Expert: John Priest - 3/19/2008

Question
My son is 7yrs old. He is playing coach pitch this year after two years of tball.
He is coming along pretty good at hitting so I figure that will come. The problem I'm having is getting him to catch the ball. He is worse this year than in the past. I don't know if that because he has only had three practices this year and we didn't catch any over the winter.
When we play catch or when he is in practice he almost never catches the ball. He back peddles when its tossed to him easily from 10 feet away. The problem is he is scared of the ball and I'm not sure how to help him overcome this. We have tossed a tennis ball some and he does better but now when we play catch he only wants to use the tennis ball because hes scared of the real ball. I'm thinking the tennis ball is working against me now. Do you have any suggestions?

Answer
Tom,
You are in a tough position but don't worry your son is so young and has many years of baseball ahead of him.  His problem could be from not practicing all winter which may have put him back to square one.  Yes, I do believe that the tennis ball is working against you.  You son is comfortable catching the tennis ball and catching the real baseball is not different.  

One thing that may work is getting a safety ball.  You may have seen these balls before.  They have different levels from very soft to almost the feel of a real baseball.  The softest ball is just like a real baseball.  He has a comfort level with the tennis ball, so showing him that the safety ball is just as soft may get his comfort level to change to the new ball.  As he becomes more comfortable to the new ball graduate to the next level.

Also, work on ground balls.  Ground balls will also build his confidence and you can work in some thrown balls.  You can also try throwing a football or basketball with him to get him used to the catching motion.  Make a game out of it and make a bucket of as many different balls as you can find.  

If all else fails you can try getting him a new glove.  This may make him want to use it and it may get him to practice more and want to catch the ball with the new glove.  

Good luck, and let me know if their is anything else I can do to help.

Thank You,
John Priest
Nokona Batman
Nokona Baseball Factory