In today's video we're going to teach you how you can throw harder and softball by
fixing some of your fielding technique stuff so we're gonna go over the concept
of funneling which is something that infielders should be doing on every
ground ball that they square up to and when we make these adjustments to our
fielding mechanics softball players are gonna see a big gain in throwing
velocity they're gonna see a gain in throwing accuracy because suddenly the
mechanics are always gonna start from a consistent point and so this is
something that's really really underrated so if you're familiar with my
youtube channel here which I highly suggest you subscribe and share with a
friend if you're familiar with my work you know I talk a lot about footwork and
fielding like the fundamentals of fielding being really important in
improving your throwing mechanics if you're a fast pitch softball player so
if your fielding stuff is off then that's the very first thing that I'm
gonna adjust if I were to work with you in person and obviously I was the owner
of a baseball softball academy for nine years called Warbird Academy and so
this was became very obvious to me over time so in today's video we're gonna go
over fielding mechanics specifically the funneling action and how that's going to
improve your softball throwing mechanics okay so in today's video we've got a lot
of slow motion video of softball players we've got slow motion infield technique
throwing technique all that stuff so but the big concept today is funneling and
how this affects your throwing because it really really does affect throwing
especially with young fast pitch softball players so here's what
funneling is so when you scoop up a ground ball shown right here the next
step should be and this is for ground balls when you're squared to your target
or when your feel to get in the center of you it should be bringing it to your
center right here and so you see this with softball players at a high level
these are as a Division one player here you see it with baseball players at a
high level and bringing the ball other Center is something that's extremely
common for really really good players they all do this they all do it but for
young softball players they routinely do not do this and they grab the ball
rather glove and they immediately go into their throwing motion without
bringing it to the center of their body and so a good question is well why do we
need to on the wall why does this matter and so
my example here is a football quarterback so a football quarterback is
gonna have a lot of complex decisions to make as he drops back in the pocket
looking for a receiver to throw to right and while he's doing that he's gonna
keep the ball at his Center the whole time so you'd say well yeah that seems
obvious that's the easiest place to put it right exactly it is because when he
is ready to throw because he's not gonna know which receiver is gonna be open
when he is ready to throw no matter what direction he's gonna throw the ball it's
gonna start from the same place every time so his throwing mechanics are gonna
be consistent and so you see the same thing with infielders once they get the
ball and they fielded it they're gonna bring it to their middle because it's
now in a consistent place where they're throwing mechanics can start and end
from the same spot every time because we want to get from this point here to here
making a really strong throw across the diamond it's gonna start with the
fundamentals just like anything else so let's go through some slow-motion
examples here here we've got a softball infielder and she's gonna approach this
ball and you see all her right foots behind her left foots moving through it
she gets it and she's bringing it right to her Center and then she can collect
herself and take her time or not and to you know depending on how fast the
runner is and what the situation is and then make her throw so a really good
example of funneling the ball well here in this next video you're gonna see
three pro baseball infielders and what I want you to really watch for is the way
as soon as the ball hits their mitt it immediately goes to their belt buckle
and these are all players that are at extremely high level and they've been
taught this for their entire careers from there when they're little players
so this is of like an automatic action where you'll see as soon as hits the
glove it's kind of exaggerated and they just bring it right to their belt line
right there
see that so exaggerated rights the Beltline and then the shortstop's last
rights the Beltline so this is consistent across all high level players
but as I go out and watch young softball players play and we do a lesson and
we're evaluating them for the first time we rarely see that and we rarely see it
because basically they'll take the ball right from here and go into the throwing
motion and what happens is it become very inconsistent and their throwing
motion gets just really strange because it's always starting from a new place we
don't want our throwing mechanics to always start from the same place so as
you watch this player here brings it right to her center right foots gonna
hit now she separates her hands and everything was easy right it's just a
simple motion she's gonna throw it sidearm but again it starts and stops
with the fundamentals here's another good example it's a shortstop she gets
it right to her middle as her feet start to move and the best infielders this is
a seamless transition right there's not a lot of gap between when it hits the
glove and when they start moving so they're moving their feet as it hits the
glove as they're bringing it to the middle it's not in one than two then
three it's not in pieces it's one smooth motion and here is a pro baseball
shortstop and he's gonna look exactly the same as our previous example so as
that ball comes in it hits his mitt and then the first thing that happens is it
goes to his center so for softball players who want to throw harder for
softball players who don't throw with enough accuracy maybe they're
inconsistent this is probably a problem that they have now there's no way to
tell exactly but inconsistency in the starting point of your throwing
mechanics is going to yield inconsistency in everything else right
so that's again that's why the fundamentals this is like the tires on a
car these are the really important basics to focus on so hits the glove
brings it to our middle as your feet step
and then her throwing motion begins from the same spot every time on those
routine kind of ground balls so okay so what do we do how can we improve on this
if you're a coach or if you're a softball parent or if you're a player
and you want to go out and practice what should we do well number one use video
so obviously these photos were taken from games this is a slow-motion video
taken from games everyone has a smartphone these days right so go out
take some video use your iPhone use your Android phone if you want to invest in a
cheap you know sony or canon or nikon camera and get some a little more
close-up shots with the zoom lens all for it all those things can make a
really big impact on a softball players career and so having good analysis a
good starting point is important number two Daly's so Daly's refer to like daily
routine drills this is like the fundamental stuff that players will just
sort of do all the time and so this is a great example of some Division one
players doing their daily drills so this is before a game they're just on their
knees working on the basics funneling picking balls back handing balls stuff
like that there should be a consistent thing and this is a consistent thing for
all high level players if you're a high level fast pitch player if you're a pro
baseball player college baseball player you know even high school players that
good programs that are well coached and well run these are things that players
do all the time this is just like hitting off the tee for fielders so this
stuff is really important so if you're again if your softball player who wants
to improve or throwing improve her fielding make less errors this is stuff
that you need to do every day these are you know commonly referred to as dailies
lastly make sure you're getting game-like reps so this means when you
are taking batting practice or you're just taking ground balls of your team if
even if you can't throw it make sure you're getting quality working and going
through your game speed mechanics so here's a great example of that this is a
baseball guy in pregame in batting practice and he's not gonna throw it but
he's still gonna attack the ball he's still gonna field it like he would in a
game like he would if he was gonna throw it across the diamond
so he's breaking down making sure that he's getting really good
quality practice and make himself better so if you're lazy and practice you're
gonna be lazy in games and then applies to every sport and every endeavor in
life but again right here you see funnels it he moves his feet he's
working on being smooth he's working on his hands and he's just getting his feet
into a strong throwing position but then he's not actually gonna throw it so even
if it's not a you know a practice where you can make a hundred throws across the
diamond you can still encourage players to go
through through the reps with game speed and really just work hard on being
better okay so hopefully today's video helped
obviously when you can breakdown mechanics in slow motion and see what
high poly level players are doing it just makes everything way easier right I
would rather show you what good players do and then we can talk through it
rather than just me be that sort of talking head it says always do it this
way do it this way do it this way when you see the players that you want to be
playing the level that you want to play at when you see them consistently doing
these actions which again you see all these d1 softball players funneling the
ball every time they're squared up to one and you see college and pro baseball
players doing it too you should know that as a coach this is something that
your young players need to learn and if you're a young softball player yourself
this is something that you really need to spend a lot of time on so if you're
new the channel please subscribe hit the like button share with a friend and I'll
see you in the next video.