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June 26, 2005 |
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| SOFTBALL LINKS |
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Play Catch! Please!!
by Dave
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
You would think that anyone who wants to have their child play sports would automatically know what to do to get them at least started. That's not always the case. I coached a ten and under rec team recently and many of the girls obviously had nobody to play catch with. Not only that, many of the parents do not even know how to play catch with their kids. I had to go away on business and the manager of my girls' team had another father warm up my daughter before she pitched an inning. The result? She ended up with a broken thumb because he threw the ball back to her far too hard. Can you imagine throwing a ball back to a just nine year old hard enough to break her thumb? I have played catch with my daughter maybe 400 times. I have thrown the ball to her more than ten thousand times without breaking her thumb. And this father's kid can neither catch a tossed ball nor throw more than 20 feet. Obviously nobody has ever played catch with her.
Before you even get your daughter involved with softball, make a commitment to play catch with her for at least 15 minutes each week. More is better but at least once a week for 15 minutes will give her a chance to really enjoy the game. I have been astounded by how quickly my girls improved just by having a regular, quick game of catch.
Obviously you are going to want to go out and purchase a glove for your daughter and perhaps you'll need one too but you do not need to have a mitt before you start playing catch. Standing just a few feet apart (5-10) and lightly tossing an appropriate sized ball back and forth with bare hands will teach you daughter to catch very quickly. An 11 inch regular softball is typical but many leagues use a smaller, soft ball which is actually a little bouncy. It is best to get the ball which your child will ultimately be using when she is on a team.
Once you begin playing catch, you will probably find that both you and your daughter get bored with simply throwing the ball back and forth with bare hands from 5 - 10 feet. Another way of catching is to roll the ball to your daughter and have her catch it in the same manner she would with a mitt. If you think she is going to throw right handed, have her field the rolled ball with her left hand while covering it with her right. It is best to emphasize two handed catching right from the very first moment.
A few days after you begin catching, you will probably want to introduce your child to a mitt. That's fine. But make sure the mitt is small enough for her to easily handle it. If it has been a long time since you picked up a softball glove, pick one up and see just how heavy it is. Now consider that your child is very young and not very strong. If you put 3 pounds of awkward sized glove on her hand, you are asking her to lift something very heavy while also trying to learn hand-eye coordination. That is a bad idea. Your child must be able to swing her gloved hand almost as freely as she can her bare hand.
Now that you've begun to play catch and your daughter is acclimated to wearing and using a glove. The best way to improve her skills while not boring her is to do a bunch of purposeful drills without letting her know that is what you are doing. You can throw the ball to her in the air but do not push things. Stay at 10 feet until she is really comfortable and then move it to 15 feet and so on. Rolling the ball to her is nearly as valuable as throwing it in the air and you will be able to begin teaching proper body position as well as throwing technique fairly quickly. Roll the ball right to her while she is standing, feet just wider than shoulder length apart with (assuming she is right-handed) her right foot slightly back from her left, butt down, head up, fielding hand on or near the ground, and throwing hand up near her face. This is frequently referred to as the "alligator method" because your child resembles an alligator gobbling up the ball. Make sure that you do everything you are telling your child to do. If she rolls the ball to you, get it with good alligator-like form. Your child picks up how to play more from what you actually do than from what you tell her to do.
Now try rolling the ball to one side of your child and have her do a little crossover step while retrieving it. You should have her do the steps first and then you roll the ball to where she ends up after a crossover step or two. Show her a crossover step and then pretend you are a mirror doing the step at the same time she does. You can even pretend that what you are doing is a dance step. That will make it more fun. Do this to each side so she gains some practice at moving for the ball.
Once your daughter has is comfortable with regular catch, ground balls straight at her, and crossover stepping, another important skill to teach is the notion of going for the ball. While standing in an athletic position - feet apart, one back of the other, butt down, head up - have her take two steps towards you and then squat down, placing her catching hand near the ground and the other near her face in the alligator position. As soon as she finishes, roll her the ball. You can do this with any number of variations using the crossover step or taking two or four steps forward. The important thing to teach is movement for retrieving the ball while holding a good athletic position.
You will notice that we have not discussed throwing at all. That is perhaps more important than catching but one I would like to give a little more time to. Check back for advice on teaching throwing and remember, if you do not play catch with your daughter, who is going to? Commit just a few minutes of time each week and your child's game will improve. You may find that you look forward to your games of catch more than she does.
 
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