Backhanding the ball

[Rooster98]

"Also, don't be worried about the size of the ball and the glove. Infielders are using smaller and smaller gloves, and they're shaping them in such a fashion to where they are flared out at the thumb and pinky very hard to close. I know a 6' third baseman who just graduated from a D1 school who was using an 11" glove. An infielder should never hold the ball in their glove, the glove is just a tool with which to redirect the ball to the throwing hand where it belongs."

Agreed, and as such the backhand should only be used as a last resort with the fielder getting to the ball in a position to get up and get that ball out of her glove and make the throw. If you see in the vido posted above, the ball is clearly in the web and then transfered to the throwing hand, due to her position fielding the ball she is already set up to make that throw to first. Great play to get that girl by three or four strides. 3rd base will have the most as I stated because they cheat up more. SS should be able to round to the ball and and set and throw. Backhand last resort at SS.

 

[quincy]

An infielder should never hold the ball in their glove, the glove is just a tool with which to redirect the ball to the throwing hand where it belongs.

Right now that sounds better on paper then in practice.

Just watching the couple videos posters included in this thread, players catch the ball in their glove.

 

[Wellphyt]

Great footwork and throwing technique.

 

[Steve Huff]

Note that the fielder has her knees "knocked", pressing in for quick lateral movement, though she reached and did not do a cross-over step, it still shows she would have quick lateral steps. I only mention it because the bow-legged stance for fielding drives me nuts!

Also, please note that the 1B has her foot set on the extreme left corner of the bag. There are footwork techniques that allow the feet to switch corners and utilize their maximum space and reach. The bag is only 19" but utilizing 9.5" leaves a lot of reach out of the equation, either forcing the 1B off the bag to make a tag down the 1b line, or the other direction creating a throwing error.