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A request has been made to add fielding tips along with the hitting tips. So here is my first fielding tip.
For me, giving fielding tips are hard to give because everybody is different. There is though some basic advice I can give to a general public.
The most important for me is to always have your body under control. The moment you let your body control get lost, thats when you miss the ball. Always remember that you decide what bounce to catch. In other words you can either go in or take a step back according to what bounce you want to catch the ball on. I have always been thought that your first step should be in, in a way taking charge. Once you have seen the bounces then you decide to either continue to come in or wait for the ball to come, that way you always catch a more comfortable bounce. I personally like to always catch the long bounce or the ball when in the air and not the in-between bounce.
Always have a good base or feet just outside shoulder width. Not too wide or too tall comfortable and semi-low, not too low either. When too low then you have locked your body to any further movements. Bad bounces will be very hard to catch in a low base. If too tall then you are easily going to miss the ball that hugs the ground because you won't be able to reach down. Try to be on the ball of your foot never on your heels and not to far on your toes. Being on your toes is good, but too far on them then you will lean over too much and again constrict your hands ability to work freely. Again fielding is control, hands, and feet, if you don't allow any of these to work freely then you are setting yourself up for an error. Try to field the ball in the center of your body and after catching it, bring it to your belly for glove to hand transfer. These tips apply mainly to ground balls hit directly at you, and not to your sides. I will go further into different types of grounders in the next few tips. Any questions or comments, send them over in the questions part of the site. |
