Outfield technique

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Apr 13, 2015
179
28
DD’s coach has the kids call ball multiple times if you coming in on it. Cannot say it works unfortunately 🙄
Also OF should always be backing each other up so (especially on pop-ups/fly balls) there shouldn’t be a fear of the ball skipping by them…
Infielders go for pop up/ fly ball until OF calls them off.....infielders no need to call ball on those type of balls....pop ups in the infield, yes they call for it
 
Oct 31, 2021
18
3
I like to show girls examples by hitting them a line drive a medium height and a high pop fly. Have them land in the same spot and then show them how much they roll. The visual of the 3 balls all hit to land at the same spot and one rolled to the fence, the next 40 ft and the high one bounced 2 or 3 times but didn’t get more than 15 ft. tends to drive home the point. If you want to dive for the ball know that the line drive and the medium are going to roll much more. The really high one isn’t going to get too far away. Then we can talk about backing each other up. I also like to demonstrate this on different days when conditions impact. Grass just mowed, field bone dry like concrete etc will increase the roll. Doing that demo with the OF girls seems to really help them get it.

But I encourage them that CF can be super aggressive because there should be backup. If the backup takes the correct line shouldn’t be an issue. But if it is RF or LF running at the line there is no backup. So they need to be more conservative. Diving for that line drive past 1b if not caught will certainly be a HR. Instead I would rather them try to take a line to stop it and get it in to keep them to a double.


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Oct 4, 2018
4,611
113
Uhh...no they're not. They pretty much have to be coming right at the fielder to get stopped. Pop flies allow lots of reaction time, and typically aren't going to the fence if they get by. As Westwind correctly describes, location dictates outfielder reaction.

I think they were implying that line drives have more predictable bounces, which I agree they tend to do. When and outfielder one-hops a line drive you don't see many errors. Fly balls can do some weird things on that first hop. Heck, some don't even hop.
 
Aug 1, 2019
962
93
MN
Lots of practice with the short hop pays off. Fielders learn to charge hard and have the confidence to stop a ball even if they can't quite catch it on the fly. Cuts down on pulling up on a fly ball to let it bounce, not even taking a chance to get the out.
 

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