Why are Fielding Drills Important?
Even though hitters receive a lot of attention in the major leagues, defense is a critical component of winning baseball games. This is particularly true in youth baseball, where a wild pitch or a fumbled grounder can result in multiple runs. This is why baseball drills are extremely beneficial for baseball practice. Baseball fielding drills, in particular, are important for softball and baseball players at any position on the diamond, especially young players, to prevent runs from the other team. Here at the U.S. Baseball Academy, we will teach you techniques that can help you improve your fielding and help you discover tips and tricks to improve your confidence on the diamond.
What is Fielding?
Fielding is the term used to describe playing defense in baseball. Fielding is an essential part of baseball since the fielder must restrict runs and make outs to wrap up each inning so that their team can bat. Overall, fielding refers to catching the ball and throwing it to another fielder in an attempt to throw out a base runner.
What is a Triangle Drill?
Fielding ground balls requires you to use your glove hand and push the heel of your wrist toward the baseball. Presumably, it should be perpendicular to the ground rather than parallel. This enables you to use your entire glove. It will also prevent hard bounces from rolling up your arm. This is something that many infielders are not taught, but it comes in handy when the baseball takes a late bounce. The triangle drill improves the mechanics, range, and consistency of your hand positioning when fielding a ground ball by developing muscle memory.
How to do the Triangle Drill
- Get on both knees focusing on routine ground ball down the middle. Staying low to get into a better fielding position playing below the baseball
- Use cones or tape on the floor to demonstrate a triangle
- Have the knees lined up on the back two points of the triangle and the bare hand or gloved hand at the top of the triangle
- Start fielding with the off hand behind our back, just working on fielding outfront with soft hands and playing through the baseball
- The player will need to be in a good fielding position with the knees outside, shoulder width, chest down and flat back. The hand at the top of the triangle with loose wrist and forearm, and fingertips on the ground
- Make sure to think about two things—palm to ball and not palm to sky
- Make sure that the feeders gives good feeds in this drill
- After fielding the ball, flip back to feeder and repeat
The triangle drill is a great way to make sure that your players field far more ground balls than they would in a typical session while also working on throwing after the catch. This allows you to concentrate on specific team fundamentals like relays, force outs, double plays, throwing to bases, and so on during your regular fielding routine without worrying about whether your players are getting enough reps fielding batted balls. It’s also one of the drills we teach at our baseball camps. We hope to see you at the U.S. Baseball Academy camp near you. Sign up now to train with the best coaches in your area!