I need shortstop drills to do by mnyself.

Question
I play shortstop for my middle school varsity team and i love to practice and play but my dad's business takes him out of state for a minimum of 6 months out of the year and sometimes more but he is always gone during baseball season. So i need some drills i can do to improve my footwork, throwing, and speed. Please help.


Answer
William:  The first thing you need to find is a brick wall that you are able to use to throw a ball against.  That will provide you with a way to create ground ball, line drives, short hops, simulated thrown balls and double play feeds.

You will obtain a little more action out of the ball if you use a incrediball, plus it is somewhat easier on the wall.

Your distance from the wall will vary, determined by the type of fielding situation you want to duplicate.

Here are a few drills to work on quickness and footwork, fielding technique and shortstop specific DP pivots.

1.  Footwork, setting your feet to throw and gaining ground towards your target:
   a.  15-20 feet from the wall.
 
   b.  You can throw ground balls, or shorthop the wall to simulate a thrown ball or line drive.

   c.  Begin with balls directly at you, work your way out to the sides to help increase your range.

   d.  Line up the ground balls on your left eye, field the ball with two hands, getting your body behind the ball.  Work on catching the ball in the heel of the glove, so that it doesn't stick in the web and you are able to quickly set your feet and throw.

   e.  Thrown balls, work on moving your feet to get your body behind the ball, rather than reaching with one hand.  This will make you quicker, as will catching the ball in the heel of the glove.  The quicker you get to the ball and get your feet set, the more likely you are to get the out.  Slowness or reaching tends to create having to rush or amp up the throw, which quite often results in throwing errors.  If you look on my website, www.theoleballgame.com, there is information on throwing mechanics as well as receiving.  You may find some things that will help you there as well.

2.  Dropped ball drill:

   a.  Same distance from wall.  You can do this as a separate drill, or just incorporate it into the one above, for anytime you have a dropped ball.  

   b.  Once the ball has been dropped, or the ground ball bobbled, always pick it up with your bare hand, not your glove.  This is also a quickness issue, and a skill that needs to be a habit.  Many times you will still have a chance at the out, if you use your bare hand.  Seldom will you have the time to pick it up with your glove, get it out and still make the throw.

3.  Forehand and backhand:

   a.  Start with thrown balls, and work up to ground balls.

   b.  On my site, there is a section in Receiving Advanced on both of these, and the crossover step that takes a lot of practice to make it a habit.  

   c.  Throw yourself balls to both sides, concentrate on the footwork at first, then worry about the catch.  Try the demonstration described in the Tips from the dugout section, you will see how much more effective the crossover step is.

4.  Slow rollers, left, right at you, and to your right:

   a.  Work on getting around, to and through the ball.  Field it to the side, of your glove side foot.  Let your knees take you to the ball.  If you reach with your glove without bending your knees, you cannot physically get your glove low enough.

   b.  To get around a ball to your right, you need to take a drop step with your right foot.  That allows you to get an angle which puts you behind the ball, so that you can come to it and through it, which will give you momentum for the throw.  When you don't get around it, if you get to it you will be moving away from where you want to throw.

5.  Double Play pivots:

   a.  Set a throwdown base, anything to designate the base for you.  

   b.  From behind that base, shorthop the wall to create a DP feed from first or second base.

   c.  Set up behind the base, time out your pivot so that you are catching the ball, while dragging your right foot across the left, back corner of the base.  It is that drag motion that helps you clear the base, out of the way of the runner sliding in.  It is also much quicker than stepping on the base.

   d.  You probably already know the importance of getting to the bag and setting up behind it, rather than trying to time out the ball's arrival with yours.  Getting there quickly allows you adjust to a poor throw, as your feet are set and your body isn't moving, until you see where the ball is going.  Catch the ball with two hands, in the heel.

   e.  You can create bad throws for yourself, forcing you to adjust for the catch, as well as adjust your footwork to smoothly get the base and get off the throw.

   f.  You can also work on groundballs close to the bag, that you would take yourself.  Get in the habit of yelling "I've got it", which would tell your 2B you are making the play, so he gets out of your way.  On those balls, it is often better to set yourself up and throw from behind the base, touching the base with your left foot as you step to throw.  This keeps you behind the base, and out of the way of the slide.  Basically a step and throw.  

   g.  Depending on where you are when you field the ball, you may need one to two shuffles to get you where you set up to throw.  It is all about practice and learning what is needed.

With any of these drills, you can use them with 2 or more players as well, if you can locate a friend to workout with.  If not, the wall works great.  These skills will transfer directly to the field.

As an infielder, you may want to consider a practice glove.  It is a terrific tool for developing soft, quick hands.  Many sporting goods stores carry them, they are also available online at both of these stores, and I am sure there are others.  They are generally listed under Fielding Aids or Training aids.  

1.  www.baseballexpress.com

2.  www.homerunmonkey.com

There are two types, one is a flat, pancake type of glove.  The other is a regular shaped glove, only much smaller.  

I have used the flat glove for my infielders.  The smaller gloves are fairly new.  I have gone out and bought a small kids glove for my middle infielders to use, does the same thing as the new version.

The idea with it is to force you to look the ball in, use both hands and become quicker at what you do.

I hope this will provide you with some things to work at.  Playing in the infield is all about quickness and getting set up properly to make that throw.

Good luck and have fun with it.  Develop a game, play out innings, while you work on various situations you create for yourself.  Make it as hard, or easy as you like.  Changing your distance from the wall will create a different skill response.  

Yours in baseball,

Rick