Defensive Softball Drills - Jacquie Joseph

Defensive Softball Drills

by Jacquie Joseph

NEW, 192 pages

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About Defensive Softball Drills

Many successful softball teams boast a sweet-swinging slugger or a "can`t-touch-this" starting pitcher, but softball teams that win championships are built on a framework of solid team defense.

In Defensive Softball Drills, Coach Jacquie Joseph provides coaches with 66 proven drills for building this framework. She presents drills for learning and mastering skills at each position and for molding players into a finely tuned defensive unit.

Recent trends in the sport-livelier balls, increased bat technology, the left-hand slapper, and, at the collegiate level, the greater distance from the pitching mound to the plate-have resulted in more offense. Defensive Softball Drills provides the practice tools to counteract those advantages to give teams the winning edge.

All of the drills are accompanied by coaching points and detailed illustrations. The book also includes a handy drill finder for locating drills to work on specific areas and situations.

The drills focus on:

• eliminating the big inning
• perfecting ball-catching skills
• employing an aggressive defensive style
• working on the mental aspect of defense

The drills are geared toward middle and advanced level fastpitch players, but slowpitch players and beginning fastpitch players will benefit from them, too.

About Jacquie Joseph

Jacquie Joseph is recognized as one of the top coaches in NCAA Division I softball. She has coached at Michigan State University (MSU) since 1993 and also is a USA Softball National Team coach, having participated at the USA Festival and for the Pan American qualifying team.

At MSU, Joseph has led the Spartans to their best record and best Big Ten finish in school history. Prior to her MSU career, she coached Bowling Green University to a Mid-American Conference championship.

Joseph was elected President of the National Fastpitch Coaches Association in 1994. This association represents all fastpitch coaches at the NCAA Division I, II, and III, junior college, NAIA, high school, and summer league levels.

When she's not coaching softball, Joseph enjoys playing golf and reading.

Reviews

"Jacquie Joseph is one of the top young coaches in the country. She gives us an outstanding resource for coaches at every level of the game. This is a book that will give you something new to use at your practice TODAY."
Jay Miller
Head softball coach
University of Missouri

"If you are interested in becoming more efficient, productive, and knowledgeable about the game of softball, I highly recommend Jacquie Joseph's Defensive Softball Drills. This book will provide you with easy-to-understand drills for every facet of the defensive game. In addition, Coach Joseph provides technical insight related to each drill's purpose. There are individual position drills, team drills, practice organization tips and game strategies - all within one book. Jacquie Joseph is a highly respected coach in Division I softball and a past president of the National Fastpitch Coaches Association. She has designed a well organized resource equipped to take coaches and players of all ages to the next level."
Sue Enquist
Head softball coach, UCLA

About Softball

Softball is played between 2 teams on a large field, with nine players from one team on the field at a time. The field is usually composed of a dirt or brickdust infield which contains the quadrilateral shape and running areas, and a grass outfield. However, the field also can consist of all dirt, grass, artificial turf, or, in areas such as New York City, asphalt . There are 4 bases on the infield (first base, second base, third base,and home plate); the bases are arranged in a square and are typically 45 to 65 feet (13,7 to 19,8 meters) apart. Near the center of this square is the pitcher's circle, and within the circle is the "rubber", a small flat rectangular area. The object of the game is to score more runs (points) than the other team by batting (hitting) a ball into play and running around the bases, touching each one in succession. The ball is a sphere of light material, covered with leather or synthetic material. It is 10 to 12 inches (or rarely, 16 inches) (28 to 30.5 centimeters) in circumference. The game is officiated by one or more neutral umpires. Players and umpires are generally free to ask for a brief stoppage at any time when the ball is not in play, or immediately following a play once its outcome is clear.

The game is played in a series of innings, usually seven. Youth leagues sometimes have 6 innings. An inning is one series of both teams playing offense and defense. Each inning is divided into a top half and a bottom half indicating which team is playing which role. The offense bats and attempts to score runs, while the defense occupies the field and attempts to record outs in a variety of ways. After the defense records 3 outs, the half inning is over and the teams switch roles.

To start play, the offense sends a batter to home plate. The batting order must be fixed at the start of the game, and players may not bat out of turn. The defense's pitcher stands atop the rubber and throws the ball towards home plate using an underhanded motion. The batter attempts to hit the pitched ball with a bat, a long, round, smooth stick made of wood, metal or composite. A pitch must cross within a small area known as the strike zone, which is determined by the umpire behind home plate, and primarily ranges from the knees to just below the shoulders the ball must cross over the plate, and it must be within a certain height restriction. A pitch which does not cross the strike zone is a ball, and if the batter reaches 4 balls, the batter is awarded the first base. A pitch which crosses the strike zone is a strike, and a batter who reaches 3 strikes is out (a strikeout), and the next batter in the order comes to bat. A strike is also recorded on any pitch that the batter swings at and misses entirely, and also on a pitch that is hit foul (out of play), a foul ball may or may not result in a strikeout dependent upon what association and local league rules. However, bunting a foul ball does result in a strikeout. Bunting is not allowed and results in an out in some associations and leagues.

The batter attempts to swing the bat and hit the ball fair (into the field of play). After a successful hit the batter becomes a baserunner (or runner) and must run to first base. The defense attempts to field the ball and may throw the ball freely between players, so one player can field the ball while another moves to a position to put out the runner. The defense can tag the runner, by touching the runner with the ball while the runner is not on a base. The defense can also touch first base while in possession of the ball; in this case it is sufficient to beat the batter to first base and an actual tag of the batter is unnecessary. A runner is said to be thrown out when the play involves two or more defensive players. Runners generally cannot be put out when touching a base, but only one runner may occupy a base at any time and runners may not pass each other. When a ball is batted into play, runners generally must attempt to advance if there are no open bases behind them; for example, a runner on first base must run to second base if the batter puts the ball in play. In such a situation, the defense can throw to the base that the lead runner is attempting to take (a force out), and the defense can then also throw to the previous base. This can result in a multiple-out play: a double play is two outs, while a triple play, a very rare occurrence, is three outs. Runners with an open base behind them are not forced to advance and do so at their own risk; the defense must tag such runners directly to put them out rather than tagging the base.

A ball which is hit in the air and caught before hitting the ground is an immediate out, regardless of whether the ball would have landed fair or foul. A fly ball is a ball hit high and deep, a pop fly is a ball hit high but short, and a line drive is a ball hit close to the horizontal. In any such situation, runners must remain on their bases until the ball is touched by a defensive player or hits the ground. If a runner leaves the base before a fly ball, pop fly, or line drive is touched or contacts the ground, the defense can throw the ball to that base, and if the base is tagged before the runner returns, the runner is out as well, resulting in a double play. If the runner remains on the base until the ball is touched, or returns to the base after the catch but before the defense can put him out, he is said to tag up and may attempt to advance to the next base at his own risk. If there are less than two batters out and runners on 1st and 2nd bases and the batter hits a pop fly in the infield, the batter is automatically out to prevent unfair play by the fielders. Unfair play may result from infielders deliberately dropping the ball to try and achieve a double play. This rule is called the infield fly rule.

Offensive strategy is fairly straight forward, revolving around hitting the ball to let the batter reach base safely and to advance the base runners towards home plate to score runs. Defensive strategy can be more complex, with particular situations calling for different positioning and tactical decision making. For both sides, there can be a trade-off between outs and runs: the offense can sacrifice a batter to advance runners, while the defense may allow a runner to score if the remaining runners can be put out in a double play.

Defensive Softball Drills