Even with a hat and sunglasses it can be difficult to catch a fly ball when your line of sight is smack dab in front of that big ball of fire in the sky. Sure it looks funny on blooper reels, but it’s not so hilarious when you or one of your players wears it in the beak. So, instead of just praying for it to fall in your glove lets work on a drill to help you out.
Catching the Sun
1.) Use a soft baseball or tennis ball to start especially for younger players.
2.) Coach tosses the ball to the player with the sun in the players face.
3.) Player puts their glove over the sun to block it out and shade their eyes.
4.) Player then attempts to catch ball as it comes out of the sun.
Start out easy by tossing the ball from a short distance. As you or your players get better at this, back them up and move them around a little. Once they master that, have them run at a deep angle which simulates a ball hit in the gap. Make sure that the area you throw the ball is in direct line with the sun. This is a great drill and I believe that it will help you tremendously.
