Andy Murray, return of serve. Notice that he doesn't just go from standing there to hopping. He moves in, then split-steps.
The Auburn Hop
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It's about the landing: IMO the creep is nice but not necessary - you have to stop creeping to hop, so what difference does the creep make other than as a nod to old school baseball?
- Mar 10, 2016
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If you watch Andy Murray he is really creeping forward when he hop's. A well executed "creep" with just your toes barely touching the ground is really not that much different than the "hop". Basically, reaction is faster than action, as weird as that sounds.
When we see a change in the environment or in this case a batter start to swing and reaction to it, the signal comes in through the eye, gets sent to the back of the brain and from there to the areas that control movements. We don't "think" we just "do". When we are standing still we only act after the ball is hit, we have to "think" about the next steps and that signal originates in the decision areas at the front of the brain and goes from there to the movement center. Basically we are "thinking" before taking action which scientifically speaking, is slower.
This is the same reason why boxers are always moving their hands. Great counter punchers look like they are about to throw a punch but usually are just waiting to react to the punch being thrown. I would prefer the Andy Murray tennis style to just a hop.
I would be careful in adding this with younger athletes if their fundamentals need work. Adding this hop could be to detrimental and make them less confidence than spending time on more basic fundamental movements. Remember this is being done by D1 scholarship athletes.
It was being done by me when I was 11 playing basketball. It is being done by youth tennis players. This is not some advanced fielding technique, it's a bunnyhop.
- Mar 10, 2016
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If a young baseball or softball player is not fundamentally sound with fielding and/or throwing 85%+ of the time properly, I am not sure if the benefit to adding a hop. When you watch the video the timing of the landing of the players are different as well. I think the better players will pick this up quickly since hopping is not a "advanced fielding technique" and it improves response time. I think this forces the players to pick up the ball quicker as well. I am interested to see how your team respond to it if you still plan on trying it. As a U14 TB coach it would be interesting to hear your feedback to see if it's something we might add if it's successful. No doubt it could work if the talent level of your players is high but as a former D1 baseball player, I was surprised by the lack of technique some of the players had. We were reminded if daily by our coaches, lol! As a coach, when we try to introduce something new our players we have to remember it could effect something up or down chain in the action. We have to take that into consideration. For your "stud" players this is a nice benefit and will make them better I think. If a player is not fundamentally sound, than there is no benefit to be gained here, which was the point of that last statement of my prior post.
So it's more than just a bunnyhop, it's really the start of everything that happens after the ball is put into play. If our players can't field or throw it properly they better be prepared to hop the ball to the base then.
Ah - I found the troll.
I suppose I could very easily point out that no one here made any sort of claim that the hop was the only skill needed to field the ball, but explaining the obvious to a troll never seems to work.
- Mar 10, 2016
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I think you are jumping the shark there Fonzie, I am not trolling you here. I responded to post about the technique and you asking the difference between a creep and a hop. Then you made a comment about "it's just a bunnyhop" which is overly simplistic. Sorry if you become sensitive to others opinions. I would not ask a question unless you would like feedback or answers to the question. In the spirit of getting this back on track, I am interested if anyone has applied this to any youth team in a practice or game setting?
I agree more with you than I do with Stimer, but I appreciated Stimer's thoughts and find your use of the word "troll" to be highly inappropriate.
Don't really care if you find it inappropriate. A troll is a troll is a troll, and I don't feed them.
