Short-Hop Drill
Ages 8 and up · A partner with a bucket of balls (soft training balls first) throwing from 15-20 feet, fielder in a fielding stance
The short hop (the ball that bounces just before the glove) is the hop every young infielder fears and every good one owns, because it turns out to be the most PRACTICEABLE hop in baseball: served deliberately from close range, it can be repped by the dozen until the pick becomes a trophy instead of a terror.
The drill is simplicity itself: firm throws into the ground a glove's length in front of the fielder, picked with a firm glove that works forward through the hop. Soft training balls make the first sessions fearless; the technique transfers to real balls whole. Fifteen picks a day for two weeks visibly changes an infielder.
How to run it
- The fielder sets a wide fielding base, glove out front and LOW, fingers down, bare hand riding beside it.
- The partner throws firm one-hoppers that land a glove's length in front of the glove (the true short hop). Announce the first few; then unannounced.
- The pick: the glove works FORWARD through the hop, smothering it just after the bounce, firm not stabby, body staying down through the catch.
- Ten straight-on picks, then five to the forehand side, five to the backhand (glove turned over, taken off the outside foot).
- Finish with a pick-and-throw round: pick, feet gather, throw to a target. Log clean picks out of twenty and race it.
What to say
Common faults and fixes
The glove retreating (pulling back as the ball bounces, taking the hop off the heel or chest).
The forward-through-the-hop image plus softer balls until courage returns. Retreating gloves get eaten; advancing gloves eat the hop. It is one habit, reversible in a session.
Standing up out of the stance as the throw comes.
Grade the chest: it stays over the glove through the pick. Height is where in-between hops live; lowness is the pick's home.
Serves bouncing too far out (regular grounders, not short hops).
The server aims at a spot a glove's length in front, firm. The drill trains ONE specific hop; serving it accurately is the partner's whole job.
Make it easier, make it harder
Soft training balls, announced sides, slower serves, shorter sets with celebration per pick.
Real balls on good ground; unannounced sides at pace; picks from a knee (isolating the glove); backhand-only rounds; or the rapid-fire round (serve every two seconds, ten picks, racing the clean count).
This page teaches the drill. ParentEdge builds it into a plan for your kid.
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