The purpose of the Shallow Fly Balls drill is to make players work on their tagging and coming off the 3rd base on shallow fly balls.
The equipment needed are basic items such baseballs, fungo and batting helmets for the players.
The setup involves having a catcher, 2 shortstops, 2 third basemen, and 2 left fielders. As for the rest of the team, they should have helmets on.
The execution of this drill begins with having a line of runners positioned at third base. They have to hit the soft line drive and fly balls into the left shallow field. The runner placed at 3rd base should move back to tag as he is able to identify the fly ball of the bat. He should then try and determine whether the fly ball will either be caught or whether the player should stay on the base or move down the line and come off.
The next step that the coach will take in this drill is have the next fielders as well as runners ready to jump in after each play in order to keep the drill moving along.
A good coaching note for shallow fly balls drill is that it is one of the most difficult base running situations that players have to face, so the coach should try and not to stop the drill each and every time and critique each decision the player makes during the game. The more experience the players get through the reps the base runners get, the more they will get the idea of the drill.
This drill further gives infielders and outfielders a very good opportunity to work on calling for a fly ball and also being called off by another player.
