Advice needed! Any softball or Baseball players who play outfield?

[AmericanxIdiot05]

So i started my 3rd year of softball, and during our second game I scored our first home run in 7 years for our varsity team! We hadn't had a team ever since then. Anywho I play outfield, either center or right and I figured I'd ask if anyone had any good tips on how to better determine on where a popfly will go, and I do struggle with that during games, although today, I did get better at determining on where it would go. I just think I generally over judge or overthink it and I wouldn't like to get down on my self as much I usually do so I would also like to know how you guys play and see if I can try and learn anything that will help me become a better player. Any advice is much appreciated :)

[MrOracle]

in my opinion, this really just comes from experience - the more time you spend fielding balls, the better you're going to get at judging where they're going to fall. If you look at the pros, even they sometimes get it wrong, so it's not easy (and those guys have multiples of years more experience than you do right now).

Try to have someone hit fly balls to the outfield for you to chase. That's how you gain experience and learn the nuances - lots of practice and repetition.

[AmericanxIdiot05]

Yeah It definitely is a lot of practice, I'm thankful my coaches do practices like that as well. I would like to see some pros play, I honestly never have watched any games but it would also be a good way to learn how they field a ball and where they throw given the play. I'm also glad you got fly balls and not pop flys, although both can be challenging, I was tired when writing the question.

[Anonymous]

that really only gets better with more experience. My helpful tip is to remember, it's always better to keep the ball in front or on top of you, than it is to overrun it because then you gotta chase it down and they gonna get extra bases.

[AmericanxIdiot05]

Definitely, the most I struggle with is gaging whether not I am under the ball, my depth perception is terrible haha

[Opinion Owner]

lol i know the feeling. they used to say hold your glove up and if you can't see the ball, then you're glove is under it but I never trusted that cuz i didn't want it to come down and hit me again. haha. So I always held my glove "underhand" to catch it. Helped me a ton with seeing the ball and making sure I was in the right spot

[Twalli]

I was good as an outfielder because I had a strong arm and I had a good eye for the ball in the air. The more you see fly balls the better you can measure the arc of it. So you need to look at the way balls fly off of the bat.

[AmericanxIdiot05]

Thank you very much! And I'm trying, I think it also takes a good positive attitude as wel, you know?

[Twalli]

Attitude can help you believe you can, but it won't help you actually do so. If you watch baseball games you can start to see, based on how hard the ball is hit, where it's going to be. You'll never be 100% accurate, like looking back at David Freese;s legendary triple in Game 6 of the 2011 World Series, it looked like a Home Run off the bat. In most ballparks it actually would have been, but it stayed in the park. So you might get problems with things like that, but in most early games this season I can see a hit in the field and determine if it's an easy out, single, double, or triple as soon as it leaves the bat. I can just tell by knowing the path a ball takes when struck and, barring diving plays or fielding miscues, the result is easy for me to notice.

[AmericanxIdiot05]

I honestly can't wait until I can actually get that good at playing, this is my third year playing of course, but there is also a 3 year gap so thats always fun. That just seems so cool to be able to do that , and of course experience really is a big part of it

[Iron_Man]

I played out field when I was younger if you have the arm strength throw it right into second base to make the play or see if you can throw it into home plate when the opposite team is trying to score. if you don’t you’re gonna have to throw it to the cut off man when receiving a grounded ball

[AmericanxIdiot05]

Yeah, I thankfully do have a good arm to throw to say 3rd from kinda far in center. I just get confused with cuts at times especially when you don't need one, but it is always good to use them to not screw up I suppose. I never have tried to throw it home because I wouldn't want to risk it, you know

[Iron_Man]

Just practice doing it during practice put yourself in a real life Game situation in your head and imagine somebody is running for home and fire the ball to the catcher in see how you do

[Iron_Man]

Good luck

[AmericanxIdiot05]

I will definitely have to try that, thank you!

[Iron_Man]

You’re very welcome