If you have watched enough baseball games I’m sure you have witnessed or seen on TV at least one ugly collision between an infielder going back for a fly ball and an outfielder coming in on it. It probably looked something like this …
No matter what you do, collisions are going to happen between teammates aggressively going after balls. However, there is a rule players can play by to significantly decrease the severity of the contact. The rule is …
The infielder goes high and the outfielder goes low
If an outfielder charges in towards a ball, he can see both the ball and the infielder going back for it. The infielder can only see the ball. Therefore, the infielder should be taught to go after the ball high like this …
The outfielder should be taught to go after the ball low like this …
Put them together and this is the result …
If a collision occurs when an infielder is high and an outfielder is low then often the worst that happens is that the infielder’s legs get taken out from under him. That result is much better and a lot less dangerous than two heads colliding.
As I said, you will never eliminate all collisions but if players are taught the high-low method, a lot less damage can be the result.
Note: Another tip is the audio AND visual rule shown in this post HERE.
