Baseball Training Academy: Fielding Fundamentals
If your child is preparing for their high school or travel ball team this winter, baseball training academy fielding fundamentals can help them improve all season.
Here are some effective fielding drills and strategies the best baseball training academy programs use to with their ballplayers.
Mobility and Mechanics
The biomechanics and physical demands of fielding a baseball consistently can be difficult, particularly when ballplayers are going through the maturation process. The best baseball training academy programs work on both mobility and mechanics when they address fundamental fielding techniques.
- Hips: most ballplayers are taught from a very early age to "keep their butts down" when fielding ground balls. Although this advice is a good starting point, a more dynamic approach to fielding focuses on the hips. One hip mobility technique used by the best baseball training academy programs reinforces the principle of keeping your hips mobile and square when fielding a ball. For instance, baseball players can practice with a tennis ball and an open area near a wall. In this exercise, the ball player should gently toss the tennis ball against the wall at a slight angle away from them. When the ball rebounds off of the wall, the ball player should aim to have their hips squared to the ball. Once a ball player can consistently keep their hips squared, they should experiment with throwing the tennis ball harder and/or at great angles from where they're standing.
- Mechanics: the final steps when the ball player attempts to bring the ball into the glove can be deceptively complicated. To help maturing ball players improve fielding mechanics, the best baseball training academy programs use a variety of wrist training cues to help athletes get the ball in the glove more smoothly. For instance, ball players can draw an "X" at the base of their fielding wrist. When they practice fielding ground balls, they should always be able to see the "X" clearly. This wrist cue will help them keep their glove level, which can help them field ground balls more cleanly during games.
Quickness and Accuracy
The best baseball training academy programs know that making quick and accurate throws will be an important part of earning more playtime during the season. To improve quickness, ball players should practice taking aggressively tracking ground balls. You can practice this by throwing a tennis ball against a wall and attempting to field in as close to the wall as possible. Once the ball is in the field, the ball player should also practice throwing targets while on the move.
Keep these tips in mind when looking for baseball training services near you.