What is funneling?
Funneling in baseball is the process of taking a routine ground ball that you can field directly in front of you and taking it to the center of your body to initiate ball transfer. Many youth baseball players do not funnel. And many youth baseball coaches do not teach their players how to funnel. Let's change that. Right now.How to funnel
Funneling is as simple as 1-2-3:- Form. Athlete gets in front of the routine ground ball with feet wider than shoulder-width apart, knees bent, chest forward, glove on the ground and throwing hand in the 2:00 clock position (for righties; 10:00 clock position for lefties) just inches away from the glove.
- Find. Immediately after the ball goes in the glove, the throwing hand goes into the glove to find and secure the baseball and pressing the ball into the palm of the glove with the throwing hand to get a firm grip on the ball.
- Funnel. Bring the hand, the ball and the glove—all together—up towards your belly button as quickly as possible.
Why should baseball players funnel the baseball?
Bringing the ball to your belly button (or waist or chest) is known as "bringing the ball to center". This technique allows the fielder to have a uniform action to initiate the transfer of the ball out of the glove in preparation for the throw.One of the reasons for poor throws in youth baseball is that many youth players do not have a consistent starting point from which to start their throws. So if their starting point is always different, is it any wonder why their throws are always different? Bringing the ball to center eliminates varying starting points. With consistent starting points, kids are more likely to make more consistent throws because their throwing motion (whether good or bad) will almost always be consistent from there.
Can funneling be taught incorrectly?
Some youth coaches teach funneling without knowing that the technique is called funneling. But as with anything, this technique can be (and has been) taught incorrectly.Ways to do this wrong:
- Teaching that the throwing hand is directly on top of the glove (aka "gator jaw" or "alligator jaw"). Doing so handcuffs the athlete and makes his hands and arms inflexible. The throwing hand should not be touching the fielding glove.
- Teaching that the throwing hand is directly above the glove (aka, in the 12:00 clock position, while the glove is in the 6:00 clock position). This is an unnatural position for the arms to be in. Again, the throwing hand should be in the 2:00 clock position for righties (10:00 clock position for lefties).
- Not enforcing the importance of the chest being forward. If the player's upper body is upright, he is further from the ball and more likely to mis-read the hops of the grounder. Chest forward allows the player to be lower to the ground and thus see the height and distance of the incoming hops. Youth athletes may be afraid of being closer to the ball because they think the ball is more likely to bounce up and hit them in the face if their chest is forward and their face is closer to the ground. This is why we practice this slow and close (no more than 5 feet away, just rolling them slow baseballs) instead of fast and far (fungoes from home plate): to get them over this fear. Once they develop confidence in the technique and become proficient at it, we can back up five more feet (still rolling slow grounders) and repeat. We repeat this process gradually until we are finally back at home plate with (finally) a bat in our hands—and, depending on the skill of your players, this process may take anywhere from two practices to many weeks.
Ways to do this better:
If you have advanced infielders, challenge them to funnel lightning fast. It's not uncommon for youth players to funnel to center slowly. Elite infielders almost "snap" the ball to center. One drill you can do for this is what I call a "Thump Drill" (adapted from Nate Trosky), where players bring the ball to center so fast that they make a thumping sound with their chest from their glove/ball/hand.Who does funneling?
Every MLB shortstop (including the backups to the starters) funnels on a routine ground ball right at them. (There is one exception, Carlos Correa, who does a more of a forehand technique instead, which is a bit unorthodox for routine ground balls right at you.) Since 98% of MLB shortstops—who are the very best in the world—funnel, we should teach our kids to funnel as well. Below are slow motion videos I've made of all MLB shortstops (except Correa) so you can see the 1-2-3 steps in action for all of them:- Angels, Zach Neto
- Astros, Jeremy Pena
- A's, Nick Allen
- Blue Jays, Bo Bichette
- Braves, Orlando Arcia
- Brewers, Willy Adames
- Cardinals, Paul DeJong
- Cubs, Dansby Swanson
- D-backs, Geraldo Perdomo
- Dodgers, Miguel Rojas
- Giants, Brandon Crawford
- Guardians, Amed Rosario
- Mariners, JP Crawford
- Marlins, Joey Wendle
- Mets, Francisco Lindor
- Nationals, CJ Abrams
- Orioles, Gunnar Henderson
- Padres, Xander Bogaerts
- Phillies, Trea Turner
- Pirates, Oneil Cruz
- Rangers, Corey Seager
- Rays, Taylor Walls
- Reds, Elly De La Cruz
- Red Sox, Yu Chang
- Rockies, Ezequiel Tovar
- Royals, Bobby Witt Jr
- Tigers, Javier Baez
- White Sox, Tim Anderson
- Yankees, Anthony Volpe