We are trying to come up with some drills that will help our outfielders do a better job of judging fly balls and taking good angles to the ball. One of the AC suggested hitting tennis balls with a tennis racket, so they outfielders have the judge the flight of the ball and cannot use the crack of the bat when making their first step. Any thoughts? Any other suggestions on drills we can use?
Anyone hit tennis balls for outfield drills?
- Thread starter JAD
- Start date
Welcome to Discuss Fastpitch
Your FREE Account is waiting to the Best Softball Community on the Web.
Greenmonsters
Wannabe Duck Boat Owner
IMO, tennis balls are good w/ young kids learning to play OF (and for coaches not adept at fungos), but for older experienced players, the more practice similuating game fly balls the better. They need to get used to reacting to pitch location, swing type, crack of the bat, and reading trajetory. The balls hit to them shouldn't always be straight - they need plenty w/ hook and slice side spin, and the trajectory should be varied - its not just fly ball practice, but a mix of everything. Its a good idead to a variety of different composite and metal bats, even wood, to get them used to different "crack of the bat" sounds.
We use tennis balls for outfield pop fly practice but we also add a little spin to it. No gloves and must hit the ball with their head. Teaches them to get under it. Of course we are not hitting it 150 ft and 80 ft up in the air just a toss up.
- Jun 24, 2013
- 1,057
- 36
Do they see the end of the bat? The ball is going right of them, otherwise it is going left of them. Whatever ever way you want to describe it.
Do they see the top of the bat, ball in going to be on the ground otherwise up in the air.
Not sure a drill for this but I am sure we could figure one out.
(Same with using a tennis racket which I do use with my DD to practice OF. I do not want her throwing the ball to hard though so we setup cones and I yell to her where I want the ball to go after I hit it to her. I want her not only to catch the ball, first priority, but also get that dang thing out of her hands.)
Do they see the top of the bat, ball in going to be on the ground otherwise up in the air.
Not sure a drill for this but I am sure we could figure one out.
(Same with using a tennis racket which I do use with my DD to practice OF. I do not want her throwing the ball to hard though so we setup cones and I yell to her where I want the ball to go after I hit it to her. I want her not only to catch the ball, first priority, but also get that dang thing out of her hands.)
Last edited:
- Feb 7, 2013
- 3,186
- 48
^^^^^This is the best answer! Practice hitting real softballs so the outfielders can get used to how they come off the bat and how they react during flight whether its a flyball, line drive, or one, two hop, etc. Don't over think this. Practice as much as you can using real game situations and softballs. The same approach goes with pitching, hitting, fielding, base running....try to replicate what conditions they will experience in the game and then practice these as much as possible.
- Dec 11, 2010
- 4,749
- 113
I have used tennis rackets to hit Jugs Lite Flite balls for pop ups and crazy spin fly balls. The really young kids are not as nervous about catching them, and it is really fun. Good drill for older kids? Idk.
For our 10u team last year we had a drill where one coach would point the Jugs Jr. in the air and let her rip into CF. The girls would line up in RF or LF and the object was to sprint to CF and use proper footwork to get under the ball while moving toward the target for the throw in. Once they got proficient at this, then we would hit the balls to OF and they would have to react to it off the bat. They picked the concept up quickly.
