Conditioning Baseball Drill - Alternative to Running Sprints

Friday Base Running & Conditioning Tips Stop, Go, Stop, Go Conditioning Baseball Drill

Running sprints is common and necessary for baseball players, as the game requires short to long bursts of speed. Of course, running sprints is also great for conditioning. Sometimes overlooked though, is that baseball also requires the ability to stop on a dime and either reverse course, or gather one's body to run again, throw, or catch the ball.

English: Outfielder DeWayne Wise, baseball player for the Chicago White Sox, standing after stealing second base in a game on July 1, 2008. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Conditioning Baseball Drill

A good warm-up and conditioning drill that helps these quick starts and stop has baseball coaches set a ball, or two or three, in any direction and distance away from players, who start in a good athletic position, as when in the infield or base stealing position.

Upon the coach's point in a direction of ball, players sprint to the ball, stop, and act to throw, or pick it up before running to the next ball pointed to. Coaches can have players use a glove for the drill, use throws or not, and direct players to pick ball up in a desired way (left hand, right hand, back hand, square up, jump-throw, turn and throw, etc"¦)

This is a good conditioning drill while working on the quick stops and starts, and footwork necessary in baseball and is a drill that is easily turned into a fun team contest, also.