5 Fun Baseball Drills for 7-Year-Olds

Now that the fall baseball season has arrived, I've been scouring the internet for fun baseball drills for my 7-year-old.

Sure, he's going to get excellent instruction from his coaches, but he loves the game enough to want to do baseball drills in the backyard on days he doesn't have practice or a game.

Luckily, I came across five youth baseball drills that will develop his fundamentals and love for the game at the same time.

Hope you enjoy them!

Two Ball

How to do the drill:

1. Stand in front of your child with two balls.
2. Underhand toss both balls to your child at the same time.
3. Your child tries to catch both balls in the air.
4. Your child underhand tosses the balls back to you.
5. Repeat!

What it helps: A few things, but particularly hand-eye coordination for catching.

Make it fun: Give your child a point every time they catch both balls. Keep track and challenge them to break their score the next time. Or make it a game between the two of you!

Make it challenging: Use two different size balls (like a baseball and softball).

Make it REALLY challenging: Have your child begin the drill with their back to you! When you say, "Go!", toss the balls to your child. When they hear you say, "Go!", your child has to turn around, quickly find the balls in the air and catch them.

Around the Clock

How to do the drill:

1. Stand face to face with your child, about 15-20 feet apart, with your gloves and a baseball.
2. Tell your child that for this drill they are a clock, and their glove is the hands of the clock moving around with the time.
3. Yell out a time on the clock, like, "3 o'clock!" 🕒
4. Throw a ball to your child that corresponds to the time you called out.
5. Repeat, calling out different times.

What it helps: Glove positioning and catching.

Make it challenging: Speed the game up, calling out the times faster and faster!

Knock It Off

How to do the drill

1. Set up a tee about 15-20 feet away from your child.
2. Put a large ball, like a soccer ball, on the tee.
3. Place a bucket of baseballs next to your child.
4. Give them a baseball.
5. Have your child throw a baseball at the tee, trying to hit the large ball and knock it off.

What it helps: Throwing accuracy 🎯

Make it fun: See how many times your child can knock the large ball off the tee in 10 tries. Keep track of your child's best score so they can try to beat it next time!

Make it challenging: Move the tee farther back. Or to the left. Or to the right. Or to the left and farther back! Anything to increase the distance or change the angle of your child's throw.

Make it extra challenging!: Put a smaller ball on the tee and see if your child can knock it off.

The Boulder

How to do the drill

1. Set up a tee.
2. Instead of placing a baseball on it, use a soccer or volleyball.
3. Have your child get into a strong, athletic batting stance.
4. When you say, "Go!", they swing and hit the ball.

What it helps: Swinging at a heavier ball helps your child to focus on doing a full follow-through.

Make it fun: Come up with a point system -- 1 point for groundballs, 2 points for line drives, 3 points for a home run (just come up with some marker where any hit that lands beyond it is a home run) -- and keep track of how well they score after, say, 10-15 hits.

Hats Off

How to do the drill

1. Stand face to face with your child, about 15-20 feet apart.
2. Have your child take their hat off, turn it upside down and put it in their mouth.
3. Tell your child to get in good fielding position: feet shoulder-width apart, body bent low, and hands out in front of them.
4. Roll a groundball to your child.

What it helps: Making sure your child gets their hands out in front when fielding a ground ball. With the hat partially blocking their vision, they won't be able to see the ball into the glove without extending their hands out to the ball.