Softball: Fielding

In my last blog post I will be talking about Fielding. My whole life I have played softball and i still can't shake the fear of a ground ball. The fear of going up to scoop the ball with my glove and it hitting a bump in the grass or dirt and smacking me square in the face. You'd think after how many times Iv'e been hit I wouldn't be that afraid anymore, but no the fear is still there. Some things to keep in mind when fielding grounders is to stay balanced with your dominant foot in front of the other and have your catching hand ready to cover the ball in your glove once you caught it. It's important to have your hand over the ball once you catch it because you keep it from coming out of your glove ( preventing it from hitting your face ), and since your hand is already on the ball, you can make a throw.

Another thing about fielding it good throws. As I explained in my last post (Throwing) it is really important to know how to throw a softball and get it to its destination. And with getting the ball where it needs to be, you have to be able to catch the ball and throw it to the next play is.

Also in fielding is Pop-fly's. Unlike Grounders Pop-fly's are one of my favorite things in softball. Pop-Fly's you have to be able to estimate where the ball is gonna land, make sure your using two hands to cover the ball so you don't drop it. With Pop- Fly's you don't have to worry about it hitting a bump in the ground and it ending up in your face. But there is the chance of you being blinded by the sun, not being able to see and having the ball end up smacking you right in the face.

"The majority of errors made by outfielders occur on ground balls...the arms are away from the body and give that little on impact. Both hands are used for the catch" ( Veroni 117-118).

Grounders and Pop-fly's are two of the main things in playing softball when fielding. Just keep in mind when you're playing, to keep balance with your front foot further in front than your back foot, use two hands when catching the ball and lastly having good throws.

What do you think is more scary? Grounders or Pop- Fly's?

Book: 

Coaching Fastpitch/softball successfully

Kathy Veroni / Roanna Brazier

Softball: throwing

In this blog post I will be talking about throwing. For me especially, throwing is something that i can always improve on. Throwing is one of the basic skills to learn in softball but also one of the skills that takes practice. There are 4 main steps to throwing a softball. "throwing is an area that must not be under coached... 4 steps to throwing a ball is grip, star position, release and follow through" ( Veroni 103).

Step #1: Grip
"the player should grip the seams of the ball with three fingers across the seam and the thumb opposite the middle finger" ( Veroni 103 ).

Step#2: Star position
" the ball is brought back behind the head with the ball pointing down; and elbow parallel to the ground with upper and lower arm at right angle" (Veroni 103).

Step#3: Release
" The upper arm should remain parallel to the ground while to wrist snaps back, placing the ball facing up just above the head" ( Veroni 103).

Step#4: Following through
"And to completing the throw with a full follow through" (Veroni 104).

In these here pictures, I am getting grip in the first picture, then I'm in star position getting ready to release and follow through. For me, I have been shown many different ways on how to throw a softball, some tips help and some don't. Most of the time i throw what is most comfortable for me, but there also comes times when you need to throw a certain way to get the ball where it needs to go. But some people are so comfortable throwing  a softball a certain way you could be throwing incorrectly and is hard to change. 

Do you think an athlete would be better off following instructions on how to throw? Or whats most comfortable?

Art of the Knuckle Ball

Square-cut fingernail (allowing
more of your nail to be on the ball)

Normal fingernail

Most knuckle ball pitchers throw their knuckle ball of their fingernails, which they carefully cut into a square shape (Adair, 55). Having a square-shaped nail allows you to maximize the amount of surface area you can apply to the ball as you are throwing it. The most important thing a pitcher wants while he is pitching to a batter is control. Reconstructing their nails to have the maximum amount of control as possible can be a key difference between a successful knuckle ball and an easy target for the batter to swing at. Personally, I prefer to keep my fingernails at a fairly long length so I could flick the ball with more potential. But, this book believes maximizing your control is more important in pitching.

To counter my long-nailed tactic I use four
fingers to gain as much control as possible

When throwing a knuckle ball, the idea is that the ball spins only about 1-2 times from the moment it leaves the pitcher's hand to the time it hits the plate. This is one of the slowest types of pitches thrown in baseball but also one of the deadliest as well. Because of its lack of spin, the knuckle ball creates more drag on the seams and essentially generates more movement. In fact, it has so much movement that the catcher actually has difficulty catching this type of pitch. A catcher known to catch for knuckle ball pitchers states that "It was easy, I just wait until the ball stopped rolling and then I'd pick it up" (54). Ever since I was 6 years old, I played on some baseball team and practiced every year, making it my main hobby. But I haven't started to actually try to improve and become more competitive until the last few years or so. I practiced so much with my pitches, that I can successfully throw 7 different types of them, (Fastball, Change-Up, Slider, Knuckle, Knuckle Curve, Curve Ball, and Side-Arm) where professional pitchers have 2-3 pitches at the most. I've never been thrown a knuckle ball by someone who knows how to throw a good one, but I can see the catchers that struggle (even in the MLB) to catch one.

Eddie Cicotte was the great Chicago "Black Sox" pitcher, who threw his knuckle ball without using his fingertips/fingernails. On the other hand, the worst part about the knuckle ball is the lack of control while in the air. If it breaks sharply, it will be harder for the catcher to successfully catch the pitch and if it doesn't break, it will be no more than batting practice for the batter to easily hit it out of the park. These key differences make this pitch both amazing and risk-taking to use.

What do you think is more important, having more control (causing less movement) or having more unpredictable movement (with less control)?

Adair, Robert Kemp. The Physics of Baseball. New York: Harper & Row, 1990. Print.