I want to be able to play catch with my grandson, 9 years old and in “kids pitch” Little League. He’s very into this and I see the best opportunity yet to use some activity to connect with him. But I have almost no skills in this sort of thing and want some advice if you don’t mind!
I don’t want to try swinging a bat or running. I have significant spinal stuff and it wouldn’t work. But throwing and catching a ball on a third grade level, I think I could probably handle.
I should buy some baseballs to have at our house. Are they all the same except for how nice and expensive they are, or do they come in different sizes or hardnesses or something? The cheapest name-brand balls from a real sporting goods store would be fine, right?
I want to buy myself a glove. That will help me miss fewer of his throws, right? Are there larger sizes that cover more area and require less skill? I don’t want to do anything else like run around with it or tag people with it. If I just get the cheapest name-brand sporting store version that will be fine, right?
Is there someplace I can read how to throw the ball, to have better aim and be able to throw some range of horizontally versus vertically?
He chews gum on the field (mom tells me it’s not tobacco) and is learning to spit, so he seems to be doing great. He even earned the game ball on Thursday for his right field involvement in a play.
My advice would be to find someone you know who is experienced playing the game and have them walk you through the basics of throwing and catching. Being hit in the face my a thrown baseball, even by a 9 year old, can knock out a tooth so you need to feel comfortable with a mitt.
The size of a mitt depends to some degree on the position you play, for example a catcher’s mitt is much larger than an out fielders mitt, but it’s harder for a beginner to use a catcher’s mitt to catch a baseball. A standard infielder’s or outfielder’s mitt would be a good place to start.
Baseballs are all pretty much the same (softballs are much larger and easier to catch and rubber coated hard balls are smaller), and the price shouldn’t vary all that much so get the cheapest ones you can find.
If you don’t know anyone who can help you go to your local sporting goods store and tell them you are a novice and ask for help. I’m sure someone can help you pick out appropriate equipment, and they may even help you with throwing and catching technique. It’s not rocket surgery, but bad technique can lead to injury so you need to learn the right way to throw a baseball so it goes where you want it to go and you don’t hurt someone else.
When I was a kid my parents bought me a ‘pitch back’ device that was a large webbed thing that you could throw the ball against and it would bounce back to you, so you could practice throwing and catching for hours at a time if you wanted. You may want to get one since it can help you get comfortable with throwing and catching.
Once again, getting hit in the face with a baseball is no fun so you shouldn’t try to field a batted ball until you have had lots of practice stopping baseballs that are either hit or thrown at you.
I recommend that you start off using a softball for a while and only move to hardball once you are fairly good and throwing and catching…
You can probably also find some Youtube or other videos showing very basic technique. It’s fairly easy to hurt your shoulder by using bad throwing technique. But with a few simple pointers, you should be able to do this.
Quick thoughts, with a quick disclaimer. I’ve never been formally coached in baseball or softball, but I did play and coach volleyball. Throwing a baseball and hitting a volleyball are extremely similar movements at this level.
Throwing - You want to follow through on your throw. This means your arm doesn’t stop at the moment you release the ball. You’re creating an arc starting from just off your ear (elbow high and behind/off to the side just a bit), then up, forward, down. You release the ball during the forward part, and then continue moving. Your arm should basically move in one vertical plane, and the ball should end up going perpendicularly away from that plane, towards your target. This is how you aim.
Catching - On the glove, there is a “webbing” area between the thumb and the rest of the hand. This is where you want to catch the ball. Your 9 year old may not be able to throw hard enough (now, at least), but catching it in other parts of the glove can start to hurt your hand. This will be a little awkward at first, but will also make a lot of sense pretty quickly.
Baseballs: Yes, the cheapest name-brand balls from a real sporting goods store would be fine. There are differences in baseballs. From T-ball up until maybe the “A” level (9 years old is “AA” or in some cases “AAA” league) they use a ball with a padded surface to lessen the danger of injury. You don’t want a padded ball. Balls with leather covers are more expensive than synthetic covers. For playing catch, you can go cheap. You can buy a single leather ball for maybe $5 and a dozen synthetics for about $25.
You absolutely need a glove. Sizes are not meant to compensate for skill level, they are for the demands of different positions. You may even find that a larger glove is harder to handle. Gloves are sized by inches of finger length. A 13" glove is very big. You probably want something closer to 11". You can get a decent glove for under $40, maybe even under $30. The important thing is to try it on and make sure it feels comfortable. Not important to stick to a brand name.
Throw the ball by loosely gripping the ball with the thumb on one side and the first two fingers opposite the thumb. The fingers are perpendicular to the seams (pitchers use grips for some pitches where the fingers are parallel to seams, don’t worry about all that).
We teach beginning kids to set up a throw by doing these three motions together: step out with the foot opposite the throwing arm, extend the glove hand out to “aim” the throw, and draw the throwing arm back, with the ball facing backwards (“show the ball to the guy behind you”). Then smoothly bring the throwing arm forward at about the 3/4 position (not straight over your head, and not sidearm), rotating the body so the glove hand comes back, and release the ball. For playing catch you don’t have to worry quite as much about the details of the mechanics; these techniques are to develop players who need to throw under game conditions. However, proper technique will help you throw accurately, and avoid injury (like tendinitis or strained muscles).
A basic “fielder’s glove” is all you need. Echoing others, try a couple on and see what feels comfortable. Any baseball will do; price doesn’t much matter. You can get slightly spongier balls if you are worried about breaking things (like bones or windows).
Ask your grandson to help you out with the catching and throwing motions. He will no doubt be delighted to assist and be the “expert.”
I’m going to suggest that you find a place to play where there’s a wall of some kind. The wall of a house, a garage, some other kind of building… You stand a few feet in front of the wall. That way, if his throws are a little wild, or if you can’t corral them, there’s a good chance the ball will bounce back in his direction. That will save time and energy and make it more enjoyable for both of you.
There’s nothing quite like playing catch with a kid… Have fun!
Bear in mind that a new glove is going to be stiff and hard to use. They have to be broken in over a period of time to become looser and more natural feeling. You might be better off picking up an old glove from a garage sale or something.
I was going to say this too. There are stores that sell second hand sporting goods. One chain around here is called Play It Again Sports but there are lots of independent stores as well. I bet you can find a cheap pre-broken in glove there.
If you do buy a new glove, there are things you should do to break it in. Oiling the glove is important, as this softens the leather. You can also shape the glove by putting a ball in it, putting rubber bands around the whole thing to hold it shut and leaving it for several hours. You can also put the glove on your catching hand and throw the ball into the webbing repeatedly.
Don’t hold the baseball in your palm when you throw it. Hold it in your fingers. This will give you better control, and will also make it easier to snap your wrist as part of the throw. Ideally, you want to extend only your thumb, index and middle fingers over the ball, while keeping your other two fingers curled under the ball. You can find pictures of this pretty easily.
ADvice vis a vis coaching and gloves has already been provided.
I would suggest however that you ensure you can physically do this, if you have “significant spinal stuff,” which sounds to me like “I might hurt myself.” Throwing a baseball may not seem like as physically taxing a thing as swinging a bat but it is an unusual physical movement that is actually quite reknowned for its ability to hurt people. So please do
Consult with your doctor,
Stretch and warm up before you start flinging the ball around,
Take it easy at first. 10-20 minutes of catch will wear your arm out if you’re not used to it, and
Stop if it hurts.
If you know anyone who is an experienced baseball or softball player I would really, really strongly suggest you spend ten minutes with them. If I lived near you I could teach you to throw a baseball in far less time than has been spent typing messages in this thread; it’s not hard to learn if you are coached in person. You must know SOMEONE who plays ball.
From my limited experience in coaching my daughter’s entry-level girls’ softball team ages ago, I’d like to bring up something.
As you state you have almost “no skills” in throwing OR catching a baseball, one of the things you’ll want to work on is positioning your glove in such a way to catch a ball thrown at you. This was something I saw young players struggle with initially. One of my daughter’s friends was the pitcher, and she could only catch a ball with the open glove facing upwards. In other words, she couldn’t backhand a thrown ball at all. I actually saw her get hit in the mouth by a ball thrown back to her by her catcher because it came back to her level with her face, and she couldn’t position her glove in such a way to interrupt its flight path.
So I would recommend some sort of exercise along these lines. Assuming you throw right-handed, imagine a circle that begins at your right foot. Position your gloved left hand with the fingers pointing to the ground and the back of it pointing behind you. As you bring your glove up in a counter-clockwise motion, your wrist should pivot so that the glove will be open to a ball arriving at each point in space.
This will continue until your arm is directly above your head. From this point, you’re no longer backhanding, and as your arm completes the circle to your left, your wrist continues to pivot to present the open glove to the corresponding space on your left side.
When you’ve been playing for a while, this movement will be instinctive and you won’t even have to think about it. But in my experience with the kids, it doesn’t necessarily come naturally, so you may want to practice a bit. You could apply the earlier suggestion to use a wall of some sort to your own practice sessions, tossing a rubber ball up against it from a distance and then catching it where it ricochets, using the guidelines above. In fact, if you bounce the ball before it hits the wall, it will likely come back to you on the fly, which is what you want.
Have fun!