Drills to Catch a Softball – Hitting Machine Pop-Ups

George, one of my subscribers, sent this one to me.   A great suggestion for [tag]drills to catch a softball[/tag] that don’t require a coaching PhD to figure out.

From George…
As a new girls [tag]softball coach[/tag] I noticed a technique done by one of the older coaches that made a lasting impression.

Last year we were trying to get the outfielders to continue to charge the [tag]softball[/tag] even if they did not think they could get it. Many times I noticed outfielders would lose confidence and take the ball on the first bounce rather than go for it. One technique that worked well to help combat this was to put the pitching machine on home plate and pointed it up in the air to produce pop ups in the exact place that I wanted them to be.

We purposely adjusted the machine to always produce pop-ups to be just out of their reach, forcing them to go for the ball no matter what. Of course we moved the machine around to compensate for the slower players as well as the faster players. The point being to encourage the girls to go for the ball even if they had to dive for the ball. Taking the ball on first bounce was a no go!! We saw a huge improvement in our girls’ fielding. Their confidence grew as they realized they were faster than they gave themselves credit for.

This [tag]softball drill[/tag] works well in teaching the girls the proper technique of how to run backwards keeping their eye on the ball and shifting the body if necessary while running towards the fence.
Hope this helps someone.