Despite baseball being a team sport, you do not necessarily have to train with a team. This is because you can train alone and hone your individual skills. Some of the baseball skills that are exceptionally easy to learn by yourself include precision hitting, throwing accuracy, and speed sprinting. Perfecting these skills puts you at a better place of becoming a pro baseball player.
Read my article “Best Ways To Practice Baseball Alone” below for more information :
Category
Throwing
Baseball involves a lot of throwing especially if you are playing at the pitcher position. Therefore, working on your throwing is a great skill that you can learn and practice on your own. It is worth noting that the ability to make precise throws comes only through practice. When learning how to throw on your own, you can find inanimate targets such as trees, walls, and other objects that won’t get hurt/break when hit. Using a masking tape, mark an “X” sign on the target object. Try hitting the mark from different distances and correct the errors you seem to make when throwing the ball to the target mark.
Batting
Every baseball player needs to know how to bat perfectly and correctly irrespective of their playing position.
Using a similar setup like that for throwing practices, use a bat to hit the ball and direct it to the marked targets. When practicing batting on your own, you need to be more attentive as you should identify the path of the ball based on your stance and the point at which it comes into contact with the bat. Use this observation to make adjustments and improvements depending on how well you hit the ball. It’s recommended to wear a batting helmet when doing any batting drills.
Sprinting
There are several activities that constitute an integral aspect of playing baseball. One of these activities is sprinting. Ideally, baseball requires players to move promptly from one point to the other such as to the bases, moving across the plates or running to catch fly balls. Practice sprinting by timing how long you take to move a distance equal to the distance between baseball bases. This helps you in realizing how fast or slow you are and make the necessary improvements.
Hand drills
This is arguably the easiest practice you can do alone. When practicing hand drills you only need a surface such as a wall and a ball. Work different skills like short & long hops, forehand & backhand throws, and charge plays among other drills.
Arm strength
Arm strength practices mainly aim at making the arms stronger and possess great power. When seeking to strengthen your arms, you should get a surface such as a wall and several balls to throw at the wall. Throw as much as you can and from various distances to boost your focus at targets and enhance your throwing power.
Swing practice
Swinging greatly influences how good you are in batting. However, swinging perfectly does not come instantaneously but requires practice to perfect. Swing practice helps in manipulating body mechanics perfectly so that you can be able to make well-calculated swings. The best way to practice how to swing like a pro is by hitting machine-thrown balls (thrown at varying speeds) to study your aiming and accuracy skills. While practicing how to swing right and perfectly, ensure that you also identify the right part of the bat to hit the ball with.
Hand-eye-coordination
It is impossible to become a good baseball player if your hand-eye coordination is poor. This is because you need this coordination to make perfect swings as well as for fielding and pitching. The best way to practice hand-eye coordination alone is by tossing a baseball in the air and catching it with one hand at a time for 100 times every day. You an also consider bouncing the ball on a wall and catching it with the hands interchangeably. With time and constant practice, it becomes easy to improve your hand-eye coordination such that you are able to achieve an automatic coordination.
Tag plays
Baseball players particularly infielders and catchers need to practice tag plays frequently. The best way to have these practices is by throwing a ball at a vertical surface such as a wall and catching the return ball and then tag the plate or base. You should do this repeatedly till you are able to make quick and accurate tag plays consistently. If you are interested in making your practice session more lively and fun-filled, you can assume there is another player running behind you after making your tag; something that is quite common in a real game.
Pick offs
Pro pitchers are proud of how perfect their fielding skills are. Like other baseball skills, the easiest way to enhance your pick off skills is by practicing often. While practicing your pick off and ability to make perfect pitches, you should also consider improving your quickness /swiftness and location skills. This helps you to become a pro and well-skilled pitcher with unique fielding skills and capabilities. The best practice for these skills is hoisting a bucket at your desired height and aim at throwing your pick off at the bucket. It is worth understanding that pick offs are quick pitches often made with limited arm action. Therefore, accuracy and promptness are crucial skills and arguably necessary in making excellent pick offs.
Agility
To become a pro baseball player, you need more than just understanding the concepts and basics of the sport. You need to have an agile and well-built body. This is why it is necessary to undertake agility practice and exercises when practicing baseball alone. Some of the exercises you can engage in to have an agile body include straight sprints, plyometrics, steal starts and ladder work. The most fascinating aspect about these exercises is that they do not require any complex or fancy equipment/facility.
When practicing baseball alone, it is necessary that you use resources such as online coaching videos or expert advice from expert players to know how to practice in the best way. There are also lots of tutorials that you can refer to especially if you are new to baseball.
