Ways for Players to Read the Barrel of the Bat When Playing Defense

Ways for Players to Read the Barrel of the Bat When Playing Defense

Within the past few days, there was a question that I received from a dear friend Coach Tillman. Coach Tillman is an Assistant Baseball Coach at New Hope High School in New Hope, Mississippi. The question we discussed was in regards to different ways for players to read the barrel of the bat of an opponent's swing. This is a question that normally would be easier to answer during normal circumstances, but due to the unprecedented times we are living in because of the Coronavirus, coaches and players have to get creative with training this skill. Today I will go over the common and creative ways to train this skill that both Coach Tillman and myself discussed the other day. 

Common Ways

The most important key to defending any ball is expecting the ball to be hit to you during every pitch. The worst thing that you can do is hope that the ball won't be hit to you. If you do this then you are putting yourself into danger and letting your team down as well. With that being said, one of the best things that a player playing defense could do is watch the barrel of the bat. This allows the player to anticipate where the ball will go if put into play. Infielders and outfielders should look into the hitting /contact zone after the pitch has been released by the pitcher. This will allow the defenders to be able to see the barrel of the bat when it makes contact. For example, if it is a two-strike count and the pitcher throws a cutter that jams the batter and breaks his bat the defender will be able to anticipate the bat breaking and that the ball will most likely be hit softly, so the defender will have to rush in to field the ball properly while also getting the batter-runner running down the first baseline out. 

Another clue that the defense can look for is the positioning of the catcher. Typically when a catcher is giving out signs he wants to be staggered towards the shortstop when giving out signs so that the first base coach can't pick up the signs. After this, the catcher will either go to his left, right or middle to receive the pitch in the desired location. Typically both middle infielders will take a step to their left or right in order to match the area where the pitch will go. This can leave clues to the outfield and to the rest of the infield in preparation of what area of the strike zone the hitter will be swinging the bat. 

Two other ways for your players to get better is to get fungo ground balls and fly balls. Seeing the ball off of an actual bat will help the player improve at this skill. Another way that can help improve this skill is to play the game of Pepper. Pepper is an old school fielding and hitting game that can really improve reading the ball off of the bat. Although Pepper is more so a fielding and hitting drill, the player has to watch the barrel in order to have success. 

Creative Ways 

We live in the digital age which means, we have a ton of information at our disposal. If you want to watch a baseball game, then you can go onto YouTube and search for any game that you would want to watch. Therefore, one way to improve your barrel awareness is to watch a game and practice your defense preparation steps in order to time the pitch correctly in order to field the ball properly. In addition to this, an athlete can watch the hitting zone/contact zone and practice how they would move in order to field the ball based on where the barrel of the bat will go. For example, if you are playing shortstop and you see the hitter pull a ball foul, typically you will take a few steps to where the ball was foul because you were focused on where the ball was going even though it was foul. This helps the player create awareness and stay game-ready even if it was a televised game.

This last idea is far fetched, but our players are very visual and do enjoy video games. The most popular baseball game on the market today is called "MLB The Show." In this game, you can take an individual player from any team and be that player for a complete game. There is a view that the player can go into called field view. While in the field view the player can get a first-person view into the hitting/contact zone of the hitter. This can give the player a virtual first-person view in order to practice seeing the barrel in correlation to hitting/contact zone. This is an outside of the box way for players to get repetitions and learn the importance of anticipating where the ball will go when playing defense. 

Reading the barrel of the bat when playing defense is a crucial strategy for a player to do when playing defense because it will allow the player to anticipate the ball being hit to the player. In addition to this, there are many ways that I presented for the player to practice this skill. There are many ways to get better at this skill than what I wrote on this post, but the most important thing the athlete can do is to actually practice this skill. I hope this post is helpful to improve your players and team during these unprecedented times we are living in. As always, I hope nothing but the best for you and your ball club.