How to Teach a Tee Ball, Little League or Youth Baseball Player The Proper Technique to Catch a Ground Ball

Baseball, to me, is the greatest sport in the world. Playing baseball and coaching baseball has always been a lot of fun and a pleasure to do. It becomes a lot more fun if you are having success at it. One of the quickest ways to have fun and success is to become proficient in the skills needed to play the game. The skills needed include, catching, throwing and hitting. In this article I will focus on one important aspect of the game, fielding and catching ground balls.

A ground ball, by definition, is a batted baseball that rolls or bounces and stays low to ground. This type of ball can be a difficult ball for an inexperienced player to field. To field this ball properly requires the proper technique which I will detail in this article.

This past season, in additon to coaching a Travel Baseball Team and a 9 and 10 year old Little League Team, I also ran a 4 year old Tee Ball division for my local little league. I will detail how we instructed the players to field a ground ball. I can tell you from experience that after a few practices the players became very comfortable at fielding ground balls.

Things You'll Need

  • Baseball
  • Baseball Mitt/Glove
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Instructions

    • 1

      Catching Ground Balls:
      Step 1:
      Start with the proper stance. You must instruct the player to first get in an athletic stance. This requires the player to open their stance to about shoulder width with their knees slightly bent. I now instruct the players to sit down a little in their stance. I call this "The Fielding Position". I will refer to this again later.

    • 2

      Step 2: Once they are in their "Fielding Positions" I instruct the players to put their gloves down and out. This means that their glove hand is down with the palm facing up. Their throwing hand is over the top of the glove like a clam or alligators mouth. The wrist and bottom of the palms of each hand should be facing each other like a hinge or alligators mouth. The glove should be down and out. Out meaning in front of their body and not under it. The player needs to be able to see the ball go into their glove. One common mistake is the youth player will place the glove in between their legs and not outward. The younger kids like and understand when you refer to it as a clam or alligators mouth. I will refer to this step as "Gloves Down".

      Step 3:
      In this step the player will now have the ball in their glove and ready to secure and throw. In this step it is important to teach the player the proper technique to secure the ball for throwing. This is where their throwing hand comes into play. The now close the alligator's mouth or clam shell over the ball in the glove. This serves several purposes including; securing the ball in the glove, getting a smooth transition from catching the ball to throwing the ball and also keep the ball from getting away in the case of a ball hop.
      I will refer to this step simply as "Catch".

    • 3

      Step 4:
      This is the step where they will actually transition from catching the baseball to throwing the baseball. Once they have the ground ball in their gloves and the top hand over it I now instruct my players to come out of their catching stance, shuffle and step toward their target and throw the ball. I simply refer to this as "Step and Throw".

      Step 5:
      As the players become comfortable catching ground balls directly to them you can have them move left and right to field the balls. Simply instruct them to shuffle in the direction of the ball and follow the steps above.

    • 4

      Reinforcement of skills:
      Before every practice I reinforce the steps above with my tee ball and little league players by having them line up next to each other on the field. I shout out the terms: "Fielding Position" and they all go into their proper fielding positions. Next "Gloves Down" I make sure they have their gloves down and out in proper position. Next I say "Catch" and the players simulate the ball going into their gloves with top hand securing the ball. Lastly I yell "Step and throw" and they all simulate the motions involved with this step.

      I repeat this until I feel that they have it all down. We then line up for fielding practice with live balls.

      Please keep practices fun and exciting for the young players. Check out my other articles for more tips.

      Good Luck!