(I think the key difference between basketball and badminton is my ability to throw. In Badminton, Tennis and even Volleyball, the way your hand interacts with the ball is very different from basketball.)
My biggest problem is that I can’t catch. A poor throwing attempt still moves the ball in the general direction that you want it to go in. A poor catching attempt ends up with you running after the ball once it’s moved past you.
(I developed a strong aversion to basketball in elementary school. One of the activities in gym class was shooting baskets—into an adult height hoop. Unlike some of the other children, I never succeeded.)
Do you have a specific type of catching in mind? The techniques for different objects are different, more so than one might expect and in less-than-obvious ways. For example, I had trouble catching a football until someone explained to me that the catch is made at the point when the ball hits your torso, not before. Of course, this only applies to dead on throws. It also requires that you overcome the instinctive aversion to being hit by flying objects. Being hit by a briskly thrown, spiraling football hurts, when you’re unprepared. This led me to try to catch with only my hands, as far from my body as possible. This is much more difficult and resulted in many jammed fingers. Once I understood that the ball was supposed to hit me, I found it really didn’t hurt (too much) if I was prepared. Thus, I didn’t have to block the ball; it was much more effective to allow it to come to me.
I could go into greater detail, but the particulars of football-catching aren’t the point. Conceive of a task as difficult, and often it will oblige you by becoming so. This sounds trite, but I’ve had to learn it over and over again, in all sorts of different applications. Come to think of it, I’m likely making the same error right now, assuming that this is a hard-to-grasp concept which requires lengthy explanation. Just to relate it to the original topic, I see this as analogous to holding a pencil in a clenched fist when drawing, to ensure that it doesn’t slip away from you.
Have you ever made a dedicated effort to learn to catch? I find that the limiting factors are usually (a) a suitably easy ball to start with, (b) the modesty to use it, and (c) a patient enough partner to make easy throws to you. If you are of average klutziness for a geeky engineer, you can probably learn to catch, say, a volleyball in about three hours. Start with a small beach ball or medium-sized kickball, and work your way down to smaller and harder balls. Don’t be afraid to make incredibly easy throws with easy balls at short distances for about 100 reps before moving on to an incrementally harder exercise. The nice thing about catching is that a ‘rep’ takes anywhere between 1-5 seconds, so you can fit in a surprisingly large quantity of reps in a 15 minute practice session.
I think that catching also relies on having good eyesight/depth perception, so I have a feeling that some people who can’t catch very well probably need glasses (i.e. practice only goes so far).
My biggest problem is that I can’t catch. A poor throwing attempt still moves the ball in the general direction that you want it to go in. A poor catching attempt ends up with you running after the ball once it’s moved past you.
(I developed a strong aversion to basketball in elementary school. One of the activities in gym class was shooting baskets—into an adult height hoop. Unlike some of the other children, I never succeeded.)
Do you have a specific type of catching in mind? The techniques for different objects are different, more so than one might expect and in less-than-obvious ways. For example, I had trouble catching a football until someone explained to me that the catch is made at the point when the ball hits your torso, not before. Of course, this only applies to dead on throws. It also requires that you overcome the instinctive aversion to being hit by flying objects. Being hit by a briskly thrown, spiraling football hurts, when you’re unprepared. This led me to try to catch with only my hands, as far from my body as possible. This is much more difficult and resulted in many jammed fingers. Once I understood that the ball was supposed to hit me, I found it really didn’t hurt (too much) if I was prepared. Thus, I didn’t have to block the ball; it was much more effective to allow it to come to me.
I could go into greater detail, but the particulars of football-catching aren’t the point. Conceive of a task as difficult, and often it will oblige you by becoming so. This sounds trite, but I’ve had to learn it over and over again, in all sorts of different applications. Come to think of it, I’m likely making the same error right now, assuming that this is a hard-to-grasp concept which requires lengthy explanation. Just to relate it to the original topic, I see this as analogous to holding a pencil in a clenched fist when drawing, to ensure that it doesn’t slip away from you.
Have you ever made a dedicated effort to learn to catch? I find that the limiting factors are usually (a) a suitably easy ball to start with, (b) the modesty to use it, and (c) a patient enough partner to make easy throws to you. If you are of average klutziness for a geeky engineer, you can probably learn to catch, say, a volleyball in about three hours. Start with a small beach ball or medium-sized kickball, and work your way down to smaller and harder balls. Don’t be afraid to make incredibly easy throws with easy balls at short distances for about 100 reps before moving on to an incrementally harder exercise. The nice thing about catching is that a ‘rep’ takes anywhere between 1-5 seconds, so you can fit in a surprisingly large quantity of reps in a 15 minute practice session.
I think that catching also relies on having good eyesight/depth perception, so I have a feeling that some people who can’t catch very well probably need glasses (i.e. practice only goes so far).
For fly balls, maybe not. http://psychsciencenotes.blogspot.com/2011/10/prospective-control-i-outfielder.html
For line drives, probably more so, for footballs, even more so.
Not really. I think I used to be a bit better when I was little and played catch with my father...