The number one way to teach baseball fielders how to make diving plays is the dive throw drill. By utilizing the dive throw drill you can increase your outfielder’s and infielder’s range exponentially allowing them to make highlight reel plays on fly balls and ground balls along with the routine ones. Throughout the video I’m going to show you how to perform the dive throw drill with just your bare hands and then with a glove.
5 key teaching points and key execution points for performing the dive throw drill are:
1. Always throw to a target! If you're not throwing to a target with a purpose you're not going to be able to make diving plays with a quick accurate throw in a game.
2. Practice diving for balls in every direction. In baseball we cannot predict where the ball will be hit so being able to dive forwards, lateral to our right lateral, to our left, and behind us is really important.
3. Always use the proper footwork. As you dive and pop up to throw you should use the universal footwork which is right foot, left foot throw for righties and left foot right foot throw for lefties.
4. Always practice a proper two-handed transfer from glove to throwing hand. For Example: if you’re performing the dive throw drill bare handed, drop down grab the ball off the ground with your glove hand, transfer the ball to your throwing hand, and throw. If you're performing the dive throw drill with a glove, put the ball in your glove to start with so once you drop down and pop up you're always pulling that ball out and making a quality transfer.
5. It can be a little bit nerve-racking for younger players to work on the dive throw drill because it's a long ways to the ground and they are scared of getting hurt. To mitigate this fear you can start on your stomach, pop up, and make the throw. Then try starting on your knees, dropping down, and getting back up so it's less of a distance and progress your way to the harder variations.
Chapters:
0:00 - Intro
0:18 - Why dive throws are beneficial
0:46 - Demonstrations
2:36 - Key teaching points
3:52 - Challenge
4:38 - Consequence
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