Softball Fielding Skills - The Backhand

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Suzy Willemssen
http://www.eteamz.com/GloryGold  
703-978-3166

Suzy grew up in Waterloo, Iowa where she was the first female to play in the boys baseball program. She was a 4 sport athlete in high school and was an all-state player in volleyball, basketball and softball. She played softball at the University of Iowa, where she also earned a B.S. in Physical Education Suzy is currently the head coach of 18u Glory Gold, an ASA junior olympic gold team and has just been named the head coach for Episcopal High School. Prior to the EHS position Suzy was the head coach at Chantilly HS and an assistant varsity softball coach at West Springfield High School. She has over 35 years of experience either as a player, coach or teaching professional. In addition to her private lessons, she has run or been an instructor for numerous youth, high school and college softball camps and clinics. Suzy gives instruction on all facets of the sport and is known for her knowledge, passion and enthusiasm for the game.  

Softball Fielding Skills - The Backhand

In this video series, professional softball instructor and coach Suzy Willemssen describes a number of basic skills required to play fastpitch softball. The videos are designed for the beginning softball player, but include a variety of tips and techniques that would be useful to players of any skill level. This video series includes an overview of the basic equipment and the basic skills involved when throwing, fielding, pitching and hitting a ball.

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Transcripts

Hi. I am Susie Willimson and I am a Travel Ball and high school softball coach. I have Aaron here helping me and we are going to be discussing some basic fastpitch softball skills. In this segment, we are going to be discussing fielding and in particular, backhands and some of the footwork that you want to do when you are doing a backhand. I am going to start though by reviewing a little bit what we are looking for when we are fielding the ball out in front and then youll be able to see how we are going to a little different when we go to our backhand. So, as a review remember when you are fielding the ball out in front, we have out back flat, our bottom is down, our knees are nice and flat. We have the glove out in front and Aaron has her hands in the side which is fine or some people like it in front; just make sure your fingers are up if you have it out in front. So, that way its going directly towards the ball. Now, the difference with the backhand and when you dont have time to use some of that other footwork we showed is you can get it two ways. The first way will demonstrate with Aaron is going to be getting the ball off her left foot. In this case, she is going to be down and she is going to have again the glove out in front and whats going to happen is her arm is going to kind of act like a hinge as well. So, she has the glove out in front. She is down on the left leg and now what she is going to do to be able to get her feet pointed and right to make the throw is she is going to step through, again the hands to the glove, gets her feet lined up and she makes the throw to the appropriate base. So again, thats if we have to get the ball off the left foot. If you are attacking the ball and you get it up your right foot, same thing you want to get in front. Your elbow acts as a little hinge here and then with this you are going to almost rock and fire. Though she is going to plan on her right foot, come back through and then makes the throw to first base. So, that is some basic footwork when you are doing a backhand. Also something you wanted to be aware talking about what kind of hop and how, why we want to be aggressive when were fielding ground ball. If you have short hop, you always want to attack a short hop. So, you can keep it a short hop. So, you wanted to be aggressive, attack a short hop, get that ball out in front. Otherwise you want to have the ball kind of take a flat bounce and be in essence a long hop and with that you give a little bit as if you are catch an egg. So, you either want to get the ball on its short hop or its long hop. You dont want to try to get it in between, because I guaranty you will get eaten up. So, again attack the short hop, or it can be back a little bit on the long hop and treat it like as if youre trying to catch as egg. So, there are some basic elements for backhand and how to attack the different kinds of hops you'll encounter when fielding a ground ball.

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