We have a 12 yo catcher/outfielder who seems to be afraid of the ball. Interestingly enough as a catcher its rarely a problem and does well at receiving from the pitcher, she has some problems blocking but I attribute that more to lack of practice than anything else.
However, any plays at the plate where the ball is thrown low (so every time for us) she will stick her glove out and turn her head away. And every time the ball will get passed her. We can't put her in the infield because she'll move away from balls hit right at her to field on the glove side-again with the head looking anywhere but towards the ball. When she isn't catching she does well in the outfield-fast and pretty good at tracking fly balls but any hard grounder to her has the very real possibility of going straight past her and turning a single into a problem.
This is a very athletic kid who probably loves the game more than anyone else on the team but I don't even know where to begin helping her with this problem.
However, any plays at the plate where the ball is thrown low (so every time for us) she will stick her glove out and turn her head away. And every time the ball will get passed her. We can't put her in the infield because she'll move away from balls hit right at her to field on the glove side-again with the head looking anywhere but towards the ball. When she isn't catching she does well in the outfield-fast and pretty good at tracking fly balls but any hard grounder to her has the very real possibility of going straight past her and turning a single into a problem.
This is a very athletic kid who probably loves the game more than anyone else on the team but I don't even know where to begin helping her with this problem.