two 15-minute sessions that highlight a different skill.

Following the skill development, I have my players run another 5 minute long group jogging session with time for water before and after. Once again, this will clear their minds, allowing them the ability to refocus on the next activity, which is a 15-minute discussion session. Here we sit down as a team and talk about a variety of concerns such as nutrition and muscle toning. This also gives us a chance to talk about any upcoming opponents we might be facing and strategies for beating them.

After the discussion, I run another series of quick pace drills for 15-minutes followed by a 5 minute wind sprints session. Finally, we are left with 10 minutes at the end of the practice for a cool down stretching session that helps with muscle recovery and getting my players out of the aerobic mindset.