Fly Balls to Short

My daughter is having difficulty trying to get to flyballs are that are hit to the areas that are right on the edge of her position. SS covers a lot of ground, yes, and I've told her that previously. But it's the same type of balls hit that she misses (like popups that land behind third base or where the grass meets dirt behind her). She seems to be having trouble getting under them in time to field them properly and they end up tipping off the edge of her glove. I don't know if I'm explaining the play properly but I can see if I can find video of a hitter hitting those types of balls if needed.

Is there a drill we can practice with her at home? She's 11 so it could be something that will get better with age/practice but she seems unhappy about not being able to get those balls now when she talks to me after the game. She has told me that she initially forgets to drop step and run but then remembers to do it which is what I think the bigger issue is. But they practice this (this being drop step and run, but without a ball thrown which could be the reason too) at every team practice so I'm not sure that's the entire reason why. She says these types of balls are the hardest for her because of how much ground she needs to cover in such a short amount of time while also trying to catch it to get the out.

I was wondering if you guys had any idea on what we can do to help her at home. I was thinking tossing tennis balls at her but maybe hitting the ball to her would be best? Not sure where to start.

It sounds like she may have all of her weight leaning forward when contact is made with the ball. A SS needs to be able to charge slow grounders, move left/right, or drop step left/right for the "flares" you are referring to. I would video her and pay attention to her feet and weight distribution when contact is made. A good drill would be to have her set up and throw balls to different locations, including some pop ups over her head/shoulders. Another drill could be the Auburn "hop" where she hops on the pitch and lands on contact ready to move in any direction. Not sure if we can still call it the Auburn hop since Clint Myers is gone...

JAD said:

It sounds like she may have all of her weight leaning forward when contact is made with the ball. A SS needs to be able to charge slow grounders, move left/right, or drop step left/right for the "flares" you are referring to. I would video her and pay attention to her feet and weight distribution when contact is made. A good drill would be to have her set up and throw balls to different locations, including some pop ups over her head/shoulders. Another drill could be the Auburn "hop" where she hops on the pitch and lands on contact ready to move in any direction. Not sure if we can still call it the Auburn hop since Clint Myers is gone...

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She currently does the hop. She learned it last season playing 10u with the team she's currently on. I didn't realize it was an Auburn thing until I got around to googling it about a month ago lol. She realized very quickly that the hop helped keep her "grounded" when the ball is hit and runners are on base, especially since her going to cover third on a steal cost them a run and a ball was hit right where she would've been standing had she hopped instead of running to cover. She easily fields hard hit grounders and slow rollers but these seem to be giving her the hardest time and she feels she lets the team down because she's "so close to getting them".

How will I know if she has too much weight leaning forward when she goes to field a ball? Do you mean when she says she forgets to drop step and run? Because what she usually does first is backpedals then it clicks and she does it the way it's been practiced.

Could communication between fielders be an Issue?

DD gets worried in IF if she starts moving too much.

If she's backpedaling at all, that's the issue stopping her from covering more ground. So, it sounds like its mostly footwork.

I'd do the drills she does with her team, but with you throwing the ball to different spots. Throw some behind third, behind second, and directly behind. Mix it up so she's not cheating one way or the other. And just work on it until the muscle memory kicks in and it's not something she needs to think about.

The tennis ball is also a good drill, but more for creating softer hands. You can do the same drills, but have her try to catch the tennis ball barehanded. It doesn't matter if she succeeds, it's about following the ball all the way into the hand and then catching softly.

She's only 11, so you definitely have lots of time and it's not something that needs fixed in 1-2 sessions.

In addition to a good drop step (make sure to practice both left and right drops), make sure she is not running with her glove hand/arm extended in anticipation of the catch. She'll get to her spot quicker running with glove tucked and natural arm swinging/pumping, only extending the glove arm when making the catch.

We do lots of drop step left/right drills with a thrown ball at various depths and angles.

As SS, she has priority over the other IFers on those short fly balls, but an OFer would have priority over her if they call her off. Any chance she is anticipating an OFer calling her off so she is hesitating just a bit?

#7sDad said:

If she's backpedaling at all, that's the issue stopping her from covering more ground. So, it sounds like its mostly footwork.

I'd do the drills she does with her team, but with you throwing the ball to different spots. Throw some behind third, behind second, and directly behind. Mix it up so she's not cheating one way or the other. And just work on it until the muscle memory kicks in and it's not something she needs to think about.

The tennis ball is also a good drill, but more for creating softer hands. You can do the same drills, but have her try to catch the tennis ball barehanded. It doesn't matter if she succeeds, it's about following the ball all the way into the hand and then catching softly.

She's only 11, so you definitely have lots of time and it's not something that needs fixed in 1-2 sessions.

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I say the same thing to my husband and kiddo. My husband tends to believe she's not very competitive but she talks to me more than him, and she's usually the one that confides in me how she feels she fails the team when she doesn't catch these balls and knows she can do much better. I just remind her she's still young and she has years to get better at this.

Now, it'll just be a matter of beating daylight home.

quincy said:

Could communication between fielders be an Issue?

DD gets worried in IF if she starts moving too much.

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When it gets to the outfield, yes. That's the issue.

TMD said:

In addition to a good drop step (make sure to practice both left and right drops), make sure she is not running with her glove hand/arm extended in anticipation of the catch. She'll get to her spot quicker running with glove tucked and natural arm swinging/pumping, only extending the glove arm when making the catch.

We do lots of drop step left/right drills with a thrown ball at various depths and angles.

As SS, she has priority over the other IFers on those short fly balls, but an OFer would have priority over her if they call her off. Any chance she is anticipating an OFer calling her off so she is hesitating just a bit?

Click to expand...

Yes, there were 2 that where hit shallow left and left center that she was running to get then stopped. The ball landed between all 3 fielders and she dashed to grab it and throw it to 2. I asked her what happened and she said I saw them coming so I stopped. I asked her if they called her off and she said no. I told her that unless they called her off, don't stop trying to catch it. Because as she gets older, those will be her balls unless if you have a really, really fast OF.

I think that tends to be her focus, worrying about running into people too. She had one play at 10u where she called 3rd off the ball and 3rd still ended up going to get it and they collided and she ended up on her butt. Maybe I can add that into the drills. Usually my husband is the one that hits and I pretend to be a really bad first or second baseman (as in you gotta throw it at my chest/face or I won't catch it) since we found it helped tons with her accuracy. Maybe I should pretend to be third/cf/lf and try to distract her by running in?

Work on the footwork. She is only 11 and will improve, but needs to have the right fundamentals. If you ask me the biggest mistake I see a lot of coaches make is that in practice they hit balls right to the players.

One Drill we used to uses was to have the coach take 3 balls. The first one was a simple toss that either over the right or left shoulder. The field would catch it. Then they would start jogging in same direction and then we would throw it hard. After each catch drop the ball. After the second ball we would have them take off and throw it so they had to really move to get to it. Truthfully we only wanted them to catch the last one half the the time. If you do it and watch where they were catching the 3rd ball the first time and a month or so later you will be amazed at how far they progress. It gives them the mindset that they can catch anything. So many balls drop at every level that they have a chance for.

The other thing that causes problems are what I call drifters. Teach her to run to the ball and get behind it versus drifting to it.

Maybe playing catch with a football would make it a more instinctive movement for her? It could be another one of those "signs of the times", but I wonder if the hours I spent playing football during school recess helped make tracking flyballs that much easier for me.

As much as my daughter loves softball, she's recently been asking to play catch with a football, so I started showing her how to run routes. Fall ball is almost over, and at our level, there's only maybe one or two pop-ups a game - so I'll have to report back next spring to see if the skillset crosses over.