Youth Baseball Fielding Drill Young Players Will Love!

What's up guys? So today we're going to talk about some techniques in fielding drills for young, young players. For t-ball players, Maddy's 7 years old, so you can use these drills for 4, 5, 6, 7 year olds. You can even use it for older players. I call this the goalie drill. So it's working on ground balls. Now we will talk a little bit about technique, but for young players, the biggest thing is to keep it fun. So you want to get them engaged and enjoying fielding ground balls without going crazy with drills and talking about certain techniques where a really young player, they just want the ball rolled to them. After you get them going and they have fun, then you can start to slowly talk about some technique things. So we will mention a few technique things throughout the video, but first let's just explain the drill. It's really more of a game than anything. You ready to go? He can't sit still. It is true. So goalie drill. All you need is a couple extra balls or you can use cones. You basically have to set up a goal or a net. And so what we're going to start off with, we're going to put two balls. So here's the goal. And we're going to start it kind of small, and then if he does well and I can't score a goal on him, then we'll make the goal a little bit bigger. So here it is. Here's the rules of play. So Matty's got to stand in the middle. Right there. I'm going to roll the ball on the ground and I'm going to try to get the ball into the net or into the goal. His job is to do whatever he has to do to not allow that to happen. You got it? You think you can do that? Yeah. Okay. So we're going to start off here. I'm going to demonstrate it and then we'll talk about some technique stuff that you can get into. All right, so here we go. All right, you ready? Here we go. So your job is to not let me roll that ball in between those two balls. Ready? Here we go. Good. Yep. You just catch it. Good. Two more. Ready? Nice. One more. Okay. So we got all those. Okay, so we've got to make the net a little bit bigger for him, I think. So let's make the net a little bit bigger. Let's push that. Yeah, keep going. A little bit bigger than that. I think you'll be okay. Right there. Good. Okay. So we'll make the net a little bit bigger. Now, if you're doing it one-on-one, it's just me versus him. If you have a bunch of players, you can keep score, right? You make them both goaltenders. You can let them see who can beat each other. All right, so now let's make the goal a little bit bigger and then we'll talk technique in a second. All right? So now I'm really going to make you move. You ready? Yeah. Here we go. He got it and he tore an ACL. Good. All right. Back to the middle. Quick. Here we go. Now we're going to speed it up a little bit. Got him. Score. One-nothing, dad. Ready? Good. Nice. Oh, two-nothing, dad. You don't get points. That way I win. All right. Couple more. Three-nothing, dad. All right. So that made it really, really tough. minute. Go ahead. Give me a couple of shots real quick. I have no gloves, so take it easy. Take it easy on me. Back up a little bit. All right. I didn't wear my cup today, so nice and easy. Okay. Give me one at a time. Don't make me pull a hamstring. All right. Ready? No. One at a time. Here we go. One at a time. Go ahead. Go. Come on. You got to score on me. You're not making me move anywhere. I broke my hand. Go ahead. One more. Okay. That is good. Okay. All right. Listen. Over here. All right. So just a fun drill to do. Again, you can keep making the goal as big as you want. A few things to keep in mind. Yeah, we'll put it here in one second, but let's talk about a couple of things. Show real quick. Get into a fielding stance like you're going to field a ground ball. All right. Here's a couple of really easy things to talk to your players about. So the first thing, the glove. You want to pretend that there's a pair of eyes right in your glove right here. Right? So I want to show the eyes to the ball. So get into a fielding position again. Okay. So I want to show the eyes to the ball right there. Always open. This hand is going to be up and just off center. Cool? Now, the second thing. I always want to be able to see the glove and the ball at the same time. All right. So get down in the field again. Pretend you're going to field this ball. Okay. So if the ball's here, if the glove is... Can you see the ball and the glove at the same time right now? What do you got to do to be able to see both the ball and the glove? It's blurry on that one. Okay. So how do you see both of them? Go ahead. What do you got to do? Look down and then up. Nope. Get down again. I'll show you. Hands out front. Can you see both? Yeah. Okay. Can you see both? No. Can you see both? Yeah. Can you see both? No. So in order to see the glove and the ball at the same time, you've got to have your hands out front. So get down again in the field. Good. Yeah. So you've got to be out in front here. If they're back this way, they can only see the ball and not the glove. Exactly. And a lot of players will do that. Slide over real quick. So a lot of players will do that. They'll get into this position where they see the ball, but they can't see their glove. So I want to be able to get my hands out front so I can see the glove and the ball. Exactly. Jump down real quick. I want to show them one thing. So here's how you do it. Notice his back. All right, ready? So I want you to see the glove and the ball at the same time. Ready? Okay. Notice his back right there. Flip this way. Turn this way. Put the ball right there. Turn your whole body. There you go. Ready? Back up a little. Okay. Now bend your knees a little. Get your hands out front. Okay. See how his back is flat? If his back were to come up like this, now bend your knees and keep your back like this. Yep. Get down there. Lower. So now his glove, this position right here is a position that a lot of players try to get into. Right? Stand up for a sec. So a lot of players try to, and you've heard this, right? Get your butt down. And so the player does that, and it's like they're sitting down on a chair. But if I go down like this, I can't get my hands out front. If all I do is get my back flat, now my hands are out front. Exactly. So I've got to get my back flat to get my hands out front. So really easy things to think about. Always see the glove and the ball at the same time. Show the eyes to the ball and have a back, a flat back. Okay? Flat back. Bend my knees. Flat back. My butt actually goes up and back and my hands get out here. Okay? Now a really good example when you're talking to your young player, like he already has lost, he's barely paying attention anymore because I'm talking too much mechanics. Right? So when you do this drill, maybe hit quickly on it. Hey, show the eyes to the ball. Right? That's it. And then get back into the drill. Hey, work on a flat back here. You've just got to be careful with taking too much time of talking mechanics because a seven-year-old like doesn't really have a whole lot of interest in listening to a 10-minute talk on fielding mechanics, in my opinion. As they get older, you can do more. But we haven't actually talked a whole lot about a lot of those things. I just kind of will say it quickly, right? Get the glove out front. Get your back flat when we're doing the drills. You want to go one more time? Okay. Here we go. So the goal is going to be big now. Ready? And I'm going to go quick. Ready? Get ready to move. Go. Good. Nice. Good. Nice play. Two more. Quick. Good. One more. Oh, no. I hit the post. Get up. Get up quick. One more. Nice. All right. So that's all we've got. So a little goalie drill. A fun drill. Is that fun for you? That's a fun drill? Good. Much better than just making a line of players or just saying, hey, here come some ground balls, right? And there's a time for that, I think, at some point. But this is really good just to keep them involved and keep their mind engaged, right? Because they're not going to want to sit in a line and they're not going to want to talk mechanics for probably any more than 15, 20 seconds. So that's all we've got. Let me know if you have any questions in the comments section below. Subscribe to the channel. Hit the notification bell, all that good stuff. We'll talk to you later. 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'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.