Baseball Drills: Infield : Water Balloon Toss to Develop Soft Hands

Drill: Water Balloon Toss to Develop Soft Hands

Purpose:
Allow infielders to work on developing soft hands when catching the ball

Equipment:
Water balloons and a warm day. Make sure you test this at home to make sure the water balloons are small enough that they aren't too easy to break but no so small that they are hard to break.

Setup:
Take a water balloon and have myself and another coach stand about 5-10 feet apart.

Execution:
As I toss the water balloon to my coach, I show them that in order for him to catch the water balloon without breaking that he must have soft hands and catch it gently while at the same time he must sweep the water balloon in his hands into his belly. The same as pulling the glove up from a grounder and sweeping the glove up into your belly before throwing. To make my point even further, I make sure a water balloon breaks on me as I catch it showing how "hard hands" and "stiff arms" are the improper way to receive the water balloon.

It has made my teams be very aware of how important it is to be relaxed, soften their hands and pull their glove into their belly before throwing.