This is my favorite of all team offensive baseball drills.
This is Part 1 of 6.
The reason you will love this drill is because you as a coach control everything! You are giving your team a controlled environment that also has time constraints.
You are guaranteed to get game-like reps at game-like speed in game-like situations all under a controlled environmental contraints of time or outs. The more a hitting group can produce, the longer they can hit.
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: Set up the field for batting practice using the portable cage (hitting turtle), portable pitching mound, pitching L-screen, and a bucket of baseballs. The pitch will be batting practice (BP) speed. We are looking for contact and reps.
The six out drill will be 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 then hit in the winning run before six consecutive outs are recorded. Once six consecutive outs are made, the hitting group is done.
Now the way you manage time as a coach is to tell the players in your pre-practice meeting how much time they will have hitting. I usually used 7-10 minutes.
What this means is the team can hit and score as much as they can until there are 6 consecutive outs or 7 minutes; whatever comes first. If you as a coach want to hit for 10 minutes, so be it. You're the coach.
The best way to do this is divide the players at practice into groups or make it easy. 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: Divide the players into teams prior to practice, decide on how long the group will hit if they are "hot" and finally decide on a rotation of groups.
You can have a varsity only practice with half on offense and half on defense.
Another way is to have varsity hitting and the jv on defense. To get more hitting done, have half the varsity with a coach hitting in the cages and the other half hitting on the field for 6 outs or 7 minutes and then switch (keeping the jv on defense).
This is great for a baseball class. Lots of reps in little time.