Have you been hitting your players
groundballs and they keep pulling their heads away while the
balls go through their legs? You keep telling them to bend their
knees and keep their head down but it doesn't seem to help. If
this sounds familiar then here's some information that just
might help.
Players pull their heads off of groundballs, not because
they're trying to make you crazy (although that is often the
by-product) but because they're pretty sure they can't properly
field the grounder and they know the ball will hurt them when it
hits them.
So, a few things will really help:
- Fix the field - In addition to
doing your best to rake the dirt part of your field before
every practice and game, teach each of your infielders to
take their foot and smooth out the area in front of their
position every single time they get ready for groundballs -
practices and games. Too often it's the professional players
with all their skill that get the perfectly smooth infield,
and yet the young players with average to poor fielding
skills are trying to field groundballs that are ricocheting
off of dirt clods. Help them build up their confidence and
trust by smoothing out the infield and limiting those bad
bounces.
- Use softer balls when
practicing their fielding skills so they can really allow
their faces to get closer to the ground and the ball without
the fear of getting clobbered by the ball.
- Hands Out - Teach them to keep
their hands out past their noses as they get ready to catch
the ball.
- Catch the bottom of the ball -
This will really help your players get their hands and body
low in an effort to get underneath the ball instead of
catching the back of the ball as many players will do. This
causes their knees to be a little too straight and their
rear-end up too far.
- Have them count the number of bounces out
load - it will take their minds off the
possibility of being hit and direct their attention onto the
ball itself!
