• Youth need to learn fundamental skills through basic drills.boy batting baseball image by pixelcarpenter from Fotolia.com
  
  When working with youth to help them understand how to develop the skills they need for baseball, it is important that you ensure that they are developing the most essential skills. This includes doing things like working on the basic elements associated with catching, throwing, base running and hitting. Once youth are able to master basic skills they can move on to develop more advanced skills and techniques.
  
  

Tag-up Drill

• The tag-up drill helps youth understand that they must wait for an outfielder to catch a pop fly before they take off running. The drill also teaches them the importance of running hard. Only three players are needed for a pop-up drill: an outfielder, a catcher and a baserunner. The outfielder should start off fairly deep in the outfield. Hit a pop fly to him. Instruct the baserunner to stay on the base until the outfielder catches the ball. Let the baserunner know he should run to home plate as soon as the ball is caught. Do this drill several times, each time instruct the outfielder to come in just a little closer. This drill will help the baserunner gauge when he should and when he should not tag up, depending on how deep a pop fly goes. It also gives the outfielder and catcher practice on what they should do during a pop fly.
  
  

Cut-Off Drills

• This drill helps outfielders and infielders understand their responsibilities to either serve as a cut-off man or to hit the cut-off man when throwing the ball back to the infield. Hit the ball to deep left. The third baseman should run beyond the infield so that he is in the shallow outfield. Instruct the left fielder to throw the ball to the third baseman. Instruct the third baseman to throw the ball to the catcher at home. Repeat this drill by hitting the ball to left-center and having the shortstop serve as the cut-off man. Hit the ball to right-center and have the second baseman serve as the cut-off man. Then hit the ball to deep right and have the first baseman serve as the cut-off man. Once the youth have learned their responsibilities, continue this drill, but do not let them know to which part of the outfield you plan to hit the ball.
  
  

Up-the-Middle Drill

• The up-the-middle drill is an effective drill for batters who are swinging in front of balls or for those batters who are swinging slightly too late. Place a small cone halfway between first and second base. Place another cone halfway between second and third base. The batter must hit the ball between these two cones. Each batter starts off with 10 pitches. Each time he hits the ball in the area between the two cones, he earns another pitch. Teammates can take turns with this drill and make a game out of it by seeing who can get the most pitches or who can hit the ball the most times between the cones.