Baseball Drills - Taters

  Here's a drill that I love to run with infielders to help our guys perform under pressure and practice making quick exchanges/throws. I learned this drill in college. We called it "Taters" but feel free to come up with whatever name you wish. 
  The basic idea behind this drill is to make throws around the diamond while a baserunner runs. The infield must complete its actions & throws before the baserunner makes it back to home plate. 

​Setup -

• Have a full infield, minus a pitcher - so you have an infielder at 3B, SS, 2B, 1B and C positions. 
• Have several guys with helmets on who will be baserunners. Have the rest of your guys off to the side with their gloves ready, ready to take the field if necessary.

Round 1 -

• Coach hits groundball to the 3B. As coach hits the ball, first baserunner takes off for 1B and begins to circle the bases.
• 3B fields ball and makes throw to first.
• 1B throws around the horn - throwing to 2B, who throws to SS, who throws to 3B who then throws to C. 
• C throws back to 1B and you go around the horn again like above, EXCEPT that you skip the 3B player (the one who made the initial ground ball play).
  
• So catcher throws to 1B, 1B throws to 2B, and then the SS skips throwing to the 3B and throws directly home. So, while the infield defense has been going around the horn twice (skipping 3B the 2nd time around), the runner is continuing his single lap around the bases.
  
• The OBJECT is for the defense to complete making the initial defensive play and two around the horns before the baserunner reaches home plate. If the defense succeeds, you move on to Round 2! If the defense fails, you immediately switch out all the new fielders. New infield team starts over from Round 1. Switch baserunners as kids get tired/haven't run etc. 

So, round 2 is identical to round 1, except that coach hits the ball to the SS. Runner takes off on contact. SS throws to 1B, 1B throws to 2B, 2B to SS, SS to 3B, 3B to C (first around the horn complete). Then C to 1B, 1B to 2B, 2B SKIPS SS and throws to 3B, 3B home and, hopefully, beats the runner. 

So you keep proceeding like this until the defense has been successful with groundballs to all defensive positions (3B, SS, 2B, 1B) - this means you'll have 4 rounds. Now, usually, for youth teams, it is pretty difficult to get them to get through the 1st 4 rounds with no mistakes. So you can usually call it good after they get through 4 rounds. If one team makes it look easy, though, or you have a more advanced group you can proceed with Round 5!

In Round 5, you do the same procedure as above EXCEPT that now you're turning double plays. So in round 5, coach hits to 3B (runner takes off for 1B), 3B to 2B to 1B to complete the double play then 1B starts around the horn #1 by throwing to 2B, who throws to SS, who throws to 3B who throws to catcher. Catcher starts the 2nd around the horn by throwing to 1B, who throws to 2B, who throws to SS, who SKIPS 3B and throws directly home and, hopefully, beats the runner. If any error is made, defensive team hustles off the field, new team hustles on and you rotate your baserunners. The new team starts from the very beginning (round 1)

If your team gets through all of the double-play rounds, you can then move onto triple-plays. I don't think I've ever seen a team do that. 

This is a GREAT drill to practice making plays under pressure and causing them to think while under pressure. The baserunner applies natural pressure without the coach having to work a stop watch. The other benefit of that is you get to work on baserunning at the same time. The players have to be able to think/communicate while under pressure because they have to remember to skip the fielder on the 2nd around the horn. It's also a beautiful drill because guys will make mistakes, but the beauty of it is that your team-mates can pick you up. Let's say that the SS makes a bad throw to 1B, the 1B makes a great scoop to pick up and the play continues. That really pumps up them up. Also, it can teach them to stick with the play even if they make a mistake - if they overthrow a guy, chase the ball down and keep trying - maybe the baserunner will trip, you never know. The coach should be reasonable here, though, if the error is really bad and there's no chance they're going to catch up, kill the play and get a new team out there. Keep it moving. Plus the kids are moving almost constantly, so it's a good conditioning drill, too.