How to Play Softball: Cuts & Relays

Learn how to receive off-target throws, take short hops, drop, slide and make the tag in your tee ball games.

Video Transcription

Cuts and relays. The purpose of this is for the catchers to learn not only how to receive the throws that are not right at their chest, how to go up and take the shot hops, but how to drop, slide, and make the tag. How to communicate to their middle infielder in moving them left and right to get them in line. Yelling where the destination or where the throw needs to go, which in this case is four. Those are the things that the catcher is trying to practice here. See how she collapsed her back leg as she did the slide. With rules that exist in softball the catcher is no longer allowed to block home before the ball arrives. So even more imperative that as she sets up here slightly ahead of the home plate, maybe three to six feet and then off line a few, so that she is going to have to drop, slide over to make the tag to avoid an obstruction call. Nice job, now one of the reasons that we have our catcher align out here somewhere round the top of the batter's box is so that if the ball is a little short instead of having the fielder short hop, she can take a step out to catch the ball on-the-fly. If it's a little high, she can retreat a step or two to catch the ball instead of having it go over her head. It allows her some room for air on the throws that might be coming in. Nice job. Good, nice job. See how she retreated to take that bounce in a better position. Now another variation; on this particular one, we are using left field and the short stop. Other variations, you can do the same thing from centerfield and rightfield, so that the catcher can have practice receiving balls from each direction. Repetitions for this drill, it is probably good for the catcher to receive from each field. Nice throw Chris.