Last Updated on July 24, 2022
Drills are the primary step to conquer all baseball skills. So, one should add this in their practice plan from the very beginning. I was planning to list all essential baseball drills for 10 year olds that will help 1st-time coaches to make a concrete lesson plan.
As a coach, I believe being an all-rounder gives a player great advantages over the opponent. So, I’ve put together my top recommended baseball drills to improve pitching, hitting and fielding techniques.
This discussion will help you to deliver proficient mentorship to your team. Not only for coaches, this guide is also perfect for parents who want to teach their kids the fundamental skills of baseball.
3 Hitting Baseball Drills For 10 Year Olds
Learning hitting drills can help players build their muscle memory and act in the real match with discipline. The primary goal of all hitting drills should be improving either batting strength or contact accuracy.
Below I listed some of my favorite drills to improve batting skills. These drills are preferable for 9 to 12 years kids. Let’s start with the first one.
Beat Goalie
Unlike typical youth baseball hitting drills, this one is a group drill where some kids play their fielding role and the hitter polishes up his or her hitting skills.
It’s a fun and versatile drill for those daredevils. The drill teaches them teamwork and in the meantime, improves batting accuracy.
How to perform Beat the Goalie?
To perform the drill, one player should stand in a position before the batting tee. And the rest of them will distribute their position in multiple fielding orders. Also, there should be a wall or french at the end of the players so that the ball always stays within the range.
The goal of this drill is to shoot the ball without getting caught by any of these fielders, who’re playing apparently as the goalies here.
So, the batter should hit the ball within the catchable range of the players, but don’t get caught ultimately.
Hit the ball, don’t get caught, add another ball on the tee, and hit again. The batter has to repeat this process. On the contrary, all the fielders should try their best to catch the ball.
I improvised a little to make the rules harder than usual and give everyone a chance to participate. On my ground, each batter gets 3 chances, meaning every time they get caught, they lose one chance.
When he’s out, the next batter will be the one who caught the hitter. In that way, even the fielders become more excited to get in action throughout the mini-game.
Advantages
- Improves hitting accuracy
- Helps batters to make strategic shots
- Sharpens catching and fielding skills also
RAB (Ready, Aim, Bunt)
Whether it’s baseball or softball, RAB is a good drill for batters who want to improve their patience and bunt.
And the best part is, it’s adequate for both outdoor and indoor practice. In this drill, the batter can practice small ball accuracy.
How To Perform Ready, Aim, Bunt?
Use cones to create two 5×5 squares down the 1st and 3rd baselines. The batter should start 5 ft. from the home plate. And then extend another 5 ft. into fair territory.
“Fair territory is the particular part of the baseball ground, which is qualified for playing. It can be anywhere from the homebase to end the foul lines. ”
Fair territory is any area in the baseball field that starts from home plate and ends before the foul lines
One player at a time is positioned on the plate wearing their helmet and with bats. The manager or the coach should position at a 15 ft. from the plate with a bucket of balls. Instead of the coach, there can be another player who’ll play the role.
The fellow with balls will then throw balls towards the batter. Things to be noted are that, (s)he doesn’t need to pitch the ball in a regular style, but rather slowly toss the ball.
On the flip side, the hitter or batter should bunt the ball every time using proper form. While bunting, the batter should keep his right or bottom hand on almost the head part of the bat. He should try to aim his bunt towards one of those squares.
If there are multiple players participating in this drill, the manager can give everyone a slot of balls.
To make the drilling part even more competitive, the manager can ask each batter to count their total perfect bunt. It’ll excite the little fellows to take the practice more seriously.
Advantages
- Great for improving bunting skills
- Develop the muscle memories of batters
Contact Point Drill
Having good control over the bat is inevitable for hitters. And it’s better if he or she can get it at the earliest period of their baseball journey.
Another important thing is to understand the pitch properly. Though both of these are very basic skills to learn, they are important too.
To become familiar with these skills, a contact point hitting drill is an undefeatable choice. The drill style provides pitch awareness to batters. At the same time, it develops muscle memories of the shoulder, wrist, and elbow.
There are a total 9 hitting zones in baseball. Contact drills will help you to improve your control in each zone. The zones are –
Hittings Zones
| Low aways | High inside |
| Mid aways | Low middle |
| High outside | Mid-middle |
| Low in | High-mid |
| Mid in |
How To Perform Contact Drill?
The player should take his batting position on the base. Then he or she has to visualize the hitting zones mentioned above. The batter should swing to each of them but stop at the contact points. In this way, the batter should go through all the batting zones.
When it’s done, the batter should follow the next step where he should continue the swing without stopping.
That means, at the first step, the player learns to stop at every contact point to get a thorough idea of all hitting zones. And in the second phase, he skills up on the batting style in every zone.
It’s more like acting to hit a ball at the contact point of each zone. To get an idea, check out the image shown below.
Advantages
- Batter gets proper understanding of the hitting zones
- Develops the muscle memories to act accordingly in the real match
- Improves the hitting styles and accuracy
3 Pitching Baseball Drills For 10 Year Olds
Unlike most softball pitching, in baseball, pitchers need to work on both their strategies and strength. Sharp pitching techniques can alone help winning the match.
For kids between 10-13 years, I advise practicing these below drills regularly.
Push-Off Pitching Drill
Let’s start with the simplest, yet effective pitching drill, push-off. As the name suggests, the goal of this drill is to strengthen your push-off leg. The best part of this drill is, you can practice it anywhere, at home, or gourd.
How To Perform Push-Off Drill?
Mark a standing position and consider it as your pitching base. Stand there with your ball and glove.
What you need to do is first, stretch and switch your body weight from one leg to another and hold it there.
More specifically, you’ve to act the way you’ll pitch the ball in a match. As you see in baseball, a pitcher lifts his or her front leg first, you’ve to do the same here.
And just like contemporary dance, first lift the heel and then the toe part at last. During this time, your weight should be shifted to the back or rear leg.
The act will help you generate an immersive amount of strength to push or toss the ball. Hence, it’s also called the push-off leg.
While performing the drill, you must put your weight on the foot’s inside. In that way, you can create a springing motion throughout the leg to hand. It’s better if you can point your knees towards the batter or the assuming batter.
Advantages
- Helps pitchers to learn balancing
- Generates strength to pitch faster ball
- Easy to learn and can be practiced indoor and outdoor
Stride Pitching Drill
Velocity is an important term for any baseball pitcher. The adequate velocity can deliver an expected pitch. On the flip side, if not having good control over it, you may end up with bad pitching and eventually injury. The Stride drill is discovered to mitigate these risks.
In most kid drills, a partner is essential. But this drill is independent. The player can alone practice it.
How To Perform Stride Drill?
The style of stride and push-off is quite similar. However, stride doesn’t require you to work on leg lifting. Besides, instead of the back leg, now you’ll be focusing on the front leg.
To perform the drill, take your position on the pitching base or anywhere you find appropriate to practice. You should wear a glove and have the ball in hand.
First, while standing stride posture, you need to switch your weight from the rear leg to your front leg. Like the push-off drill, make sure to keep the weight inside of the leg. Then continue the pitching action till the end. Repeat this exercise again and again.
I always try to give my team a bit of thrill and competition even during training, so, I changed it a little.
To help them increase the accuracy, I put some target in their front, measuring a 15-20 ft. distance from the stride position. The more targets one can hit during their reps, the more score they get.
Advantages
- Improves the pitching action and style
- A great exercise for balancing
- Helps to understand weight distribution on legs
- Reduces risk of injury of the pitcher
- Can be practiced alone or in a team
Pinch Knee Pitching Drill
There is another knee pinch drill for batting where a player usually uses a ball in between their knees when hitting a tee ball.
But this pinch knee is slightly different, focusing on pitching. The purpose of this drill is to improve your leg movements, especially the back leg.
Though it’s possible to try the drill alone, having a buddy will be easier and fun. Or, you can have at least a net on the flip side of the pitching base.
How To Perform Pinch Knee Drill?
To start with the pitch drill, take your stride position maintaining a shoulder-feet width. Depending on your convenience, you can make it slightly wider.
When preparing to throw the ball, pinch your knees. Please note that you must lift up your bottom or rear lag while continuing the pitching action. Don’t drag it.
At the finish line of the drill, your back leg should again land on the ground on your toes first. Then gradually get back to your normal stride position again. One should practice the leg at least 15 times in a row.
Advantages
- Can be practiced with or without a partner
- Improves movement of the back leg
- Good for developing stride action and balance
- Suitable for practicing in backyard or front lawn and field
3 Fielding Baseball Drills For 10 Year Olds
No matter what, fielding is something that every role of player has to take the responsibility. Whether it’s infield or outfield or center, without these folks, the baseball chants would be meaningless. Unfortunately, most amateurs ignore fielding exercises.
Fielding drills are great for sudden actions, which is the core of any defensive position in baseball. You should add the below drills for fielding as part of your training chart.
Drop and Charge Fielding Drill
Aggressiveness is a common trait of any fielder in baseball. Drop and charge drill is one of the best fielding drills to polish that rage in the baseball field.
The particular drill helps players to work hard, and align their feet when fielding. It also allows them to read a hop as they approach the ball.
How To Perform Drop and Charge Drill?
If you’ve more friends or teammates to participate, fall in line together one by one. The manager should set the ball at the top of his reach.
And then, he’ll drop the ball and dictate the timing of the catch for each player. More specifically, the manager will tell whether a player should catch it on the 1st bounce or second bounce.
When the ball is dropped and the fielder gets a catching point call from the coach, he should run towards the ball, grab it and throw it back to the coach. Afterward, the little nerd should get back to his or her position on the line.
“While catching the ball, the fielder should complete his throwing action but won’t throw it. Instead move in 360-degree and return the ball to the coach”
Also, note that, the fielder should wear his glove while performing the catch. He should use the glove hand for catching and the barehand to follow up throwing motion. After the initial stage, I tell my players to do this completely bare hands.
Advantages
- Players get more understanding on their jumps
- Helps fielders to balance their legs during playing
Basic Target Drill for Fielders
Accuracy is an inevitable skill for baseball fielders. If it’s not conquered at the early stage, believe it or not, the later stage will become tougher.
So, I always keep my practice plan for baseball players with a targeting drill. There are multiple target drills in baseball depending on the accuracy level you want to master.
For kids around ten years, a coach should focus on basic target drills first. This drill is helpful to upgrade kids’ targeting and throwing skills simultaneously.
How To Perform Basic Target Drill?
To perform this drill, you need an open space. Let’s assume you’ve a partner in crime. Ask him to take a position anywhere. Then take your position within 20 ft. distance from your partner. Both you and the other buddy should wear gloves during the session.
You should visualize or create a boundary, either square or circular around you with shoe cleats.
Next, your partner should throw the ball pointing to you from his place. You catch the ball and then throw it back to your partner at the other side.
Try to be inside the boundary while catching or throwing the ball back. While throwing your ball, your goal is to toss it towards the guy this side without making him move from this position.
Make this drill a little more interesting in the advanced level. At that stage, your partner should stay in his place, but you shouldn’t.
Instead, your partner or coach should throw the ball in different directions every time. You’ve to run towards the ball and throw it back to the target guy. To make it more challenging, increase the distance between both players.
Advantages
- Improves accuracy of the fielders
- Develops throwing or tossing strength gradually
- Increases running and leg stamina
Knee Fielding Drill
Like cricket, in baseball, there are also some rules while grabbing or catching a ball such as side steps and crossover steps. These are fundamental techniques a baseball fielder should learn. The knee fielding drill helps players learn these basic techniques.
It may seem like an easy technique, but with some tweaking, this drill can become more challenging. But start with the basic drill style first.
How To Perform Knee Drill?
Tell the kid to wear gloves. The kid should take his fielding position at a distance from you (around 20-30 ft.) Then throw the ball with low strength towards him for the first time. He must use the right footwork while grabbing the ball. So, look at his movement carefully.
For example, if he stops the ball on his throwing hand side, he should bend down his knees and place the hands down to the ground to catch the ball. Take a look at the picture for reference.
After fielding the ball, he should throw it back to you. And then again throw the ball to him, but this time make it a little right to the kid. He’ll field the ball in the right manner and throw it back to you again. Similarly, go for the left side also.
You should gradually increase the throwing speed after a few days. Throw the ball with medium strength after a while. But don’t make it tough on the first day. Let him adapt to the situation.
Advantages
- Creates the foundation of techniques for fielders
- Improves throwings skills of the players
- If prioritizing, develops targeting skills
- A great drill to learn leg balance for kids
Frequently Asked Questions
How to improve your 10 year old kid’s batting?
To improve your kid’s batting skills, emphasize on the batting or hitting drills more. Without practice and patience, you can’t help him bring out his max potential. Make a practice plan for him.
For kids around 10 to 12 years, never make a long training chart. It’ll make them frustrated and tired. Instead, make a 1-2 hours plan and try to keep it at least 5-6 days a week.
Make him friendly with the basic hitting drills such as Beat Goalie, RAB (Ready, Aim, Bunt), and Contact Point drills. I’ve shared how to perform each of these above. In the later stage, you can add some more youth baseball hitting drills in the practice chart.
What are drills for baseball?
Drills are actually practice or exercise approaches for baseball players to improve their performance, balance, and movement during the game.
There are actually hundreds of drills for different purposes in baseball. For example, the primary drills are segmented into 3. These are hitting, pitching and fielding drills.
However, there are broader explanations of drills, which are entitled to improve catching, throwing, conditioning, running, baserunning, defending, and so on.
How to teach your son to hit a baseball harder?
The simplest way to teach your son hard-hitting is by utilizing the batting in different ways. For instance, instead of baseball, set a basketball or soccer ball on the tee. And tell the little folk to hit.
This drill will increase his hitting strength because of the required higher hitting pressure. He should repeat this at least 10 times in a row. After the first set, allow him to rest a bit. And then repeat the drill.
Can soft toss improve hitting skills?
Surely, practicing soft toss regularly can help a baseball batter a lot. This basic drill develops the foundation of hitting by improving swing action mainly.
How should you coach your kids baseball?
To master any sports skill, discipline is a must. Besides, you should follow the below step:
- Create a practice plan for your kids. It should be regular without a big interval between days. Make sure to keep it at least 5 days a week.
- Always keep them rumbling around the ground during practice. Kids tend to ignore boredom, they love fun. Involve their friends or neighborhood toddlers to participate if possible. Let them enjoy their freedom.
- Don’t emphasize on conditioning. This is the common mistake every parent does while teaching their kids baseball. Keep your ego aside. During the early stage, it’s important to learn the technique rather than the power and strength.
- Elbow and shoulder injury is common in little league baseball. And it happens mainly due to over-exercise of the throwing. Since the body joints of kids are relatively weaker than adults, they should practice throwing drills in the limit.
- Another bad habit of parents (even some coaches) is they make bad pitches while kids are doing hitting practices. Even some do this approach intentionally, thinking this will help kids learn unpredictable pitches. You shouldn’t practice this stunt.
- Using different equipment for coaching your kids is a good approach. It makes them feel more dedicated about the training. You can use baseball cones, tennis balls, training golf balls, and training sticks to teach them with better preparation.
- To make the kid more serious about this learning curve, wear their uniform.
What should you do at your 1st baseball practice?
For both coach and players, the first day at the practice ground is special. As a coach, you’ve to create a good impression. Don’t be overwhelmed or rough this day.
Instead, begin the day with primary drills and exercises. Try improvised versions of existing drills so that they find your lessons more unique than their former coach.
Which age is good for starting baseball?
The earlier one can start, the faster (s)he can learn fundamental techniques of baseball. However, 7-10 years is the perfect age for kids to begin their baseball learning.
How to get your kid to hold back weight when hitting?
The easiest way to hold back the weight of your kids during batting is to use a resistance band. Tie the band to his or her hip while batting. Also, tie up the other end of the band with anything solid on their backside.
Use a tee for their batting practice. So, every time they try to hit, the band will pull them backward. This approach will eventually make them habituated to keep the weight on their back.
Wrapping Up
You should always be careful when deciding a practice plan or baseball drills for 10 year olds. Unlike teenage baseball players, they lack physical stamina but have a concrete evolving brain state to learn different techniques faster than us.
Therefore, don’t emphasize power, instead focus your training chart on fundamental drills. Remember, you can establish their strength with exercises and foods, but it’ll get tougher to develop their strategies at a later stage. Be patient, be progressive. Cheers!
Know More About Baseball Coaching:
7 Youth Baseball Hitting Drills – Hit To Stars Like A Pro!
The Best Baseball Practice Plan Prepared By Real Coach
What Is a Foul Ball in Baseball? An Unforgivable Violation!
How Long Does A Baseball Game Last Based On The Last 10 Seasons!
Hello everyone. My name is Jason Butler, and I live in California, America. I was a professional AAA Minor League Baseball player. I lost my chance of playing MLB for injury issues, but I did not lose my love for baseball. I attended the coaching training program and am now working as a coach in a small school in San Diego.
I always love to share my experience and knowledge if that can help you. Play baseball, and stay fit.