Being able to practice game situations without actually competing can be a challenging task for coaches. With the Softball Game situations drill, you can create any situation that you want to practice. You can put runners on the bases and give the number of outs. You can have a coach hit the balls to begin the play or you can have players hit to incorporate batting.
Softball Game Situations Drill
Have the team take their positions. This can be done with the infield only or with the all positions on the field. The coach can call specific game situations such as … A runner on 1st and 2nd…2 outs…and then the ball is hit and the team responds as if it is a real situation. The team responds accordingly. It can be done with no runners on base and then with runners on base to increase the level of stress. The players on the bases practice base running and the defense practices defending them.
To get the players thinking about the situation, call it out, then talk about how they might respond and what mental training tools they might use to remain focused during the play. Then ask them to think in their head what the play is and how they are going to respond. Go through every situation possible or specific situations that the team has difficulty with.
Once the first situation has played out, have the team automatically assume the next play is correlated to the first one. For example, if it is 1 out with a runner on base, if the team gets an out during the play, there are 2 out with the baserunner on depending where she got to during the play. Do not tell the players what the next play is because they should know depending on their previous one. After the ball is hit again, if the play was confusion, discuss what should have happened and how they will make sure they know for the next one.
It is important that the players know the play without having to be told every time there is a batter at the plate. This promotes interest in the process and a level of confidence in their knowledge of the game. Be sure that any runners on base are wearing helmets.
