Beginner fielding - fingers up? or fingers down?

[Momo'sDad]

(10u)

I'm a glove-in-the-dirt, fingers-down guy, but a lot of the younger players have been taught (throwing hand) fingers up with palm down instead of open and pretty much facing the incoming ball.

Which approach is more correct?

 

[nanotech14]

now I'am speaking with my own experiance , but I was always fingers down. But I learned my lesson the hard way , now I'am a grown man playing slow pitch softball , I was on short had a hard ball hit at me ,went to catch it took a bad hop and broke my middle finger , bone right out the end of my finger. I teach my girls fingers up now.take it for what it is worth

 

[starsnuffer]

I teach finger's down to all my infielders except third base, who uses fingers up, hands level because they're much closer to the batter.

Make sure the throwing hand is equidistant between the glove and the face, anything very fast and high the throwing hand can be used to "slap" the ball into the glove.

-W

 

[KevinC]

I used to say glove on the ground which is great if you get a one hopper hit right to you but not great if you need to move or catch a liner. Now I coach this way:

Source: Sportskool

 

[Amy in AZ.]

I can't change at this point in time. Some of the girls that come to lessons have been taught to "alligator" it, but I am glove down, hands together.

 

[obbay]

for younger kids I start them with glove fingers down and barehand fingers up, like this:

as they become more proficient, I move them into the Howard Kobata style of fingers more up/glove horizontal and get down low with the knees so except for anything on the ground, they are catching it 'in the breadbasket'.

Based on your recent posts I know you're talking young so start them off with fingers down, follow the ball into the glove and learning not to let anything go under their glove.

Lots of errors happen because kids will take their eye off the ball too early, looking ahead to where they intend to throw it or turning away out of fear of being hit which causes them to miss or bobble the ball before they can make that play.

On our U12 rec team we require all infielders to wear facemasks (team rule) to eliminate fear from the equation.

 

[Amy in AZ.]

At 5:57 of Candrea's video, he says that there are 2 different ways to field the ground ball, bare hand beside the glove or hand straight above the glove.

I teach and use the 1st method.

 

[SBFAMILY]

Here is something else I learned this week talking to Bustos. Most professional MLB players and pro softball players do this. They never use the first finger of the glove. The pinky finger is not strong enough by itself to hold the glove shut. The insert the pinky finger the the finger beside it( which is a griper finger) in the same hole. This gives a better grip on the ball in the glove. We tested it and it does work. We have seen our share of kids catch the ball and then the ball fall out of the glove. This doesn't happen if you use this grip inside the glove. Never too old to learn something new.