What are some good drills to work on reaction times?

[maksoftball]

DD has been playing mostly 1B and 3B, and she has made some errors at 3B due to slow reaction. She is more than capable of reacting on time, but not consistently. We have started adding 1-hopper drills to our Pitching time, but not sure what else we can do. We did some last night with her standing 10 feet away from me, and I would throw hard one-hoppers/grounders to random sides of her. I think that will help some. Just wondering if anyone knows of any other drills.

Oh and as an aside, we discussed this with one of her coaches, and she said that she needs to "loosen" up...and that right now, her stance doesn't look like a natural, relaxed stance (she squats and has her glove on the ground)...and with that stance, it makes it harder on her to react to get say a line drive to her right/left (she's right handed). In the drill I mentioned above, she had her arms relaxed but glove ready, and she wasn't squatting so low...it seemed to work. We also watched the WCWS to see how they were "relaxed" but of course they hardly focus on corners except when a play is being made.

 

[SBFAMILY]

One drill I picked up years ago from a college coach was the tennis ball drill. You can do it indoors. Bucket of tennis balls and they stand about 10 feet in front of you. We normally have a net or a pad behind them, so the balls don't bounce back and hit them. We throw the balls and bounce them as fast as she can catch and release them. Right , left , up and down. I would have her wear a mask, since even a tennis ball into the eye can hurt.

 

[T Red]

Put your player between 3rd and home, one coach on 3rd, one coach on home. Both coaches hit soft ground balls(or in the air) to the player in the middle. She catches one tosses it aside and immediately turns 180 degrees to face another ground ball. She keeps turning to face hit balls. No time to think just react. Increase the frequency as she gets better. Then add in throwing the caught ball to another player. You can make it a competition who ever catches the most, whoever makes the most complete throws.


As you mentioned getting down is important in this drill. I like the competition with other teammates, it pushes the girls to do things they normally don't want to do such as getting down.

 

[nanotech14]

Is your dd to static? no movement?, does she creep a little when the pitcher is in her windup?

 

[hen]

You may want to try a pre-pitch routine like a creep step. Some move forward in small steps, some move in place, some do a real small hop as the pitch crosses home plate so that as the ball is being hit they are just landing on the balls of their feet. I realize college softball just ended, but baseball games or highlight may give you some examples.

Corner positions usually start lower than SS and 2b so they don't have to go down much/at all on a shot, and being a little more upright gets the middle infield in a better position to move laterally.

I teach corners to have the glove in a thumbs up orientation around their knee level (open part of the glove facing the 3b line instead of to the sky). My reasoning is that it's a quarter turn to get a ground ball at you, quarter turn to stop a line drive/high hop to your face, and only a half turn to go to the backhand. Compare this to the usual glove on the ground orientation and it's quicker to get to the line drive and backhand. Honestly I have never seen a ground ball cleanly rocket through a fielder's legs because they couldn't do the quarter turn in time.

I realize these aren't exactly drills, but may be worth experimenting with to get that little extra quickness. Drills to work on a quick first step may be as helpful as working on quick hands. The additional range you can get from getting a jab or crossover step before having to reach could be all the difference.

 

[Wellphyt]

One drill I picked up years ago from a college coach was the tennis ball drill. You can do it indoors. Bucket of tennis balls and they stand about 10 feet in front of you. We normally have a net or a pad behind them, so the balls don't bounce back and hit them. We throw the balls and bounce them as fast as she can catch and release them. Right , left , up and down. I would have her wear a mask, since even a tennis ball into the eye can hurt.

I played ice hockey growing up. During the summer for fun we would sometimes take turns playing goalie while the other person shot tennis balls at you with a hockey stick. We always used our baseball gloves on our glove hand. It does wonders for your glove reaction time.

 

[CoachKevin]

You may want to try a pre-pitch routine like a creep step. Some move forward in small steps, some move in place, some do a real small hop as the pitch crosses home plate so that as the ball is being hit they are just landing on the balls of their feet. I realize college softball just ended, but baseball games or highlight may give you some examples.

Corner positions usually start lower than SS and 2b so they don't have to go down much/at all on a shot, and being a little more upright gets the middle infield in a better position to move laterally.

I teach corners to have the glove in a thumbs up orientation around their knee level (open part of the glove facing the 3b line instead of to the sky). My reasoning is that it's a quarter turn to get a ground ball at you, quarter turn to stop a line drive/high hop to your face, and only a half turn to go to the backhand. Compare this to the usual glove on the ground orientation and it's quicker to get to the line drive and backhand. Honestly I have never seen a ground ball cleanly rocket through a fielder's legs because they couldn't do the quarter turn in time.

I realize these aren't exactly drills, but may be worth experimenting with to get that little extra quickness. Drills to work on a quick first step may be as helpful as working on quick hands. The additional range you can get from getting a jab or crossover step before having to reach could be all the difference.

This.... and it you really think about it if she has her glove on the ground during the pitch, what does she have to do in order to get to a ball hit to the left/right? She has to come up (because her glove is on the ground) first in order to move laterally

 

[iMlearning]

One drill I picked up years ago from a college coach was the tennis ball drill. You can do it indoors. Bucket of tennis balls and they stand about 10 feet in front of you. We normally have a net or a pad behind them, so the balls don't bounce back and hit them. We throw the balls and bounce them as fast as she can catch and release them. Right , left , up and down. I would have her wear a mask, since even a tennis ball into the eye can hurt.

...This is a drill that the girls seem to love doing also.

 

[Sweet Lou]

I played ice hockey growing up. During the summer for fun we would sometimes take turns playing goalie while the other person shot tennis balls at you with a hockey stick. We always used our baseball gloves on our glove hand. It does wonders for your glove reaction time.

I was never into hockey but loved getting in goal to do this when my buddies were playing street hockey and seeing how many I could snag with the glove save. And I agree, it does do wonders for reaction times.