Fielders should be in a strong ready position when the pitcher starts his motion towards the plate. The more you know your own pitcher and the opposing batters, the more likely they can anticipate and shade to the left or right, closer or deeper, before contact is made.

While conventional wisdom in the pros suggests moving more to the batter's pull field line, that does not always apply in amateur ball. Some coaches suggest that nothing changes just because the batter is either a righty or lefty, that you wait to see how the ball is hit first. As one coach puts it:

"Most outfielders can go one way better than the other naturally. I'm not a supporter of hedging one way or the other for a righty or lefty batter. Good hitters can hit to all fields and good outfielders can move in any direction with ease."

If the ball is hit hard and over your head then you must first drop-step back. Depending on which side of you the ball is hit, that's the leg to drop back.

Hit to right side, then drop the right leg back so you can push off with your left foot for power.

Hit on the left side then drop the left leg back so you can push off with your right foot for power.

On balls that start straight for you (the toughest to read for distance), go with your personal preferences - what feels more natural to you  - what gets you dropping back faster or on a better track?


Remember that few fly balls travel in a straight line. If you are playing left field and a left handed batter hits the ball on a line drive or between you and the foul line, it will slice towards the line, so be ready for that. Just remember that pull hits tend to hook and opposite field hits usually slice away. 

In other words on inside pull hits - all other factors (like wind) being equal - you drop back on the side closer to the hitter: right leg for righty and left leg for lefty. But on balls hit off the end of the bat, expect that slice towards the line.

With high school players, practice the drop step every day. When you work the 'turn and sprint' drill, make sure your throws are varied in distance and direction.

Teach your fielders to "beat the ball to the spot" and turn under the ball before catching it to be ready to throw to the cut off. This may seem like a very elementary drill, but you can tell a lot about reaction time and which way the fielder is more comfortable. Obviously, you can work on the weaker side more often.

Note: make sure they keep their glove in close to their bodies while running for the ball until the need to use it. Experienced players can run this drill in pairs on their own. In fact they will make it harder on each other than the coach will.

Set up at home plate with outfielders in center field. Push balls thru the machine and have the players move right and left. Vary the speed, height and direction. The easiest way to do this is move the outfielders because most pitching machines don't adjust direction as easily as speed. The reason this helps more than hitting fungos is because the fielder can't see the swing and must pick the ball up as it comes out of the machine.  They will be much faster in a game when they can see the pitch and the batters reaction to it.


To improve that first jump, other drills that can be used are agility-oriented. Try a football drill used by defensive backs: have your players slide back-right then back-left then back right, etc.  For baseball try this with two rows of cones in a staggered pattern, a 10' lane, and with cones in each row about 10' back. Players practice drop-right, power to the next cone, then drop-left, etc.)

See note to right.