Fielding

Motivation

Our motto for infielders this year is “You play the ball … don't let the ball play you.”

Fielding is really three fold: technique, footwork, and timing. The drills below are intended to address one of these areas. From a coaching perspective, we will need to introduce them in that order to be as efficient as possible and ensure skills are mastered before introducing new topics.

Primer

Homework: 10 minutes

hands routine

Concepts:

  • Get to the right part of ball (clearing the ball or left ear)
  • Work back through the ball
  • Use your feet … Play the ball, don't let the ball play me.
  • Pick a good hop (short or long hop)
  • Avoid in between hops
  • Field the ball over your left
  • Work from the bottom up
  • Good posture - knees bent, flat back, hands out front
  • Bring the ball in and break hands at the same point
  • Short arm action (don't get the ball wet)

Knee Drill

hands routine

Duration: 10 minutes

Objective:

  • Work on good posture
  • Soft hands
  • Eyes on the ball
  • Good transfers
  • Consistently catching the ball on index finger

Setup:

  • Partner up
  • Start on your knees six inches away from outfield grass (forces you to get your hands out in front of you.)
  • Hands out over the lip, chest over (good posture), and hips back
  • Field the ball and bring it to your chest or logo
  • Elbows turn out to get into good throwing position
  • Dart throw it back to partner

Progressions:

  • Barehand
  • Flat Glove
  • Regular Glove

Callouts:

  • Need to stay focus and have good reps
  • You want to be able to see the ball and your hands at all times
  • Never close the glove when fielding in the the framework of your body

Standing Drill

hands routine

Duration: 15 minutes

Objective:

  • Combine knee drill mechanics with footwork

Setup:

  • Get setup good fielding stance
    • Spread feet
    • Chest over (good posture)
    • Arms out
  • Glove is just off-center to allow easy transition into the chest
  • Partner rolls the ball
  • Fielder receives out front, brings to chest, replaces feet, and breaks hands (thumbs down) into throwing position

Progressions:

  • two hands
  • fore hand
  • back hand (left foot)
  • back hand (right foot)

Flavors:

  • rollers
  • long hop
  • short hop
  • tween hop

Callouts:

  • Don't cross over or behind … Simply replace or shuffle.
  • Want to start heading towards your target.

Flamingo Drill

hands routine

Duration: 15 minutes

Objective:

  • Attacking the ball … Getting it off the grow as soon as possible
  • Play through the ball
  • Taking big strides to small strides (chopping your feet)
  • Focus on rhythm fielding the ball

Setup:

  • Fielder is up on right leg
  • Coach rolls a ball and work on fielding at the same time their left toe hits the ground

Progressions:

  • Start further back working on big strides to small strides and timing the ball

Callouts:

  • Brace with right leg, place left heel down, and catch the ball when left toe hits the ground

Left Ear Drill

hands routine Duration: 10 minutes

Objective:

  • Learning to clear the ball the play
  • Getting your body behind the ball and playing through it
  • Using your momentum

Setup:

  • Coach sets up cones like a blackslash (/)
  • Fielders will round the end cone
  • Coach will roll a grounder
  • Fielder will step into the ball, field it, and get into throwing position
  • Fielder keeps ball and puts it into bucket behind them

Thumbs Up Funneling Drill

hands routine Duration: 15 minutes

Objective:

  • Take lightly hit balls focused solely on funneling.

Setup:

  • Player is on the grass and with a wide stance
  • Coach hits ball lightly directly to them
  • Player focuses on fielding and bringing the ball back to center with thumbs up
  • Player throws ball into bucket.

Hop Counting Drill

Duration: 20 minutes

Objective:

  • Get kicks to start recognizing the different types of hops
  • Use footwork to set up for a long or short hop

Setup:

  • Coach calls out the hop number that the fielders should catch on.
  • Fielder needs to count the number of hops and either move forward or backwards to catch on the correct hop number and the right hop.

Short Hop Drill

Duration: 10 minutes drop step

Objectives:

  • Going to get the short hop
  • Create a stutter step for better timing

Setup:

  • Partner up and have them toss the ball up in the air towards you
  • Fielder will stutter step waiting for the ball to bounce
  • Fielder will reach through and catch the ball right after the ball hits the group and field with the glove hand foot
  • Repeat for backhands

Callouts:

  • Use your hand to control the ball. Don't let the ball control your glove
  • Don't let the glove get behind you … It will through off timing
  • Field outside your left foot

Variations:

  • Change the distance between you and your partner to improve range to getting the short hop

Drop Step Drill

drop step Duration 10 minutes

Setup:

  • Coach throws balls to fielder on front and back hand side
  • Player moves feet to create space and moves their head behind and below the ball

Objectives:

  • Turn an inbetween hop into a long hop
  • Drop step and involve your face
  • Get behind the ball

Callouts:

  • Catch it with your face
  • Lean back and move feet to get space
  • Work below it and behind it