Practice Plans by Age: What 8-Year-Olds and 16-Year-Olds Actually Need

The most common practice mistake is running a shrunken high-school practice for 8-year-olds, or a rec-league practice for 16-year-olds. The age bands need different physics:

Ages 6–9: everything is a game

75 minutes max. Stations of 10–15 minutes, everyone moving, every drill has a score or a race. Attention is the currency; lines are where it dies. One coaching point per station — "balance," not a biomechanics lecture.

Ages 10–13: skills with competition attached

100 minutes. Now you can install team defense — ONE concept per practice (cutoffs, bunt coverage), walked through then repped live. Split infield/outfield. End with a compete period that has consequences (losers pack the gear) — pressure is a trainable skill.

14U–HS: individualized and fast

Two hours, position groups, tempo. Players should arrive knowing the plan. Hitting in small groups with a plan per round (oppo round, two-strike round). Film with a phone tripod. The huddle covers tomorrow, not just today.

The universal rules

• Start and end on time — parents remember, and so do players.
• Write the plan down. A practice plan on paper survives contact with chaos; one in your head doesn't.
• Same structure, rotating content: warm-up → concept → stations → compete → huddle.

Time-blocked, editable plans for all three bands (plus tryout forms, rotation tracking and the rest of a season's paperwork) are in the Coach's Season Ops Pack.