Diamond Drills: Blackhawk coach James Riggio urges ‘concentration’ during end-of-practice workout

By: HSSN Staff
Sunday, May 20, 2018 | 10:27 PM

With the WPIAL championships only a week away in baseball and softball, we wind down our weekly helpful tips by asking you to concentrate on one more Diamond Drill.

We close with another physical drill that is meant to help players strengthen their mental approach to the game.

Baseball and softball find their charm in that both can be very simple in nature. Pitch the ball. Hit the ball. Catch the ball. But for those of us who played the game, we know it is never that easy.

So while we here at the TribLive High School Sports Network are proud to showcase these baseball and softball players each week with plenty of broadcasts and feature articles, there's more we can do. So we have turned to some of the top district coaches to help shed light on ways kids in high school and younger can work on their craft to improve their overall game and abilities.

In this edition of the weekly Diamond Drills, Blackhawk softball coach James Riggio shares a drill that helps his team focus on the field. It helped as the Cougars returned to the playoffs this year with a record of 8-6.

James Riggio explains what he calls “concentration.”

This drill came from current South Fayette Coach Olet Stasko, who was an assistant coach at Blackhawk a few years ago.

The idea is to run the drill at the end of practice when the girls are tired — hence the name concentration.

The drill is pretty simple. You start with a girl at third, a girl standing at second, a girl at first and a catcher. You also have a ball sitting near the pitcher's circle at the start of the drill.

The drill starts by hitting a ground ball to the girl at third, who fields the ball and throws to first. The girl at third then slides to shortstop to field a second ground ball and throws to first. After she fields the second ball, she then runs to the pitcher's circle to grab the ball and throws to girl standing on second. The first baseman throws both caught balls to the catcher after receiving the ball from the fielder. Once the catcher receives the second ball from the first baseman, she proceeds to throw it back to the first baseman who then replaces the ball at the circle.

You run through the entire team, and you count any errors, bad throws, etc., and it becomes a contest.

The team enjoys the drill.

Don Rebel is a TribLIVE High School Sports Network broadcaster and staff writer. Reach him at drebel@tribweb.com.

Tags: Blackhawk