Reacting to the Ball Hit

OK. We all know one of the curious things about players that play great defense, regardless at what level they may be in, is the fact that they seem to be two to three steps closer to any ball hit in their direction that the 2nd or 3rd tier player. In some cases the one major factor is the great equalizer – speed. Yes, there is no substitute for speed. An apparent misjudged fly ball some how gets cradled in whether the outfielder is charging in or driving back to get to it.

Jumps on hit balls start in the hitting area, that magical place that requires a great deal of concentration at precisely the correct moment of contact. The extent of which the high level of concentration is possible is meaningless unless you are capable of doing two things; having excellent dynamic vision, (including corrective lenses that get you to 20/20 vision) and the ability to anticipate and know where the area in the strike zone that contact will be made, and should contact be made in that specific area, you know the ball will be on some sort of flight plan in your general direction.

The simplest way to work with infielders as well as outfielders when they are late getting jumps on balls is to work off of a Tee. The most obvious position to start with is at 3rd base. At 3rd the Tee can be placed deep and outside on a right-handed hitter. Have a player or a coach go up there and take cuts with the ball in that position. One of the first things the 3rd baseman realizes is that a ball hit from that position seldom ever gets hit to him unless the hitter severely tries to come around the ball and if that should be the case, then the end result will be a weak hit ground ball to the shortstop or pitcher, or very occasionally, in the number 3 angle to 3rd. What the player will notice is that he will not get a very good view of the contact area because it is deep and away from the front of the plate where a ball hit most likely will come to him.

Systematically continue to move the Tee forward and diagonally to the front of the plate until the 3rd baseman is seeing balls hit directly at him or down the 3rd base line. That contact area is where the player begins to learn to focus his eyes consistently and quickly. He should not be “staring” in that area for more than a second- second and a half. He should be doing the same pre-pitch eye focus as he is taught at the plate – short bursts of focus, with high acuity at the point of contact. The great thing about this drill is that while you may need to work with your 3rd baseman this time, you can place all of your fielders and outfielders in their positions and everyone gets some real valuable vision work at the same time.

Of course there are additional critical elements to be learned in this drill, not the least of which is, we are looking down the “chute” as we like to call it. It is that moment of contact that tells an instantaneous story to us; pop up, line drive or ground ball. The quicker we can recognize that, the better position we will be in to react to ball. This same drill, in addition to working your fielders, is tremendous for working your base runners as well, especially the man at 3rd where reading fly ball, line drive and ground ball can mean the winning run scoring on a very close play.

Once again, the very best place to practice this is during BP on the field, and best done with a coach roaming around from foul line to foul line. If a player is not making progress on getting significantly better jumps on the ball, then a quick trip to eye doctor and following up with dynamic eye drills need to looked at immediately because there is a very real reason the age old axiom,” ya can’t hit or catch, what ya can’t see”, is still as true today as it ever was.

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