Softball Speed & Base Running Practice Plan for 13 to 15 Year Olds

Acceleration logged like lifts, jumps held to a steps standard, and the pressure toolkit matured: delays, secondaries, splits. Sixty-foot bases pay every step you build.

A-skips, lateral shuffles, build-ups to ninety percent, three low first-five starts, two stick-landing broad jumps. Invite the nervous system before billing it.

Six ten-yard starts at max intent with full rests, low and punchy, uphill if the yard offers one. Two flying twenties feeling the difference between accelerating and cruising. The last rep must match the first or the volume was wrong.

Three timed run-throughs, full rests, best logged and dated. This monthly number is the speed program's report card, and in softball it is scouted directly: the sport publishes home-to-first times the way baseball publishes exit velocity.

Ten mimed deliveries with a real look library (tempo shifts, hesitations, quick pitches): breaks on true release only, graded in steps gained, left-earlies counted as outs. Then the conversation out loud: which looks tempted an early break, and what the hand actually did. Elite jumps are knowledge wearing spikes.

The matured pressure plays, mixed and called honestly: delayed steals off lazy lobs (half the reps are crisp returns, meaning STAY), dirt-ball secondaries (mimed ball in the dirt: instant break, then hold-or-go call), and two timed first-to-thirds off aggressive secondaries with corners clipped. All reads graded, correct STAYS praised as loudly as gos. Pressure running is decision quality at speed, and this block is its gym.

Sprints arriving under control three ways, three reps each: the pop-up stop on the bag (chopped steps, hips down), overrun-and-return, round-and-hold ready to advance. Sliding stays a supervised team skill; control is the backyard version, and it saves outs and ankles in equal measure.

Walking lap while the log fills: home-to-first, jump grades, delay reads, splits, flying-twenty notes. Circle the month's bests. Two minutes of easy striding to flush. Speed logged is speed owned.

What to watch today: rest discipline and read honesty. Sprint work becomes conditioning the moment rests get skipped, and jump training becomes rhythm-guessing the moment the mimes get predictable. Guard both and the numbers move; let either slide and the session just rehearses habits the sport will punish.