Should You "Use Two Hands!" To Catch A Baseball?

So today we're talking about one of my biggest pet peeves and that's telling players to catch the ball with two hands. If you go to most games at any level and a ball is dropped, you're going to hear somebody yell, hey, two hands, use two hands, catch the ball with two hands. It's pretty much similar to any time a hitter swings and misses, somebody has to say, keep your eye on it or keep your head down. But I'm going to talk today about why catching the ball with two hands is a myth and it shouldn't be taught. And I spend a lot of my time as a coach teaching our players to not use two hands, but to use one hand on the catch. Now the reason this came up is because a few nights ago, Baltimore's playing Boston, Baltimore's up by one in the bottom of the ninth, there's two outs. We've got a fly ball here that's going to end the game. So it's a routine fly ball at the left. And what do you know? We have a drop because he tried to use one hand on the catch. Now it gets even worse because the next hitter, Adam Duvall, hits a walk-off homer. Now here's a really clear view of the play. So left fielder puts his glove up, one hand, bang, right off the heel of the glove pitcher. Wants to fight him for a second, might have after the game. I'm just kidding. He probably didn't. So here's the thing I want to explain. Using two hands is for infielders. The second hand, the non-glove hand is used to quickly get the ball from the glove to the hand. It's for deflections. In the infield, plays have to be made quickly. The ball has to get in and out of the glove quick because we have to throw quickly. But if you look at other positions, outfielders, catchers, they don't use two hands to catch the ball. They use one hand because all they need to do is catch it. Even on transfers from the catcher, when they have to throw runners out, they still catch the ball with one hand, bring the ball to the middle of their body, and then they use their other hand to take the ball out of the glove. But they don't catch with two hands. Catching with two hands does not provide any advantage to actually catching the ball. And in my experience, it actually hinders the outfielder's ability to catch the ball because once you get the second hand involved, you have much less range. You can't reach as far. And using one hand allows you to be much more free. Now does the left fielder here get a little lackadaisical? You can see the ball kind of tailing off this way. Could it have been the wind? Maybe. We talk about trying to get our nose behind the catch. So this isn't a one hand problem because even if he had his second hand up here, he's still not going to catch that ball. That ball is still going to fall out. So could we talk about centering the ball over your nose just a bit more? Yes, that could be a coaching point. But catching it with two hands isn't. And if you go on Twitter after this play, which I did, there were so many comments that said, if he used two hands, it would have been an out. Use two hands. Why is he only using one hand? So again, I teach the opposite. And I know at really, really, really young levels, like when players are just learning how to play catch a lot of times, three year olds, four year olds, five year olds, everything is two hands, two hands, two hands. And if you want to tell your three, four and five year old to do that, I'm not going to argue with you. I took the opposite approach with my son ever since he could put a glove on. I've told them one hand. Now I understand there's sometimes their hands are so little and they're so weak that they can't even squeeze the glove. And I think that's probably why the two hands things start at such a young age because the gloves don't close, the players can't close them. So they almost have to use two hands. But for my son, it's always just been one hand, catch the ball with one hand, trust your glove, catch the ball. That's why they give you a glove so that you can catch it with the glove, with one hand. And I even see sometimes at practice, he'll catch a ball with one hand and a coach or someone will yell, Hey, use two hands. And he's probably saying, my dad has yelled at me for the last five years to use one hand. But I always say, as long as you catch the ball, that's all that really matters. Just catch the ball. So I know some people in the comment section below, and they're going to do it on purpose. Now we're going to say, I don't care, still use two hands. But I'm telling you, one hand is what needs to be used as an outfielder. Teach your outfielders to catch the ball with one hand and don't let one drop ball that happens persuade you to go back to using two hands. He's not going to be told after the game to use two hands. He's going to be told either to take a better route, to center the ball up more, to catch the ball in the better part of the glove and not down here on the heel, which again, he was probably trying to do. I don't know if it was the wind, but if this happens, even on our young levels, 10, 11 doesn't matter. I'm not going to say use two hands because it's a myth. It won't help you catch fly balls any better. So hopefully that makes sense. Let me know in the comment section. If you have any questions, subscribe to the channel, hit the notification bell, give a thumbs up, all that good stuff. And we'll talk to you later.