Basic of Fielding

   Fielding a baseball can be a difficult and scary task for young athletes. I can still imagine, as a new player to the game, a hard-white ball smacked in my direction. You always hear coaches YELL stay in front of the ball but your head is SCREAMING “GET OUT OF THE WAY!!”  This can certainly be a scary moment for a player that has not been taught the proper approach to fielding a baseball.  I’ve seen this look in the eyes of young baseball players, asking themselves that very same question, ‘do I stay in front of the ball and attempt catch it, or do I move out of its way to safety’?  New coaches/parents please take my advise --- begin each season teaching fundamentals!  No matter what level you are coaching, start slow and progressively move faster according to the progress of your team.  It is said by professionals that many problems, are created by bad habits from a poor fielding position¹.  The goal of every coach should be to teach the proper mechanics and develop muscle memory.   

   One of the top reasons I work hard in building my player's confidence in their mechanics, is so that they will no longer have to think about “fielding” because they developed muscle memory to able to react instinctively as a fielder. This can only be accomplished with lots of practice and performing thousands of reps.  In this article I will demonstrate a few of the basic fundamentals of fielding, techniques that can be taught to a newbie or used to just refresh  muscle memory of a experienced player. Please remember these are only the basics steps to fielding a baseball hit straight at you and is within two steps of either direction of a fielder.

Fours easy steps to becoming a better fielder

1.              Feet – I like to train all my athletes from ground up for a couple reasons. First, I do not want to miss a step when training my athletes. Second, my athletes can create a simple routine of steps that

are easy for them to remember when they are practicing their fielding from the ground up.  I would never say that our feet are the absolutely the most important body part of an athlete, however, I do consider them extremely important.  My observance in coaching youth athletics for the last nineteen years, is that young athletes who have good feet usually turn-out to be fairly good athletes as the they get older. To properly field a baseball, they must start with their feet. I train my athletes to keep soft knees (knees are slightly bent) and be able to move in any direction.  I have my fielders key off the pitcher's, a the pitcher breaks their hands, I have all my players on the field take a small step to engage their lower body (butt and legs) and prepare their bodies to break on the ball, we call this the “ready position²”. When the ball is hit directly at a fielder, I coach my players to take small, choppy steps while reading the path of the baseball.  Small steps will allow the athlete to play the ball even if it makes a slight change direction i.e... a bad hop.

2.              Flat Back – Now that our feet have placed our body in the proper path of the movement of the baseball, the fielder must get their eyes and hands into proer position to field the ball.  In order to

get the upper half into proper position, the fielder must get into the flat back position. Flat back is simply positioning the back parallel with the ground, pushing the head down(eyes looking forward), this will place the fielders eyes in the best position to see the ball.  To properly get into the flat back position the fielder must have wide feet, wide enough that their arms can comfortably hang down in-between their thighs, bending at the waist, and getting their butt back and up (not down in a squatting position).

3.              Hands – now that the arms are in position between the thighs as the ball is in reach of the

fielder, the fielder will need to extend their hands out passed the bill of their cap reaching out to the ball, this will allow the fielder to be able to see both ball and glove at the same time. Fielder will also need to keep a strong wrist to control the glove and keep finger tips extending downward toward the ground to keep the ball from hitting the edge of the glove.

4.              Eyes – obviously, seeing the baseball is very important in fielding the baseball.  I am positive that you guys have heard it said many times at the ballpark “keep your eye on the ball all the way to

your glove”. This is actually important concept!  I teach my fielders to approach the ball with their left eye, this puts the fielder into best position to field the baseball to make the throw, making the throw is the sole purpose of fielding the ball.  This video Ripken Baseball Fielding Tip-Fielding a Ground Ball will provide a visual of the steps  Link to video³

   Reminder these are four basic steps to fielding a baseball.  I am fully aware that fielding can be much more difficult than I have just presented, although these four basic steps will certainly give most any young athlete a solid start to developing a foundation in becoming a better fielder.  These simple steps are not only helpful to young athletes but can also be used to assist a more seasoned fielder in making minor adjustments to their mechanics.  Coaches or parents, if you guys ever a have questions or concerns about this topic or any of my blogs, please do not hesitate to ask me the question and will do ye very best to get you answer.  Thank you and please remember God and Family First!

References

¹Bernier, D. (N.D.). How To Field A Ground Ball. Pro Baseball Insider. Retrieved from: http://probaseballinsider.com/baseball-instruction/how-to-field-a-ground-ball/

²American Sports Education Program., & O’Connell, T. (2007). Coaching youth baseball 4th edition. Fundamentals of fielding a ground ball. Human Kinetics. Retrieved from: http://www.humankinetics.com/excerpts/excerpts/fundamentals-of-fielding-a-ground-ball

³Ripken, B. (2013, June 11). Ripken Baseball Fielding Tip-Fielding a Ground Ball [video file]. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfqSNwFVv1s

Qualities of a Successful Coach

What are the qualities of a successful coach?  Bill McCartney, former football player and coach stated, “All coaching is, is taking a player where he can’t take himself.”  Merriam Webster defines coach as - one who instructs players in the fundamentals of a sport and directs a team strategy1.  Merriam defines success - as favorable or desired outcome.1 I can still remember my coaches from “back in the day”. I remember the invested coaches, the ones who were there for the athletes, the coaches that inspired and motivated us to work hard for them, and we did, because we did not want to disappoint them.  I also remember the unpleasant coaches, these coaches acted as if they didn’t enjoy their profession, perhaps they made the wrong career choice - they were impatient, unapproachable, lacked understanding, intimidating, and I personally avoided those coaches every time I possibly could.

 A successful coach, should exhibit influential qualities that are transparent for players, fans, and assistant coaches to witness,  and desire to be led by.

Five Necessary Qualities

• Commitment - “Coaching is a commitment of your time to the development of players both on and off the field.”3
• Commitment to the athlete-to deliver their finest for each athlete regardless of their talent
• Commitment to the University, School, or Organization they are pledged to
• Commitment to the sport-to coach their sport with integrity and devotion

• Organization - Is meticulous in both planning and preparation2 “The 5P’s Proper-Planning-Prevent-Poor-Performance” Tony Stigliano, Mentor and Assigner of Collegiate Officials
• To design practices
• To prepare a strategy for each competition
• Train players physically and mentally to compete to their capacity

• Motivators - coaches perform an important role in recognizing how to motivate their team “What you lack in talent can be made up with desire, hustle and giving 110% all the time” - Don Zimmer American Football Player
• Using positive motivation encourages them to choose to execute their finest.
• Recognizing when players require to be motivated and in what way to motivate them

• Patience - is a virtue, and a necessity when coaching young athletes “He that can have patience can have what he will” - Benjamin Franklin
• Self-control - coaches ought to be able to control their emotions, players simulate their coaches
• Coaches need to allow their athletes to be able to make mistakes and be taught from their errors, establishing a self-confident athlete
• Discipline be certain to make the punishment fit the crime, and be consistent with all players    

• Leadership - power and the ability to lead others.  

“Leaders are not born they are made just like anything else, through hard work. That is the price we’ll have to pay to achieve that goal or any goal” -Vince Lombardi, NFL Hall of Fame football coach

Leaders, Coaches, play a vital role in the development and influence of an athletes in their attitude toward teammates, opponents,  handling success and defeat.

Three Leadership Styles

1.  Task Oriented - coaches that are goal oriented, they are on a mission to accomplish the desired goal.

2. People Oriented - coaches are concerned about relationships and how to develop those relationships with their players, parents, and assistant coaches.

3. People/Task Oriented - the combination of the two orientations above, are the more desired coaches, these coaches make each person around them feel important while remaining on track to accomplish their desired goal.2  

 My wife and I have been blessed with four children, both of us being ex-athletes we expected our children to be as well.  I choose to stay involved with sports and she did not, therefore I was assigned the privilege/challenge of coaching our children.  As their coach, I have been their critic and their advocate, and some days both in the same breath, I have been taught patience for each learned have differently, I made the commitment to be a steward of the game to teach them the proper mechanics and fundamentals of each sport, I had to learn how to motivate each, they were all responded differently to my motivational methods and had to learn what worked best for each of them.  To be a good coach you have to willing to learn yourself because each team will be different.  Nonetheless I am certain that each of my children have received some sort of benefit from my teachings, perhaps, in how they should or should coach their children in the future.  Now that my youngest is in Junior High, I have reached the final stretch of my coaching hurdle, and I do look forward to passing the torch of knowledge that I have collected from my peers, from my research, and from coaching all their sports.  I also pray that my children have learned from my mistakes and only share my positive coaching attributes with their young athletes.  

Coaching has been a spectacular life lesson and has taught me a number of valuable life lessons - I have enjoyed the positive influence on the young athlete and leadership influence on my teams.  I have also taken great pride in planning our practices, coaching fundamentals, demonstrating a winning attitude, establishing sportsmanship, and greatest love of all is watching all my athletes grow from children to young adults.

References

1 Merriam-Webster
Dictionary. (n.d.). Athlete. Retrieved from:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/athlete

2 North, C. (2015). Description of a Good Sports Leader. LiveStrong.com. Retrieved from: http://www.livestrong.com/article/485675-the-importance-of-rules-in-sports/

3 5 Characteristics of a Successful Youth Basketball Coach. (2016). USA-Basketball. Retrieved from: https://www.usab.com/youth/news/2015/05/5-characteristics-of-a-successful-youth-basketball-coach.aspx

Anatomy of Hitting a Baseball

 

 One of the greatest hitters of all time, Ted Williams, quoted “I think without question the hardest single thing to do in sport is to hit a baseball”1.  Hall of Fame pitcher Warren Spahn said, “Hitting is timing. Pitching is upsetting timing”.1  As I mentioned in a previous blog, hitting a baseball at 95 mph is extremely difficult . So, there’s no question that hitting is a skill, but is it a science?  There have been numerous studies conducted regarding this topic many of which have come to the same conclusion that Williams mentioned.  Hitters only have 125 milliseconds to gauge the average Major League fastball – less than the blink of an eye.2 Which begs the question: how is it humanly possible to hit a baseball?  

“The hitter’s job is to time the arrival of the pitch based on the estimated speed of the ball while determining where, horizontally, it will cross the plate.”1 Science suggests there is realistically not enough time for the brain to process this information and execute the skill. But it happens almost every day, so  how does a hitter defy science?   Perhaps, the answer isn’t as complicated as it may seem. All the great hitters in baseball have a deeply ingrained muscle memory built into their swing so they can totally forget about their swing mechanics and concentrate solely on hitting the ball.1 Hitting a baseball requires thousands of repetitions to train the necessary muscles of the body, to respond perfectly each time the swing is performed.3  Creating this muscle memory allows hitters to be able to successfully swing and hit the ball without even having to process all the mechanical steps involved.

I believe I have made it clear the difficulty of hitting a baseball, and the significance behind  repetitively swinging the bat enough times that it becomes second nature.  In order to become a better hitter and achieve this level of muscle memory that I have been referring to requires examination of the anatomy of hitting a baseball.  Luckily, a solid foundation involving both can be achieved through a few basic steps. Here is a list of Six Fundamental Steps for a Better Swing to help build that foundation or refresh a more seasoned hitter.

Six Steps to a Sweet Swing

Step-by-Step instructions that can train or refresh you - regardless of your  level!3

Step 1: Load

·        Shifting the weight to the back foot with the front foot lightly touching the ground to maintain balance

·        Keep the body upright and balanced will assist with the upcoming step

·        Keep hands close to ear assist hit top half of the ball

·        Point the knob of bat to backside of the plate helps keep the bat in a good load position

Step 2:  Step

·        Depending on the width batter’s stance, a short 12″step will work perfectly and be careful not over stride as it changes the eye level.

·        Keep weight on the back leg – this helps keep the batter from lunging at the ball

·        Do not let hands drop can cause batter to hit under the ball

Step 3: Hip Explosion

·        Pivot on back to allow hips to turn toward pitcher  - throw the belly button at the pitcher

·        Keep your head and eyes still to allows better vision

·        Do not allow hands to move forward staying back and balanced

·        Keep hands inside close to the body and pull the knob of the bat toward the ball to create a quicker bat

Step 4: Pulling the Knob

·        Pull the knob of the bat toward the ball places the bat in the best position to make contact

·        The top hand is in a palm up position at the point of contact

·        The bottom hand is in a palm down position at contact

·        Have a bent arm, left hand knuckles up  and right hand knuckles down at contact

·        Keep a strong and straight front leg and bent back knee

Step 5: Extend

·        Do not allow hands to roll over to soon they will when needed

·        Keeping a straight front leg to allow leverage for the bat-head to swing around

·        Keep chin down to keep eye on the ball and not look up too soon

Step 6: Finish the Extension

·        Top and bottom hands rolls over

·        Holding bat with two hands finish high

 Although hitting a baseball is an extremely difficult task,  it is not impossible.  It is amazing what our minds and bodies will allow us to accomplish with a solid foundation of proper mechanics combined with lots of practice!  Every ball player  has an opportunity to set themselves up for a successful baseball career. Do not settle for less by allowing science to dictate your chances to do so, by discouraging and limiting your aptitude. You have the chance to hit the ball harder and more consistently; it isn’t going to happen overnight or without practice, but the choice to become great is yours, and it starts with those six steps I just mentioned.

References

1Peterson, D. (2011). Hitting A Baseball-“The Hardest Thing To Do In Sports. AXON SPORTS. Retrieved from: http://www.axonpotential.com/hitting-a-baseball-the-hardest-thing-to-do-in-sports/

2Kizoian, A. (2016). Hitting a Major League fastball should be physically impossible. Business Insider. Retrieved From:                 http://www.businessinsider.com/science-major-league-fastball-brain-reaction-time-2016-4

3Down, R. (2002t). Six Steps to a Sweet Baseball Swing. Be A Better Hitter. Retrieved from: http://www.beabetterhitter.com/six-steps-sweet-baseball-swing/

Arm Injuries in Baseball: Can They be Avoided?

   Athletes begin playing competitive sports at a younger age today than they have in the past.  I remember watching T-ball when my boys played, those cute little guys and gals all dressed up in their uniforms, every player chasing the ball all over the field, running towards 3rd base after getting a hit?  Remember how much joy it brought to all the spectators?  Being outdoors, smelling the fresh cut grass, and seeing mom, dad, grandma, and grandpa in the stands. Baseball is still America’s game and a great sport for young kids to play.   Playing baseball as a young athlete can be a great experience.  UNTIL, parents and coaches turn youth baseball into a job.  Competitive baseball tends to pressure coaches to ask young athletes to produce more than what their young arms can handle which in turn often leads to overuse injuries.

  Here are a few key areas to help parents and coaches ensure that their young athletes maintain healthy arms and prolong their playing experience throughout their career.  

• Teach proper mechanics of throwing a baseball.
• Create a proper arm health and workout program.
• Teach athletes how to use the arm health and workout program.
• Implement these philosophies into their weekly repertoire.
• Follow through and make adjustments if necessary.

These five bullets will help young athletes create a healthy routine to help avoid arm injuries and enjoy playing America’s game.

  Although most arm injuries can be avoided with proper technique and arm health programs, injuries will occur.  Many of the injuries are created from pushing these young athletes to throw past their pitch count.  The damage though sometimes not obvious when they are young will eventually surface and can become a more serious injury for the older athlete.  “In Little League, most injuries are to the elbow because most LL pitchers don't throw with enough force to cause stress at the shoulder, even though there are many growth plate injuries due to overuse throwing”¹.  Two solutions to help deter these injuries from ever happening: 1) Do not  throw a baseball too hard (not realistic for a competitive athlete) 2) Teach young ball players proper mechanics of throwing a baseball. Click link to watch a video on proper mechanics of throwing a baseball.video link²    

  A quick question for parents that are reading this blog: what ever happened to just being a kid and having fun learning to play the game?  Kids actually developed skills and muscle memory by being kids, playing, climbing, and jumping.  I heard a statement  just the other day from a coach and a good friend that, “Kids do not play anymore. Why?  Because they don’t have time”.  He is right, kids don’t go out to play and just throw the ball around anymore, they are too busy with organized practice and games.   Kids sports have turned into big money making business and  a year-around competitive experience of non-stop action and little consideration of the kid.

   A problem that many are facing is a dream that their kid will be this spectacular athlete and have a chance to make it to the big leagues.  While this may be true for a few, statistics per the NCAA show that 1 out of every 200 high school seniors who play baseball will eventually be drafted to the MLB³.  Taking this a step further, Bleacher Report reported in 2012 the odds of actually playing once you have been drafted are slim and your chances narrow even more the deeper you go in the draft³.  Parents, let’s face the fact that the chances are limited that your ball player will make the big show.

  Kids will continue to play competitive baseball and parents will continue to allow (some force) these young guys to compete year around.  What can be done to avoid arm injuries?  How can parents and coaches help prepare and develop young athletes? Author Joe Zedalis, does an excellent job recommending eight ways to help avoid arm injuries and maintain arm health  in his article Tommy John Surgery: Experts suggest 8 ways young pitchers can avoid dreaded 3 words. To view Joe’s eight steps:link to steps¹.

  The answer is arm health: it is Joe’s number one answer on his list of 8 ways to avoid dreaded 3 word! The importance of arm health is imperative to the longevity of the career of any athlete.  Throwing a baseball can put a tremendous amount of stress on the shoulder and elbow and therefore it is important to train every young athlete the proper mechanics of throwing a baseball.  Throwing a baseball is the fastest human motion in any athletic activity.¹  During a baseball pitch, the shoulder of the pitching arm abducts 90° or more, externally rotates up to 180°, experiences a peak force of over 600N, and then internally rotates over 7000° per sec......all in less than 2 seconds!¹  To maintain proper arm health, players need a solid foundation of how to properly throw a baseball and establish a quality workout program to maintain strength and flexibility.link to flexibility and strength¹.

  Proper mechanics and arm health are the backbone on teaching a young athlete how to avoid the growing trend of Tommy John surgery and help lengthen their future of playing baseball.  What is it most important quality the majority of young athletes desire from sports is to have fun.  There is ample time for the competitiveness when they become adults, let kids be kids.

¹Ellis, S. (2016, June). Arm care program for the youth pitcher. Youth Pitching.com. Retrieved from:http://www.youthpitching.com/armcare.html

²Bernhardt, S. (2013, April). Baseball factory coaching tip 02: throwing mechanics. You Tube. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDzvD-3neaU

³Cornelius, Emily. (2014, October). How hard is it to make it to the mlb? The Huffington Post. Retrieved from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/emily-cornelius/how-hard-is-it-to-make-it_1_b_5947308.html?

⁴Zedalis, Joe. (2015, March). Tommy john surgery: Experts suggest 8 ways young pitchers can avoid dreaded 3 words. NJ.com. Retrieved from: http://highschoolsports.nj.com/news/article/-7063055909593446914/tommy-john-surgery-experts-suggest-8-ways-young-pitchers-can-avoid-dreaded-3-words/