Adding Drills to Practice

The Practice Planner includes a library of 240+ baseball and softball drills. This guide covers how to find drills, add them to your practice, and work with custom drills.

Drill Access: Premium vs. Public

The drill experience differs based on your account type.

Premium Users

Premium users have full access to the entire drill database. You can filter drills by:

Sport: Baseball or Softball
Category and Subcategory: Narrow down to exactly the type of work you need
Difficulty: Beginner, Intermediate, or Advanced
Age Group: Matched to your team's age setting
Favorites: Quick access to drills you have saved

Public Users

Public users have access to 10 default beginner drills:

Dynamic Warm-up
Partner Throwing
Tee Work
Ground Ball Fundamentals
Base Running Basics
Catch and Throw
Soft Toss
Fly Ball Practice
Cool Down Stretches
Scrimmage

These drills cover the fundamentals and are enough to build a solid practice. Premium unlocks the full library with 240+ drills across every category and skill level.

Drill Metadata

Each drill in the library includes the following information:

Title: Clear, descriptive name
Summary: Short description of what the drill works on
Sport: Baseball, Softball, or both
Duration: Recommended time to run the drill
Player Requirements: Minimum number of players needed
Equipment: What gear is required
Detailed Steps: Step-by-step instructions for running the drill
Coaching Points: Key teaching cues and common mistakes to watch for
Categories: Which skill areas the drill develops
Video URL: Link to a demonstration video (where available)

Adding Drills to Your Practice

From the Drill Library

While in the Build step of the practice planner:

Click on a block or station where you want to add a drill
Open the drill library browser
Use filters to narrow results by sport, category, subcategory, difficulty, and age group
Click a drill to add it to the selected block or station

The drill is added with its default recommended duration, which you can adjust.

Adjusting Drill Duration

Once a drill is in your timeline, resize it by dragging the edge of the drill block. The practice timeline updates automatically to reflect the new duration, and total time used vs. available time recalculates.

Drag Drills Between Stations

You can rearrange your practice by dragging drills from one station to another. This makes it easy to rebalance stations or reorganize the flow without removing and re-adding drills.

Special Blocks

Two block types exist outside the drill library:

Team Meeting: A non-drill block for huddles, announcements, or lineup reviews
Stretching: A non-drill block for warm-up or cool-down stretching

These are added directly as blocks rather than selected from the drill library.

Custom Drills (Premium)

Premium users can create and save custom drills to their team library.

Creating a Custom Drill

Click "Create Custom Drill" in the drill library
Fill in the drill details: title, summary, sport, duration, player requirements, equipment, steps, and coaching points
Assign categories so the drill appears in the right filters
Save to your team drill library

Using Custom Drills

Custom drills appear alongside library drills when browsing. They are filtered the same way and can be added to any block or station. Custom drills are saved to your team, so they persist across practices.

When to Create Custom Drills

You have a drill unique to your coaching style or team
You modified a standard drill and want to save the variation
You want to document a drill learned from a clinic or another coach
Your league or organization has specific drills they require

Drill Order and Flow

Recommended Sequencing

Within a station or block, arrange drills from easier to harder:

Warm-up or mechanics-focused drill first
Main skill work in the middle
Competitive or game-like drill at the end

Example hitting station:

Tee Work (mechanics focus)
Soft Toss (timing)
Live BP (game situation)

Reordering Drills

Drag drills up or down within a station to change the order. The timeline adjusts automatically.

Equipment Tracking

Every drill in the library lists its required equipment. As you add drills to your practice, the planner automatically aggregates all equipment into a master checklist. This checklist appears on your exported PDF so you know exactly what to bring to the field.

Tips for Drill Selection

Match Drills to Your Setup

Use your field constraint setting (Full Field, Batting Cage, Bullpen, Infield Only, Misc) to guide drill choices. A fly ball drill does not make sense if you only have a batting cage.

Consider Coach Count

If you have one coach, choose drills that the whole group can do together. If you have multiple coaches, station-based drills with smaller groups are more effective.

Balance Repetition and Variety

Players improve through repetition, so do not change every drill every practice. Keep core drills consistent for 3-4 weeks while rotating in new ones to maintain engagement.

See drills in action with sample practices:

Complete Guide to Running Youth Baseball Practice - Practice planning philosophy