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Published: August 2012
Categories: Infield Defense Situational Defense Outfield Defense Mental Game
Type: Instructional
Purpose: Help outfielders know how to make decisions on their own depending on speed and direction of ball, speed and direction of their body on play, arm strength, speed of runner, game situation, ect. Will also aid learning how to make instinctual in play adjustments and help build individual and team internal defensive clocks needed to properly defend various speeds.
Explanation: All outfielders and infielders take their positions with "invisible" runners on any number of bases called out by the coach prior to play. A coach at the plate is hitting various types of ground balls and fly balls to the outfield. We attach a color to all the invisible runners and the batter. The colors can be the same or different for each invisible runner. Red is a very fast runner ("stop" and realize you can only get this runner out on a certain hit ball), yellow is an average runner and green is a very slow runner (a big "go" opportunity to get her out on a variety of balls hit).
We also give the game situation (winning run at plate, up six runs late, ect) and always play the situation with less than 2 outs. The outfielder playing the ball and the infielders cutting must make decisions on where the ball must go during the play as they respond to the initial variables as well as any problems which occur during the play (a bobble by outfield, drop by cut, ect). For example, if the runner on second is a red (fast) the only shot an outfielder would have on a play at the plate on a ground ball even if it is hit softer and to their side. We are really trying to get our team to understand strategy, make the right read, and respond/adjust to a fluid situation.
We put the invisible runners with colors attached in different locations each pitch in order to get the defense to understand a continually changing batter-to-batter situation. They must assimilate information on the runners and situation before the ball is hit and then execute the plan or make an adjustment during the play. The fac that they are invisible runners and not actual players is critical in helping the defenders develop an internal clock on their own and not based ona visual clue.
We also will have an assistant coach use a stop watch to time the play to give the player and team a feel for how long it took to complete play and compare that to times we assigned to red, yellow and green runners.
This instinct and internal clock building is critical to our efforts to become a solid defensive team. Use it and watch your outfielders and team begin to make the right plays without you having to tell them where to throw the ball.