Adding fun to baseball drills for 10 year olds is obvious. At the age of 10, they are not interested in how important it is to learn each aspect of a good swing. That’s why by age 10, you only need to develop habits of communicating with the team, a positive attitude, and game rules.
This article will cover the 10 best fun-making baseball drills for 10 year olds baseball players. In these drills, the coaches or trainers’ main focus is to ensure the player is hitting with proper load, body posture, and swing.
1-Home Run Derb Drill:
One of the most common baseball drills for 10 year olds, in which they learn how to swing. At this age, children want to hit the ball and throw it as far as they can. Parents and coaches must focus on the player’s tread and how he loads and hits the ball.
Firstly, take your child to an open area in the backyard or ground. You can train a child by batting tee and soft Toss also.
2-Batting Tee:
Set a home plate for the player of 17-inch width with a chalk and rope. Set the batting tee and a net so the player can focus on throwing the ball in the net.
First, practice on a batting tee without a ball. Tell the player loading is the most important thing to gather energy and for a good swing. Observe their legs, feet, and hip movement. Teach them to load on every pitch and make at least 20 swings like this.
Allow the child to swing and observe the body movement so they cannot move extra. Parents and coaches can use tennis or whiffl balls for practice. When a ten-year-old hits the ball, he is not concerned about posture and swing mechanics. The ball hits the net, the player can see the results, and it can improve player swing mechanics.
Coach placed the batting tee inside the home plate, players think their posture is right and hit the ball. They can practice high pitch and low pitch, inside and out.
A young player of 10 years can hit batting tee 100 times. However, repetition can make the game boring and exhausting. The coach must change the player’s position to take the batting tee outside the batter’s box. Hit the ball to the lower pitch. Repetition improves the muscle memory of the player. If a player is not in the right stride, the player’s muscle memory works and the body moves in the same motion as he trained.
The coach needs to practice and explore player all the pitches so as not to repeatedly hit the ball in the net.
3-Soft Toss:
Soft Toss is also another practice to make the batter swing batter. In this practice coach or teammates through the ball softly underhand to the batter.
In this practice, the batter should focus on their swing mechanism—the player’s lower body parts, leg movement, batting posture, loading, and reaction time.
They have to touch the ball softly. The purpose of this practice is to make the players swing batter. They do not need to bat the ball forcefully. Each player has to practice at least 20 swings during practice.
4-Foot Work Fielding Drill:
Players practice this drill to increase the use of their legs instead of their arms in fielding. For Ten years, baseball player focused more on their shoulders and arms to catch the ground ball.
The coach needs to practice players on the field without gloves. They can use a softball or tennis ball to through the ground ball.
The coach should separate the players into two teams. One team through the ground ball and the other should catch. Through the ball to more left of the player, the player moves his body faster towards the left side so the ball can cross through his legs.
It is the same as rolling the ball softly towards the player’s right side; the players move his body fastest towards the right side so the ball can cross through his legs.
Gradually roll the ball fast so the player moves his body towards it to cross the ball through his legs and catch it. This practice will also improve muscle memory and be helpful in fielding.
This drill is the side-to-side movement of the player’s legs.
5-Pepper Drill:
The pepper drill is accommodating for all batters, fielders, and catchers. The coach has to select players, one batter, and at least two fielders.
If the batter hits the ground ball, the fielder has to catch it and throw it again; the game continues.
If the batter hits the fly ball and one of the fielders catches the ball without hitting the ground. The batter is out and the fielder takes the place of the batter.
If the batter misses the ball or swings ( make it fly to the fielder’s head), then the batter is out, and one of the fielders takes the batter’s place.
This will help the pitcher how to throw underhand and overhand balls. And also helpful for the batter to recognize the ball’s accuracy and reaction time.
This drill gives ideas and knowledge to the batter on how and when he has to respond to all types of pitchers.
6-Pitcher High Five:
This drill improves the pitching skills of the player. In this drill, bend his leg, shoulder, and chest square to home base when the player is in pitching position. And the pitching arm is in the L position. The coach has to kneel to the side of his 10-year-old player and make a high five with his pitching hand while holding the baseball.
The coach has to make a little resistance on his hand, and the player pitches without throwing the ball. This drill helps to improve their pitching mechanism and avoid injuries.
In this way, you can improve the player’s muscle memory, which would be helpful if they played baseball in high school.
7-Fly Ball Fly:
As you can see from the drill’s name, ‘Fly Ball Fly’. In this drill, the coach teaches the importance of catching and teamwork.
The coach takes two players and stands them with their backs turned 15 feet away. When the coach throws the ball, called a fly ball, players turn and locate the ball in the air. The player close to the ball yelled loudly, got it, and ran to catch it.
In this way, players can also get practice in communicating and teamwork.
8-Backhand Drills:
No player wants to miss his catch. So they have to learn backhand catch technique quickly. Because not all catches come to their gloves side, they must spot the catch away from the gloves side.
There are two techniques to practice for being a good backhand catcher.
Kneel Backhand Catch:
The player has to kneel with his left knee bent and the right knee standing up. His chest is slightly towards the right knee, and he opens the glove with his thumb pointing downward. Make sure the glove hand is in front of the right hand. The coach throws the soft ground ball towards the player. The player catches the ball and gradually increases the speed of the ground ball.
Stand Backhand Catch:
Once the player knows how to catch and practice the kneel backhand catch, the procedure is the same player has to stand up but lower his posture. Coach sweeping the ground ball, the player should watch the ball and catch it backhanded.
9- Bouncer:
You must know when to swing or hit the ball as a batter. Does your 10-year-old have the patience to wait for the ball? The player has to swing to hit the ball when the ball crosses the home plate.
A good batter stands on home plate, and the pitcher throws the ball toward the batter at a downward angle. The ball bounces see how many times the batter makes rhythm to hit the ball.
10-Goalie Drill:
If you only practice, the 10-year-old player gets bored. The coach has to convert the practice into a fun game.
The coach takes 2 traffic cones and places them on either side of the player wearing gloves. The foot of the player lines with the cones. Tell the fielder to imagine he is a football goalie and not allow a single ball to pass through it.
Throw the ball towards the fielder and the fielder catch it. Gradually increase the distance between the cones even if the player runs to catch the balls.
Expand the distance between the cones until he realizes the fielder cannot run more to catch the ball or, due to distance, he is missing the balls. In this way, align the players and each player’s field. So, the player who catches more balls will be the winner.
These are some best baseball drills for 10 years olds that we will recommend you to must try. Your child will definitely love them.