Blocking Position

• Glove on the ground and tucked back toward your crotch, filling the gap formed between your legs.

• Arms are bent and make a shape that looks like home plate.

• Both knees are on the ground and wide.

• Knees should be outside your shoulders but not too wide.

• Hips are down and back.

• Shoulders rolled forward to create an angle down towards the plate.

• Head is tilted down to keep your eyes on the ball and to protect your neck.

Blocking Technique

• The goal is block the ball with your belly button and keep the ball close.

• Lead with your glove. With straight arms, get the glove behind the ball and on ground with your bare hand behind it. 

• Bend your arms as your body catches up to your glove.

• For the pitch in the dirt right in front of you, get your knees going down and forward to the ball with your butt coming down to your heels. 

• For pitches left and right of the plate, push with your outside leg, get the outside knee down, and slide over to the ball on your shin guard as you bring the other knee down. Get around the ball with your body to block it back towards the plate.

• After the block, get to your feet quickly. Keep your chest forward and down, and grab the ball with your bare hand.

Receive or Block?

• Think receive first, block second. It will help you keep your weight back and you need to lead with your glove anyways to block.

• Through experience, figure out the dividing line between block or catch. The line will change for different pitch types. All balls will start above the line, but the ones that stay above the line are received and the ones that drop below the line are blocked.

Blocking Drill Progressions