Baseball Fielding Training for South Riding, VA Players

In South Riding, ground balls have always required a drive

The South Riding HOA has pools, tot lots, tennis courts and miles of trails. It has no baseball or softball diamonds. Families here have always left the neighborhood to play, so nobody here blinks at getting in the car for a practice.

Where they drive changed recently. Lions Field on Route 50 in Aldie was the league's longtime home, with a left field wall families still call the Green Monster. It sold in December 2022 and the league played one last season there in 2023. Hanson Regional Park had opened in 2022 with four diamond fields, and it absorbed much of what Lions used to hold, along with Byrne's Ridge, Tillett and Brambleton Park.

The practical result is that field time here is scheduled, shared and finite. A South Riding infielder gets their defensive reps in a window somebody else booked, usually with a dozen teammates waiting behind them. That is fine for playing. It is a poor way to fix footwork.

What we work on

Defense is footwork before it is hands. Most throwing errors are decided two steps before the throw.

We build it in order. First step and read off the bat, so they are moving on contact rather than after it. Approach angle, so they arrive at the ball in position to throw instead of position to catch. Backhand work and glove-side range, which is where a middle infielder actually earns extra outs. Then the throw: transfer, feet, and the fact that baseball asks for long throws from awkward positions. The ball from deep in the hole, the throw on the move, the double play feed, and the outfielder's throw that has to reach a cutoff man on a line.

Position work is separate by position, because a third baseman, a center fielder and a catcher are not doing the same job. Coach Raul Rodriguez handles position-specific training and game awareness. Alonso Ruz Vera, owner and head coach, played four years of college baseball and holds a master's in exercise science, which shapes the movement work underneath the skill.

Sessions are one hour, coach-led, one athlete at a time. Parents are welcome to watch. Full detail is on our baseball fielding training program page.

The drive from South Riding

BTD trains athletes from South Riding at our facility on Robertson Drive in Manassas, roughly 20 to 30 minutes, Route 50 east to Route 28 south, or Braddock Road and Pleasant Valley Road south to Route 28. One facility, in Manassas. There is no BTD site in South Riding or Aldie. See baseball and softball training for South Riding families.

South Riding baseball fielding FAQ

Between Hanson Park and school fields, why pay for indoor reps?

Hanson Regional Park is a good complex and there is no shortage of places to play. What is short is individual attention. In a team practice a kid might see 15 ground balls, most hit right at them. Here they get an hour of reps aimed at the thing they cannot do yet, with a coach correcting each one.

They are trying out for the Loudoun South Eagles. What should we work on?

Range and the throw, in that order. The Eagles run 8U through 14U and came out of the same program that reached Williamsport in 2019, so the tryout pool is not soft. Coaches notice who gets to a ball in the hole and still makes an accurate throw. That is a footwork answer.

Do you train outfielders and catchers, or just infielders?

All of them. Outfield work is routes, first step on a ball over their head, and playing through the ball into a throw. Catching is its own set of demands and gets treated that way.

They rush everything and throw it away. Is that mental?

Sometimes, but usually they arrived at the ball badly and had no time left. Fix the approach and the rush disappears. We would rather buy them half a second with their feet than tell a 12-year-old to relax.