What are some of things you guys do to get your players to get the ball on the line....Long hop or get it there.

Everytime they over throw a cut off man, the entire team does pushups. I tell them "We will either be VERY good at what we do or the strongest team in the country." We even do this during pre-game IF.

redbird

Great approach !!

It ain't too hard to hit the cutoff man

TR hit TO Red Bird,
If you want your players to be up tight and be fearful of making mistakes the best way to do so is to penalize them for making miscues which sends to them the message that it is not acceptable to make physical and mental miscues, I would much rather have my players constructively working on and doing more to eliminate their physical and mental miscues as much as possible than having them doing negative non-constructive movements which will not add to their improvement in the area needed, I was involved with with a high school baseball coach who became irritated with a couple of players on a very hot day, no shade in sight,early in the practice session, he decided to make them jog foul poles the whole session without water,"totally ridiculous"One practice session dehydrated and totally lost for both of them, practice sessions are or should be set up so each and every athlete involved can improve on their overall game aspects in particular as much as time allows, we as parents, teachers and coaches etc. must fully realize and take into full consideration that miscues, mental and physical are a major part of growing up in our society whether on the playing field or during our daily venture through our trial and tribulations throughout our lifetime. on "long throws" across the infield from the outfield, "left field" to "second" to "third" and to "home""center field" to "second" to "third" to "home""right field to "second" to "third" to "home,"The cut off man must be positioned so as to enable him to either cut the ball off when necessary or let the ball travel directly over his head and inline with the intended target and hit the grass for a low skipping one hopper the receiver can take directly to the runner for the tag out, when the ball hits the grass with good back spin it will actually gain speed to the intended target, On one hoppers the ball stays low in comparison to the runners low body position during sliding and the receiver can sight up the ball and the runner much easier as the ball comes up off the ground which makes "bang,""bang," plays more successful, when the throw comes all the way in the air to the intended receiver the receiver must sight his eyes higher than the runner and sight down as the ball comes in and down to the receiver,good one hoppers give the receiver a much better chance to get into a good low position with the runner sliding and to also have better centered ball to runner vision prior and during the sliding and tagging process.
On shorter throws from the outfield to the bases, on the money throws are acceptable, some would say, how about "Ankeil's"throw from the warning track to third base right on the money, all I can say to that is that he has a loaded gun and along with his solid from the ground up foot plant and body movement he certainly can get big time overall explosive movement towards his target which is not generated by just his arm alone as a great number of people are led to believe, the generated power to throw a baseball or any other object fast far consistently without serious injury is not due just to a so called strong arm,the arm for sure must be in good throwing condition but all of the maximum power and throwing is generated from the ground up and with controlled explosive momentum to the direction of one's target, the arm alone cannot generate maximum explosive momentum to a target, the very reason why from the Major leagues on down to the little leagues that there are entirely too many chronically sore arms and unnecessary operations, pitchers and positional players alike must learn to use their body's properly when throwing to take as much strain off of their arms as possible.
It would appear that hitting the cut off man like you say "ain't hard to do" I never had much of a problem doing so but it seems like very few players from the Major leagues on down can get closer than fifteen feet to their target, to me I find it inexcusable in professional baseball or within any baseball organization that is out there nearly every day on the field and especially those who play their kids so many games that they do not take time to practice and improve their skills.
you are absolutely right, baseball players do not throw nearly enough, I used to spend many hours throwing up rocks and hitting them, Yogi Berra and many players back in those days hit bottle caps with broom sticks and were out there some place playing ball every day during the summer, nowadays there are actually very few diamonds or parks that are not locked up.
Enough said, I hope my comments are helpful,if not let me know,if so let me know.
Don Ervin,
kom_ervin@yahoo.com

quote:

On shorter throws from the outfield to the bases, on the money throws are acceptable, some would say, how about "Ankeil's"throw from the warning track to third base right on the money, all I can say to that is that he has a loaded gun and along with his solid from the ground up foot plant and body movement he certainly can get big time overall explosive movement towards his target which is not generated by just his arm alone as a great number of people are led to believe, the generated power to throw a baseball or any other object fast far consistently without serious injury is not due just to a so called strong arm,the arm for sure must be in good throwing condition but all of the maximum power and throwing is generated from the ground up and with controlled explosive momentum to the direction of one's target, the arm alone cannot generate maximum explosive momentum to a target, the very reason why from the Major leagues on down to the little leagues that there are entirely too many chronically sore arms and unnecessary operations, pitchers and positional players alike must learn to use their body's properly when throwing to take as much strain off of their arms as possible.

Dude - you do realize that this was one sentence?? Right??

Ok first of all I don't think TR and Redbird are wrong in what they are saying about the pushups. If a kid gets uptight over that then they are mentally weak. If they can't realize doing some pushups for failing to do something that was taught to them isn't the worst thing to ever happen to them in their life they will probably fail in many aspects of their life.

Now that being said I don't make my guys drop and push or run poles everytime they make a mistake - especially physical ones. But sometimes when I teach something and they are not getting it because I feel their mental approach is wrong - you better believe they will get awakened and they will remember it. If that hurts their feelings then I'm better off to find that now in practice than in the game. Those type of kids need to grow up and become stronger mentally.

If done right (which I have no doubt that TR and Redbird probably do after reading MANY of their posts) you can have high expectations and be demanding and succeed. But what you do is weed out the ones who honestly and truly do not want it.

Secondly - a drill that I either came up with or stole from someone (I have no idea anymore) is great for outfielders. I wrote this up as an article for the National Baseball Coaches Association that was published several years ago.

Take your OF and put them in groups of four. Spread them out in a long line in the outfield (or if the football field is close by go over there to stretch out the arms).

Everything starts with one of the inside two. The inside guy (for this drill simulates the IF) has the ball and will throw a flyball or groundball at the outside man (treating this as an OF).

The outfielder sets up on the ball (fly or ground) and fields through it the way they are supposed to.

The inside man who started with the throw has now positioned himself as a relay man with his arms up in the air and slightly turned glove side.

The OF recieves the ball and throws through the inside IF man to the other inside IF man.

The other inside IF man catches the ball and turns and throws fly ball or groundball to the other outside OF man.

Keep repeating the weave of throws back and forth with the inside men and outside men.

Every so often a coach or inside IF man can yell cut and the throw has to be cut by the inside IF man who made the throw to the outside OF man.

Once you get this down then the inside IF man can make throws to the OF man to the side and the inside IF men can do the left / right calls to keep the line. If you do this then you may want to incorporate your actual IF to work on the communication aspect.

If this doesn't make sense please let me know and I will try to explain it better. It's hard to explain but when you see it on the field it makes perfect sense.

Another thing you need to watch for and most coaches at the lower levels don't see this is that the relay men are in the wrong place. They don't gauge the OF arms very well and are too close. An OF throw has to have some air under it in order to get there (but obviously I don't want it to be too high - have to find that right height). If the IF is too close to the OF then that ball is going to over the relay man's head. That's what my drill can help work on by getting long throws to stretch out the arms and work relay men to be in the right spot.

Tell your relay men you want one long throw and then a short throw to the bag.

You dont throw to a cut off man you throw through the cut off man. Its not up to you to decide wether it needs to be cut or not its just up to you to make sure we can if we need to.

Throwing over the cut is a mental mistake. Yes sometimes it can be a simple physical mistake but if it continues then it is a mental mistake. Mental mistakes need to be addressed and corrected and sometimes the best way to do that is to get the players attention in a manner that sinks in.

There are reasons why you want the baseball to be cuttable "just a baseball word I came up with" #1 so it can be redirected if needed - #2 so it will appear to the baserunner / basecoach that it can be cut and may be redirected - #3 so it can reloaded as it loses is velo after traveling a distance and get to its intended location faster - and there are even more reasons.

There are certain things any player can learn to do and understand why they need to be done. Throwing through your cuts is one of them. If it takes some poles , push ups , time on the pine etc etc to get that point across then fine.

If a kid feels so much pressure because he might get punished for not throwing through his cuts he probably needs to find another sport.

You can spend hours and hours working on cuts and helping players understand the importance of properly running cuts , dbl cuts , relays and deeks. The process starts with the OF picking up the cut man and throwing through the cut off mans sights which are his arms held over his head. The cut off man is lined up with the primary target which can change while the throw is made right up to the time the throw reaches the cut off mans sights. The cut off man is a target and unless he gets the call to cut allows the ball to travel through his sights to the target which in some cases can be the dbl cut player or the bag. Whats important is the cut off man needs to work his feet to put himself in a good posistion to catch and throw IF the cut call is given.

None of this can happen if the throw is not cuttable. The entire process breaks down when the OF does not do his job. Games many times are won and lost on something as simple as throwing the baseball in a manner that it can be cut or appears that it could be cut. It doesnt show up in the boxscore. It just changes the boxscore.

Man, I'm so tired of hearing all this stuff, mostly incorrect about "cuts"....its no wonder the kids can't do it or understand it.

First off.....a "cut" is an EXTRA play opportunity performed by a good team. The "throw" is still going to the bag/base ahead of the lead runner where there's a possibility of a play. The same lesson taught in Little League of getting the ball into the infield holds true. Throwing 80 feet to an infielder standing 60 feet in the outfield doesn't make sense if runners are still running. The infielder needs to get back to the infield dirt where he can hold the runners.

If I (coaching 3rd) see a 2nd baseman taking a throw from an outfielder while standing 60 feet in the outfield grass I'm sending the runner on 3rd.....its a very good probability he'll score as it's easily a 150 foot throw from a guy not used to making this throw.

If the outfielder is out of his range for a reasonably on-the-line throw (about 150 feet) then we have a "relay" (be it tandum or single) which is not a "cut". In this case the outfielder always throws TO the lead guy in the relay......period. This is a RELAY.....not a cut!

The "cut man" is to position himself where the ball would traverse him at shoulder height on its way to either hitting the bag/base about 2 feet up on the fly or a long one hop that arrives at the same altitude.

The "cut man" cuts the ball if it is off line more than a few feet, doesn't have the power to reach the base in timely fashion or, because there is no longer a play at the originally thrown at base/bag....he is told to CUT and where to hold or throw the ball. I.E. "cut-Hold" or "cut-two".

The cut man should always set up to cut and if not told to cut should fake a cut to freeze the trailing runner.

The cut man's setup position will differ from outfield arm to outfield arm and should be close enough to the originally intendedbag to allow the play to develop.

I'm really relly tird of the outfielder being blamed for "not hitting his cut man" when the cut man was set up so far from the base the throw was going to that to throw thru... "hit".. him would have no chance of making the original play on the lead runner. This is a cut man's problem, not the outfielder's and coaches and dads need to recognize this.

Even in the pros I see outfielders putting enough arc on the ball to clear the "cut man" because they want to get the lead runner and not have the ball cut prematurely. Outfielders live for this chance. Outfielders have also learned not to trust the cut man.

Get the cut guys in the right place to start with and then the outfielders will throw thru them more often.

Do you want to read the MLB professional "work book"
on your questions?

Bob Williams<www.goodwillseries.org>

Bob Williams you have a PM