10U Softball Practice Plan

Run a 60-minute 10U practice in six timed blocks, in this order.

1. Arm warm-up, 10 minutes
2. Pitchers and catchers while everyone else takes ground balls, 12 minutes
3. Steal defense, a runner leaving on release and the catcher throwing to second, 10 minutes
4. Hitting rotation of front toss with a called count and tee work, 14 minutes
5. Count game, your pitchers against live hitters with a real count, 11 minutes
6. Huddle and strike log, 3 minutes

The order follows the arm. Throwing comes first because nobody should pitch, or throw to second, on a cold arm. The pitcher-catcher block comes next, while the pitchers are fresh and before anyone else needs a catcher. Defense against runners follows, since runners now leave on every release. Hitting comes next, and the count game closes the session, so your pitchers face live hitters once their counted set is in the log.

Fitting the Order to Your Field Time

An hour sits inside the 60 to 75 minutes our softball practice plan sets for 10U. The 90 and 120-minute sheets are for a travel team with a longer field slot. They keep the same order, so the counted throwing still happens while arms are fresh, and add outfield, baserunning and situations work after it. Each version is filled in below with real minutes, and the cells are yours to change.

Each sheet is a filled 10U plan you can edit on this page. Click a cell to change a drill or a time, use Add row for an extra block, and Reset brings the original back. Print Form prints that one sheet without the rest of the article. Download as Image saves a PNG for the team chat, and Copy as Table pastes what you typed into a Google Sheet or an Excel file.

60 Minutes: A Weeknight Slot

Built for a rec team with one coach and a helper. The pitcher-catcher block runs alongside ground balls, so nobody stands still for those 12 minutes. The count game at the end puts your pitchers in front of live hitters, with a coach calling balls and strikes.

90 Minutes: A Longer Field Slot

Run this one when you have the field for an hour and a half. Next to the 60, it adds an outfield and cutoff block and its own baserunning block on the pitcher's release. A situations block replaces the count game, with two reps each of the walk-then-steal and the dropped third strike. The count work moves into block 2, where a tracking hitter stands in.

120 Minutes: A Travel Team Night

For a travel roster with a coach per group. Pitchers add spot work after their counted 20 pitches. The scrimmage uses every 10U rule, including the timed five-pitch warm-up between half innings. Rotate pitchers every few batters so each one faces live hitters, and keep an eye on innings if your league counts them.

Who Runs Which Block

The battery block needs one adult who watches only the pitchers. Ground balls need someone who can roll or hit them, and a parent can do that. The count game and the scrimmage need you. That is where you find out whether Tuesday's bullpen holds up with a hitter in the box.

USA Softball's distance table, in Rule 2 of its official rule book(opens in new tab), begins its girls' fast pitch rows at 10U. Bases sit 60 feet apart, the pitcher throws from 35 feet, and the fence stands between 175 and 225 feet. USA Softball calls its youth program Junior Olympic. Two rows in the table below apply to Junior Olympic fast pitch only: the illegal pitch penalty, and the gear for catchers and anyone warming up a pitcher. Leagues and tournaments can add their own rules on top, so check your league's rule sheet before you set the bullpen distance.

The table lists what else changes under USA Softball's rules and what each change means for practice.

Source: USA Softball Official Rules dated January 12, 2026 (Rules 1, 2, 3, 6A and 8).

If Your Team Plays Little League

Little League's field specifications(opens in new tab) put Minor League softball pitchers at 35 feet and Majors pitchers at 40, with 60-foot bases in every softball division. Its regular season pitching rules(opens in new tab) let a Minors or Majors pitcher pitch in up to 12 innings a day, with one calendar day of rest after seven or more, and a single pitch in an inning counts as an inning pitched. If your team plays Little League Majors, your pitchers already throw from the distance USA Softball keeps for 12U.

How One Walk Becomes Two Bases

Put the rows together and a free base turns into more. A walk puts a runner on first. On the next pitch she may leave as soon as the ball does, and if the throw to second gets away, she keeps running. That chain is why two blocks of every plan on this page belong to the battery and to steal defense.

Give your pitchers and catchers the same 12 to 20 minutes at every practice, paired up, while everyone else fields. At 10U the battery is a new job for both players. Your pitcher is learning to throw strikes from a fixed distance with a hitter in the box. Your catcher is learning to receive a ball that may bounce, in gear that may still feel new. This block is battery and count work. Keep pitching lessons and long bullpens outside team practice, where a pitcher can work at her own pace.

Start With the Game Routine

Open every block the way a game inning opens. USA Softball allows up to five warm-up pitches inside one minute as each half inning starts (Rule 6A, Section 9), and every pitch past five is a ball on the batter. Time it at practice. A pitcher who has run the five-pitch minute twenty times won't rush it with an umpire watching.

Then Count 20

After the warm-up, each pitcher throws 20 counted pitches from game distance. Her catcher calls each one a ball or a strike out loud, and an adult settles the close ones and keeps the tally. For the second half of the set, put a hitter in a helmet in the box, standing in without swinging. She calls each pitch too. Your pitcher gets used to throwing with a body next to the plate.

The Catcher's Half of the Block

Between counted sets, the catcher works on her own job. Block balls in the dirt, find the ball, throw to first: that is the dropped third strike from the rules table. Rule 3, Section 5C requires any player warming up a Junior Olympic pitcher to wear a mask with throat protector and a helmet with ear flaps. So the backup catcher and the outfielder who catches a few bullpens wear them too. Our softball catching drills give you receiving, blocking and throw-down progressions with a section written for 10U catchers.

How Many Pitchers to Carry

Plan for more pitchers than you think you need. A 10U pitcher's command can slip as a game goes on. A walk-heavy inning keeps her throwing longer before the third out, and a tournament weekend can put several games on the same few arms. A second and third pitcher who have thrown their counted 20 all season give you somewhere to go when the first one loses the zone. Little League Minors and Majors teams also have the daily innings limit described under the rules table.

Through the first weeks of the season, give every player who wants to pitch a turn in the block. Then settle on a rotation of three or four. For the work your pitchers do outside team practice, try the 3-2-1 drill: three pitches from full distance, two from three feet closer and one from six feet closer, keeping the same arm speed at every mark. Our softball pitching drills explain it among 15 windmill drills grouped by level.

Walk math is counting what game day will count anyway. A walk takes four balls. In Junior Olympic fast pitch, most illegal pitches add a ball to the count too, and Rule 6A, Section 11B sets out the cases where the play stands or the batter takes first base instead, shown in the rules table. The runner who walks may also steal on the very next release. So the strikes a pitcher throws on Tuesday are worth writing down.

How to Run the Count

• Same number every time. Twenty pitches, after the five-pitch warm-up
• Same distance. The one your games use, 35 or 40 feet
• Same judge. The catcher calls each pitch out loud, and the same adult decides the close ones
• Same sheet. Write the count before anyone goes home, next to the walks that pitcher allowed in her last game

There is no target number on this sheet. Compare a 10U pitcher with herself. Last week's 9 strikes out of 20 becoming 12 is progress, whatever the pitcher in the next lane threw. Watch the trend over three or four practices before you change her mechanics or her place in the rotation.

Hitters: Call the Zone

USA Softball defines the fast pitch strike zone as the space over home plate between the batter's armpits and the top of her knees. Teach it in two steps.

1. Call it during the counted 20. The tracking hitter says ball or strike before the catcher's call, and she keeps her own count of how many she gets right
2. Then take or swing with a count. At the front toss station in the hitting rotation, the coach gives a count before each pitch, 3-1 or 0-2, and the hitter decides whether to take or swing. Talk through each decision after the round

Three plays arrive with kid pitch, and each one needs reps before the first game. None of them takes long to rehearse. All of them cost runs if your team has never practiced them.

Runners Go When the Ball Does

In fast pitch a runner may advance once the pitched ball leaves the pitcher's hand (Rule 1, Stealing). If she leaves earlier, the umpire calls no pitch and she is out (Rule 8, Section 7S). Practice both sides of it. Runners take jumps on release in the baserunning block while a coach watches only their feet. Your defense practices the throw.

The Throw to Second

On a 60-foot diamond it is 84 feet 10¼ inches from the back corner of home plate to the center of second base, the measurement the rule book uses to lay out the field. That is a long throw for a ten-year-old catcher. Decide who covers second on a steal, the shortstop for example, and keep it the same at every practice so nobody has to think. Run throw-downs with a live runner so the tag happens at game speed. If your catcher cannot reach second in the air yet, practice a firm one-hop throw and let the middle infielder learn to pick it.

The Look-Back Rule

Once the batter-runner has reached first or been put out, and your pitcher holds the ball inside the 8-foot circle, a runner who is off her base gets one stop. After it she has to go back or go forward (Rule 8, Section 7T). Teach your pitchers to collect the ball and step into the circle after every play. Teach your runners to choose before they stop. Two reps per runner in every baserunning block keeps the line moving.

Ball in the Dirt, First Base Open

With first base empty before two are out, or any time there are two outs, a third strike that touches the ground before the catcher holds it lets the batter run (Rule 8, Section 1B). The catcher blocks, finds the ball, then tags the batter or throws to first. Your first baseman sets up for a throw coming from behind the plate. Add two reps of it to every situations block. It takes one minute.

Teach in this order if you have six practices before the first game. Each one adds a single new piece to what the team already did.

1. Practice 1. A throwing check and a first look at pitching. Everyone who wants to pitch throws ten pitches from game distance. Walk the team through three rules: leaving on release, walks and the dropped third strike
2. Practice 2. Pair pitchers with catchers and run the first counted set of 20. Infield ground balls with throws to first. Start the strike log
3. Practice 3. Steal defense. Catcher throw-downs, one middle infielder covering, runners leaving on release
4. Practice 4. Look-back reads and the dropped third strike. Hitters track live pitches before they swing at them
5. Practice 5. A walk followed by a steal on the next pitch. Bunt coverage. Outfield throws to the cutoff
6. Practice 6. A controlled scrimmage under full rules, a coach calling balls and strikes, with timed five-pitch warm-ups between half innings. Compare each pitcher's count with practice 2

Fewer than six? Merge 3 with 4 and 5 with 6. Keep the counted 20 in every one of them.

When 12U Is Next Season

The circle moves back again. USA Softball sets the girls' 12U fast pitch distance at 40 feet and switches to the 12-inch ball, so the strike log starts over from a new baseline. If you are planning that step, our softball practice plan for 10U through varsity follows what changes as players move up.

Here is the short list for a 10U fast pitch player. Where USA Softball's rules require an item, the line says so.

• Glove that fits her hand now, with room to close it. Break it in before the first practice
• Batting helmet with double ear flaps and a NOCSAE-approved face mask. Every Junior Olympic fast pitch batter, runner and on-deck hitter must wear one
• Cleats without metal. The rule book bars metal cleats in Junior Olympic fast pitch at 10U and 12U
• Bat sized to the player. For USA Softball championship play it must carry USA Softball's certification mark, so check the mark before you buy
• Catcher's gear for anyone who catches. Rule 3 requires a Junior Olympic fast pitch catcher to wear shin guards over the knee caps, a body protector, a mask with a throat protector and an ear-flap helmet
• Fielder's mask if she wants one. Any player may wear a face mask on defense

For the team bag, bring a bucket of 11-inch balls, the size USA Softball uses for 10U fast pitch, plus tape to mark the pitching distance and a few cones for the throw-down lanes.

After three or four practices, read each pitcher's rows from top to bottom. You are looking for direction at the same distance and with the same judge: strikes out of 20 climbing, holding or falling. One bad night says little. A count that falls practice after practice is the signal to look at her mechanics before you change anything else.

Let the trends decide practice time, and let the current count decide game innings. A pitcher whose count has stalled low or keeps falling gets more block time. Game innings go to whoever throws strikes now, so a pitcher who holds a high count week after week keeps her innings even when a teammate is climbing faster.

Then read the game walks beside the practice counts. When both improve together, the bullpen is carrying over. When her count climbs but her walks do not drop, the game holds something practice is missing, such as a hitter in the box or nerves. Put the tracking hitter in for the whole set and run more of the count game.

When paper gets crowded, the same counts fit a Striveon assessment template with Count fields for pitches and strikes, and the drills behind them can sit in Striveon's drill library with your own tags.