Switching from OF to 1B

Hi Citrus! Welcome to the first baseman family. We are a family with 3 first basemen. I love the position, where there can be a lot of action and a lot of responsiblity. Here are a few of our favorite drills:

1) Stretch at home and before and after games. Your legs need to be limber to make good stretches from the bag.

2) Footwork - Practice the steps from your first baseman fielding position to receiving the ball from an infielder over and over again. You can throw down a temporary base and practice this without a ball in the yard. Finding the bag quickly without getting your feet tangled is important and an often overlooked drill.


3) To work on scoops - Take a buddy and a bucket of balls to a diamond. Have the buddy take the bucket to somewhere behind 3b and throw balls in the dirt, to the left and right of the bag and over your head. Try to scoop as many as you can while staying on the bag. Pick up the balls and move the bucket to the hole at SS. Then move the buddy to the 2b position, then move the bucket to near the mound and infront of home plate. Repeat, repeat, repeat.

There are alots of things to learn, but scooping balls out of the dirt and staying on the bag is an essential skill for 1B's. Also knowing when to give up the bag and just stop the ball when a throw is way wild is important.

Lots of practice at turning wild throws into outs will help your confidence at first and your teammates' confidence that you can handle anything that they "throw" at you.

Good luck!

Are you a left handed thrower or a right handed thrower?

I can only speak of footwork around the bag for lefties since I am one, but it is important to read the throw before stretching out to get it. Waiting until the ball is in the air will allow you to place your feet in a better position to receive the ball. I.E. if a throw is coming from the SS and goes towards home, (for a lefty) the left foot has to be on the front corner. But, say on a throw from 3B that goes towards right field, the left foot needs to be on the back corner of the bag based on how far behind the bag the throw is...
Hope this makes sense and helps!

On a ground ball to anyone but you don't watch the ball, get to your bag.
You do that well and you'll have time to set up which ever is most comfortable to you.

I'm a converted SS, 3bmen. I love first, I'm a righty and have adopted tagging the bag with either foot, I practice it a lot. I hustle to the bag square my shoulders to the thrower. Once I see where the throw is going, I use the foot that will allow me the most body to keep square to the ball.

Ex: a ball thrown to the R field side of me, I shift my feet in the same direction, tagging the bag with my left foot, as opposed to the right foot and reaching with a back hand.

Not saying it's the only way, but it sure is comfortable to me. But the best tip I can give, nothing to watch, get to yer bag.

Best advice is stretch far to make your teamates happy

Thanks for the tips guys. I am getting better I think for the most part I just need to continue working on scoops and footwork but I can stretch (most flexible person on the team) and I can catch a ball, it really is a tough responsibility because our team has a history of bad defensive play especially our infielders who give horrible throws constantly, we have a SS that holds the ball forever (I have to really stretch when the ball goes to him), a third baseman who throws high and down the line (I come off and make tags a lot from him) and a second baseman that always throws in the dirt (which is why I need to work on the scoops a lot).

One thing not mentioned here is that you have to know all of your pitchers' moves to first, especially the pickoff artist's. I've seen first basemen get fooled by their own pitchers. They think the ball's going to the plate and it winds up in RF because they came off the bag. The runner takes off because he sees 1B move and runner winds up on third. Don't give anyone those easy bases.