Line drives come fast. The kid has half a second to react. Slow hands or wrong starting position turns a catch into a black eye. This drill trains the hands to come up fast from the ready position.
What you need: A glove. 5 tennis balls (start with tennis, not baseballs). A partner with a tennis racquet or a throwing arm.
Setup: Kid stands 25 feet away with the glove ready at chest level. You hit or throw firm line drives toward them.
How to run it:
- Cue: Eyes, Hands, Squeeze, Pull. On line drives the whole sequence happens in under a second.
- Throw or hit a firm line drive at chest height. Tennis balls only at first.
- They catch with two hands. The glove pops up to the ball.
- Do 5 to chest, 5 to head height (with hands, not eyes), 5 below the chest.
- Last 3: switch to a real baseball but at half speed. Tennis-ball speed in a real ball.
What to watch: Are they backing up on the catch? Or stepping forward? Stepping forward to a line drive is brave and correct. Backing up means the glove arrives late.
If they’re struggling: Slow the throws down. Or use bigger softer balls (rag balls) so the consequences of a miss are smaller.
If they’ve got it: Throw harder and add hot-shot ground balls into the mix randomly. They have to react to whatever comes.