Glove-Side Short Hops
Ages 8 and up · A partner throwing from 15-20 feet with a bucket of balls (soft training balls first), fielder in a wide stance
Short hops decide softball infield play even more than baseball's, because the big ball's bounces off dirt are heavy and the sixty-foot clock leaves no time to play everything safe: the pick that keeps the ball in front and moving into a throw is the difference between outs and infield singles, daily. The good news is the same as everywhere: the short hop is the most practiceable hop in the game.
Served deliberately from close range with soft training balls first, short hops turn from the scariest bounce into a collected trophy: glove firm and forward, taken just after the bounce, fifteen picks a day. Two weeks changes an infielder visibly.
How to run it
- Fielding stance: wide base, glove low and OUT FRONT, fingers down, bare hand riding beside it.
- The partner fires one-hoppers landing a glove's length in front of the glove: the true short hop. Announced first, then not.
- The pick: glove works FORWARD through the hop, firm not stabby, smothering the ball just after the bounce, chest staying down over it.
- Ten straight on, five forehand-side, five backhand (glove turned over, ball taken off the outside foot, staying low).
- Finish softball-style: pick-and-throw rounds against a counted runner (the partner counts "one-one-thousand..."), pick, gather, throw a target before the count lands. Log clean picks out of twenty.
What to say
Common faults and fixes
The glove pulling back as the ball bounces (hops off the wrist and chest).
Softer balls and the forward-through-it image until courage rebuilds, then firmness returns. It is one reversible habit, and the soft-ball rounds exist exactly for it.
Rising out of the stance rep by rep.
Grade the chest-over-glove position through the pick. Short sets held low beat long sets standing tall.
The server bouncing balls too far out (ordinary grounders).
Aim at the spot a glove-length in front, firm. Serving the actual short hop is the partner's entire job; the drill trains one specific bounce.
Make it easier, make it harder
Soft training balls, announced sides, gentler serves, celebration per pick.
Real softballs on decent ground; unannounced sides at pace; backhand-only rounds; picks from a knee isolating the glove; the rapid-fire round racing the clean count.
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