Expert: Rick Bundy - 5/18/2009

Question
Hello Rick, my son is left handed. He definitely bats right but he wants to catch and throw with his right hand. He writes left, uses scissors left but catches and throws right. This is so confusing for us. We bought him identical left and right handed gloves and asked him to wear the one that feels the best, and he chose right. He catches the ball and wants to throw it with his glove, then he takes off his glove and throws it. Please help. Thanks.

Answer
Sandra:

You have essentially looked at the right things to determine dominance.  It does sound like he has a tendency to be left handed.

Since you already have both gloves, you might try playing catch righty for a week or two, then switch over and play catch lefty for the same amount of time.

Get him to catch with the glove and throw with the other hand, even if it feels uncomfortable for him.

He is still really young.  Take your time, he will get a feel for what is best for him, or you will notice a higher skill level as you continue to play catch, and can help steer him in the right direction.

You could also take the catching part out of the equation for a while, and just have him throw into a fence, get the ball, come back and do it again.  With numerous throws and no catching to worry about, he may start to develop a preference.

With time it will sort itself out.

Yours in baseball.

Rick