Since I am in Illinois and it appears we might not get outdoors until early April, I need some good outfield drills that I can work in a small High School gym. The roof is too low and too white to really effectively work on pop flies so any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

I know you said no pop flies, but this is something I used to do and even modified it for outdoors.

Two lines, ball goes up between them, then THEY make the call (communicate) as to who has it. Doesn't have to be a huge fly, the point is communication. We'd do it coming in on the ball, going away, obvious kid on the left, obvious kid on the right.

We also defined our communication words. In other words.....The kid who wants it yells, "Mine", while the one who can't get it says, "It's yours". The one syllable vs. two thing. I also told them I expected a response after the "Mine" letting "Mine" know he wasn't gonna get creamed.

After we got outside, we did the same thing with "real" flies. At the beginning of the year I told them we wouldn't leave until we did ten right (w/catch). Took us two hours. By the end of the year, we'd do ten in 15 minutes consistently. I don't recall having a ball drop in the outfield because two kids didn't "talk".

They were 11.

Communication drills are a must day one of practice.

Also work footwork drills (w/ or w/o a ball.) Work all the different drops they may have back 90º both left and right, back 45º left and right. In a high school gym you can hand toss the balls and have them work on catching on the run and also setting up for a throw.

We then will work on fielding different types of ground balls. Make sure and focus on setting footwork for the throw: ball taking them in/toward the base, in/away from the base, back/toward the base, back/away from the base, & do or dies.

The last thing to set up is a relay drill. Hand toss a fly ball to an OF on one side of the gym and have him throw through the cutoff man on the other side of the gym (we set up with two lines of OFs and just use them as the cut guys, throwing back and forth to each other.)

Most of the work done with the OF in the gym is footwork based. Tracking a fly ball becomes easier when the footwork is done properly.

Coach Rudy

I really like the way our team communicates on fly balls. If a player thinks he can get to a fly ball, but realizes that it won't be an easy play, he yells "ball" once, versus a player that is camped under a ball yelling "ball" 3 times. Seems to work pretty well, as we haven't had any collisions to date (knock on wood).

www.blastbat.com

Communications - We stay very basic..."Me, Me, Me"..."You, You, You" and we have another for possible dive plays. The back up OF will yell "Dive, Dive, Dive" letting the hot OF know that he can dive and I will back you up.

Routes - We throw pop flies over each should and straight back. We have our OF run and point to the exact spot on the ground where it will land. This helps them in recognizing where to run to for a pop fly.

Ground ball plays - we work on proper footwork for fielding GBs on the run. Also, we work on proper footwork for making back base throws.

Footwork - most people don't teach OFs how to properly run on their toes to prevent their heads from bouncing. We do a drill that helps with this. OF starts off on the right side of the gym. Throw a short hump back line drive that they have to catch while running in towards you. After they catch it, they drop the ball and run at a 45 degree angle away toward the other side of the gym. After 5-10 steps or so, throw a line drive about waist high for them to catch on the run. After they catch that, drop it and take off in the other direction at a 45 degree angle. They now get a head high (or higher) line drive to catch. Their pattern should resemble a Z and they should catch all 3 balls cleanly.

Also, we work on balls hit deep over their heads...this requires visualization. Have them open up in one direction and run toward the deep "ball". The coach will then point over the other shoulder and the OF will have to adjust by keeping his back to the play and looking over the other shoulder. When he does, throw a line drive to him over that shoulder. Too many times, the OF tries to adjust by turning his chest back towards the IF which slows him down.

Hope these help.

You can also work on blind relays. As well as any type of line drive work, coming in, going out, and side to side. You can also work your gap angles.