Fielding Fly Balls

Ready Position

• Your feet should be pointing toward home plate.
• Your weight should be over the balls of your feet.
• Your knees should be relaxed and your hands should be relaxed at your side.
• As the pitch is delivered you should be ready to move in any of four directions: up, back, left, or right.

An outfielder’s ready position will be higher than an infielder’s since most balls fielded by outfielders are above the player’s waist. Plus, if an outfielder fields a ground ball they must run and cover a lot of area and in order to get to the ball the fielder needs to be upright in order to run as fast as possible.

Photo by f:11 photographic design

Fly Balls

• Catch the ball with both hands keeping your glove in front of your head.
• The glove should never get above or behind the player’s head or their vision and balance will be affected, making it too hard to catch the ball.
• In going back for a ball, the fielder must quickly turn and run to the spot where he/she thinks the ball will fall. Then quickly turn (if enough time) back to face the ball and make the catch in front of the body.
• When going back for a ball, if there isn’t time to turn and face the ball when making the catch, then the player will have to make the catch on the run by reaching out with the arm and glove for the ball. Be sure to keep the palm facing the ball and to remind the player not to reach too soon or it will slow them down.

Photo by f:11 photographic design

Ground Balls

• The outfielder must charge all ground balls and cut them off as much as possible. The farther a ball travels on the ground in the outfield the more time the runner has to advance to the next base.
• If there is no one on base, or no throw to make, then the outfielder can go down on one knee when fielding a ground ball. This will make it easier to keep the ball from going past the outfielder in case he/she misses the ball.
• If there is a runner on base and the outfielder will have to field the ball and then quickly make a throw, the fielder should field the ball by bending over at the waist and getting his/her glove on the ground and open to the ball.
• If the fielder fields the ball to his/her glove side instead of directly in front of his/her body, he/she will be much faster and can continue charging the ball if necessary.

Photo by f:11 photographic design

Throwing to Bases

• When throwing from the outfield it is very important that the player making the catch be able to easily catch the ball and tag the runner.
• To do this the outfielder will have to keep his/her throw from looping up, but instead should try and make a throw that is about head-high on either the shortstop or second baseman.
• On the longer throws the outfielder will probably have to make the ball bounce once, but the ball should still be easily caught, so the bounce needs to be far enough away from the player making that catch that the ball doesn’t short hop the fielder.

Photo by f:11 photographic design