This fun fielding drill is great for teaching kids how to Focus
their minds on doing one thing at a time
Doing One Thing at a Time Fielding Drill
The Focus Fielding Drill teaches kids how to focus their mind
on doing one thing at a time, plus gives them confidence in being
able to do something that is really difficult.
You'll need two milk crates and several baseballs. Place the milk
crates about 20 feet apart with a coach sitting on one crate and
a player on the other facing each other.
The coach throws the ball to the player, then positions his glove
at different locations to get the player to throw to the target.
I put the glove low left, then high right, then low middle, high
left, then low right, etc.
Once you've done 20 or so tosses, tell the player to stop and
close his eyes. Tell him to see your glove in his mind, then tell
him to see the ball going into the glove....ten have him toss
it into the glove.
You'll be surprised to find out that most kids can hit the glove
better with their eyes closed than with them open.
Of course give lots of praise when they do hit the glove with
their eyes closed, the kids will really like the fact they can
do something that is out of their comfort zone. Instead of it
seeming like an impossibility to them, they will get a kick out
of hitting the glove and out of finding out they can do something
that seems so difficult.
Once you get a player who is hitting the glove fairly consistently
with their eyes closed, then you can explain to them they miss
the target so often with their eyes open because of all the
distractions around them that is taking their focus off doing
one thing at a time.
This can lead to an explanation that when they are on the field
and the game's going on, how important it is to focus on only
doing one thing at a time and not allow themselves to be
distracted by everything around them.
And they have just proved to themselves how much better performance
they can give when they focus on doing only one thing at a time
and not allow distractions to be a part of their game.
This is also a great drill for a pitcher as they begin their bullpen.
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