“Get outside of the ball.” It’s a teaching cue that is used in just about every level of baseball. On face value it’s not a hard concept to understand, but it’s so much more than what it seems. Let’s breakdown the what, why and how of getting outside of the ball. What does get outside … More The What? Why? How? of Getting Outside the Ball
If you’ve followed this blog you might know that I like to break the fielding process down into smaller phases for instructional and evaluating purposes. Each phase works in conjunction with the others, but one could be argued as the most influential in turning groundballs into outs. That phase is the approach phase. The approach … More Exploring Groundball Approach
Recently I was watching an MLB game and I was blown away at the lack of attention to detail displayed by the 1B while “holding” a runner at first. The pitcher was clearly doing his part to control the running game. He mixed up his hold times and showed a couple different moves over to … More The Art of Holding Runners on 1B
All images below are depicting 2B double play pivots with feeds from the direction of 3B. Footwork will be the same with feeds from SS but the orientation of the bag will be slightly different as is in the picture. We’ve gone around the diamond with the feeds (3B, SS, 2B, LH 1B, RH 1B) … More Second Base Double Play Pivots
Last week’s post discussing deflecting vs catching & exchanging the ball was a precursor to this week’s post about SS double play pivots and next week post on 2B double play pivots. You can read last week’s post here. As we dive into the specific footwork for each position’s pivots it’s important to remember a … More An Inside Look at SS Double Play Pivots
This week we’re continuing to look into double play feeds from around the diamond by diving into left handed 1B double play feeds. You can check out the double play feed posts for 3B here, SS here and 2B here. These checkpoints for left handed 1B are similar to what we discussed with 3B. I … More 3 Checkpoints for Left Handed 1B Double Play Feeds
Over the next few weeks we’ll dive into the components of the double play. This week lets look at double play feeds from the third baseman. Obviously the worst case scenario in any double play situation is not recording any outs on that play. Often we feel the need to be in a hurry to … More 5-4-3=2 Simple Rules for 3B Double Play Feeds
First base play instruction is often over looked in practice. Many think that the position is for the player with a big bat that might not have the ability to play another position. Now this may be the case for some, but in those cases I’d be willing to bet that the infield play of … More 3 Checkpoints to Keep 1B Bag Footwork Simple
Defend the Diamond 