Thread: Tips to help prevent closing eyes when receiving the ball

DD does very well catching for 14u travel team, recently we have been looking at pictures and have found when receiving the ball her eye's are closed.

Any tips on how to improve this?
or is it something that needs to looked at.

eyes.jpg

Forget about it. They all blink upon receiving. I have a picture of DD hitting a ball, she has her eyes closed, the catcher has her eyes closed and the PU has his eyes closed. Something about the ball arriving in the glove, hitting the bat causes all eyes close to blink. I wouldn't worry about it.

Blinking is fine, flinching isn't. Have her put her gear on and toss tennis balls at her mask while she holds her hands behind her back. If she blinks, she's normal. If she flinches, you have something to work on.

-W

Thanks for the quick replies.

I was thinking it was normal, but did not want her to develop a bad habit.

After looking at more images I started to notice a pattern, every time she is about to throw out a runner, her eyes do not close, it seems then that she is more focused on getting the ball.

I have heard that if you take a breath or breath out just before the ball hits the glove that could help.

Thanks again for the responses.

Originally Posted by starsnuffer

Blinking is fine, flinching isn't. Have her put her gear on and toss tennis balls at her mask while she holds her hands behind her back. If she blinks, she's normal. If she flinches, you have something to work on.

-W

The DD has her own "Top Secret" method that she shares with all our catchers.... She forces herself to blink when her pitchers are in their wind up. She is less likely to blink as the pitch comes in.

blinking is very hard to stop. we do anti blinks to try to train the mind . On their backs mask on and drop whiffles or tennis balls on the mask and try to keep their eyes open

I remember a playoff game a couple years back. Before the tv went to commercials between innings, they replayed the last pitch of the third out which was a swinging K. The tv view was looking right down the pipe in slow mo. Jorge Posada had his eyes completely closed when he caught the pitch. As an observer, I have since found that to be more normal than not, even at the MLB level. Good luck! VW

Originally Posted by chazbz1

The DD has her own "Top Secret" method that she shares with all our catchers.... She forces herself to blink when her pitchers are in their wind up. She is less likely to blink as the pitch comes in.

549008_466223613397627_819228919_n.jpg 315602_279808728705784_737478776_n.jpg 308660_279809238705733_1645511386_n.jpg


It works!