Outfield - Letting Fly Ball Drop

[02Crush]

My girls never ever drop a fly ball..........until game time!

LOL...I needed that laugh. Thanks Redhot

 

[jinjet95]

The drills sound really good.

However, after being in the outfield and catching thousands of balls (and missing a lot of them too) I don't think balls straight at you are the hardest to catch; that is a fallacy. I think the difficulty is for the kids to know glove up or basket.

To get them out of this, tell them to catch the ball at the highest point possible. Basket really is for when you are making that last ditch effort.

The other issue is that you must have back up to have confidence to dive or get under a ball you might not catch. I hate when players don't back each other up, you have to do drills for that too.

Not a fallacy. When a fielder is trying to catch a ball hit to either side of her, she has at least 2 points of reference visually to determine depth. When a ball is hit in a line from the batter to the fielder, there is only one point of reference so depth is hard to judge. Much the same as if you close one eye and try to judge distance. It's very difficult. One thing I was taught was to make the first step or 2 to the side and back, which increase the points of reference for depth. Also, the fielder in the field adjacent to the fielder trying to catch the ball will have a better idea of depth and can assist with direction. The CF on my DD team is excellent at helping LF and RF adjust to the depth of the ball.

 

[GTRH8R]

Just wanted to let those of you who offered suggestions that a lot of these drills worked. DD is getting way more aggressive to those balls and her confidence with catching them has soared.

I also threw in that she needed to trust her teammates would back her up if she sold out for a ball and it got past her (and where it is a bad idea to sell out) and she has been a different player on those. She made a diving catch on one of these animals last weekend that would have normally been a one-hop to the glove.

Much appreciated!