Games for a fun pitching practice?

[Caredeocr]

Anybody have fun ideas for games that might make my 11y/o DD pitching sessions (me, dad as catcher) more fun. She does a lesson every week and then we go to the park twice a week on our own.

After warmup we usually do some long toss, work on corners, and then pitch a couple of simulated innings. We'll try and work in change ups too if she is feeling up for it.

Always looking for ways to change things up and keep it fun and light.

Thanks in advance

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[Cannonball]

When my dd was learning to pitch, we took an old lawn chair like the one below and cut a hole in the center. She then would try to throw through the hole. We would then wrap up by having her throw the ball as hard as she could to see how far she could knock the chair backward. Of course, I had to set the chair up a lot at first but it was fun and she wanted to do it.

Then, she progressed to cones. We had access to cones of different heights and they were perfect to place a ball on top of. She would then try to knock the ball off of the cone. We would then play games and I would put two or three cones around the plate and she was told which ball to knock off. Sometimes we would get ice cream afterward. Mostly, she would ask to hit.

 

[tomorrow]

Something I learned here that we do. Take an old baking pan or pizza pan drill holes in it and hang it from a net. Using the pan as a target with the noise and damage caused is fun.

 

[Caredeocr]

Thanks for the ideas, I like the baking sheet idea. Noise!! We already have an 11 yo-curated playlist for pitching sessions.

I may also look at building one of those 9 pocket targets and do some games with that.

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[uncdrew]

We had fun with these:

1. Ball set on tee on a corner of the plate. Start with big ball, work down to smaller balls (over the course of many months)
2. Around the world -- see how many pitches it takes to hit every spot. We would make 9 zones (like a tic tac toe board) and try to beat our record
3. Best out of 50. We used this on change-ups back in the day. See how many change-ups out of 50 were good pitches and/or strikes

 

[cnardone]

At that age, Nothing better for my dd focus is have squat thrusts (burpees) on the line. Location game. Two chances to hit your location. You hit it, I do one. You miss, you do one.

6 location low, mid, high. - inside and outside.