Defensive Help

I saw this article on Defense and Conditioning Drills and I thought I might share it with you.

1. When we take infield (13 - 14 year olds) I usually do it by playing “Follow the Ball“:
Put a baseball player at every position of the infield except pitcher. Have the rest of the baseball team line up at short. Hit a grounder to the first guy in line at short to him to make a play at first. He then “follows the ball” by running to first and taking the first baseman’s position. The first baseman throws to second and “follows the ball” by running to second and taking that place.
Second baseman throws to third and runs there to take the third baseman’s place. Third throws home and takes the catchers place. The catcher puts the ball in a bucket and runs around to short and gets in line to receive a grounder.The nice thing about this baseball drill is that it moves very quickly and it keeps the players moving so it works on fitness and stamina. It also looks really cool when done correctly and everyone is making good throws.
2. To teach the proper way to go back for a fly ball, we have the outfielders literally run football pass patterns - typically a simple slant pattern - either to the left or right. While running the pattern have the baseball coach throw a long fly ball far enough behind the player so that they have to run to catch it. They sometimes will have to attempt an over the shoulder catch or, if they get there in time, they can stop and catch the ball in proper position to make a throw to the infield. The drill is designed to teach them how to turn and run for a deep fly ball rather than back peddling.