There’s always a little tyke who’s first playing the game. You, the dad, looking at your son holding his first glove in his tiny hand. You lightly toss the ball and say “Catch it!” We’ve all been there or seen it.
That message doesn’t change even as the kids get older. During my time as a High School coach, there were plenty of times that I had to try and work on how kids catch the ball. The concept is the same, but the methods get a little more sophisticated. Where your glove is, how close it is, and where your hand rests during the catch-all definitely change as you the ballplayer gets older.
We’ll go through a few positions and see what some of the differences are.
Outfield – Before a Throw: The biggest improvement any outfielder can make is to “stay behind the ball” see the picture below to see what that looks like in terms of catching and throwing the ball.
Note: Moving forward as you catch the ball can dramatically increase your chance to throw out the runner it’s critical to keep your weight behind the ball, and to move forward as you catch the ball. This allows you to easily follow your throw after you catch the ball.
Infield – Turning a Double Play from either a second baseman or a shortstop, it’s incredibly important to catch the ball with two hands. This decreases the distance that your throwing arm has to travel the throwing position. See the picture below and notice how close Altuve’s hands are. This quickens his release to first, and therefore increases the amount of double plays he turns with the Astros
- TAGS
- Catching the ball
- Coaches Corner
Tweets by RealTheUnderdog
| Who Gets Blamed in Cleveland? Subscribe on iTunes October 16, 2017 |
| BLITZcast #371 Subscribe on iTunes September 21, 2017 |
|
