Reading the Hop - Derek Jeter

Reading the hop is an important baseball skill for every infielder's game.  In this baseball drill, Derek Jeter explains the value of understanding when to let the baseball bounce and when to move up and grab it.

Transcription:

Derek: I'll give you a drill you can do for you and a friend, all right? Give me one person. One volunteer. When you're catching a ground ball, you gotta be able to, you have to know when, where the ball's gonna bounce, and whether you're going to catch it back or you're gonna go get it. So, what you're gonna do is, you're gonna have you and a friend, get in the ready position, and I'm gonna throw you some ground balls. Stay down. Read the hop. You gotta stay down and come up. All right, now we'll go to the next one. There you go. The only thing I would tell you, remember because you're tall, get your butt down. See when I was younger, you wouldn't have anyone to play with, you'd throw it against the house.

The more ground balls you take, the better you're gonna get. You'll be able to read the hops so you'll know if it bounces out there that you catch it back, all right? If it bounces closer, you gotta go get it. All that comes from practice. You just keep doing it. All right? Got it? You want some? Come on.

Uh oh! Make sure, remember now, make sure you start with your glove low then if it bounces up, you can come up. All right? Ready? You don't have to put it on the ground. Get Ready. There you go. Atta boy. Now you got it. See? You got it now? Atta boy. There you go. Alright, you got it!

Come on buddy, ready? Get your butt down a little bit. You don't want to spread out that wide, stay how you were. Go wide, how you just were. Watch this, you're gonna fall over, right? Make sure you're in a strong position. There you go. Now, don't put it on the ground yet. Ready? Atta boy. There you go, you got it. Now, just remember about your feet. You don't wanna get too wide. Because then, if you get too wide, what happens?

Boy: You fall down? 

Derek: Push you over. You got it, see now you can just have you and a friend, and the more you do it, the better you'll get.