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What To Do When Your Kid Keeps Dropping The Ball Out Of Their Glove
When your child is young and either has a small hand or weak hand muscles, keeping a caught ball in the glove can sometimes prove to be a difficult task. For a parent watching this play out, it can be downright frustrating trying to figure out a way for the child to stop dropping the ball. For an adult, the most common fix that they want to shout out is “squeeze your glove tighter”, and while that could solve the issue, it more than likely won’t. The player will just get more upset as you watch them squeeze as hard as they can, yet still end up with the ball falling out of the glove.
Of course, if they have a brand new glove that’s not “broke in” ready to play, then what I’m about to suggest may not work. If your child does have a new leather glove, I highly suggest watching this video of Shigeaki Aso, who is famous for properly breaking in a glove as he works his magic.
Two In The Pinkie
If a proper glove break-in doesn’t fix the problem, then my main suggestion is “two in the pinkie”. I’m not 100% certain this is the proper name for this, but I discovered this tip when my first daughter was having trouble keeping the softball in her glove when she was younger. Basically, the name describes what it is that you need to do. Have your player put their ring finger AND their pinkie finger into the pinkie finger slot on their glove. Then move all fingers over one with the exception of the thumb. The thumb stays in the thumb hole. There won’t be any finger in the pointer finger slot using this method. My oldest daughter still continues to use this method as it is now what works for her and my youngest daughter is giving this method a shot at this current time. So far she is much more able to hold on to the ball once she has caught it. If it’s not easy to understand what I’m talking about, I have included a shortened clip from a video below that shows exactly what I mean.
Hopefully, this little tip will be a big help to any of those that struggle with dropping the ball after the player has caught it. As I’ve already mentioned, it was quite successful with my oldest child when she was younger and it already seems to be really helping my younger child who is currently going through this issue as she enters 10u.
Now go out there and play some softball!!
Questioning whether travel ball is right for your daughter? Check out our Top 5 Reasons Your Daughter Should Not Play Travel Ball
