[Music playing]
Five parts to fielding a ground ball, we do it at High School, we do it at the College Level we do it with Little League Players. You can do it with whomever you have, but it is important that they understand exactly what they are supposed to do.
Part number one, we ask that our infield, Brian is going to help me. We ask that our infielders get some momentum or some movement. We call this a “Creep Step” for a right handed infielder there is nothing more than taking a small step with his right foot, small step left foot and opening his hands. Are you ready? Creep, right, left, open. He is in position right now to run to his left, he can run to his right, he can go backwards; he can go forward at a dead sprint. Does not need to stop, does not to stand up, drop down. He is whatever he needs to go. Wherever he needs to go, he is in position to do it. After he gets his creeps steps.
Part number two, we charge the ball. Rarely in a High School setting or below, do you have a situation where you do not charge a ground ball. When you get to college they hit a little bit harder or if you have to be a high school third baseman when you are real tight on a play that is a little bit different or first base for that matter. But for the most part you are going to charge a ball.
Okay, we are going to add. We are just going to do building block. We are going to go creep and then we are going to add in a charge. Ready. Creep. Charge, stop, okay. Alright back up Brian. On the charge we want to come at the ball under control as quickly as we can. We do not want to over run the ball because when we get there we have to set up the field to ground ball. All right we are going to add in part three. So we got creep and charge so far.
Part three is what we call our break down position. That is our position when and which we are going to begin to feel the ball okay. Ready, creep, charge, break down. On our break down you will notice that Brian has his feet a little wider than shoulder width, his heads down we are going to show the top of the hat. His right hand is on top, his gloves on the ground and it is extended in front of them. Okay, stand up and relax. It is important that we extend the glove in front of us so that we can cradle the ball or cushion it as it comes to us. Now we go right hand on top for this simple reason. Those of you who played the in field recognize this is a problem. When we are playing with little guys, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve years old, the normal reaction to a ground ball coming at you is to do this, we turn the head. Well, the reason we turn heads because we are afraid we are going to get hit in the face. I think everybody has that fear at least at some point of in their life, I know, I sure did. In order to correct that fear or to take care of it, we take the right hand and put it on top this way. If we happen to get a bad hop, we can take the hand and keep that ball away from our face. The second thing that, that does is it allows us to trap the ball in the glove. We call that our alligator. Right here, that is our alligator. Bad hop, hand comes up, good hop, alligator.
Part four we are going to go from our break down to a fielding position. Ready? Creep, charge, break down, he will hold it. Now, I am comfortable with this technique. Field, he will bring the ball to his mid section. He will cradle the ball in and he is going to show me the top of his cap. Okay, relax, simple enough. Now, we go to part five which is our throw. Okay? And this is exactly how we teach it. Ready. Creep. Charge, break down, field, throw, right to left, left to right, back up.
So the fifth part we are going to take that right foot and we are going to step inside the left. Square our shoulders to our target. Shoulder, hip and knee and make our good strong throw. I can do this with fifteen kids, one player, ten it does not make any difference I can do it just like this. Ready, creep, charge, break down, field, throw. Very nice let us do it one more time. Creep, charge, break down, field, throw okay good enough Brian.
[Music playing]
Transcription by:
Scribe4you Transcription Services