11 Helpful and Fun Baseball Drills for 7-Year-Olds

I have a nephew turn 7 years old recently and my brother-in-law has been trying to teach him how to play baseball. It has been a bit of a struggle so I have been researching some drills to help him learn the basics.

Here are some drills to teach and practice with your child. 

These drills will first be mentioned for use with a team, for a coach to use and then for helping your child alone at home. 

1. The Moving Tee Drill

This drill is designed to help 7-year-olds get used to pitches in different positions. Most 7-year-olds are not great at hitting yet so this drill will help with hitting as a skill and adjusting to live-action pitches. 

It also is fun because every kid loves to swing a bat around. You might want to make sure helmets are attached for this one. 

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Set up multiple tees if available and spread apart for safety.
2. Have the one player step up to each tee.
3. Coaches or volunteer parents will place the ball on the tee.
4. The player will hit off the tee using the correct form.
5. Raise or lower the height of the tee and place a new ball on top.
6. Continue this cycle until each player has hit 5 – 10 balls.
7. Have the players collect the balls they have hit.
8. Switch up the batters.

Something to keep in mind is that players should never be sitting around. Have the players be engaged, always. Keeping practice fun and helpful for everyone is going to make it beneficial and enjoyable, even if some skills aren’t developing.

For this drill, you can separate the team and do stations. This will get rid of any issue of kids standing around with nothing to do.

Another possibility is to have some of the team out in the field gathering the balls. Stations will allow more willingness though. 

How to Adapt this to 1-on-1 Work at Home

If you are working on baseball skills with your 7-year-old at home, you can do this drill at home. There are tee’s available for purchase online or in sporting stores. 

For help on teaching your 7-year-old how to hit a baseball, click here. 

After your child has learned the basic hitting form, adapting the height of the ball for batting is a key step to being able to hit in an actual game. 

2.  The Base Coach Drill

This is a base-running drill. In this exercise, the child will learn to run to each base by listening to the first base coach. Encouraging the 7-year-olds will be a key part to having fun in this drill. 

Drills like this can be super useful for the beginning 7-year-olds who need to come acquainted to the baseball diamond. 

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Line up the team behind the home plate.
2. Have coaches on the first base line and the third place line.
3. One at a time, yell “run” and have the player at the front of the line run through first.
4. As the runner approaches, say either “stay at First” or “run to Second.”
5. Tell the next player in line to run, and repeat #4.
6. The player already on base will run and listen to the instructions from the third base coach.

Running this drill may be a little confusing in the beginning to the players but going through it once will help. 

Emphasize in this drill listening to the coaches. It will speed up the base running process because they won’t have to guess where to run or slow down at the wrong time.

How to Use this Drill at Home

Parents practicing with their 7-year-old outside of practice can set up cones or markers to symbolize the distance between bases. The same basics apply. Stand at the first base point and call for your child to start running. Tell him or her to stay at first or keep running. 

If there can be an older sibling or another parent stand at the third base coach position, this drill will go even more smoothly at home.  

If you need a bigger space to practice in, go to a park, a local baseball diamond, or even a local indoor recreational facility if the weather is bad. 

3. Play “How Many”

This game or drill is quite a fun game when the kids know it is a competition. One way to make any drill fun is to split the kids into teams and put them against each other; this makes the drill seem to have an end goal. 

This drill is probably called many things but the gist of it is pretty simple.

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Have players pair up.
2. Have half of the players stand on the field line, and the other half stand 15-20 feet apart (all equally distant).
3. Tell the players to toss back and forth.
4. Have them count how many catches are completed without dropping a catch.
5. Once a pair has dropped a catch, have them sit in the grass.
6. Last pair standing wins.
7. Repeat at least once.

This game uses competition to encourage players to be careful about throwing the ball. It also raises the stakes a little bit make the team perform the best. Putting teammates against each other makes it a little bit more fun as well. 

After a couple rounds, widening the gap between the players can make the game more challenging too. 

 How to Use this Drill at Home

Using this drill at home will be less of a competition with teammates and more about making a personal best. Grab a glove and join in with your son or daughter. Count how many catches are made in a row and start over when a ball is missed.

Laughing about mistakes that are made in this game to make it helpful and enjoyable.

4. Bucket Ball

This is a drill to work on throwing accuracy. 7-year-olds can have some distance to their throws but these throws may not be very accurate. Having an indisputable target to aim at is helpful. This drill also helps because the players have to field the ball. 

In this drill, you will need 2 buckets. 5-gallon will be perfect because it is a larger target. 

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Place the buckets on home plate, one over the other (the bottom bucket should be weighted and the top empty).
2. Split the team into two. Team A will be in the second base position and Team B should be in Short Stop position.
3. Alternating the teams, hit or throw a ground ball to the first player.
4. Tell players to aim for the top bucket.
5. Hitting the top bucket earns 3 points, 5 points for knocking it over and one point for correctly fielding.

Playing this game will help with grounders and throwing out. One thing to emphasize is accuracy instead of strength. Wild throws are often just throws that are focused on speed instead of hitting the target. 

It’s fun and challenging and engages a lot of fielding skills which is great.

Don’t forget to pause and correct common errors during the drill as well. 

How to Use this Drill at Home

This drill outside of practice will be better executed on a grass-less surface so grounders could be hit to your child. This little game will be the same at home, just no competition. Use the same instructions, just without the “making teams” bit. 

It’s best to keep this practice drill away from any windows!

5. Soft Toss Drill 

This drill is a hitting drill intended to teach a child to hit from a pitch. There should be a couple tries given to each member of the team during this drill and there should also be some team members out in the defensive position as well, so everyone is practicing something. 

Something to keep in mind is that players should never be sitting around. Have players engaged in practice, always.

Soft toss is a great way to engage players because hitting is arguably the best part of playing baseball.

How to Play

Start with one player at bat, at fill in the fielding positions without everyone else. It is always good to inform the players who will be batting next, to avoid complaining and time-wasting.

Stand or kneel about 15 feet away from the batter and toss the ball underhand. If the player misses, gently correct any missteps.

Be patient.

Toss another. Allow each player at least one hit, even if it doesn’t go far.

After each hit, pause and let the players field the ball. The batter should run to first on the last pitch (and only if the batter is wearing a helmet). 

Rotate the field. Have a new batter come in and the first batter fill in the gap. Repeat this until every player has had a chance to bat.

How to Use this Drill at Home

You can use this drill 1-on-1 by tossing the ball underhand to your 7-year-old over and over. This way the child will get more batting practice than in a group setting.

I highly recommend using this drill to practice with your child individually. 

6. Running Relay

Relaying is another base running drill but it is one of the most fun drills for the kids. The players are split into two even teams and they are pit against each other. 

This is actually one of my favorite drills that I remember when I was learning how to play softball. 

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Split the team into two groups evenly (if there is an odd number someone will run twice.
2.  Group A will start at home plate and Group B will start at second base.
3. With the blow of a whistle, the first person from both Groups A and B will run around all the bases.
4. Once the runner has returned back to the team, the next member will go.
5. Repeat this until all the members have finished their run. Whoever finishes first wins.

An amazing thing about this drill is that the members of the team will cheer each other on. Encourage cheering and discourage any “booing”. A skill learned in this drill is baserunning. 

To learn more about to round the bases, watch this video. 

How to Use this Drill at Home

Running this drill outside of practice will require some adjustments. Instead of racing against another person, you could time your 7-year-old. Including another sibling or perhaps running against your child can be an alternative. 

7. Beat the Throw

This drill helps teach fielding and hustle to the kiddos. Something that is really beneficial about this drill is the kids fielding get to learn how to cover a bag. 

This is a basic drill in which you have a fielder at the first base position and fielders at second base and short-stop. The rest of the team should line up behind you. Hit a grounder to either second or SS. As soon as you hit the ball, the first person in line behind you should run to first.

The fielder throws to the first baseman trying to get the runner out and the runner tries to beat the throw.

It’s as simple as that. 

A skill that the player at first base learns is to move from first base position to cover the base and be ready for the throw.

This drill is really hard to replicate at home so it maybe is not the best option for individual practice. 

8. Mine! Mine! Drill

This is a drill designed to help 7-year-olds become more comfortable with catching pop-ups. Pop-flies can be scary to some and starting off with basics will be essential to build up the confidence of the players. 

To perform this drill, have players start on their knees in a horizontal line. Toss a ball up in the air, right to them. After the 7-year-olds have built some assurance in themselves, have them stand and move to the ball slightly. 

After a few practices, hit the fly balls to your players.

Each time you throw/hit a ball to your player, have them shout, “MINE!” loudly and firmly. Doing this may seem silly by it will teach these 7-year-olds to communicate and commit to catching the fly ball. 

For more insight on how to teach the proper techniques and form to your 7-year-olds, watch this video. It features an MLB player, so he really knows what he is talking about.

How to Use this Drill at Home

You can use this drill at home with ease. Just toss some high ball into the air with your son or daughter. If they toss back to you, you can show them how to properly catch the ball. 

9. Hot Potato Relay

This ball relay is a simple drill to help improve the basic skills of catch and throw to the members of the team. It also demands some accuracy for the relay to go smoothly. 

You don’t use a real potato for this drill.

Line up the members in the team across the field. They should have one person in front of them and one person in back of them (unless they are the end) and should have at least 10 feet in between each teammate. The person at the start of the line will be the first throw.

Try to make it to the end of the line without dropping any passes. If this drill goes well at first, increase the distance between players.

Another option is try to make it down the line and back without any errors.

To make this drill even more exciting, coaches can always split the players into two teams and have them race. The goal is to be quick but accurate and this method underlines that. 

What is important to remember here is that the players may drop the balls but the skills should improve over the course of the season. Especially with 7-year-olds, errors will be made. 

This is not really a drill for 1-on-1 practice either. To practice throwing, use the “how many” game. 

10. Hard-Hitter Drill

Hard hitter is letting each member of the team hit one or two balls and letting the ball land where it may. After everyone has hit, the players go stand by the ball they hit.

The coach can let the batters hit off a tee or underhand lob a pitch. Using a tee provides more equality and may lead to less players complaining. 

Basically, this drill is designed to see who can hit the farthest. Letting the players have more than one try is helpful because confidence can go down in players who struggle with hitting.

Something to watch out for with this in practice is to make sure uplifting comments are given.

Perfection is not the goal, rather it is improvement.

This drill can be done either on the infield or out in the grass. In the grass, the ball will roll less and so the actual hit can be measured differently.

How to Use this Drill at Home

Pitch to your son or daughter and let them hit as hard as they can. Practice with them many times, using a different ball each time, so the distance can be measured.

Praise the hard hits and good batting stance. 

11. Eye on the Ball Fielding Drill

This drill is to help field grounders. A lot of youth baseball players don’t watch the ball go into the glove which can result in fielding errors. This drill is a fun and somewhat silly way to get kids to watch the ball all the way to the glove. 

To help visualize how to really do this drill, watch the beginning of this video.

This drill says to place a ball under the chin of each fielder and then throw a grounder. With the ball tucked under the chin, the 7-year-old will have to physically move his or her head to watch the ball enter the glove.

This exercise adds a little bit of goofiness and fun to the practice and develops good habits. 

Watch later in practice to see if this grounder drill has stuck. If not, use it again and again. 

How to Use this Drill at Home

This drill can be used on an individual basis. Using a hard surface to practice grounders is recommended and bring an extra ball or use the hat trick.

Related Questions

What are the basic baseball skills by 7-year-old should know? The skills that you should teach to your 7-year-old should include proper batting stance, how to throw correctly, and how to catch. Other skills will develop as your child becomes more familiar with the sport. 

Is baseball a good sport for 7-year-olds to play? Baseball is a great sport to play and 7 is a good age to start. Playing baseball will help your child develop speed and hand-eye coordination.