• Use these baseball drills to keep practice fun.baseball kids image by Linda Mattson from Fotolia.com
  
  Keeping practice fun and interesting is a challenge for any youth baseball coach. The best way to keep your players focused is to run fast-paced drills so there is little time to stand around. Each drill should teach a few baseball fundamentals in a situation that resembles a live game. If you have enough players, you can divide them into two teams for each drill and make it competitive by keeping score.
  
  

Hitting

• Set a plastic cone behind the shortstop's position near the edge of the outfield grass. Set another cone near the edge of the outfield grass behind the second baseman's position to split the field into three sections. Use black electrical tape to divide home plate into three zones. Stand behind a screen near the mound and pitch batting practice to your players. Have each batter say aloud whether the pitch was on the inside, outside or middle of the plate. If the pitch is inside, the batter should try to pull it and drive the ball with power. Instruct the batter to drive middle pitches back toward the pitcher and outside pitches to the opposite field.
  
  

Bunting

• Find a clear area of the field where the players will not be at risk of being hit by balls from other drills. Set a portable base down as a makeshift home plate and use two plastic cones on each side to mark the first and third base lines. You can either pitch to your players or have them rotate in at the pitcher's spot, depending on their ages. You do not want to encourage the batters to bunt at bad pitches, so it is important that the pitcher is old enough to have good control. Pitch 10 balls to each batter and keep track of how many balls were successfully bunted inside the two lines of cones.
  
  

Baserunning

• This base running drill will improve your players' conditioning. Have one player start off in the batter's box with one player on first base and another player on second base. The rest of the team will stand in a line behind home plate. Place an assistant coach in the third base coaching box while you stand in front of home plate facing the outfield. Hit a ball out into the field in any direction. Since there are no fielders, every ball should be played like a base hit. If the ball is hit on the ground, the player at home plate should run hard to first base in a straight line. The other two runners will run hard into the next base. If the ball is hit in the air, the batter will run hard to first and round the base as if deciding whether to advance on a double or triple. The runners on first and second should watch the third base coach's signals to determine whether to tag up or advance to the next base.