The Best 6 Competitive Offensive Baseball Drills

The Best 6 Competive Offensive Baseball Drills

In this post you will get the best 6 competitive offensive baseball drills I used during my career as a head baseball coach. These drills will give your practice some excitement, energy, and most importantly - force the players to compete!

I'm Coach Ron Kretz and I took low performing teams and turned them into District Champions in year 1 and earned a state ranking as high as #10 by year 3. I take great pride in that all my practice plans had CONSISTENT, ACTIONABLE, REPEATABLE, AND EXACT COACHING POINTS.

We don't have much time with the team, so we have to get to work, cut the fluff, and stress what is most important.

Here are the Best 6 Competitive Offensive Baseball Drills. These are not ranked in any order.

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(1) Six-Out Drill

This is my favorite of all team offensive baseball drills. The reason for it is I know how long it will last, the offense get work, the defense plays a live ball with baserunners, and the players compete like hell.

Purpose: To create pressure in our live batting practice station and to simulate the final six outs of the game when trying to come from behind.

Procedure: Approximately a 20-35 minute live batting practice station with a full defense. The hitters will bat in a live game situation trying to get the tying run on base and hit in the winning run before six consecutive outs are recorded. Once six consecutive outs are recorded the hitting group is done.

The best way to do this is divide the players at practice into group. Each group will need a minimum of 5 and a max of 10. Another idea that worked for me was having the starting 9 bat in order. Lastly, have the 10th player "pinch-hit" at any time during the drill. This makes it more game-like. You can also use extra players as "pinch-runners" or "courtesy runners."

Coaching Point: Develop teamwork and confidence by creating situations in which individuals will come through in the clutch. The head coach can also work on a situation he wants to see the team gain confidence in; like runner on second or runner on first and third. You name it, you can do it.

Note: Even though we would like to produce runs you may get a group that is “HOT” and bat forever. In this case, announce to the team they can bat for 6 consecutive outs or 7 minutes; whichever comes first. On the other hand, you may have a group cold as ice and after 6 batters, the group is done. They have to produce to stay hitting. This can be a varsity only practice or have the varsity hit with the JV on defense.

(2) Carry the Guy Drill

This is my second favorite of all team offensive baseball drills. This is a little quicker if the hitters can't get on base and also has the potential to build frustration, but roll with it. The hitters have to put the ball in play and produce. If not, they will go straight back to defense.

Purpose: To create a live offensive pressure which helps players learn how to come through in a difficult situation.

Procedure: Approximately a 20-35 minute live batting station with a full defense. The hitters will bat in a live game situation trying to help keep the rally alive. The hitter will hit for the allotted time or until 9 total outs can be made. Once the nine outs are made or the time is up the hitters are done with the station.

This goes by quick. 9 total outs and the group is done hitting. But if you have a "hot" group you can tell them 7 minutes or 9 total outs. What ever comes first.

Coaching Point: Create a way to get on base and to keep the inning alive. Use extra players as runners or hitters as needed.

Note: Very similar to the Six-Out Drill except the outs are non-consecutive.

(3) Offensive Situations

This is an offensive drill because you are working to score runs. But this is one of the baseball communication drills that work best because everything is done on the field with an offense and a defense. Moreover, the coaches can be in the "box" directing the runners.

Purpose: To create an environment in which the offense must execute a given offensive play.

Procedure: Group hitting and executing and a full team defense playing the ball.

Coaching Point: Third base coach will give an offense signal, the offensive players will acknowledge they received it, and then they must execute the sign. As the offense is working on their execution, the defense must execute their actions to stop a run from scoring or getting an out.

Note: I usually did this with the starting line-up and base coaches. We would run this drill exactly like a game and the team had to execute. Every now and then call in a pinch-hitter, pinch-runner, or courtesy-runner. Make it as game-like as possible.

All of this is done with batting practice pitching. For this drill we usually went 7 minutes with the starting 9, 7 for the reserves, and then 7 more for the starters.

(4) Four Man Intra-Squad

This is one of those high school baseball drills that make practice fun and energizing. The kids love it because there is no standing around, it's fast paced, and they get the chance to play defense, hit, and baserun. Most importantly, the players get a chance to compete and the coach gets a chance to see who can produce under stress.

Purpose: To create live offensive pressure to execute an offensive play. To develop base running skills when the ball is hit, to develop hitting skills for a particular situation, and to develop a team defense in reaction to the hit ball.

Procedure: Approximately a 20-35 minute live batting station with a full defense. The hitters will execute a given play and the base runners will execute as well. The defense will defend all hit balls as if in a game.

Coaching Point: Play solid defense and offensively keep the ball in play.

I wrote a baseball drills pdf about this part of practice. The PDF Ebook name is 4 Man - 4 Team Practice Plan.

This is a pre-designed practice plan that will allow you to work on situational hitting, game-like defense, and game-speed baserunning. All of this happens simultaneously in a highly structured intrasquad game.

This practice moves along fast as there are four rotations with each rotation moving at a specific time decided by the coach.

Excellent practice plan when you are the only coach on the field.

(5) Indoor Practice with Limited Space

Purpose: If you are forced to practice inside a gym you do have options. Of course, the players will wear the proper footwear and the safety of player/facility will be protected as well.

Procedure: Set up practice indoors with the equipment needed. In this case, the team is working on hitting. So the team can set up sock nets, buckets of baseballs, bats, and tees. The players can work on tee drills and soft toss drills.

Using the lines on the gym floor, the hitters can work on bunting.

Coaching Point: When forced inside, there is no reason not to practice. Lead your team and find a way to get work done in a gym. These are just two ideas. I am sure you can think of more.

(6) Knockout

So far we have talked about "team" offensive baseball drills. This is one of the kid's favorite and fun baseball drills that is known as the baseball knockout drill.

Purpose: To create a competitive game-like situation in which a player must execute a predetermined skill. Skills to execute can be a successful sacrifice bunt, squeeze bunt, hit and run, stolen base, throwing to a target, and anything else you can think of.

Procedure: Decide what skill is to be done, set it up, and then have the players go one by one or in groups and compete. One example is having a set of cones set out in front of home plate. The coach will throw a pitch and the player needs to bunt the ball between the cones in order to keep going. If a player is not able to execute, the player is knocked out and the rest of the group keeps going until one player is left.

Take your base stealing players and place a cone at first base. This cone will be the furthest they can get a lead off first base. Have a catcher and a pitcher. On the pitch, the base runner will attempt to steal second base and the catcher will attempt to throw them out. If safe, the base runner keeps going and this continues until there is one person left.

To make it fair, the pitcher is able to hold the runner on and attempt a pick-off. The baserunner is out is picked off or thrown out at second.

Coaching Point: Great way to start or end a practice. Compete with game-like skills. Use maybe once a week or during some down time. Reward the winner.

In Conclusion

I guarantee these 6 offensive baseball drills will add energy to your practice! I promise the players will compete because they can see instant results for their efforts and I know you'll like these drills because you can see the team execute game-like skills at game-like speed in game-like situations. It's a win for everyone.

Want more baseball practice ideas, be sure to read Coaching Baseball Successfully by NCAA Hall of Fame Coach Andy Lopez. This book is an excellent baseball resource.

Get the Coach Lopez practice plan.

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