Please share your favorite drill or drills and why. I'll start...
I'm a huge fan of drills that work on multiple fundamentals simultaneously. One of my favorite fielding drills is what I call 4 corners. The drill consists of 4 rounds and each round starts and finishes at home plate. Line up 2-3 players per base. Round 1. The player at home plate rolls the ball to first base. The player at 1 fields the ball, turns glove side and rolls it to second. The player at second fields the ball, turns glove side and rolls the ball to third. This continues all the way around the bases. After each player releases the ball, they sprint to the next base so they will rotate throughout all 4 bases. When the original player who started the round finally reaches home and fields the ball, the round ends. Round 2 consists of rolling to one, fielding, turning glove side throwing to 2, fielding, turning glove side, rolling to 3, fielding...well you get the idea. Roll, throw, roll, throw...again, with every player sprinting to the next base following the ball upon release. Round 3 consists of throwing the ball all the way around, turning gloves side, throw and run. Round 4 seems to be all of my teams favorite. It's a double play round. Player at home starts by rolling to 1 and immediately sprints after the ball. Player at 1 fields the ball and either glove flips or hand flips (depending on the age of the team and skill level) the ball to the player charging from home. That player receives the ball, crossover steps and fires to 2. Player at 2 rolls to 3, charges, receives, crossover steps and shoots home. After handling the ball, each player sprints to the next base. Again, when the player that started the round from home gets back and fields it, the round is over. As the team gets more proficient at the drill, they should get faster with harder rolls, throws, glove side turns etc.
As you can see, this drill works on conditioning, fielding, throwing, turning glove side, quick target acquisition, ball flips, crossover steps, double plays and communication if done properly.
So what's yours?
I'm a huge fan of drills that work on multiple fundamentals simultaneously. One of my favorite fielding drills is what I call 4 corners. The drill consists of 4 rounds and each round starts and finishes at home plate. Line up 2-3 players per base. Round 1. The player at home plate rolls the ball to first base. The player at 1 fields the ball, turns glove side and rolls it to second. The player at second fields the ball, turns glove side and rolls the ball to third. This continues all the way around the bases. After each player releases the ball, they sprint to the next base so they will rotate throughout all 4 bases. When the original player who started the round finally reaches home and fields the ball, the round ends. Round 2 consists of rolling to one, fielding, turning glove side throwing to 2, fielding, turning glove side, rolling to 3, fielding...well you get the idea. Roll, throw, roll, throw...again, with every player sprinting to the next base following the ball upon release. Round 3 consists of throwing the ball all the way around, turning gloves side, throw and run. Round 4 seems to be all of my teams favorite. It's a double play round. Player at home starts by rolling to 1 and immediately sprints after the ball. Player at 1 fields the ball and either glove flips or hand flips (depending on the age of the team and skill level) the ball to the player charging from home. That player receives the ball, crossover steps and fires to 2. Player at 2 rolls to 3, charges, receives, crossover steps and shoots home. After handling the ball, each player sprints to the next base. Again, when the player that started the round from home gets back and fields it, the round is over. As the team gets more proficient at the drill, they should get faster with harder rolls, throws, glove side turns etc.
As you can see, this drill works on conditioning, fielding, throwing, turning glove side, quick target acquisition, ball flips, crossover steps, double plays and communication if done properly.
So what's yours?