Great video thank you. Importance of starting from the same place for throwing consistency. I will be passing this great advice down to my daughter! This vacuum/funnel concept was explained to me by a friend who played college ball only partially.... I thought it was mostly about how to field grounders... so as I've done this for years I never made the connection to the throwing transition as probably the most important!
That hand is just there to help corral the ball-my guess is it took a higher hop than she expected and her bare hand was able to help. But no-the goal is not to field it using the bare hand, rather it’s there to keep the ball contained in case of bad hops that don’t hit square in the palm of the mitt. Goal is the ball hits the mitt. Good question.
Your videos are fantastic. Thank you. There are not enough good softball videos out there. Have you seen any issues using the term funneling where they pull their glove in as they are fielding it, versus fielding through the ball and then bringing to center for break? More of an issue for the younger kids.
I guess I am not a fan of the term funneling, especially when the foot work is not there. Most kids stop their forward movement instead of pushing through the ball. Add pulling the glove in (funneling) and it's now more error prone. Field the ball out front, continue forward movement through the ball and take your chest to the glove, breaking at center. Same result without them thinking of, or actually pulling their glove in and away from the ball.
I hear your concerns, but that’s just not the way high level players do it. The video stands for itself, and if players are stopping their momentum and planting their feet, then you need to go back to the drawing board with drills to prevent that and keep their feet moving. But it’s just an undeniable reality that all the best fielders in the world funnel the ball as shown in this video when they field it in the center of their body. Teaching it any other way isn’t setting them up to have the correct actions for higher levels of play. That’s why I think slow motion is so important - it lays it out for all to see. Part of this process for all of us as coaches is changing over time when new information forces us to change. I’m trying to help that process along, and I myself have changed a lot over the years, rethinking what I taught and why. Softball has been much slower to grow in this sense.
It’s clear you’re a thoughtful coach, and in this instance I think you need to find a way to fit kids to the proper action - funneling - rather than letting them settle for an alternative that won’t serve them in the future.
@@SnapSoftball Always working on footwork and fielding through the ball. Exactly what high level players do. Whether you call it funneling the ball in vs. taking your chest to the ball, it's semantics and is the correct action for higher levels of play. The term funneling is a problematic teach for younger kids as they tend to pull the glove in before the catch versus pushing through the catch.
![Softball Infield - Footwork & Throwing Mechanics Breakdown [Slow Motion Softball Video]](/img/logo.svg){kind=logo}
