A couple yrs ago my son took a bad hop in the forehead and it took about three months to get over the mental part of staying down on a ball hit right at him. Last yr he had it licked was attacking the ball and staying low. He's an eighth grader his season is just basically getting started and last weekend at his tournament the opposing team decided to take grounders hit from the third base side toward second tearing up the infield. During his game he was at short and took a hard hit grounder it took a really bad hop and hit him on the side of the head his friend said it flew 30 ft. in the air after it hit him. Thankfully he his OK and just came away with a concussion and a headache for three days after.

Now he's having the same issues with staying down and fielding out front. It's going to take a lot of work to get over it.

Any words of advice ? Other than needing lots of reps to get over it?

I would say just taking reps. But, I would start with just rolled balls a few feet away, then work up to harder rolled balls, light fungos, and then harder fungos. Along the way just preaching good technique and lots of encouragement. Take your time with it. It is kind of starting over, but getting his confidence back is the most important thing.

Thanks for the advice. He did fairly well in his last game. I hit him a couple buckets before the game. The toughest part is staying all the way down on the flat ones hit right at him he wants to pull up just as they are getting to him. Trying to take it in small steps.

I had the same problem. I never got hit like that- thank God, but I was taking infield practice (first time in a while b/c I usually only play catcher) and I couldn't stay down. So, I had someone stand not too far and throw 'em in, he went farther back and harder, and after about a week of that, I got no problem again with getting down. It's just about geting back into old habits again. It feels great though, when a hard grounder is hit right to you, you stay down, field it cleanly. Looks routine, but just a couple weeks back I couldn't do it.