Two Tips To Improve Your Infield Play

Couple things that we saw. I think the biggest thing that I saw as far as fielding goes was chest too upright like this. So you're moving around like this all the time and when you're up here you have late hands, you flash your hands late, you put your hands down here and now I can't see right. So I need to have, I feel, what do we say, our backhands. So one thing that'll help you when you're preparing to move. See how my chest is like this but then when I'm getting ready to move, see how I go like this? And guess what it's easy for me to do? Have my back flat. Yeah, it's all right. If you have a ball, just roll with one. So I'm here. See how low I am? This is what I see from a lot of guys. See how under that looks? The ball should never ever beat your glove to the ground. If it does, it means that your chest isn't forward enough or you're late with your hands. Okay, so the next thing is watch my hands. Just watch my hands. What do my hands do? Ready? Got it. What do they do? Yeah, so they were like this, right? So I'm in this position and then as I come in like that. So you grab your gloves in here and then you, so coach was saying thumbs up. So you turn your glove. It's just the ball has to go in the glove. Get our chest forward to help us with that. Open the glove early and it should follow your throws. You got another ball? It's not like this. It's not this, right? It's not, you're not a pitcher. You're moving toward your target. Take stress off your arm by using your body. Everyone got it? Those are the big things I saw, but then you have to work on it. So I'm going to just keep saying it. I'll just keep telling you over and over again. If you don't do it right and you've got to make the adjustment, okay? Because I don't want to have to say the same thing. A couple guys, I feel like I'm still saying the same thing like a year later. So you've got to make an adjustment. A lot of guys make their adjustments. The new guys that have never heard this, this might sound foreign to you. I'm going to just harp on it. What do you need to be a great infielder? Okay, let's talk about the mental game because this is such an important part of fielding and a lot of people don't talk about this. If a hitter hits a ball 90 plus miles an hour, the ball is going to travel about 90 feet in a half a second. When I catch when my left foot lands, I get to the right, I brace, I go. So I'm going to bring the ball here as my right foot starts to go to my left. Out of my glove, my fingers should be on top of the ball. I don't take it out like this. I don't take it out like this. I'm on top of the ball right here. But it's not just about fielding the ball again. It's about fielding the ball properly every single time. If you're just going to wait for your team to practice, you're not going to be a very good fielder. If you're just going to wait to field at practice when your coach actually does fielding practice, you're not going to be a very good fielder. If you think you're going to get great fielding three to five balls in an infield outfield, you're crazy. You've got to field a lot and so you've got to field before practice. You've got to field after practice. You've got to be able to do it on your own. Don't wait for somebody to say, let's go practice infield. Go grab somebody and say, let's practice infield.