Fear of Ground balls

Question
After being hit two years ago in face, my 11 year now has a slight fear of fielding grounders.  Is it hopeless?  The boy is so athletic & has great skills but takes a hard hit grounder to his left now.  Are his competitive days done?  Any drills to help him overcome this?  He loves the game, but "psychs" himself out.

Thanks

Answer
Dear Erin,

Do not fear.  I have had and overcome this fear with some of the biggest ground ball "chickens" in history.  

This is a natural thing and don't feel bad about it for him. This is something he will have to get over and with some work, he will.

Here is what you do.  Go and buy about 2 dozen cheap tennis balls.  You can also go to the local high school tennis team or tennis center and ask for some old, flat tennis balls.  You want ones that are mushy.  Now you taken your son out into the yard or field or garage, whereever.  You get your bucket of tennis balls, get down on a knee.  He stands in an infielders' stance, without a glove, about 10-15 feet from you, facing you.  Now you start rolling the tennis balls on the ground and he catches them as if he has a glove on in the correct ground ball fielding position.

He doesn't have to actually catch them all.  You want to do this very fast.  Throw them every few seconds at first and then speed up to where you are rolling the next one before he has caught the first one. Go through the whole bucket rolling the balls.

The next round start of rolling then start bouncing them.  Just a little bounce, kind of like a hard grounder.

Next round start out bouncing and go to throwing them at him.  

Next round alternate rolling, bouncing, throwing.  Make him move left to right.  Then add in a real baseball every now and again.  

Everyone I have done this with is cured of the "sidewinders" technique within a few sessions.  He just needs some confidence and assurance that he is not going to get hurt again.  Assure him that baseball is a contact sport.

In one game with our 13 year old select team, I had my catcher get hit with a foul tip, get hit by a thrown ball while running to first, my shortstop spiked on a stolen base attempt, another runner hit in the shoulder by a thrown ball while going into third, and two batters hit by a pitch.  All of them survived!!!   

Baseball can be rough, but you just have to get back on that horse.  We have a great centerfielder who used to be a shortstop but had the same problem.  We used the tennis ball routine on him and helped him about 90%.  However, we decided it better to turn him into an outfielder.  He is great at it and outfield is soooooo important at 13 and up.

Try the drill.  If it doesn't cure him,  teach him to be an outfielder.  His coaches will thank you for that for sure.  A great outfielder is priceless. But I think he will do fine with the tennis ball drill and a little work.

Good luck and God Bless!

Coach Boss