Types of Warm Up Drills for Softball

Before exerting yourself in any type of sport, warming up is essential to prevent injury. With softball, warm-up drills loosen up arm muscles and allow team members to practice before beginning the activity. Drills can include running, throwing and hand-eye coordination practices. Before the game, incorporate warm-up drills to practice scenarios like catching, throwing to the infield or home plate and hitting balls into the outfield.

  1. Stretching

    • Before practice drills, it is important to stretch to warm up muscles to reduce injury. Stretch the biceps and triceps by standing up straight and bringing one arm across the upper body, and gently pushing the arm into the chest. Do the stretch on each arm for about 10 seconds. Stretch the hamstrings by standing up straight and gently bending down to touch your toes, keeping your legs locked at the knee. Don't bounce up and down. Instead, slowly rise and then descend down into another stretch. The muscles will continue to stretch and limber up throughout the practice drill. Finish stretching with a light jog around the playing field. If you still feel a little cold, do a second lap around the field.

    Outfield Warm-up

    • The warm-up for outfielders is similar to those of infield, except the coach hits fly balls or line drives into the outfield, and the outfielders throw the ball to the cut-off man between the field at the base or directly to a base--wherever the coach tells them. Working the outfield has additional advantages because the whole team is working together through plays while warming up their arms and legs.

    Running Bases

    • To be sure each player is playing up to her potential, have the team line up at home plate and have each girl run around the bases as fast as they can. Once a player has reached the first base bag, have the second girl should begin running around the bases until they get to home plate. Make it a competition by encouraging each girl to try and catch to the girl in front of her. By making this a competition, each player will run harder.

    Infield Warm-up

    • Since the infield sees most of the action, running through drills will keep each player aware of where they need to throw the ball to get the opponent out. While going through the drills, team members will warm up their throwing arm and get focused on following the action. An infield warm-up consists of a coach or player at home plate lightly hitting balls to the third baseman, shortstop and second baseman so they catch and throw to first base. The coach also can hit balls to the first baseman to catch and either throw to the second baseman who is covering first base in the event of a bunt or short hit, or catch the ball and run to first base to get the runner out.