The Sharks & Minnows Baseball Drill is an excellent way to teach several baseball lessons while playing a school yard game the kids are familiar with! This is a perfect drill for indoor practice, but can be executed outside as well... You must have a tee, bat, ball and gloves set aside. The coaches will start off as the 'sharks' and the team as the 'minnows.' Set-up a batting order, with the first player starting on the tee. The rest of the players will start on a line (or wall) behind the batter. The coaches (or sharks) will start in the field, a safe distance away from the batter. The batter will wait for the coach's sign to swing. Once given the signal to swing, he/she hits and makes sure he/she places the bat directly in front of the tee.
IF they throw the bat, a whistle is blown and everyone must go back! This is to teach players to not throw the bat after they swing. Once the ball has been hit, the rest of the players/minnows can now run. This teaches the runners to run on contact. For older players, make sure they tag up on fly balls or run immediately on grounders... The base-runners must get to the other wall or line before the coach (or shark), retrieves the ball and tags him/her. Once a minnow is tagged he/she must put their glove on and become a shark.
IF a player who is now a shark tags a minnow with a ball in the glove and two hands on the ball, he /she can become a minnow again! Run through the order, or until your allotted time is over. This is a great way to start or end practice. Each player gets a swing on the tee, learns how to run on contact, fields and tags the runner properly with two hands. Remember, the object of practice is to try and keep it fun, while teaching the fundamentals.
Sam Golubov
President, SportsMechanics.com
