Squeezing the glove

Question
I am coaching and having a hard time getting the kids to squeeze the glove and using 2 hands so the ball doesn't keep popping out.  Can you reccomend any drills for this?

Answer
Sorry for delay--I lost the internet at my workplace...trying to catch up at home.  My short answer to your question is this: I wouldn't teach the kids to "squeeze."  In football or in any catching sport, coaches always talk about having "soft hands."  The softer and more relaxed the hands, the less likely the ball will bounce off the hands.  Good hands are soft hands.  Even if there was no baseball mitt on their hands, their fingers should shape to the ball and make a kind of five-finger basket.  In any sport, it is the hands shaping themselves, and the softness of the hands that really receives the ball and keeps it.

With small kids, the problem is often that their gloves have not been broken in (the leather is too hard and the glove doesn't close!)  I would encourage the kids to think of the ball as an egg that might break if they let it hit their gloves too hard.  You can practice "soft hands" with no gloves too.  They say the Dominican Republic has produced so many great infielders in the Major Leagues because the kids there play without gloves (they develop incredibly "soft hands."  Also, they use TWO hands.)  Anyway, maybe you can come up with some creative drills on your own.  Using the throwing hand, players can practive trapping the ball of the back of their glove.  If they prepare to soften the impact of the ball on the mitt, they will begin to understand that it is their hand that catches baseballs.  The glove just makes your hand bigger and softer!  I hope this helps.

You are on the right track if you can get them to use two hands.  Again, there are drills you can do using NO gloves--with a tennis ball or something.  Usually, when the ball is bouncing out of the glove it is because the kids aren't catching it in the center.  A lot of kids try to get the ball in the webbing, maybe to avoid a sting--that's not the right spot.  The right spot would be right where the bottoms of the first and second finger meet in the glove...if you made a "peace sign," the best place to catch the ball is the bottom of the "V."  That is really the pocket.  In a glove that is soft and well-broken in, when the ball hits that pocket, the glove usually closes around it...no squeeze necessary.  But it is ALWAYS a good idea to cover it with the other hand.  Using two hands also helps players center themselves before the ball gets there (prevents them from reaching out...using two hands helps "you play the ball," as opposed to "the ball plays you."    

Again, I apologize for the delay in responding.  Please write again if this isn't enough help.  Thank you, Brian