fielding pop flys and grounders

[eddie]

8 is in her 3rd season of 8u she has done good in past but now. she is not wanting to charge to the ball and on grounders is not taking a good stance. she waiting for ball to come to her and is side stepping the ball and tring to scoope it up. she knows it is wrong to play it that way,but she is still doing it. now i have done all i can do(ithink) on tring to get her out of this slump.her coach's are looking at her like why did we pick her.she should be doing better.she has always played right field and now she is in center field.is because of new spot or nerves. she is one of 5 vet.'s on the time all the rest are new. any help in this will be great thanks.

 

[starsnuffer]

Time and patience. This can happen with all ages of girls. She may have had a bad hop hit her, seen another girl get hit, hear another girl talk about "how scary ground balls are", or had a coach hit balls to her too hard.

You need to build her confidence back up. The best way I've found to do this is to start inside with softie balls (you're probably already using these in 8u). ROLL the ball slowly to her. Enforce good mechanics, but keep her engaged in conversation and mentally distracted from the physical skill. Joke with her, talk to her about her day, ect. The whole time, you're rolling balls to her. Get her excited about charging in on them and throwing them hard. Don't tell her to charge, but tell her to be quick. From here, you can move to single hops and such. The idea is that she will get a lot of reps doing the skill before she even realizes, and then at the end you can point out how well she did. She'll likely be surprised that she "wasn't scared" the whole time she was doing it, because you kept her distracted.

-W

 

[eddie]

thanks for it i will try it i read about using a foam ball on the pop fly's and then move up to ball and glove after a few toss of the foam ball i am going to try this also thanks for help

 

[SBFAMILY]

We use tennis balls at that age. Hitting pop flys with a tennis racquet is easier and faster than a bat. Great indoor drill.

 

[eddie]

thanks did not think of that will try at my old age i dont hit as well any more

 

[SBFAMILY]

There is a whole range of drills we use tennis balls for. Even for outfield with my 16U team and my high school team. Many colleges use them. They teach soft hands and they move in the wind outside. We also use them to hit at the earlier ages doing one hand drills off the T.

 

[Momo'sDad]

Starsnuffer is right (as usual!).

I'm not sure where I picked up this tip, but I've got some new/young players on my 10u team who are getting extra work on charging the ball as well. Kids love things that are fun, so to make fielding more fun, I tell my girls to act like airplanes going in for a landing. Suddenly, girls who were previously content to just wait for the ball to arrive and then 'helicopter' down were moving forward on the ball and making better plays as a result. Thankfully, my players like airplanes more than helicopters.

For younger players, so many of the keys to success really are in the language we use to describe techniques.

As for the other stuff, don't worry about it. Temper your expectations. Yes, there are those parents out there who might wonder to themselves or even aloud why 8u players can't execute seemingly simple tasks and the reason is that they're 7-8 years old. We all make simple mistakes on occasion. So what? The more repetitions we put into doing something right, however, the more likely we are to succeed when it counts.

 

[eddie]

man what site sure have gotten alot of good stuff to try thanks to all

 

[eddie]

update she is back on track and i am broke. she got me for about $20. ON SAT. and $40. on sunday. dollor a ball gets costly. had to stop not because she was tired i was broke. thanks to all for the help

 

[sluggers]

eddie, make sure you have taught the proper hand position when fielding a grounder. Some kids are afraid the ball will pop up and hit them in the face. If you teach them to have their hand over the top of the mitt, it will reduce their fear. A demonstration of what happens when the hand isn't over the glove and what happens when the hand is over the glove sometimes helps.

Reps and patience...