Alright we are going to talk about ground ball technique now. And catching a ground ball is pretty simple. And the more practice you put into it the better you are going to get. It’s as simple as that. So what’s going to happen, I’m going to have a ball rolled to me, I’m going to start out just like this. On the pitch, as the pitcher’s throwing it, you’re anticipating every time, right now I’m playing as a shortstop but it goes for any position. You get down, the pitch is made, you scoot up slightly and now you’re ready. Your knees are bent, you’re on the balls of your feet on the top half of your feet and you can move in any direction, quick. Whether it be to your left, to your right, straight back to your left or straight back to your right. You are in a position to move quickly in any direction. So I’m going to have a ground ball rolled to me, when I get it I want to round the ball. Round the ball basically means you are kind of coming over at an angle, you’re going to catch it off the inside of your left foot and you have your momentum moving to toward the throw, moving toward first base. So when somebody says they need you to round the ball that means the ball is hit slow enough, if a ball is hit right at you really hard, all you gotta do, you don’t have time to day anything. Just catch it and make your throw. The slower it’s hit the more time you have to run up and charge it. You want to cut down the time that ball spends on the ground because the more time that ball spends on the ground the more time that runner is going to have to get to first base. So medium ground ball, rounding it, you start out taking a step to your right, back to your left, field it off the inside half inside part of your foot and then you can either do a step behind here or you can round it catch it off the inside of your foot and you can step in front. It really doesn’t matter whatever makes you more comfortable. So we will have a ground ball. I’m ready, right in front of me, round it, just stop the inside part and step behind, make the throw to first. One more time. I’m down, I’m ready, round it, hit front field it off the inside part and then make the throw to first base.
