How to Use a Bucket for Catching Fly Balls
Aug 31, 2020Coach Duke Baxter and Coach Steve Nikorak demonstrate the Bucket Drill to help kids build confidence
We were asked a question by coach John. He says that half of his team every time a ball is thrown to them are getting out of the way of the ball. They're so afraid of the ball that they don't even care about catching it. Do you have any drills that help them build confidence in how to catch the baseball?
We can definitely help you out. The Bucket Drill to the Rescue!
A lot of youth coaches go through it with the T-ball ages; six, seven, even eight. We want to build confidence so we have a fun drill here that's going to make practice more fun and the kids are really going to enjoy it.
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I put a bucket here and I had one of my little guys last week stand on top of the bucket. What that's going to do is force him to keep his feet on the bucket and not give him a chance to move out of the way. So again you can have them stand on a bucket, a chair, or a cinder block, whatever you want.
They're going to stand on top of the bucket like this and then have a coach toss tennis balls. Just with their glove hand only. Have them place their other hand is behind is behind my back. Even if I don't catch it, it teaches them to catch the ball with their fingers towards to the sky. Okay. Just like this, protecting their face because we always want to catch the ball out in front.
Once they get used to doing this with their bare hand you can progress forward to the glove. You can start to throw baseballs and before you know it once they're playing with a little more confidence it's going to be a heck of a lot easier than just putting them down the right field line and telling them to go play catch.
Another thing you could is to build a competition out of it. Have two kids, one at a time throw six balls. Whoever catches the most balls wins. That kind of now turns into a competition as well but that's and awesome, that's an awesome drill.
So if you guys enjoyed this video check out www.dominatethediamond.com and you'll find tons of videos. Hope to see you there.
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