FIELDING GROUNDERS A to Z
Arm Extension. You should extend your arms almost straight out and field the ball in front of your body. You should NEVER field grounders near your body or underneath your body. I would venture that in at least 90% of the cases where a grounder goes through an infielder's legs, it's because the arms and hands were not out in front of the body.
Back Handing The Ball. Try to keep your glove hand relaxed and don't stab at the ball unless you have to. You want to really focus on "soft hands" and sort of ease the ball into your glove.
Ball Stops Rolling. By far, the easiest way to pick the ball up if it has stopped is to push it into the ground. Scooping it up takes more time and increases the chance of a miscue. By pushing down on the ball, in essence you are pushing the ball into your hand, which is what you want to do.
Bare- Handed Play When Ball Rolling Very Slowly. Many players make the common mistake of trying to scoop it up with a couple of their fingers. The proper way is to "cup" the hand and field the ball with ALL OF YOUR FINGERS. Now comes the tricky part. You have a very small amount of time to go from cupping the ball and getting it into your four seam throwing grip. It takes a little practice but you'll get it.
Bounces. Good infielders read the ball off the bat very well so they determine the type of bounce they are going to get. You have probably heard it referred to as playing the ball instead of letting the ball play you. It's important to charge in and get the sure hop or the short hop. Avoid the in between hop, when the ball bounces about three feet in front of you and can possibly "hand cuff" you.
Butt. Please get your butt down and keep it down, almost like sitting in a chair.
Egg and Not a Baseball. If possible, catch every ground ball like you are catching an egg and don't want the egg to break. Watch the soft hands of all of the outstanding infielders and how they ease the ball into their glove.
Face. When fielding a grounder, no one should see your face, and if they do, that's wrong. They should only see the top of your cap as your face is looking down at the grounder going into your glove.
Get In Front Of The Ball. The real good infielders get in front of almost everything. The error prone infielders do not and stab at too many balls.
Glove Down And Out Front. If I could only give one bit of advice on fielding ground balls, without any hesitation at all my advice would be, never get beat under your glove!!! We play from the ground up. Get the glove out in front of your body and on the ground early. You will notice that almost every time a grounder goes through someone's legs it's because their glove was too close to their feet and not out in front of them.
Hands. Like we mentioned, the hands should always be out in front of you and down. If the ball takes a bad hop and your hands are close to the body, you have very little chance to adjust.
Knees. The knees should be bent and pointing outward. The expression is, "arms and knees out and waist straight."
"Pop Up" After fielding the grounder, "pop up" with the front shoulder facing your target. The real good infielders practice the "pop up" drill to save valuable fractions of a second. That's just one of the reasons they are real good infielders.
Slow Rollers. Call for a slow roller just like you would call for a pop up. It's a shame when two fielders are standing there next to a slow roller and each thinks the other is going to field the ball. That's a tough way to lose a ballgame. You don't just call for pop ups but you call for grounders as well. It will avoid a lot of confusion. If the ball has stopped, you should approach it so that the stopped ball is just outside your plant foot.
Throwing the Ball After Fielding the Grounder. Remember to "pop up" with the throwing shoulder facing your target. Bring your elbow up to throwing height, which is usually about shoulder height. Throw the ball and follow through. Almost every errant throw that sails high when thrown by an infielder is because he did not raise his elbow high enough.
