When it comes to errors on defense, it's important that we understand the underlying causes of glove errors, and throwing errors. Only when we understand the cause, can we begin to address the symptoms of a lack of confidence at our defensive position. I'd like to share two baseball training tools that will help young ballplayers address challenges on defense such as:
- Lapses in concentration.
- Stuck on past performances or outcomes.
- Worried about what the coach is thinking in the dugout.
- Worried about what mom or dad is thinking in the stands.
- Overwhelmed by the momentum of the opponent.
- Taking the inning, at-bat, pitch or moment for granted.
- Not understanding the situation.
Understand: Physical errors will happen. A bad hop. A tough play you could have made but didn't.
But mental errors and lapses in concentration are a result of:
- Taking the moment for granted.
- Failing to have a mental routine or process that puts you in present-focused, compete-mode.
Each pitch requires your best mental effort.
The moments in between pitches; that's your chance to recover. Stare at a blade of grass. Gaze at the sky. Take a deep breath.
Then once the pitcher begins their wind up, cultivate the concentration. Have it at 100% as the ball reach home plate.
Prep step with intention, in the moment, expecting to make the
Strobe Glasses For Glove Work
The goal with our Strobe Glasses is simple.
Help athletes become better a predicting the movement of their object of focus. Namely, the baseball.
Using Strobe Glasses effectively while catching, hitting, throwing, and fielding a baseball requires your complete and full attention, or you will struggle. Period.
This is what makes training with them so fun.
It makes the simple parts of baseball, the parts we take for granted, hard again.
When we make the easy parts hard in practice, the hard parts become easy in the game.
Enter Coach Trent Mongero On Strobe Glasses
"In order to become an elite defender, we have to improve our hands, we have to improve our feet, and ultimately, we have to improve our eyes...
There are many drills that we do to work on our feet as well as our hands. The one part that we neglect, as infielders, is training our eyes, challenging our eyes.
An applied vision has stroke classes that literally will allow you to take your vision to a whole nother level.
By reducing the amount of data that my brain receives, I have to use prediction skills. So doing the same drill progression that I would normally do with a baseball is literally going to take that drill to a whole nother level of difficulty by continually challenging the eyes and the hands. Now the game of baseball, the actual game between the lines, slows down.
So when we're doing these drills, our hands are improving, our feet are improving, but ultimately, our eyes are improving. And when your eyes improve, you improve.
And that's the whole goal of training at an elite level to become an elite defender. So get your pair of applied strode glasses today and take your infield play to the next level."
Learn more about our Strobe Glasses here.
Finger Web Glove For Glove Work
Being a great defensive ballplayer isn't just about talent; it's about developing an unyielding commitment to excellence. Every time you step onto that field, you're job is to channel the spirit of a real competitor who wants the ball to be hit to them. This requires focus and dedication.
When you're able to glide across the infield, making each move seem effortless, it's always a restuls of the intensity of training at your chosen skill.
Finger web gloves help this process by increasing the difficulty of your glove work.
Enter Coach Trent Mongero On The Finger Glove
Very important when you wear the Finger Glove, to wear it like you would your actual glove, nice and relaxed on your fingers. Don't shove it deep down. That allows the webbing action to really work...
A good idea is to use Wiffle Balls as well. Today, what we're going to work on is we're going to work on the backhand because the backhand is where the webbing gets involved the most as a margin for error when we're doing our drill work or actually fielding in the game.
So we're going to work on three different plays. First, we're going to work on what's called the Roller.
The Roller is the ball staying on the ground here. We're going to use a receive glove action where we hinge the front elbow. We have flexion in our glove hand, exposing the web behind the ball. We hinge as we receive, giving to the ball and bringing it midline center line for exchange.
The second play we're going to work on is what's called the short hop.
The short hop is a perfect hop. It's a one-inch hop. We're in a perfect position to field this ball, so we're going to use a pick glove action. A pick glove action is where we're hinged on top and we receive more up. The ball is bouncing up, so we stay on top, of course, bringing it to our midline center line for exchange.
The last play we're going to work on is what's called the press. We want to make a short in-between hop. A short hop by simply moving the glove away from the body. We call that the press, or a forward positive glove action.
By moving the glove forward, we now have cut down the distance to the ball, making that short in between a short. Once the ball is in our webbing at the bottom near our pocket, we receive midline center-line exchange.
The versions we're going to do is on the knees, and then we're going to actually get on our feet, where we have to make an exchange into our V slot throwing position. Pick up your Finger Glove today at Applied Vision Sports and take your infield play to the highest level.
Learn more about our Finger Web Gloves here.
Join Us For $1
We would love to have you as an Applied Vision Baseball Member. You can get access to over 1,000+ pitch sequences, and advanced coaching with Trent Mongero, and MLB hitting coach Tim Hyers.
Learn more about the Winning Baseball Program and Vision training drills here. You can access both for $1
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