Pop Ups and High Flies

Our first two games have made one thing about our team very clear -- we need to work on turning fly balls and pop ups into outs. We're giving away way too many outs and runs by letting playable flies drop. We have the players to turn these batted balls into outs but we're just not executing. I'm not saying this to point fingers or place blame. It's nothing like that. I think it's the natural result of the way we've conducted our practices. We've spent too much time on hitting when we probably should have been devoting a lot of that time to our fielding. At our last practice we shook things up a little bit to improve our infield defense. I think it was successful as our footwork and handling of short throws on the infiled was pretty good in the game against the Master Blasters. Now we need to put that same kind of focus into our outfield play at Monday's practice. In my opinion, the main thing we need is a lot of repetition. We have players with the ability to catch routine fly balls. There's no doubt about it. We just need to work on judging the flight of the ball and getting into position to catch it. I know from experience that when I go a long time without practicing, I lose my sense of judging the flight of a ball. I can't tell if it's hit right at me or if I need to charge it, or if it's going over my head. I try to hold my position until I can figure it out but most of the time, that hesitation costs me. By the time I can tell where the ball is headed, it's too late for me to get there in time to catch it. I feel disoriented and I lose confidence. But when I go out to the park with some friends and we hit each other a few buckets of fly balls, it comes back to me. After I get the chance to follow the flight of the ball off the bat several times, it becomes easier to tell if it's going deep or falling in front of me. I reduce that period of hesitation when the ball is first hit and I can recognize more quickly if I need to turn and go back or charge the ball. I think that kind of repetition is primarily what we need now. The tricky part is to find a way of doing it that allows our outfielders to get in the work they need without it resulting in a bunch of standing around for everyone else. I think I have some drills that will help us in that regard --sort of like the infield drills we ran last week. Everyone will be participating and constantly shifting positions and tasks. There should be very little (if any) dead time. By the time we're done with practice on Monday, everyone will have seen a lot of flies, worked on getting under them, executing the catch, and making a quick throw to the infield. I want to make it fun but without taxing us so much that we don't have enough gas for Tuesday's game. Assuming my hamstring is okay, I will be available on Wednesday for those who want to reinforce the work we do on Monday. We'll also have time to work on other things as needed.