Outfielder Communication...2 way?

**1st_&_3rd** · 04-06-2010, 10:17 PM

How do you guys have your outfielders communicate with each other? Here's the situation I want to avoid, two outfielders running towards a fly ball, both yelling Mine, Mine, Mine or Got It, Got It, Got It and WHAM they run into each other. Should it be some kind of 2 way "conversation"?

I'm interested in hearing how to effectively deal with this situation.

Thanks in advance!

**mudbug** · 04-06-2010, 10:27 PM

I think, the answer lies in that the better fielder should have priority if they call it,.and they need to keep calling it , not only once, but repeated. Mine, mine, mine, mine, mine, In the OF this means CF, Once they call it the other needs to back off. Of course if neither hears the other one cause they are calling at same time, it still turns out bad.

**jimginas** · 04-06-2010, 10:35 PM

absolutely..... the fielder calling for the ball, yells LOUDLY (and I stress 3 LOUD bursts "Mine, Mine, Mine" cause I want the infielders to have a different call, which for me is "BALL, Ball, Ball". Some fielders were taught the fielder backing up yells "YOURS" to let their teammate calling the ball know she acknowledges. (ALSO STRESS don't call until the ball is at its APEX!)

The near side outfielder yells the NAME of the outfielder calling the ball. I explain this to let the outfielder calling the ball know she can continue to go hard and NOT worry about being run into. We PRACTICE a couple drills (2 opposing lines and I throw a ball up between and they react - game like (one calling for the ball and the other yelling her name and peeling to a backup position. I also do a "Triangle Drill" where I have 2 fielders and a relay (Game like, I hit a ball between in the gap and the 2 fielders approach the ball, one calling and the other calls her name as described above. Sometimes I hit more to one side to ensure one girl is calling I want to be sure they ALL are aggressive and WANT to get a ball. Fielder getting the ball hits the RELAYS GLOVE SIDE. We STRESS throws MUST be to GLOVE SIDE.

ANOTHER COMMUNICATION DRILL is between MIDDLE infielders and outfielders so the BALL NEVER DROPS between fields.
*** Priorities: CF Calls ball, she has PRIORITY, Outfielders have priorities over Infielders, and INFIELDERS ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS assume EVERY flyball is THEIRS and MUST go HARD until an Outfielder calls her off! Infielders NEVER assume an outfielder is going to make the play, they turn and run hard and TRACKING DRILLS for INFIELDERS are just as important as for OUTFIELDERS!

**George R.** · 04-07-2010, 09:15 PM

This is easy. Surely you've all heard of the "pecking order" for catching fly balls in both the infield and outfield?

In order of priority...
1) CF
2) LF
3) RF
4) SS
5) 2B
6) 3B
7) 1B
8) P
9) C

We teach it. We stress it. We practice it. We don't have collisions and we don't have 2-3 players 3 feet apart watching the ball fall to earth. Regardless of where the ball is hit, if a position higher in the pecking order calls the ball, it's hers.

**amanda_cake** · 04-08-2010, 12:16 AM

I've never heard of the pecking order. We've always been told that the center fielder (on most teams) has the priority over outfield balls. The outfield has priority over an infielder going backwards for a pop fly. I do like this priority list, however.

**CoachJim** · 04-09-2010, 11:36 PM

jimginas has it right and I'll add one more thing I like to teach in addition to those drills is to have the secondary outfielder let the primary know how much room they have...Its all about communication...the more the merrier....

**playball13** · 04-11-2010, 08:44 PM

Same thing we have the secondary fielders help by saying "IN","BACK","STAY DOWN","YOU'RE GOOD".
Any game where there is a colision or near collision, the next practice is at least one hour of 4 corners.
We use is the SS, 3B, LF, CF roughly form a square players rotate between positions. Some times we will form 2 squares where each will see how many they can catch in a row. We try to drop the ball in there. THe coach hitting the ball has to be able to hear the girls calling it. To keep them honest 1 coach continually walks around the square and we will occassionally tell one fielder to not go for the ball (simulating lost ball in sun). The other fielders must still go hard after the ball even though they know someone else should have it. If they don't hear anything they continue to go for it.
We mix it up a little by having all 4 fielders turn their back to home plate. They listen for the crack of the bat then they must turn, locate the ball and make the play. For fun, we finish the drill with the fielders putting the glove on their other hand and try making the catch. It helps them to really concentrate on getting the ball into the glove and is usually pretty amusing.

**eBookBaseball** · 10-14-2010, 02:36 PM

One of the ways we teach flyball communication is not only through positional priority, but through differing "calls" between infielders and outfielders. Here is a blog post explaining the logic: Flyball Communication

**MsDinosaur** · 10-14-2010, 04:53 PM

I've heard of the priority order before and it makes sense. I think the list I had seen had 3rd base ahead of 2nd base, but IMO that's not a big deal. As long as the team uses a list where 2nd and 3rd are ahead of the P, C and 1st and behind the SS and outfielders, coverage should be pretty good.

**Lozza** · 10-15-2010, 08:10 AM

One way I was taught from about 10 years old you NEVER called 'MINE'. You always called your name. So instead of two people calling 'MINE, MINE' you had 'LAUREN'S' and 'EMMA'S' It avoided this problem (and I've seen collisions in the infield from people yelling it at the same time)

If someone overcalled them, and they miss? Bench. You only ever over-call someone if you're 100% going to get the ball.

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