Warm Up (5minutes). This is especially important in developing long-term physical fitness awareness for your players and greatly reduces the risk of injury to your players. If your team is like most, the kids will ‘wander’ onto the practice field. Do low impact ‘games’ with them while waiting for everyone to show. When the warm-up ‘officially’ begins, first demonstrate the exercise and then begin the exercise. Be sure to explain the exercise in words the players can understand. Sometimes you will have to teach them new words for this to work. Be sure that you participate with them, because the players will learn quickest by example. And if you can, get the parents to participate as well!

Team Talk (2 minutes, 1 minute to get them quiet!) Have a brief Team Talk with them and let them know what you want to accomplish today and what you expect of them today. Keep it simple and in words they can understand.

Skill Development (25 minutes). Begin skill development drills and exercises. Spend the first 10 minutes improving skills taught in previous practices. You will need to focus on the less-talented players at this time to help them improve at a quicker pace. Consider providing these players a ‘mentor’, another player that can show them good execution of the skill. This mentoring approach also keeps more players busy and ‘engaged’ providing more fun and participation.

After the review, begin introducing a new skill ‘game’ or regimen. You should strive to introduce one new skill, or a variation or refinement of a skill at every practice session. This may require a brief Team Talk with the players to provide a foundation of words or expectations. First explain the skill, then with other assistants, if necessary, demonstrate the skill using proper technique. Then turn the players loose to try it themselves.

Once they begin the skill development exercise, try to keep further instruction and refinement to a minimum, and spend your time one-on-one with the players. Having other volunteers and coaches manage the ‘team’ allows you to spend some ‘quality time’ with each player while they are striving to learn. If you have an exceptional player or two, place them in a mentoring position with another players.

Water Break: If you are in warm or summer conditions, take a 3 to 5 minute water break. Have the players’ gather in the Team Talk location and use this as a brief cool-down. You can have an assistant or player ‘serve’ the water and you can use this opportunity to reinforce the skill(s) just practiced. Here's some more info about keeping you players properly hydrated.

Play. (20 minutes) Play a modified game or small-sided game / scrimmage. This will increase the likelihood that the skills you have just introduced or have previously introduced have real-world (read game-time) implications. Here are a few tips to ensure a successful (read fun and educational) scrimmage:

• Be sure to have the player’s rotate positions so that each player can understand the requirements of the position, and possibly develop an appreciation of other players that play that position.
  
• Have a couple of players be assistant coaches and officials. This encourages these players to understand the rules and really teaches a sense of fair play.
  
• Play for a pre-determined amount of time, not until a scrimmage team reaches a certain score.
  
• Focus on only one or two rules or skills at a time. Trying to teach too many skills / rules at a time can be overwhelming for most players.

Team Talk (5 — 10 minutes, 2 minutes to get them quiet!). This provides time for the players to cool-down and reflect on their recent accomplishments. It also provides a time for you to repeat today’s instructions and to communicate with your players.

A sample agenda on the closing Team Talk could include the following:

• Ask the players to tell the team what they learned today. Try to refrain from using "Yes" or "No" questions. Don’t force a player to make provide an answer to your questions. He may be too tired or mentally drained to answer your question. If they give you an inattentive answer, simply acknowledge their answer with a nod, smile or "that’s interesting" and move on to the next player.
  
• Talk to the team about a particular rule or situation that may have happened in practice or the last game. For instance, in soccer, "Johnny pushed Jason down while going to the goal. What foul would be called? What would the penalty be?" Or in baseball, "Johnny was called out at second in our scrimmage. Can anybody explain why? " (Running outside of the baseline, tagged out, or force out).
  
• Ask the players what they would like to do in the next practice. This will give you a good pulse on what part of the game is the most fun, and will let you use this in between "less fun" activities.
  
• If your team is old enough or if you choose to use the "mentoring" practice, assign some players to be officials, assistants or mentors for the next practice. This creates enthusiasm for practice for these players, and is especially useful with less enthusiastic players.
  
• If you’re going to give the players ‘homework’, now would be the time to do so. Give them very specific instructions on skills and rules they should practice and learn. For younger children you should provide this information as note cards or flash cards. Then see how many of them completed last week’s homework. Test them with simple questions.
  
• Summarize your discussion and repeat the important teachings of the day. With younger kids a small ‘reward’ can help keep the players’ attention. (Bubble gum, etc…)
  
• Make a game out of wrapping up the practice. Have the players’ pack up the equipment, balls, retrieve the bases or cones, etc…