Closing eyes

[durtyd26]

Hoping to get some ideas. I have a player, 11 y/o, who can’t stop closing her eyes. At contact when hitting, at ball in mitt when playing catcher, and when fielding grounders. Any ideas how to help her? She didn’t even realize it until I showed her on video. Thanks.


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[_MIA_]

who can’t stop closing her eyes.

Depending on how my DD is hitting, I do that sometimes. I find that sitting in the parking lot behind a few gas guzzling SUVs helps with the urge to do so..

 

[Gags]

If you track down pictures of MLB catchers, the pictures will very often (I want to say almost always) show them with their eyes closed IF the batter swings. You're probably fighting evolution in that particular case (who keeps their eyes open when a 2 pound object is being swung past their head?).

If it happens whether they swing or not, when fielding grounders, or when the ball is farther than about 5' from the plate, then I agree it may be an issue.

 

[Rick M]

DD attended Catching Camp a few years ago, coach Weaver ran a contest at the end of one day: who could keep their eyes open while he bounced a ball off of their facemask. Nobody could do it. He had one instructor who could.

As for the hitting part, I had a whole team of girls who closed their eyes on contact at 8U (parents had a good laugh after one of them took pictures). They've all grown out of it. One thing that helped DD a lot was hitting the two-color balls, where half is pink and half is yellow. They have to call out the color that the bat makes contact with during a soft toss drill. Really helped her focus on watching the ball hit the bat.

Not sure what to do about fielding grounders. I suspect that will improve as she gains confidence in her fielding ability.

 

[robertc3]

Most of it will come with time and increased confidence. Some of it is just reflex over which she has very little control right now. Hitters and fielders can overcome it with dedicated work. Catchers closing their eyes is very common as noted above. That one doesn't really have any performance impact as long as it is just instantaneous and right as they are catching the ball. At that point they can't move their glove any more anyways, so there isn't much harm if she gets them back open quickly. The body knows how important it is to protect the eyes.