Wheelhouse Variations

Overview

I’ve seen two interesting of wheelhouse. One was run by Chandler National as part of their 10 minute infield warm up drill.

Wheelhouse/Infield:

In this version, a coach hits grounders to the short stop who throws to first, to third, to second, to home players follow their throws except after the last one they get back in line.  So the sequence is:

1. Players line up at Short.
2. Coach hits grounder to short.
3. Short throws to first, follows throw
4. First to third, follows throw.
5. Third to second, follows throw.
6. Second throws home, then gets back in line.

It occurs to me that another variation on this would be to have first throw to second, second to third, third throw home.  Why?  Because in tournament baseball being able to get the lead runner is really important and 1st > 2nd > 3rd > home is probably a good sequence to practice so your kids have confidence getting the ball ahead of the runner.

Diagram:

Wheel house with Pitcher:

This drill is identical to the original wheel house except you put a pitcher on the mound as the first throw from home.  The next guy in line at home plate rolls a “bunt” out to the pitcher who scoops it and throws to first.  The rest of the drill proceeds as before.  The main advantage of this drill is to get in more kinds of throws and have your pitchers practice that toss to first coming off the mound.

Diagram:

Conclusion:

I have used the Wheelhouse grounder in practice and a game and I like it.  I haven’t done the pitcher drill yet, but it looks like it would be worth doing later in the season to change up an otherwise useful drill.