Fielding

Question
My son is 7. he fields the ball pretty good for a kid his age.  He plays first base on his coach pitch team.  Lately I have noticed everytime one of the other infielders throws him the ball it hits him in the palm of the glove instead of the webbing.  I have tried to work with him but I can seem to get past this problem.  Any Ideas on how to get this fixed.  It is really affected his abilty to catch the ball.  He drops about half the balls thrown to him now.

Thanks

Answer
Brian:  Thank you for your question.

You could look at a couple of areas.  The first would be is he looking the ball into his glove?  He may simply be taking his eye off the ball the last few feet or so.

The second would be glove orientation.  Is he getting his glove in the proper position  for balls above his waist, and balls below his waist?  Balls above he needs to have his thumbs together, balls below he needs to have his pinkies together.

By your description, the ball is hitting him in the pocket of his glove, which is what you want.  Using the webbing to catch the ball leads to balls stuck and hard to get out, if there becomes a throw after the catch situation.

Another thing to look at is whether he is giving with the catch, or stabbing at the ball or catching it stiff armed.  Soft hands, absorb the ball eliminate the rebound effect and allow the ball to stick in the pocket.

Below are two links for pages on my website on receiving.  You may find some information there that will help as well:

1. rookie receiving

2. advanced receiving

With the correct hand placement and glove orientation, it becomes a lot of playing catch and developing that feel for what are "soft hands".  He is at an age now that if you can work with him to start moving his feet, to get his body in front of the ball, he will be well on his way.

The habit of standing in one place and reaching for the ball is a hard one to break if they have done that for a number of years.  Playing catch should be an active activity, not a passive one.

Good luck as you go forward.  If you have additional questions, please let me know.  I would be interested in knowing how it is going for you both.  Throwing and receiving are an absolute necessity in the game of baseball.  It is hard to break into that lineup if a player is not competent in both.

Yours in baseball,

Rick