How
To Read A Ground Ball
Something that I’ve
noticed with young infielders is their inability to anticipate what the ball is
going to do. Many of the young infielders I’ve worked with over the years don’t
read the ball and just assume that it will continue bouncing exactly like it
has the first few hops. What they don’t realize is the spin on the ball and
surface that it is bouncing on has a direct effect on how the ball will bounce.
Because they don’t realize how these variables effect the path of the ball they
tend to find themselves in bad position to catch the ball. Receiving an
in-between hop is a terrible thing that no infielder likes to deal with. In
this post I will talk about how to read the ground balls and get one’s self in
good position for a routine hop.
The first thing that
every infielder should do before the game starts is take a good look at the
infield surface. In youth baseball today a player could be playing on a
professional field one day and a sandlot field with rocks on it the next. It is
very important to know what the surface is like and how it will play. Things to
look for:
·
Is the clay hard or soft? Hard clay
will result in bigger hops and makes bad hops more common because when the
laces hit the ground they will make the ball hop differently. The best way to
play the hard clay is to attack the baseball and try to get the ball before it
can hit the clay more than once. With soft clay (whether sandy or wet) the ball
will tend to stay down because it will give when the ball hits it. The tough
read that comes with soft clay is the ball that bounces high; this ball will
often stay down on soft clay rather than give a true hop. The key to playing on
soft clay is to stay down on everything, the ball will rarely jump on the
player and should allow the player to have a little more range because the ball
will slow down as it hits the clay.
·
After checking the clay players should
look at the grass. The grass will dictate the speed of the ball. Players here
in Florida often get the opportunity to play on the MLB spring training
complexes, the grounds crews at these complexes keep the grass very short which
allows the ball to maintain a quicker pace through the infield. When playing on
a field with short grass and average-hard clay infielders should take advantage
by playing deeper allowing for more range. Middle infielders (especially the 2nd
baseman) should play 2-3 steps into the outfield grass, this allows them to
have extended range and they will rarely get beat on a slower hit ball because
the ball will maintain it’s pace through the grass. When the grass is thicker
infielders should play 1-2 steps shallower than normal because the ball will
drastically be slowed down by the thickness of the grass.
The
next thing that players need to do to insure that they will be in position to
receive a good hop is to read the ball off the bat. Sometimes the player
struggles to actually see the spin of the ball, but if they follow the trajectory
of the ball they will be able to anticipate the type of spin the ball will
have. Here are the types of spins and what they look like:
·
Top Spin: Ground balls that have top
spin tend to be the ones that bounce more vertically then horizontally. These
grounders are the high choppers, roll over grounders, and balls that are beat
into the ground. The best way to deal with the top spin is to catch it on the
biggest hop, which is usually the 1st. That is achieved by attacking
the ball without hesitation and catching it before or right after the ball hits
the ground. If this is not possible or the player hesitates the next option is
to play the next hop. The next hop will often times “kick” or shoot towards the
fielder. This is because of the top spin on the ball, the player should
anticipate this be leaving some room between where the ball will bounce and
where they plan to catch it. The player should also stay low as this hop will
not be very high. Ideally the player will have their feet in position to throw
when they catch the ball so that they can get rid of the ball quicker as by the
time the ball is caught the runner will be down the line closer to the bag. The
speed of the runner will help dictate what the fielder should do, quicker
runner means the fielder should attack the ball, with a slower runner it is ok
for the fielder to sit back if necessary.
·
Back Spin: The
back spin grounders are balls that will stay low. These balls are usually hit
hard and skip across the ground rather than the high bouncing of the top spin
grounders. The fielder should anticipate the ball skipping on them and should
allow plenty of room between when the ball hits the ground and where they catch
it, this does not mean they can’t charge the ball or that they should be on
their heels it’s just a tip to help them from getting eaten up. There is also a
different type of back spin ball that is a softly hit floater that has extreme
back spin or side spin. When dealing with this ball the player should attack
then break down where the ball is going to hit and anticipate a different move.
These balls will stay on the ground and either roll softly or shoot to the
side. The fielder should give themselves some room between where the ball lands
and where they plan to catch it so that they have ample time to react to the
ball.
Understanding
how the ball is going to play will allow the player to anticipate the hops.
When the player knows how the ball will hop they will be in much better
position to catch the ball. It’s like a hitter knowing he’s going to get a
fastball on the inner half and then getting the fastball on the inner half.
This is one of the reasons that major league infielders make so few errors, yes
they play on the best fields in the world, but they know how to react to the
ground balls.
The
best way to practice this is by taking lots and lots of ground balls. Ideally a
coach who knows how to use a fungo can hit the fielder all different types of
ground balls to give the player as many different looks as possible. I would
suggest that infielders should take about 20-30 minutes of ground balls each
day. A good way to help the player anticipate the hops is to have them count
the number of hops, this forces them to focus on the hops allowing them to
anticipate the next hop.
Feel free to leave comments or questions about the
blog, I’m always open to talk baseball.
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