Baseball Fielding: Catching Drill for Young Players - Video Transcript

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Coach Duke Baxter: A lot of times, the last discipline to be mastered as a ball player is catching the ball. A lot of times, we want to go right into the hard ball when we're dealing with younger ball players. We don't have to do that. We can use Wiffle balls, or tennis balls – any type of pliable ball, that's what we can use to catch with.

So, what we're going to do is, this drill, I'm not even going to use a glove. I'm going to put my gloves down, I'm going to hold my hands out. What coach is going to do is toss the ball side to side. What it's going to make me do is move my feet and catch the ball.

You’ll notice how every time I catch the ball, I'm going to use two hands. How many times have you seen a younger ball player catch a Wiffle ball one-handed? You don't see it. Why? Because they know they're not going to get hurt, and it reinforces the proper catching mechanics.

So, that way when they do have the glove on, and they are catching the ball, it's going to reinforce the proper mechanics without the fear of getting hit by the ball. So, you can make a lot of fun out of this drill. You can move them side-to-side, you can make them run, you can make them dive, and you can never get too much catching.