Episode 135 (Nick Beckmann and Ryan Hall)

So let's get into the actual infield baseball topics.

But we'll start with you first, Coach Hall.

If you're developing infielders at maybe an infield academy in the offseason, what would be the focus points of development?

Yeah, I thought about three.

Number one, in the offseason, arm strength and resiliency is really important to us because we want to be able to throw as much as we possibly can when we do get out on the field.

And so that time's valuable in building up resiliency and strength and just trying to grow the arm.

The second thing we probably spend, just the three fundamentals we have, and that's learning to create your own hop, connecting your eyes to the catch or keeping your eyes behind the catch, and then learning to center the ball and throw from a center line.

Those would be kind of the things that we would focus in an academy lesson type environment.

And then, you know, we've mastered the four, mastered four different ground ball types for us, which are, We call it a rhythm ball.

That's a ball that's hit where you're going to get rhythm and get back through it with momentum to throw to first base.

Two hand lane balls, a glove side ball with one hand, a backhand ball, and then an attack ball, a ball that you've got to come and get.

So, you know, those would probably be the three.

you know, areas that we'd spend most of our time.

And once we get into those master and the four, there's a whole world of tools and a big toolbox that you, you know, there's multiple ways to field a rhythm ball based on step, runner speed and all that.

So arm strength, trying to build arm up to where when you do get to the season, it's ready to roll.

Those three fundamentals of creating your own hop, keeping your eyes connected to the catch and centering the ball to throw.

I see a lot of kids that the ball gets past center line, they sweep the ball into this, and I don't really like that.

I know there's some times that that's a usable skill, but we're trying to get them to learn to keep the ball centered.

And then those four balls, we would work a lot on those four balls, trying to master the hand action, the footwork, and things like that.

So that would kind of be what we would do.

I like the term rhythm ball because I especially at the I don't know how the infielders coming into you guys are.

But in my experience with like class one baseball and then just like freshman baseball, a lot of the guys have never really been taught the footwork of infield baseball.

And so you're always trying to teach them how to catch it in rhythm.

I like the idea of using the term just rhythm ball.

But Coach Beckman, as someone who works with GBA and has and does stuff with an infield academy in the offseason, even if it's this offseason, what would be the focal points of development for you guys?