Making drills fun and competitive while improving them can be a challenge. Following is a great softball game stress drill that incorporates focus, game like situations and a point system to add some stress to the situation.
Softball is not all total concentration or a constant onslaught of drills, drills and more drills. There is a time to have some fun and still learn or polish some skills. I like to use the end of practice for a fun game that can create some team bonding while still focusing on softball fundamentals.
Softball Game Stress Drill
Another game I like is called “3, 2, 1, Run”. In this game, again divide the team up into 2 teams. One team is at bat and one team is lined up behind 3rd base. Take 3 balls and line them up at intervals of about 5-7 feet apart from 3rd base toward home plate. They should end about half way between 3rd base and home plate.
The team at home is called team 1 and the ones on defense are team 2. Have the 1st player from team 2 stand on 3rd base with her glove while the 1st player from team 1 is at home plate. When the coach says, “Go”, the defensive player must run to the 1st ball, pick it up and make a throw to a teammate standing at 2nd base (put a bucket there to drop the balls into), she then goes to the 2nd ball and does the same thing and on to the 3rd ball.
The player at home starts running at the sound of “Go” and runs to 1st base and on to 2nd. The object of this game is to throw all 3 balls to the defensive player at 2nd base before the runner gets there. This is a LOT harder than it sounds, but it teaches making fast, accurate throws while under pressure.
After all members of each team have had a turn, switch places. You may have to adjust the distance between balls to make it fair for each team.
