Top Five At-Home Baseball Drills Perfect for Your Kids

Why get your kids into baseball? It’s America’s greatest pastime!

In all seriousness, baseball is an amazing sport for kids to pick up and learn. It involves minimal contact, and it’s easier than ever to grab two gloves and play catch or practice batting in an open field.

Future Stars Baseball Camp is great for both newcomers looking to learn more and veterans looking to play at the next level. However, practicing some baseball fundamentals and drills at home is also important. The added benefit? You get to spend more time with your kids!
To help you get started, here are five drills that you can use at home to help your kids practice their baseball skills.

Setting up a Batting Net

Batting is one of the most fundamental skills involved in the game of baseball. When one thinks of baseball, the first thing that comes to mind is hitting a home run and running the bases.
Improving your child’s batting skills takes consistent practice and repetition. What better way to practice batting than setting up a net to practice at home? All you’ll need is the net itself and a space big enough in the backyard to set it up.

Once you have the net set up, you’ll want to start younger kids off with a batting tee to get the motions down and ensure the swing mechanics are solid. You can also mix in some soft pitches yourself once your child feels comfortable with their swing.

That’s all it takes; a simple net can provide endless training opportunities!

“Wall Ball” Baseball Drill

“Wall ball” is one of the most common at-home baseball drills for teaching a child how to catch a ball in different scenarios. All you’ll need are three things:

1. A glove
2. A rubber baseball
3. A wall to throw the ball at

That's it!

To perform the drill, have your child throw the ball at the wall to recreate certain catching scenarios. A few examples include:

• A short hop
• A straight-on catch
• A high bounce
• Pop flys

During the drill, your child can also switch up the intensity of the throws to practice different speeds.

This baseball drill is ideal for teaching children how to react and catch different hits. It also requires very little equipment to set up, making it ideal for home use.

Outfield Transition

The outfield transition drill takes the wall ball an additional step further.

To perform this drill, have your child throw the ball gently into the air, get behind the ball in a catching position, and transition into their throw-ready position after making the catch.

This drill helps kids work on their throwing form since there’s often a base to throw the ball to after making a catch. With practice, your child can seamlessly transition from catching a ball to quickly throwing it on target.

Speed and Agility Drills

Baseball is much more than hitting and catching the ball. Effective footwork contributes to a baseball player’s success!

There are numerous speed and agility drills at your disposal. We use some of these drills at Future Stars since they’re some of the best baseball camp drills. For the best results, having a set of cones can help. Here are some of our favorites.

5-10-5

1. Set up three cones in a line
2. Have your child start at the middle cone, then run to the back cone and touch it
3. From that cone, have them run the full distance to the furthest cone and touch that one
4. Then, have your child run the whole way back and touch once more

This drill helps children learn to stop and go quickly while maintaining speed.

“X” Baseball Drill

1. Set up cones in a square
2. Start in one corner, do a full sprint diagonally across
3. Lateral shuffle to the next cone and touch
4. Lateral shuffle across and touch
5. Pivot ninety degrees, and run to the starting cone
6. Finish by sprinting diagonally once more

“W” Baseball Drill

1. Set up cones in a zig-zag pattern about 5 yards apart
2. Combine sprints and backpedaling while touching each of the cones

These are all great starting points, but each drill is fully customizable. Arrange cones how you want to help your child work on what they need to work on while making practice fun!

Towel Drill

For pitchers (and anyone on defense, for that matter), improper form while throwing a baseball can lead to shoulder injuries over time.

Instead of forcing kids to use an actual baseball to practice their mechanics, the towel drill allows them to craft the perfect form without additional stress on their arms and shoulders.

1. Start by having the child wrap an appropriate towel around their four fingers and secure it with their thumb
2. Get them into their pitch-ready stance, begin the pitching motion, and follow through

The more of a whip sound you get from the towel, the better the follow-through.

Note that you want to hear and see more of the motion from the towel occurring out in front rather than near your child’s shoulder or side!

Have your child run through the motions using the towel drill, and you’ll eliminate a lot of the stress of a real baseball while still working on mechanics.

Take At-Home Baseball Drills to the Future Stars Field!

Is your child ready to take baseball drills to the big field?

Whether you have a baseball veteran or a child who wants to learn the game for the first time, Future Stars Baseball Camp is the perfect place to play! Discover more details about our baseball program below.