Your child's coaches will spend 1-3 hours per week with your child's team for 10-12 weeks. If you divide that across all the players on the team, coaches are able to spend just a few hours of dedicated time with your child each season. 

Your child's softball skills and confidence on the field can be significantly improved by playing in the backyard with a parent, sibling, or friends. Just 30 minutes a few days a week for the summer is the equivalent of an entire in-house season. Players that practice in their backyard are getting double the practice of a child that only plays when they attend practices or games.

Developing skills in the backyard doesn't need to be filled with tedious drills. A group of friends playing whiffle ball in the backyard are developing the hand eye coordination for hitting, throwing, fielding and catching.

Teaching good habits and proper mechanics from the start is also very important. Quantity is important, but quality is even more important. 

The first 5 videos in this Softball Video playlist on Youtube is a great way to quickly get acquainted with the proper mechanics of throwing, hitting, catching, and fielding in softball.

The Equipment page has many options at the bottom of the page to help you determine what you'd like to purchase at home for any softball training in the backyard -- but the best thing you can do is play catch, hit off a tee or hit soft toss which requires very little equipment.