Defense Wins Championships, and Loses Them Too!

While offense and pitching get all the press it's team defense that wins championships. Simple plays like fielding groundballs, catching flyballs and making good throws are what really make the difference in close ball games. Do you know how to practice these keys and how they fit into the defensive pyramid?

The Defensive Pyramid is designed to show all the defensive skills that players and teams need and the order of importance for each one. The defensive pyramid shows 5 different levels on it with various skills in each level. The lower that each skill is on the pyramid the more important it is to your team's success and the more often that skill should be practiced. Championship teams know this, but do you?

So for instance, you'll see skills like Throwing, Receiving, Fielding Groundballs and Fielding Flyballs in the very bottom level of the pyramid. These are the building blocks for your team's defense. These simple, and yet vital defensive skills should be practiced everyday and should be mastered by all of your players. For more help with drills and teaching methods for these different Vital Defensive Skills check out the following:

• Throwing, Level 1 eSkill
• Fielding, Level 1 eSkill
• Throwing & Fielding Basics, Level 1 SE Coaching Certification Program eClinic
• Fielding eDrills
• Throwing eDrills

Also, you'll notice that each block of the pyramid depends on the strength of the one before it, and should be practiced in relationship to the size of the block. So for instance, throwing and catching are listed in the lowest and largest block and trick plays are listed in the smallest and highest block - so throwing and catching should be practiced more often and before ever attempting trick plays. The reason for this is that all trick plays, which is what everybody likes to do because they're cool, well they all depend on your player's ability to throw and catch successfully. If you can't throw and catch, you won't have any trick plays, it's that simple!

A look at the different sections of the Defensive pyramid below shows the instructional products we offer for each of these skills. Many of these skills are covered within one of the 7 levels of our Coaching Certification Program, and those links are listed below.

Advanced Skills:

• Backing Up
• Covering Bases
• Backhands
• Diving
• 50 Infield Drills
• Outfield Drills

Team Skills:

• Relays
• Cutoffs
• Rundowns
• Double Plays
• Team Drills

Defensive Strategy:

• Bunt Defense
• Slap Defense
• Tie-Breaker Defense
• 1st & 3rd Defense
• Steal & Pickoff Defense

Trick Plays:

• Coming Soon