Baseball Target Drills help to improve fielder throwing accuracy. The Target Drill can be done with outfielders or infielders with just a few minor differences. For this set of instructions, I will describe how to run it with infielders.
When to use Baseball Target Drill
This drill works best if you break your team down into smaller 4-5 player groups. One player in the group will start out as the “target”. The target player will grab a baseball bucket and sit on it near first base with their fielding glove on. As balls are thrown to them, the target player cannot move from the bucket. This forces the fielders to make accurate throws. The remaining players in the group take their gloves and line up behind the shortstop position, just off of the infield in the left field grass. Place four baseballs on the ground between second base and third base. (The baseballs will be in one spot, not spaced out.)
When the drill begins, the first fielder runs up and grabs a baseball, throwing it to the target player sitting on the bucket near first base. The fielder then runs to the third baseline, touches it with their hand, and runs back to the remaining three baseballs. Repeat the throws and runs until all four baseballs have been thrown. Once that player has completed the drill, they move to the bucket and become the target, and the original target player collects the four baseballs and resets them in between second and third before going to the back of the fielding line. The next fielder in line moves up and starts the drill once the new target player is ready. If a ball gets past the target fielder, they need to remain on the bucket until all four balls have been thrown.
There is also a way to make this drill a competition between two teams of fielders. Set up the drill exactly as described above, but also set up a second 4-5 player team to compete with them. Team 2 will line up behind the second base fielding position and throw to a target fielder sitting on a bucket near third base. The drill is run exactly the same.
Instruction Points for Baseball Target Drill
Make sure to watch the fielders closely to make sure that they aren’t rushing their throws in order to “win” the speed portion of the drill. The point of the drill is to improve throwing accuracy, but if they focus too much on speed, their accuracy might suffer instead of improving. Also, if you have two teams competing with each other on the same infield, make sure they are aware of each other during their throws, especially when one team’s target player is resetting baseballs after a player completes their throws.
