What Your Coach Really Means
A guide to help you translate your coach's confusing, conflicting, and sometimes downright wrong terminology
Catch the Ball with Two Hands
Sentence – “Get underneath the fly ball and catch the ball with two hands.”
How you may interpret – You should ALWAYS catch the ball with two hands. It doesn’t matter if it’s a flyball, line drive, or if it’s a throw from another player. You should catch the ball with your glove hand and have your throwing hand up to prevent it from popping out of your glove.
What your coach is trying to say – If you can pitch a tent, set up camp, and are underneath a “can-of-corn” flyball then go ahead and put that throwing hand up there around your glove as you catch the ball to secure it. If that’s what your coach means, then this can be good advice. However, more times than not, we want to catch the ball with one hand.
For outfielders, if you are on the run and trying to catch the ball with two hands, it is going to upset your balance and make it harder to catch the ball. Putting your throwing hand up to catch the ball can also block your vision as you are trying to make the catch.
If you are first baseman catching a throw from an infielder, catching the ball with two hands limits your reach for off line throws and doesn’t allow to reach as far forward to catch a good throw. Not being able to reach the extra six inches can be the difference in a bang-bang play at first base.
Here's a video of Dansby Swanson talking about the advantages of playing the ball with one hand. He's specifically talking about groundballs here so it is more in depth, but this applies to flyballs as well.
Swanson talks about specific plays here: coming through the ball on the run, coming through the ball backhanded, etc. This is to say that most balls you field (flyballs or groundballs) aren't going to be right at you. The most athletic move you can make to field the ball and get into a good throwing position is going to be catching it with one hand.
Your Little League coach isn't a bad coach if he's telling you to catch it with two, but if you're going to maximize your potential and make the game easier for yourself, start trying to catch the ball consistently with one hand.
