ABCA Clinic Recaps - Sean McDermott
18
Mar
2013
Daily Routines to Develop a Prepared Infielder
Sean McDermott – Assistant Coach, University of Illinois at Chicago
Clinic Topics
1. Traits of an Infielder
a. Aggressive, confident, creative…prepared!
2. Functional Throwing instead of Traditional Long Toss
a. Positional throwing – at your position.
b. Integration with points 4 and 6.
3. Fungo Series – Control, Attacking and Creative
a. Control – transitional rhythm to throw.
b. Creativity = playtime, let them play!
4. Cuts and relays – Systematic way to get the ball into the appropriate base
a. Alignment.
b. Depth.
c. Positioning.
d. Communication.
e. Decisions.
5. Rundowns Priorities and Fundamentals
6. 1st and 3rd Priorities and Fundamentals
7. Tag Plays
8. Pickoff Positioning
9. Dive Plays – Fundamentals
10. Winning doesn’t just happen on game day, it happens each day
a. A confident player is a prepared player.
My Most Important Thing
Bret Davis, my head coach at Porterville College, asked just three things of us each game: make the routine plays, throw strikes and put the ball in play. Baseball is a sport where routine plays are so similar so much of the time that preparing for them is pretty simple – as long as you have systems, a plan and you make the time to get the necessary repetitions. Coach McDermott has given his players a system for just about everything that you can predict happening on a baseball field, i.e. those routine plays. If you don’t have a system for parts of the game like Cuts and Relays and Rundowns then you’re leaving what should be routine plays to chance. The likely result is that you’ll give your opponent extra outs to work with.
Give your players some simple rules to follow so they can execute the predictable, routine plays and give them quality, game or game-like experience and creative practice time to develop their instincts so they can execute when the less predictable happens.
Last Up: Matt Talarico
Coach McDermott's was the last presentation of the 2013 ABCA Convention and wraps up my clinic recaps. I hope you've enjoyed them and if you are a coach, that you found at least one thing that can help you better impact your players and teams.
LC
tagged under: baseball, coaching, softball, infield, practice
