**** fear of the ball// help!! ****

[hitnpeas]

Any quality suggestions on helping a 7 year old break their fear of the ball? He was doing well catching the ball until he got hit by a throw in the ribs. Ever since he has been afraid to catch the ball. He carried that over to BP but in our game seemed to have worked through any fear at the plate. But, if a ball is thrown towards him, he is sure it is going to end with the same result as last time so he attempts to get out of the way. Ive thrown short to him to try and build his confidence which helped a little but I need more help. Tennis balls? Does it just take time to get his confidence back? Please help.... :hp

[TG Coach]

You can throw all the tennis balls you want at him. It will come down to confidence he can catch the ball the next time you throw a baseball at him. When a rider falls of the horse, all they can do is get back on and ride.

[LAball]

it was sorta extreme... but
I put a catchers mask and chest piece on my son and threw tennis balls at him. progressivly harder and harder.

[b4uplayball]

You may want to go back to square one and simply lob the pitches on the outside of the plate. When you think it's the right time start moving the pitches closer and closer inside. Once he gets comfortable with the inside pitch speed the pitches up. But the worse thing to do is to progress too quickly. I used this technique on my son.

Has he ever gotten hit before? If not just LOB one at him in buttocks. Obviously not to hurt him but to at least give him to get the anticipation and fear of getting hit.

God Luck!

[shake-n-bake]

I am "shake" shake-n-bake's son I am 11 and I am not scared of the ball because if I ever was my dad would throw it harder and if I jumped out of the way he would throw even harder. It was the same thing with hitting if it was a hard strike and I jumped out he would hit me. You might think this harsh but not to me I am as tough as nails, I get hit in a game I sprint to first. Like my dad always says pain is only temporary. Everybody has fear, but I like it just fine that I'm not allowed to, or I probably would. I'm going to get hit with the ball. I know that already. Its part of the game, but I don't worry about it. I worry more about hitting batters when I pitch than getting hit myself.

[Jake Patterson]

I am "shake" shake-n-bake's son I am 11 and I am not scared of the ball because if I ever was my dad would throw it harder and if I jumped out of the way he would throw even harder. It was the same thing with hitting if it was a hard strike and I jumped out he would hit me. You might think this harsh but not to me I am as tough as nails, I get hit in a game I sprint to first. Like my dad always says pain is only temporary. Everybody has fear, but I like it just fine that I'm not allowed to, or I probably would. I'm going to get hit with the ball. I know that already. Its part of the game, but I don't worry about it. I worry more about hitting batters when I pitch than getting hit myself.
Mini Shake,
Thanks for your input. I am happy you and your dad found a way to get through this very difficult part of the game. Unfortunately, many kids do not have the same ability to work through the problem as you have and forcing the issue prematurely only serves to push youngsters away from the game.
We all have our fears and it sometimes takes different methods to overcome those fears.

[bigredmachine#1]

when I played little league baseball years and years ago I was hit with a pitch in the head and developed a fear of the ball causing me to bail out of the box. my dad fixed the problem by pitching/throwing bricks at me. If I moved back or even flinched the next brick would come right at me. believe me a brick hurts a lot more than a baseball. i learned to stay in the box:homeplate:

[Jake Patterson]

when I played little league baseball years and years ago I was hit with a pitch in the head and developed a fear of the ball causing me to bail out of the box. my dad fixed the problem by pitching/throwing bricks at me. If I moved back or even flinched the next brick would come right at me. believe me a brick hurts a lot more than a baseball. i learned to stay in the box:homeplate:
Not a method I would suggest...

[Chris O'Leary]

when I played little league baseball years and years ago I was hit with a pitch in the head and developed a fear of the ball causing me to bail out of the box. my dad fixed the problem by pitching/throwing bricks at me. If I moved back or even flinched the next brick would come right at me. believe me a brick hurts a lot more than a baseball. i learned to stay in the box:homeplate:

If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball.

Was your dad the inspiration for that scene in Dodgeball?

;-)

[shake-n-bake]

Bricks? Now that's harsh! I think my son exaggerates just a little. I don't recall ever intentionally hitting him with a ball. Its more like I don't have great control pitching. The real reason he's probably not afraid of the ball is that he's seen so many bad pitches and been hit so many times that it doesn't bother him much anymore.

My coach as a sophomore in HS lined us up along the outside of the metal shop and threw baseballs at us. I don't think that really did much but make us think he was crazy.

Expectations have a lot to do with it. Like my son evidentally feels, I felt the same way that I wasn't really allowed to have fear. But, I think Jake is right. Turning up the heat when your kid shows fear isn't a fix for everyone. It works in the Marines, but many kids wouldn't find that all that endearing and would probably dread playing.

You could try explaining how moving out of the way puts him in a position that makes it tough to swing the bat and field fundamentally well. If his desire to play well is strong enough it may off-set any fear until he becomes at peace with the fact that he will get hit again regardless if he worries about it or not.

[jbolt_2000]

I had a player last year who was scared to catch the ball. I would have him play long toss with a soft thrower and I would stand behind him and explain to him that I needed him to keep me safe. If he got out of the way and did not try to catch the ball then I would get hurt since I did not have a glove or bat.

I got hit in the leg and arms a few times, but since it was long toss and I made sure it was with someone I knew was a soft thrower I was confident I would not get hurt. Plus if it came at my head I would just duck out of the way.

Slowly but surely the player began to gain confidence and began staying in there and catching the ball. I would have to repeat that he was protecting me and after we were done I explained that he needs to imagine that I am behind him every time just as his team needs him in the games to catch the ball, I needed him to catch the ball.

Was he perfect after that? No, but he understood that it was necessary to fight the fear and he tried much harder.

[jima]

Any quality suggestions on helping a 7 year old break their fear of the ball? He was doing well catching the ball until he got hit by a throw in the ribs. Ever since he has been afraid to catch the ball. He carried that over to BP but in our game seemed to have worked through any fear at the plate. But, if a ball is thrown towards him, he is sure it is going to end with the same result as last time so he attempts to get out of the way. Ive thrown short to him to try and build his confidence which helped a little but I need more help. Tennis balls? Does it just take time to get his confidence back? Please help.... :hp

Keep offering to play catch, but don't make him. He's 7. Maybe at 8 he'll want to play. I really made mistakes with my oldest son by trying to force him to get over the fear of the baseball so he could play the sport "just like I did". It became "my" personal project and goal...I thought I was 'fathering' but in fact I had lost perspective. We had some real tough times as I kept forcing the issue and he kept doubting himself because he was scaread...the bigger deal I made it, the worse the situation became. If he wants to play ball, he'll let you know. By the way, my son ended up lettering 3 years on the varsity crew team.

[Dirtberry]

Front side toss!! and lots of it, it works.

[hitnpeas]

Keep offering to play catch, but don't make him. He's 7. Maybe at 8 he'll want to play. I really made mistakes with my oldest son by trying to force him to get over the fear of the baseball so he could play the sport "just like I did". It became "my" personal project and goal...I thought I was 'fathering' but in fact I had lost perspective. We had some real tough times as I kept forcing the issue and he kept doubting himself because he was scaread...the bigger deal I made it, the worse the situation became. If he wants to play ball, he'll let you know. By the way, my son ended up lettering 3 years on the varsity crew team.

Thanks for your experience and to all those that have responded....My main concern was with him CATCHING the ball since this seemed to be when he worried most about getting hit. He was trying to catch a ball when it hit his ribs. I threw him a bunch of tennis balls and moved on to some softer baseballs after that. He did really well comparatively speaking. I let him take a couple of balls and throw em at me as hard as he could from about 5 feet away. I showed him that it stung but I was ok and was ready to play some more catch. He laughed at me while I took a couple for the team but if it helps I would let him bruise me til I bleed. :eek:

Front side toss!! and lots of it, it works.

Is this like the front side BOWLING toss with a bat? Just not sure of the lingo I guess. Maybe a mod could make a sticky and y'all could list all the different drill names with description of each. Thanks DBerry, Ill wait for your response. I am eager to get out and enjoy some more fun playing ball with my boys as new/helpful drills are great ways to keep it exciting while teaching them this great game!!

[Shake Zula]

I've been hit by the pitch, and it is nowhere to the worst pains I've experienced before. The pain hit by baseball--unless if you forgot to wear your cup--doesn't really last longer than you think and it just stings for awhile

[hitnpeas]

I've been hit by the pitch, and it is nowhere to the worst pains I've experienced before. The pain hit by baseball--unless if you forgot to wear your cup--doesn't really last longer than you think and it just stings for awhile

I think it is where it hit him that has him uneasy. He has taken tough hops off his legs, arms and even his cheek without much thought. He had his arm extended and ribs exposed and just misjudged one. It caught him in the rib cage just below the armpit. Hit yourself there and you will see the reason he doesnt care to get hit there again. We have more practice tonight so we will continue to work on building his confidence back up. Slowly and methodically while keeping it fun seems to be the way to go. Any more suggestions would be greatly appreciated. :)

[shake-n-bake]

He's only 7, so there's no panic or rush to cure his worries about getting hit. If his attitude was that getting hit by bad hops and that sort of thing didn't worry him much, then no doubt, its better to talk it out and get back on the horse so to speak than to bury the time he got beaned and start at sqaure one again. It can be done. My daughter whose now 8 and not an overly mature 8 year old took a one-hop bullet (luckily it was in CF) in the face while shagging balls for my son who was taking BP. She had a big black eye and her nose was bleeding, and at the time she was crying so hard she was starting to hyperventilate.

Rather than not talk much about it, we talked about it constantly. I had her convinced she was very, very tough and that if she could take that, she could now handle getting hit by anything. She's been bit by a dog. She had a big screen tv fall on her. This was nothing to her. That's the way I made it seem and she bought it hook, line, and sinker. My son whose personality is 180% from hers and has always seemed very mature has bought into the same thing as well at times. He's had some pretty bad injuries and he is convinced that most things cannot turn out worse than some things he's already experienced. So, use the experience itself as a confidence builder.

[baseballdad]

I have a player who moves out of the way of throws and then stretches out his hand to catch the ball. I'm going to try some of these ideas.

[Jake Patterson]

I have a player who moves out of the way of throws and then stretches out his hand to catch the ball. I'm going to try some of these ideas.This is not uncommon. You may want to start with catching tennis balls, no glove, fingers down then progress to tennis ball, no glove fingers up. I suggest starting at 10', but the distance is not as important as the coach's accuracy.

Players find short toss fingers down (below the waist) less threatening than fingers up (above the waist). Once they become comfortable with this then move to using the glove with an incredaball.

[baseballdad]

This guy really shys away from the ball. Good ideas. Thanks.