Help for Outfielders

Jim,

Here is something I use both in tryouts and as a drill for outfielders during practice. What most outfielders need is REPETITION and VARIETY to become adept at judging fly balls. I use a JUGS, Jr. pitching machine locked(not free to swivel) to throw consistent, repetitive fly balls to one spot. Each player gets 5 fly balls. They can be high fly balls or low line drives. The 1st and easiest try is for the player to field one directly to him by having him stand at the ball's impact point(high fly ball.) He fields it and throws it to a relay man near 2B who drops it into a bucket or rolls it to the coach operating the machine in front of a backstop. For the 2nd try, the player starts from a cone placed 10(more or less depending on players' ages) paces to the rear of the ball's impact point. The 3rd try begins from a cone placed 10(more or less) paces to one side(the player's glovehand side) of the ball's impact point. The 4th try begins from a cone placed 10(more or less) paces to the other side(the player's throwing hand side) of the ball's impact point. The 5th and last(and toughest) try begins from a cone placed 10(more or less) paces in front of the ball's impact point requiring the player to go back on the ball. This is quite a workout and is a lot tougher to do than it looks like.

Something all the players(both my 12U and 15U kids) love to do at the end of practice is to get into a big mob in the outfield while I shoot fly balls left, middle and right and short, medium and long at random. I work up slowly to a point where I am feeding balls into the machine as fast as possible with at least one ball in the air at all times. I used to worry about someone gettin hurt but no one has yet. The action is fast and furious and the kids often end up collapsing in a giggling pile at the end of the drill.

The payoff? If my outfielders can get to a fly ball, they can catch it.

A drill I use to practice relay throws is to divide the team into equal 3 or 4 man teams(dads and coaches fill in to even up teams.) Teams line up in parallel lines and on a whistle or command throw a ball from player to player to the opposite end and back. Teams compete against each other AND against a stopwatch(trying to improve their time each try.) The slowest team has to perform some service for the fastest team to heighten the competition. I rotate players among positions so everyone gets to be a relay man. While they are throwing I walk around and encourage them to use good technique like proper footwork, waving an arm, shouting "hit me," giving a good target with the glove, "following the glove" on the turn, etc. My teams are noted for getting the ball in from the outfield.

I hope these ideas help.