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[HallamKeeper]

I'm going to do some drills tonight with a friend hitting tennis balls at me. I'm hoping it will help me get used to fast balls coming through without getting injured for the ones I don't get cleanly. Has anyone done this? Any tips or drills?

[Simmy]

good thing about tennis balls is they bounce out your hands so. very good practice for cushioning the ball.

not sure about just using them so you dont get hurt.

are you new to keeping?

[HallamKeeper]

No I've been going two years now but find it hard to replicate the speed of a flashing edge for catching either one or two handed. I've done it with real balls before but I think there is a limit to how much your hands can take. Obviously at high speed you aren't going to catch them all cleanly so I don't want to damage finger ends before the weekend.

I'm going to use slightly heavier tennis balls that are designed for street/beach cricket so they stick in the gloves a bit more realistically. The main aim for me is to get my feet and body in the correct position.

[icewolf]

Use tape balls


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[Vitas Cricket]

You would be better off with a catching cradle or Katchet board and real balls.

If you are using the proper technique injury should be a rare and unfortunate occurrence.

This is a good drill if you have all the equipment, but you can adapt it if you don't

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qSzEjPPBjg

[HallamKeeper]

I would love to do that drill, unfortunately I don't have the machine. I did some work with the Katchet board but I find the person feeding has to have a pretty good arm to get the speed. The tennis balls did work pretty well. Basically, I got them to hit much harder than normal so I got used to the speed (didn't get a lot of them to start with) then went to hard balls at a more realistic game speed and found it so much easier.

[Nmcgee]

I've had a couple of highly qualified coaches recommend tennis balls for fielding and wicket keeping drills. We use them every session.