GLOVE
WORK FOR FIELDING GROUND BALL
This is the third part in
a succession of tips for fielding a ground ball. This part we will talk
about our glove work in fielding a ground ball for infielders.
After we have our approach
and footwork ready and are in our two triangle formation, we can now go
to work on the ball with our glove. We firmly believe that we have to go
and get the ball being VERY aggressive to it. There are many philosophies
out there that tell you to field the ground ball by making a rounded 'L'
to your belly as you field the ball...however, we think that as you field
the ball, your glove should be going to it (attacking it) instead of moving
away from it in the 'L' theory.
So, our gloves literally
go out to the ball and up. This allows us to get rid of short hops that
eat you up and forces your hands to go to the ball not letting the ball
play you. At the beginning of the year we exaggerate this to the point
that our hands go above our heads...as the kids understand how important
it is to go to the ball, we don't require all of that exaggeration.
We make sure that our glove
is ALWAYS presented from the beginning of the approach. Presentation requires
the wrist to be broken so that the back of the glove is parallel with your
legs, instead of the wrist being straight and having the back of the glove
parallel with the ground. This eliminates the ball the roles up the arm
or off the heal or front of the glove causing the ball to go elsewhere.
We focus on trying to get the ball to hit the palm of the glove giving
way to our 'alligator jaw' formation. This is what we call our throwing
hand and glove together...they look like aligator jaws.
That's part three...part
four will take care of the rest of the footwork and your arms as we get
rid of the baseball.
Submitted by: CoachB