Mic'd Up Winter Infield Practice🔥

Throwing knee down, glove leg out. Fielding position. Bring our hands to where? Chest. Right, left, throw. Here we go. As far as you can. Shuffle throw. We're talking about ready position today as an infielder. You have to be ready every single pitch of... It doesn't matter how many pitches are in a game, but there could be, what, 100 pitches in a game usually for our age? You've got to be ready to move, focused, 100 pitches out of 100. Everyone got it? How many times in a game have you had a ball that was hit, that was just out of your reach, left, right, back, you died, you just missed it? How many times did that happen? A lot, right? Yeah, a lot of balls just get thrown. From what I've seen, a lot of guys don't get in a real good position to move. Guys that have been with us or yell that a lot, ready to move, that's kind of what I yell, but you've got to be ready to move 100 pitches out of 100 pitches. What I see in the fall from some guys, ready positions like this, ready positions like this, ready positions to pick the noses, those are the balls that are hit that you just can't get to, and they get through, and most people don't even watch what you guys do to get ready. They just go, ooh, just missed that ball. And they have no idea what you look like and why you didn't get there. So, we're trying to increase our range as much as possible. So, here's what I talk about for ready position. First thing, when the pitcher goes into his windup, I'm working off the pitcher, because I'm trying to time the ball into the hitting zone. First thing that happens, my chest comes forward. Everyone get that? So, my chest comes forward, and I personally like to go left, right. That's what I like to do. Some players kind of move back and forth through sway, but the biggest thing is your feet got to get moving and your chest got to get forward. Everyone got it? Now, as the ball is just about to cross the hitting zone, I like to do a little bit of a hop, because I want to feel like I'm just coming down into the ground as the ball's being struck. So, the ball's hit, and I'm back. I'm reading it and going. I'm not landing, flat-footed, waiting, ball hit, now I got to try to move. Everyone got that? So, I want to just be landing. The ball's being struck just as I'm coming down. If the ball goes left, bang, I'm off my right foot. If the ball goes right, bang, I'm off my left foot. See how quick I can be? Okay, now with my hands. A lot of guys are taught to do different things, have their glove out front. I was guilty of this. I look at my college photos. I was always like this, and I had like this weird stance, and I could only go to one side better than the other, and I never knew why, because no one ever told me that I looked like this trying to get ready. I have a big picture of it, but no one taught me anything about ready position backhand. So, with your hands, I like, we call it thumbs up. So, it's basically just, if you're just going to stand there and have your hand by your side, say your thumbs are up and they're just a little bit, that's the position. Me and Grady, we're going to wrestle. Stand up, Grady, let's wrestle. Okay, we're going to wrestle each other. Ready? Get ready to wrestle. Get ready to wrestle. Okay. Okay, so if I'm going to wrestle him, everyone see how my hands are like this? Like I'm ready to move, right? So, that's the position I want to be. So, chest forward. I like to go left, right. I hop, my thumbs are up. I like to have them up because what do we have to do on 99% of balls? After they're hit, what do we have to do? Move. Yeah, you've got to run. So, the ball's hit. Bang. I've got to run left. I've got to run right. I've got to come back to the left. I've got to charge the ball. Very rarely does a ball get hit and it just goes right in my glove without moving. So, you've got to be ready to move. Thumbs up. Now, I can just run anywhere I want. Okay? So, that's the key. Chest forward. That's what I'm going to work on tonight. Chest forward. Either sway or walk into it. Little bit of a hop with thumbs up position. Alright? And now I can move anywhere I want. And you've got to do it every single time because 100 pitches in the game, there might only be one ball hit you. There might be no balls. Alright? But one ball hits you. And if that one ball you're like this and it gets by you by three inches and we lose the game, all because we couldn't focus for 100 pitches. We only did 99. Okay? Those are the keys I got today. First drill. You're going to be right here. We'll go actually, let's go right on the cone. Here we go. You're going to start behind the cone. You're going to have your chest forward. When it's your turn to go, you're going to work your feet as quick as you can. See how my feet are real close? Quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick. I'm going to go all the way around the cone. When you get here, we're going to roll the ball. You're going to tack it to the right side, field it, and throw. Everybody got that? So that's working on, as we get into the ball, we want to have short steps. That's just working on keeping our feet under us, get into the ball, field it, and throw. That's the first drill. Flamingo drill. You're going to balance on your right foot. If you're a lefty, balance on your other foot. So you're going to balance, chest forward. Ball's going to be rolled at you. What foot are we timing up on the catch? Yes, lefties time up the other foot. I'm right here. I time up my foot to the catch. I bring the ball to the middle. I go right to left with the target. I throw it into the net. Everyone got that? So remember, you've got to time it so it shouldn't land, then catch. It's got to be back, go. Over there is going to be normal round balls. You're going to get into a ready position, ready to move, ball's hit. Which side of the ball do I get to? Right side of the ball. I get it right on my left ear. I work not way around it, just get it on my left ear. Right left field, right left throw. Everyone got it? Those are the three drills we're going to start off doing. Over there, we're going to do hands routine again. In the back, we're going to go through three different drills to work on our posture when we get the ball. The first one, Coach Connor's going to run that one. You're going to line up in the hallway. First guy's going to be ready. You're going to have your glove on, your hand in your glove like you've got a ball. Chest forward, butt out. All you're going to do is this, shuffle all the way down the hallway. Everyone got that? Because when we field the ball and we go to throw, what's our footwork? Right to left, left to target. It's the opposite of a secondary lead. We're going to do that one. After you do that a few times, we're going to do shuffle and then we're just going to pinch our scaps back like we're going to throw. We'll do two shuffles. We'll go shuffle, shuffle, pinch, and stop. That's it. Everyone got that? Then you put it back in here. Shuffle, shuffle, pinch, and stop. Got it? Then the last one, we'll go shuffle, shuffle, throw. We'll go shuffle, shuffle, throw. Then we'll set back up. Shuffle, shuffle, throw. Notice how the ball is right here the whole time. We don't bring the ball up here. We don't bring the ball down here. We don't bring the ball out here. Right to our center chest, right here. Our elbows go out. Shuffle. Quick, quick, quick, quick, quick. Chest forward. Chest forward. Chest forward. Thumbs up. You kicked my code. Put the cone back. Put the cone back. Feet closer together. Quick. Get them up. Get them down. Tie them up. Your left foot. Quick, quick. Move through your target. Chest forward. Chest forward. Move towards your target. Time it up. Time it. Take your left foot more towards the target. Chest forward. Work through it. Good ready position. Left, right, little hop. Little hop. Keep it on your left eye. Pretty good job. That was a lot of reps right there in one hour. Make sure, again, the drills seem like really controlled, but there's something you can work on in every drill. A couple things I saw. I still see too many guys holding on to their gloves. They go, go. Grab glove. Run like this. The glove should never come here when I'm running. Remember, I'm in this position so that I can do what? Just run. I don't want to be here and then come up and hug my glove. Pay attention. That's why these drills are these. You can work on breaking those habits. If we just start smashing balls down your throat, do you think you're going to be able to say, chest forward. No. You're going to be like, I have to protect myself because I'm getting balls smashed at me. Doing this with one hand, you have to catch it routinely. You can get to the right of the ball. We've got to go towards our target. Some guys do this. Throwing that way. Some guys do this. Go towards your target. Throw. Follow. If I'm throwing there, my body shouldn't be going there. I think infield is one of the least taught things. Not here. We teach infield a lot. I'm just saying, in general, what do most people coach and talk to guys about mechanically? Hit it. Then next is pitching properly. Everyone talks about hitting movements and mechanics and pitching. It's really hard if you're not here. A lot of infielders don't get taught a whole lot. It's like catch the ball, throw the ball. Catch the ball, throw the ball only works to some point. Then the game becomes too quick. If you have bad footwork and you just catch the ball and you throw like this and you get it over, that only works to a certain level and then it doesn't work anymore. Some of you guys probably have never been told a thing in your life about fielding, which is okay. That means you have a lot that we can teach you. That's why I said take notes early, but make sure we're really paying attention and listening and trying as hard as we can. I know a couple things. One, infielders in Massachusetts, you think they're as good as the infielders in Florida, Texas, and California? No, it's not even close. There's not a ton of infielders from up here that go on and play high, high level baseball. Why is that? We don't field as much. We don't field as much because we can't go outside. Right now in Florida, they can be outside fielding. We're doing our fielding in here. What does that mean you have to do even more? To get as good as the guys down there. You've got to work smarter. You've got to pay attention. You've got to work on your mechanics because you don't have the luxury of going out and taking a thousand ground balls over there. Two, you've got to do stuff on your own at your house. Because the only place you can really field is 22 degrees outside. It's hard to get outside. It snowed today. It's hard to get inside and field all the time, but you can do it in your garage. You can do it in your basement. You can do it off your bedroom wall if your parents let you. But you've got to make sure you get to work outside just here. Because twice a week fielding here isn't going to be enough to break some of your habits. It can be if you really focus in, but get extra work done. Don't worry. Off with those hands. Quick feet. Quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick. Quick, quick, quick, quick, quick. Make sure you're ready to move. Open the glove early. Chest forward, butt out. Good. Go. Go. Right in the middle. Go. Shuffle, shuffle, break. Good. Shuffle, shuffle, break. Go. Good. We keep saying show your glove early, right? Does everyone know what that means when I say show your glove early? Open your glove early? Everyone understand? This would be on a backhand when the ball is hit. I cannot wait until the ball is right there to go like this. That's late. I also can't have the back of my gloves going and then do that. That's late. I've got to be, as I start to lower, I open the glove. Now I'm here. Now I catch. Everyone got that? If it's right at you, this is late. Some of you hold in your glove and then you go like this, late. This would be early. I took a video with Jonathan. I'll show you in a second. He was here and then he opened. He was here, bang, caught it. That's early. Everyone got that? I'm going to show a couple of players up here. This is not meant to embarrass anybody. This is just meant to show you what it looks like. I want you to tell me if this is early or late. Here's Takumi. Here he goes. Watch. Watch that. Watch Tai. Here goes Tai with his red gear on. Is that early or late? Yeah, that's early. It opens. The ball isn't there yet. That's not late. Then he feels it. Hold on. I already told you this, but watch. What side of the glove is facing the ball? The back. Odin does that. A handful of you do that. The back. Now watch. Then it opens. Right there it should be showing, but that's the back of the glove. Now you've got to flip the glove all the way around to catch it. What's pointing at the ball right now? The back of the glove. There. You're going to be late in the game. It's too high. He's coming in from the top. Look it. He's going to stab, right? Then he stabs down at the ball, and then the ball doesn't go in. You almost never get the glove open, right? Because you're stabbing at it. Watch his hands. See how he goes from thumbs up? See how his chest is forward? This is regular now. Now see how he starts to open. So the glove is open. The glove is on the ground. It's showing to the ball. That would be on time. Everyone see that? Everyone's so nervous right now that I'm going to throw them up there. I want to show you one thing. Sorry, Oliver. This is what I mean when I say to you guys, you grab your gloves and hold it close to your chest. You don't do this the worst, Oliver, but you do it. See how you're holding onto your glove? You're going to open it like this, and you almost don't get there. It's not open. It's not open. It's not open. It's not open. It's not open. It's not open. It's not open. Now it opened at the very last second. See the difference? Does everyone see the difference between opening early and opening late? Thank you for all of you that let us show you. You didn't let us. I just showed you anyway, but not meant to embarrass anybody. What do you need to be a great infielder? Okay, let's talk about the mental game, because this is such an important part of fielding, and a lot of people don't talk about this. If a hitter hits a ball 90 plus miles an hour, the ball's going to travel about 90 feet in a half a second. When I catch when my left foot lands, I get to the right, I brace, I go. So I'm going to bring the ball here as my right foot starts to go to my left. When I take the ball out of my glove, my fingers should be on top of the ball. I don't take it out like this. I don't take it out like this. I'm on top of the ball right here. But it's not just about fielding the ball again. It's about fielding the ball properly every single time. If you're just going to wait for your team to practice, you're not going to be a very good fielder. If you're just going to wait to field at practice when your coach actually does fielding practice, you're not going to be a very good fielder. If you think you're going to get great fielding three to five balls on infield-outfield, you're crazy. You've got to field a lot. And so you've got to field before practice. You've got to field after practice. You've got to be able to do it on your own. Don't just wait for somebody to say let's go practice infield. Go grab somebody and say let's practice infield.