Fielding technique (grounders)

Beezer,

I am by no means an expert on the matter but from your description I think I might have an idea of what is going on with your son.
Your initial idea could be true of course but perhaps your son is catching the ball too much on the right side of his body. That way the wrist is at a bad angle to the ball and the full surface area of the glove is not available to the ball. I had this problem before and it often results in balls popping out to the right. Like I said before if I could see it then it be easier to help but with balls popping to the right, for me it was always fielding too much towards the right side of my body and not providing a wide open target to the ball.

Hope this helps

Beezer,

It sounds to me like he is fielding the ball too far on the right side of his body. Tell him to keep the ball in line with his left ear. That way...when we spreads his feet and gets into fielding position, the ball will be in the middle of his body. This is more difficult to do on balls hit right at him because he must take a jab step away from the path of the ball to get into proper fielding position.

Your son should try to suare up on the ball if he has time.
The trowing hand where possible shoul trap the ball in the glove.
A hot grounder you should step into and square up. Glove side foot slightly ahead of the other foot, come to thye balls of your feet and feet around shoulder width apart. Recieve the ball out front and trap the ball with throwing hand and glove. Allow the ball to recil into your body cushioning thye force and then transfer the ball to the throwing hand while shifting yoor feet to start the throw.
There are lots of good books to describe the best fielding position. Foot work, balance is very important to learn at an early age so that it is automatic.

Let me give some different advice. Your son can try taking a couple of baby steps toward the plate as you are taking your swing. He then reads the balls direction and begins to move to his right so that the ball will line up to his left of center, I like the left ear as a guide. He then goes down and out front to the ball and receives it and continues moving thru the ball and toward 1b. With his glove to the left of center, he will have it down, and his throwing hand should come over the top of his glove to keep any hops from escaping him. He should then bring both hands up to his middle as he begins separating for the throw.

Try to field all ground balls except those you back hand to the glove side of the center of your body. This gives you the softest hands and abilty to react without getting tied up.

The old theory of centering on ground balls is out dated qnd will cause you to field lots of balls to your right side. You have no flexibilty if the ball takes any kind of bad hop. Worst is that some actually teach fielding the ball on your throwing side to get into throwing position quicker. This is terrible advice for an infielder!

quote:

"Hey dad.......wanna have a catch?"

I heard this saying one time when I was up in New York. To us Texans, this sounds really weird!! We say "Hey dad.......wanna play catch"

MAke sure he is getting around the ball and fielding through it towards first. Make sure his top hand is ther for the transfer

Thanks for the advice everybody. I'll the tidbits along. Last night at practice, there weren't any pop-outs but I'll definitely share these when the time comes. I think for the most part, he's doing most of what has been suggested; moving on pitch, extends glove when set, fielding it on glove side, glove out front giving with the ball, etc. Maybe he rushes the transfer and flies past his hand?

We'll keeping working with all of this in mind. Another habit is fielding when back on his heels. It's not an every time occurance but from time to time, I catch him and yell "HEELS" and usually he's shaking his head in disgust AS the "H" starts out of my mouth. I think that usually happens on those right at him too but can't say if the two "habits" (ball flip and heels) coincide.

quote:

Originally posted by Old Pitcher:

quote:

"Hey dad.......wanna have a catch?"

I heard this saying one time when I was up in New York. To us Texans, this sounds really weird!! We say "Hey dad.......wanna play catch"

It's a quote from Field Of Dreams.

quote:

Originally posted by Beezer:
Another habit is fielding when back on his heels.

An easy fix for this is to practice charging everything...even screamers right at him. For the 1st half of practice groundballs, have him field everything on the run. This teaches him to read the hops and get one that is easy to catch (usually a long hop or a short hop, not an inbetween hop) while avoiding getting back on his heels.

Our infielders were always taught to ceter the ball and use their bodies to keep the ball infront of them much like a catcher. Knock it down if you can't glove it. Keep it from getting into the outfield.

Fielding the balls right at you are the hardest to field. So, if those balls seem to be the ones giving him the most trouble, you are not alone.

There are two ways to teach the transition from fielding position to throwing position (which sounds like where he is having his problems).

1. You can teach the funnel method of taking the glove and throwing hand from the ground, to the mid section, and then to the throwing position.

2. You can teach the method of taking the glove and throwing hand straight from the ground up to the throwing position by using more of a cupping action.

Some players get their footwork and technique messed up a little bit when doing the traditional funnel method by going to the stomach with the glove, especially if the ball is fielded a little bit to the right side of the body as mentioned above.

I would experiment with both methods and see if he has a preference of one or the other.

Keep practicing/working hard and the rewards will come.

Most of the time when players are having balls bobbled or popping out, this is a problem in the transfer. You mentioned that you thought he may not be getting his free hand in his glove quick enough. Don't teach him this. You never want to teach a fielder to field a ground ball deep in the pocket of the glove. Teach him to approach to ball with his wrists touching, with glove down and throwing hand above. He should try and use more of the palm of his glove and field the ball with that part of his glove and his throwing hand at the same time. The ball should almost be fielded simultaneously with both hands, making for a good transfer.

like bambino said, i call it "pinkie to pinkie thumb to thumb" sounds elementary, but thats what fundamentals are. where the left ear was mentioned, i use the part of the zipper on the glove side because while its off center, its more centered than the ear (no offense to the ear alignment)!! instead of hitting ,roll them from about 10 feet so you can see the approach and alignment, then progress to hitting GB.

What it sounds like he has to do is just field the ball in the center of his body. (inbetween feet) and make sure his free hand is on top of his glove to get a quick transfer and he'll be fine.

It sounds to me like he is a lot like my boy. He looks at the balls right at him as being more routine and can get a little lazy on them. The hard ones he works his tail off on. He'll get caught on his heels from time to time, especially on the routine grounder. If he's on his heels he's not fielding out front or getting low. He's dropping straight down and coming straight up. This is where most of his problems begin.

We have been working with all of the kids on taking a couple of quick steps in on every pitch. Told them teh other day that if they are moving toward teh ball they will never be wrong. When he is moving forward he very rarely has a problem with fielding the routine grounder and has to concentrate a bit more because he is forcing the issue on the ball. After the first few practices where we really worked on moving toward the ball I could see a smile coming to his face when he knew he had played the ball rather than it playing him.

My guess is that the ball popping out is due to his just not being committed on the play. Make sure he's watching even the easy ones into the glove and doing all the things he does to make sure the tough ones don't get away. Routine grounder no big deal, I'll reach down and pick it up. Hey, where'd the ball go!!