How to Practice Catching a Baseball by Yourself

Whether you’re a pitcher or an outfielder, learning how to catch a baseball is a crucial skill that all baseball players need to have.  Whether catching a high fly ball or a ground one, properly catching and securing a baseball will help your team tremendously and significantly improve your chances of winning the game.

However, learning how to catch a baseball, and practicing catching one while you are alone, can be a bit difficult.  That is why, below, we are going to discuss just how to practice catching a baseball by yourself.  These easy and simple steps will help you improve your baseball catching skills and can be done when you are practicing alone.

The Basics of Catching a Baseball

Learning how to catch a baseball properly takes time, effort, and practice.  And if you want to learn how to catch a baseball properly, then you will need to practice doing so correctly.  And if you are planning on practicing catching a baseball, whether alone or with teammates, then you should do so with the proper equipment, posture, and stance.

To begin with, start by choosing the right glove.  In addition to helping you to practice for an in-game situation, catching baseballs without a glove on can injure or damage your hands.  A good baseball glove should be comfortable on your hand.  In addition, as a general rule of thumb, players under the age of 12 should use a baseball glove between 10-11 inches and players over the age of 12 should use a glove between 11-13 inches.

Once you have chosen your preferred baseball glove, be sure to attempt to catch any baseballs in an athletic position.  Being in an athletic position will not only help you to catch the baseball, but it will also help to minimize the risk of any injuries.

To enter the athletic position, begin by having your feet a bit wider than your shoulder width apart.  Your knees should be bent with the majority of the weight on the balls of your feet.  Bend slightly at the waist and with a slight angle in your back, lean forward.  While in an athletic position, you should be loose and relaxed across your entire body.

Similarly, when it comes to the act of catching a baseball, you should keep your eyes on the ball the entire time.  Not only will this help you to avoid being hit by a line drive, but it will also help to ensure that you are able to act and react to a hit ball.

As the ball begins to move towards you, position your glove to receive the ball.  You should place your glove to where the ball is expected to land and not just to where it is.  Keeping the opening of the glove open, receive the ball and quickly shut close the glove.

Why is it Important to Know How to Catch a Baseball?

While the rules of baseball may appear complicated, the game itself is quite simple and straightforward.  In baseball, two opposing teams attempt to score runs by rounding the bases and returning to the home plate. 

However, besides striking a batter out on the batter’s box, the most effective and simple way to do so is to catch a struck baseball before it hits the ground.  And while that sounds simple enough, catching a baseball hit by a batter can be extremely difficult.

Not only are struck baseballs moving at extremely high speeds, often upwards of 170 miles-per-hour, but oftentimes they may be struck upwards, with a descent downwards and sometimes in the glaring sun.  These variables all make catching the baseball more difficult and helps to explain just why it is so important to know how to catch one properly.

Similarly, learning how to catch a baseball properly can help you with your reaction times.  Baseball is oftentimes a game of seconds and if an opposing player is on first, second, or third base, catching the ball quickly and properly can allow you to attempt to strike out an additional player off the base as they attempt to round the plates.

Best Ways to Practice Catching a Baseball by Yourself

While, ideally, it is best to practice catching a baseball with a friend, teammate, coach, or family-member, many times finding someone to practice with can be difficult.  If you find yourself without an additional person to practice catching a baseball with, below are some quick and easy ways to practice catching a baseball by yourself.

• Throw a baseball in the air and catch it – perhaps the easiest and simplest form of practice, simply take a baseball and throw the ball high into the air.  With your glove on your hand, catch the baseball as quickly as you can.  Repeat this process for a minimum of fifteen minutes, increasing the difficulty by tossing the baseball higher and higher and further away from you as you continue your practice.

• Toss the baseball off a roof – while not always recommended, tossing a baseball off of a roof can be a great way to practice catching the ball when you are alone.  Simply throw the ball against a slanted roof, running to the point where the ball will drop and catching it before it hits the ground.

• Ball juggling – to practice juggling, you will need at least two baseballs.  Juggling is not only challenging, but it will help to improve your hand-eye coordination.  To begin, juggle just two baseballs and attempt to increase the speed of your juggle.  As you become more adept, add a third baseball, and continue practicing your juggling with the baseballs.

•  Back drops – a bit of a challenging practice, begin by holding a baseball behind your head.  Release the baseball and quickly turn-around and catch the baseball before it hits the ground.  This practice should help you to improve your speed and ability to catch the ball.

• Back clap catches – similar to the back drops, this practice calls for holding the ball in front of you, near your forehead at an arm’s length away.  Simply drop the baseball and quickly clap your hands behind your back before returning your hands to your front to catch the ball before it hits the ground.

• Self-pass – a practice that you will see many other baseball players doing, simply throw the baseball from one hand to the other.  You should throw the baseball quickly and practice throwing with both hands to improve your abilities to catch with both your right and left hands.

Getting Assistance When Practicing Catching a Baseball by Yourself

Although you may be practicing catching a baseball alone and without the help of friends, family, teammates, or a coach, that doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t enlist the help of specialized tools. While there are many tools on the market to help with practicing batting a baseball, those same tools can be coopted to help you learn how to catch a baseball.

These tools will be able to “pitch” you a baseball, however, rather than attempting to strike the balls with a bat, simply try to catch the pitched balls.

For starters, we’d recommend the Yes Marks Auto Baseball Pitching Machine. While simple in design, this automatic baseball pitching machine is great for getting started and learning how to catch a baseball. And while you won’t be able to load the machine with actual baseballs, you will learn the fundamentals of catching a ball and can load multiple balls into the machine at once to help you practice.

If you’re looking for something a bit more advanced, then we would highly recommend the SKLZ Lightning Bolt Baseball Pitching Machine. Extremely sleek in design if we say so ourselves, this machine can be easily mounted on nearly any field or surface. Simply adjust the pitch angle and a ball will be pitched at 30 MPH every 5-seconds.

And lastly, if you are really looking for a challenge, then we’d highly recommend the Heater Sports Heavy Duty Baseball Pitching Machine. A beautiful machine that can pitch all types of balls from grounders to high-flies. The Heater Sports Machine can pitch real baseballs up to 50 MPH and lite baseballs up to 80 MPH. And with an automatic feed, you will be pitched a ball every 8-seconds.