Placement of fingers and Glove fingers

[remind]

(I am a young man from a place where baseball and softball is obscure)

So, my whole palm are just 2 "glove-fingers" wide.
I have always wondered how do people fit their fingers into their glove. I mean even though the tips of the fingers can move, they are still attached to the base at the palm, which is just 2 "glove-fingers" wide, how can it fit tightly to the glove fingers?
Usually, I can hardly close the glove at all until the glove.

But I just found out online that you are supposed to place the 2nd finger at the 3rd glove finger, 3rd at 4th, but 4th and 5th at 5th...
Oh. My. God.
This changes everything. It is so much easier to close the glove now.
Why didn't they sell the glove with an instruction of this?
Have I missed out anymore even better finger placement patterns?

 

[Amy in AZ.]

All that I know about this, I have learned from the slow pitch men. I wonder though, do professional baseball players shift their fingers?

Also, you might like a trapper style web. That seems to be what a lot of men prefer.

 

[starsnuffer]

It's largely a function of hand size. Since most of us here are working with girls, and young girls, it makes it much easier for them to leave the index finger hole "empty" and shift the fingers towards the pinky. This gives people with small hands much more leverage. If someone has large hands, this can be very uncomfortable.

Also, remember that gloves need to be broken in quite a bit before they will open and close easy. They don't really function correctly right off the shelf.

-W

 

[chinamigarden]

All that I know about this, I have learned from the slow pitch men. I wonder though, do professional baseball players shift their fingers?

Also, you might like a trapper style web. That seems to be what a lot of men prefer.

My brother who was strictly a baseball guy taught me that trick in about 1972

 

[stable31]

I've been playing baseball/softball my whole life and I never ran into anyone who taught me to put a glove on this way. Now, I never had an issue with being able to catch and hold onto a ball, however my DD (10U) has had an issue with squeezing the ball in the outfield. Anyway, I learned this technique this past weekend and we worked on it on Sunday afternoon and hopefully this could be a game changer. She was able to hold on to every ball she could get her mitt on and she says that it just feels more natural.

 

[Eric F]

I learned about the finger shift a couple of years ago, tried it, and it has become my "normal". My DD tried, it, said "it feels weird", and won't give it a real chance.