Softball Fielding Skills - The Backhand

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.