Today, we’re going to talk about a handful of baseball drills that are perfect for improving your outfielders’ skills.
Part One
The three-part throwing baseball drill allows us to isolate parts of the throwing technique at a time and put it back together in some meaningful fashion.
You’d be surprised how many older players need some help with their technique and throwing. We just want to take advantage of what we have. If we can pick up a couple miles an hour by gripping the ball right or by making sure we get a good glove tuck, we want to do that. And by slowing things down, backing up and doing it one step at a time, it allows us to be able to do that.
Your players should be in the break position. The arms are in a scarecrow position, with both arms slightly flexed. The fingers are on top of the ball. The glove is turned and facing away. This is going to allow us to isolate and work just strictly on the glove tuck.
If you go to a Little League diamond or a high school field and you watch how many players give you a glove tuck, bringing that glove back into the body, you’re going to find less than half do it properly–maybe even less than that depending on where you’re at. This is our chance to teach our players how to do that.
From the break position, you are the coach should say, “Throw.” When you say, “Throw,” your player will bring that glove back to his chest, get the arm into a 90-degree angle, and make the throw to his partner.
If you learn how to do this properly, you can gain an extra two to four miles per hour on your throw.
During this baseball drill, make sure that your player is looking down a gun barrel. He should have that glove pointed directly at his partner. That’s going to increase his accuracy when he does release the ball, not to mention the velocity he’s going to pick up with that glove tuck.
Part Two
The second part of this baseball drill will be to take it from the break position and work backwards, until you get to what we call our ready position–hands in front of the chest.
When you, the coach, say, “Break,” your players should take a small step with the front foot and split the hands back into that scarecrow position. So what we’re doing is just inching our way back to a normal throw.
Part Three
The third and final portion of this drill is what we call ready and throw. We’re going to put the whole thing back together again without any stops.
Again, we want the players concentrating on getting that glove facing backwards and making sure they pull back hard to allow their arm to increase the velocity.
This step-by-step approach to teaching people how to throw the ball properly is sure to help your outfielders become more skillful on the field. Although the technique may differ from position to position, the baseball drill never changes. We can work regardless of whether you’ve got a catcher throwing the way he throws or an outfielder throwing the way he throws. We can all do it together at the same time to help teach that glove tuck, a nice release with the hands to make sure that the technique we hold the ball with is where we need, and to put that whole thing back together step by step.
Do you think your players will enjoy this baseball drill? If so, feel free to share it with your fellow coaches and players!