Creating a Baseball Practice Plan

Creating a practice plan is the first step towards having a successful and worthwhile practice. There are many youth and even high school coaches who go into a practice with a plan in their own head but not on paper. That’s great for the Head Coach, but then the assistant coaches are left not knowing exactly what to accomplish. When that happens, drills break down and practice time is wasted.

The first step of a practice plan is to know exactly how much time you have with the kids. For the example practice plan I will provide, the practice will be an hour and a half long. As a coach, we should also keep in mind what kind of setting the team will be practicing in, whether it is a baseball field, gym or batting cages. Next, we need to figure out what our main objectives of practice will be, and how much time you would like to spend on each of them. The timing of the drills is very important to a practice plan, set realistic goals for your team. For example, don’t give your players 10 minutes to warm up. A realistic and safe time for the athletes to get warm is between 20-30 minutes if they are doing a proper warm up.

DO NOT GO OVER THE ALOTTED TIME YOU HAVE GIVEN YOUR TEAM FOR A SPECIFIC DRILL. Say you are doing a rundown drill (pickle drill) and you just can’t seem to get things right and you eat up into your teams hitting time. Chances are as a coach you will become frustrated, take away from player’s offensive time, and then become even more frustrated that you did not accomplish everything you wanted to for the practice. Save yourself the headache. If you did not particularly like one aspect of practice, put it back on the practice plan for the next practice. If you stay on time with your plan, you and the athletes will benefit much more.

Be specific with your practice plans, especially if you print multiple copies for your assistant coaches and players. Spend a few minutes going over the practice plan so everyone knows exactly where to go, what to do and how long the drill will last. The couple minutes you spend at the beginning letting everyone know the practice plan, could save your 15 minutes of explanation and confusion later.

Your practice plan should include: practice length, overall practice objectives, drills, and whatever else you as a coach seems necessary.  

Lastly, include an area at the bottom of your practice plan to make notes during practice. These could include drills you liked and disliked, things your team as a whole need to work on in the future and individual player notes. Carry the practice plan with you to make these notes as they come across your mind.

Here is an example practice plan for a 1:30 practice, focused on team defense: