What's up guys? Coach Madden, YouGoProBaseball.com and we're here again with Matt Antonelli, Major League Middle Infielder for the Padres Organization. We played together in the Padres Organization and he's got a YouTube Channel as well, Antonelli Baseball. I'll leave his link down in the description. Go check it out, there's a lot of good stuff over there. But today he's going to show us an infield drill. Sure. What do you got? So, we're going to talk about our hands routine that we do. We do this every single day. This is the first thing that we do and the way I tell guys whether it's playing catch, a lot of players when they play catch, they just think "oh let's go get loose", and that's a time to get a lot of really quality reps in. It's the same thing with these hands routine. So sometimes you'll see guys get into these routines and it's like "oh I just have to get my hands loose" and they just do whatever. If you do it, if you take this drill and you work on the 4 or 5 things we talk about, you can then translate that to the game, you will no doubt become a better fielder. But if you just go through it, it's not so much the drill, it's what are we doing in the drill that makes us a better infielder. So it's really really key to think about that. So we do these everyday. It's the first thing we do before we go to any type of rolled ground balls or fungo ground balls. We always start with this. So, we start on our knees. I'll explain it real quick and then we can demonstrate a couple. This actually works out perfect. If you're outside and you can put your knees on the grass and field off the dirt, what it's going to do, if you set up about 6 inches or so behind, it's going to force you to get your hands out in front. So really good if you're inside and you don't have this grass dirt, you can put a line. If you can find a line, you want to be behind the line and make sure you're fielding in front of the line. Alright, so the first thing is we go on our knees and we do it three different ways. We go bare hand. So the bare hand idea is we want to try to field the ball in the same point every time. So I tell the guys I want to field it off of your index finger, right here. So if I can get the ball to be fielded here consistently over and over again, then I'm going to be able to control the ball, get the ball into my bare hand much more consistently. Where you see a lot of players struggle is one ball they field here, one ball is over here, and then one ball is over here, and now the ball jiggles around and I'm trying to transfer it and once I can't get the transfer, now I start to rush, I start to panic, and I start throwing balls all over the place. So, we start bare hand to work on that and then we go to a flat glove and the flat glove is just working on that exchange from glove to bare hand and any ball we field in the frame work of our body, we're never going to close the glove. So the flat glove is kind of cool to be able to just work on that deflection and then we'll finally put the glove on and field. Alright, so, what we're going to do is you partner up. If you want to jump out there, we'll show real quick and then we'll talk about some things. So the first one we do is, you're going to have both balls and again, let's go bare hand for this at first. So all your partner is going to do is roll the ball to you and you're going to be set up just like this. There's a couple of things we talk about is having our chest over so that we can get our hands out front. I want to be able to see the ball and my hands at the same time and at all times. I want to have my hands out front. Not so much extended that I feel like I get stiff here. I want to be extended with a slight bend in my arm so now I can have nice, soft, quick hands. So all your partner is going to do, move in just a little little bit, right there. So he's just going to roll you a ball. Very simple. We start out with balls right on the ground. So I'm in position here, he rolls the ball, I'm going to field the ball. When I field the ball, I'm going to bring the ball right to the middle of my body. So right to the star on my shirt. Whatever the player has right here. We tell them bring it right to your logo. As I'm bringing the ball here, my elbows are going to start to turn out a little bit so that I can get the ball into a good position to break. So I bring the ball here and then all I'm going to do is dart throw it back to him and he's going to roll the next ball. So we just boom, back, and just over and over again. So all I'm working on right here is good glove positioning, good posture, chest over here, hands out front, I can see the ball and the glove or my hand at the same time, again I'm working getting it off my index finger, I'm working on having soft hands and bringing it to the same point every single time and then I'm just giving it back. So we can get in a hundred reps of these in literally a minute, maybe a little bit more. So we start with that and then we go flat, then we go real glove and as you get better at it, you can get the tempo going to where it's literally balls are going real fast but I'm always making sure I'm making the mechanical parts of the drill always remain the same. Don't just get out here and just start doing this because now I'm not working on anything. So we start with that, we go bare hand, flat glove, regular glove, once we do that, usually we'll have the player stand up and now once we get up we can work on the same type of thing but now we've got the whole body incorporated. So, we're going to start again rolling regular ground balls and now what I'm thinking about doing is, I spread my feet a little bit wider, I'm going to have my chest over, I'm going to have my hands out, my glove positioning now let's just say we have the glove on, I'm going to have my hand just off center. So instead of being here, 6 and 12, I'm just off center at a little bit. That frees my hands up to be nice and quick. If I'm too much like this and I go to receive the ball here, I get stiff, my elbows kind of hit me in the stomach, and I can't be really quick getting the ball to the middle so I can transfer it out. So we do the same exact thing but now what we do is we get our feet into position to throw. So if you go ahead and roll me one right here, I'm going to be down here. So, I field the ball, I'm going to bring the ball to the middle of my body, and now once I do that, I'm just going to replace my feet. So I'm going to take my right foot to my left foot and my left foot to my target and I'm going to break my hands thumb down and then once I do that I just flip it back, I get back down again, I get into position, I bring the ball here, go. Throw this one a little bit quicker. So that's all I'm doing is I'm just working now, I worked on all the fundamentals here and now I'm putting my feet into it, I'm working on transfers, I'm working on footwork, gaining distance towards my target and direction. Again, I don't want to cross over and I don't want to step behind. If I just take my right to my left and my left to my target, I'm on target. My shoulder is locked on, everything I want to do in the game is happening right now. Alright, so, we'll do that where we're standing up, we'll go backhands and forehands also. So that footwork, no matter the ball, can I borrow a ball real quick, no matter the ball, if I field here, so if I'm going to go forehand work, all I'm going to do, after I field there is just pivot my feet, play down low extended, I'm going to be just outside of my left foot and now when I received that ball I'm going to do the same thing. So I'm going to take right to left, left to target. If I'm working on backhand, I can go right foot in front or left foot, you've got to be able to field with both. If I'm here, I'm going to field the ball and I can just go right to my target, or if I'm here, I go right to left. So I'm working on all different plays. Whether it's in the middle of my body, extended forehand, extended backhand. Once I go forehand/backhand it's a one handed play. Anything in the middle of my body it's a two handed play. And the only other thing we'll do is and you can kind of see it there, when you're outside you just roll it and you're going to get different hops. If you're inside, you can work on a couple rolled, you can work on a couple of bounced where it's a short hop, right, and so, if that ball is going to bounce what we are trying to do is always field the ball either on the short hop or on a long hop. So a long hop is a ball that bounces way out there and just goes in my glove. The short hop is the ball that is going to bounce right here boom and right in my glove. The in between hop is that ball that is going to bounce kind of in between those two spots and kind of eat me up. So when I'm here and I'm working on anything, you're going to give some rolls that go right in my glove, some long hops, some short hops, and then a couple that are going to be in between and they're hard to kind of get it but if you do enough reps out here you'll get them and those are the ones that I'm just going to, I call it pinching through the ball a little bit, so I'm just going to pinch the the short hop, right here. I'm going to try to create, if the ball is going to hit there, I don't want to sit back here and get caught in between. I'm going to try to work through it. I'm going to shorten the hop that way, this way, or even two hand, that way. You know, hearing you talk now, one of the videos that I love on your channel the most and it's an old one, and I've probably showed it to 200 different players of mine, is I forget the exact title name but it's about creating space when you're fielding the ball. I forget who it was. LSU shortstop. Was it Bregman? It might have been Bregman, I can't remember but I know. So it was talking about that in between ball and either coming through it or creating space because we don't necessarily we always hear coaches say charge the ball, get through the ball, blah blah blah, but this was a great video. Can you elaborate on that a little bit? Yeh, yeh, so, as an infielder my job is to dictate the hop. What a lot of guys do is the ball is hit, they just get ready to field it, if it's a good hop they field it and throw him out. If it's an in between hop instead of a long hop or a short hop, they take it off the chest and go "ah this field stinks, somebody rake the field". As an infielder I have to dictate the hop. So I'm moving my feet. So the ball is being hit and I'm attacking the ball but as I'm attacking it I'm figuring out "ok here comes the ball" I'm reading the hops. Do I need to step up to get the short hop or the long hop, do I have to back up, do I have to slow down, do I have to speed up? And so a lot of times, you know here comes the ball, I may have to, if the ball is going to hit there, I go "oh man I'm going to get an in between hop here" well then I better step up and get that and create a short hop or especially in the corner positions but sometimes in the middle, but especially at third base, all of a sudden the ball is hit really hard and you're like "oh man that ball is going to be an in between hop" instead of just becoming a goalie, right, a lot of times at youth levels they'll praise that. Like the guy will go like this and bwaahhh the ball hits him and the guy gets a hit on it and they'll go "way to get in front of it". Well all you had to do was you see the ball being hit and if you just drop step and create space and now turn that in between hop into a long hop, boom now I've got it and I throw him out. Instead of being a goalie and saying great job, we just say "hey, use your feet, try to create the hop". Now you can't always do it and it's a tough play but if you get enough reads, when I'm hitting fungos I'm not just trying to hit nice easy ground balls. I'm trying to hit some top spin, I'm trying to hit as much as I can create different hops so that they've got to read it. Back up, come forward, you know create the hop. So, Antonelli when he was explaining coming through the ball he's giving you a thought process that he was going through and it doesn't really, you're not really thinking about it in a game that way, you're not really like should I come through it, should I step back, it's more instinctual at that point, right? Yeh. Is there any way you can practice that? Yeh, so it's all done in practice. That's why I was saying earlier you've got to practice every single ball you can get. A lot of times practice is kind of unrealistic because it's like "ok we're going to hit 10 balls at you" we field the balls "10 balls to our left, 10 balls to our right". I like to try to make practice a little bit more unpredictable where you can do that to work on some of the footwork and stuff but at some point you want to just get up there, I'll have somebody just toss me the ball and I'm going to just start hitting balls at guys and now they're able to start to see different hops and that's what they work on. "Do I step up, do I back up?". Practice is where it is done. So one way you can do it is you read the hops by counting them. So if I'm an infielder, the ball is hit, and as I'm approaching it I'm counting the hops. 1, 2, 3 and I catch it on the third hop. When I do that I start to get in tune with the ball bouncing. A lot of players, especially young players, probably don't even realize that they're supposed to be, they see the ball but they're not really in tune with the hops. They're not really trying to pick out different hops. So when you start telling guys "ok count the hops" and they go "1, 2, oh I see the hops now" now I'm starting to get in tune with it. Then you can do a drill where after counting the hops you say "ok we're going to catch this ball on every third hop or every fourth hop". So now the ball is hit and they go "ok I've got to catch it on the fourth so 1, 2, 3, 4", and they start moving their to create long hops, short hops, all that stuff and so that's a way to force them to say no you can't catch it on the second hop on the short hop, you've got to create a longer hop or whatever. So you just mix it up, have them count the hops, tell them which hop to catch it on, and then just get tons and tons of reps. The best infielders are the guys, there's a reason why infielders are great, they take thousands and thousands and thousands of reps. The only way to kind of build that clock and build, again you said instinctual, without thinking about it in a game, the game is like autopilot but you'll never get to autopilot if you don't practice it. If you just think you're going to go in the game and be like "oh I'm not going to think about any of this stuff" you're wrong. You're going to think about it if you've never practiced it but if you practice it a lot, thousands and thousands of reps, you go in the game and you just let your instincts play. Just play the game. Play on autopilot and it will happen. I'm sure you've heard that it takes 10,000 hours at something to master a skill and I'm sure that you've put in far more than 10,000 hours at baseball and that's why you made it to the Major Leagues, one of the things, obviously you had the a lot of talent, a lot of athleticism, but one of the things was that he was a very hard worker even when we played together in the Minor Leagues, taking those ground balls. You've got to put in the work if you want to see some results. Sure. Those were some great tips! Thank you sir. Don't forget to check out Matt's YouTube Channel. He's got a ton more videos over there with some great stuff, hitting stuff, fielding stuff, all kinds of stuff and I'll leave his link down below. Make sure to go check that out. Check out some of the other videos we made and also subscribe to both channels. Thanks guys. Talk to you soon.