Is a pancake glove a good training aid for middle infielders? I saw it on the internet and was just wondering. Advice anyone?

'Pancake Gloves' like any other training tool can help as long as its used correctly. The benefit of using a pancake glove would help you use 'soft' hands. Soft hands (of course helps you from keeping stiff hands) are good for helping one from 'bobbling' the ball when it comes to you. Also it helps you transfer the ball from glove to destination quicker.

The pancake glove requires the use of your top hand and has been a valuable tool for my Sons as they continue to refine their skills.

The glove for an infielder, is used to stop the ground ball not catch it.
Meaning get the ball in the throwing had as quickly as possible, to turn a DP or throw to any bag for an out.
If the infielder can stop the ball are skip it off the palm into the throwing hand will make him much quicker at turning the DP. It need's to be a practiced method.
That's what the pancake glove could be used for.
Also when SS throw's to 2nd for a DP, 2nd baseman can use the back side of glove( not the pocket ) to stop ball and throwing hand is right there to make transfer and throw to 1st for DP. EH

Excellent feedback! I might add, the training tool is also only good if used as intended. If it stays in the bag and never used it does no good. If the infielder is willing to work with it, he will benefit greatly as it improves fielding as others have pointed out.

there are a number of infielders training gloves.. one i've seen is at www.johnvallebaseball.com... the leather is good and the owner has a money back guarantee if not satisfied

I offer the akadema Pancake glove and it works great!..

You would like it too and as everyone stated if used properly it will help your game out a ton.

The pancake glove is a great tool for teaching soft hands and fielding the ball with two hands instead of one. Fielders don't want to field a ground ball in the deep pocket of a glove. The deep pocket is for catching a baseball. The pancake glove helps them to use more of the palm of their glove along with their top hand (throwing hand) in fielding. It also helps with transfer of the ball from glove to throwing hand.

we never used the pancake glove, but I've always had my son field ground balls without a glove. We'd use tennis balls or RIF balls so he wouldn't get hurt. Seemed to work pretty well for us.

I think another reason to use it besides the obvious 2 hands is that it teaches to field out front and through the ball. If you try to use one in close it will deflect off the glove. It also works great for working your double plays, quick deflection into your throwing hand.

We use the old fashioned football hip pads, the ones with the rubbery coating and the two straps that the belt goes through.

We put the thumb through one loop and the pinkie finger through the other, and trim off the lower part to get a shape that is similar to pancake gloves/soft hands trainers.

Works great. Problem is their using these fancy, foam type pads now that slip into girdles. Bummer.

The pancake glove sounds like a wonderful tool. How is the glove used? What kind of drills are done with the glove?

gimages, Good question.
When useing a pancake glove, There's no way of closing it onto the ball.
So you are forced to stop the ball with the flat glove and free hand.
If you are stiff with the glove, The ball will bounce back away from you.
So you need to absorb the ball into the glove ( Soft Hand's ).
Also as I said in the earlier part of this post.
You use the glove to skip the ball into your throwing hand.
It's a technique to get the ball into the infielder's hand as quik as possible for the DP.
EH

Just don't buy the cheap foam ones. The kids learn that they CAN catch the ball with them by bending them. Get the stiff leather ones. They cost more, but the cheap ones defeat the purpose.

gimages, have all your fielders take grounders with the pancake glove.

Have your MIF'ers turn the pivot on DP's using it.

And to teach outfielders to catch flyballs with two hands and have a quick transfer (e.g., runner tagging up scenario), have them catch flies using the pancake glove. They will swear it is humanly impossible, as the fly ball smacks off the glove and falls to the ground the first five or six times. But as they learn to be quick with their throwing hand, they will take pride in being able to catch the fly with a flat glove.

It is a useful tool.

Texan,

Thanks. Will do. One of son's favorite baseball teams are the long horns. Santa graced him with two texas hoodies.

quote:

Originally posted by gimages:
The pancake glove sounds like a wonderful tool. How is the glove used? What kind of drills are done with the glove?

Besides taking grounders with the pancake, you should play catch. Sounds simple, but forces improvement in 2 areas...

1. Catching with 2 hands. Too many players at every level still catch the ball with one hand. Using the pancake, builds the 2 hand habit.

2. Better footwork. Since you can't just reach out to the side and snag off line throws, the pancake forces you to move your feet into better catching position where you can receive the ball with 2 hands. Important skill to develop.

Mike F

The idea behind the pancake glove is 2-fold, 1 is the use of 2 hands or in reality deflecting the ball into your throwing hand, 2, is to field the ball out front with hands extended to absorb the ball (soft hands). It also helps the player get the feel for going though the ball with his hands.

Like others have said...great tool if used properly

I've even started selling these to the slow pitch softball guys and they love it as well.

I asked my son about 2nd baseman using the back of their glove when making double players and he said that is some thing they never do.
Never owned a pan cake glove but my son is pretty quick at getting the ball out of his glove,I would attribute it to the wall ball he played in the basement.... Just throwing and catching a tennis ball as hard and as fast as he could for couple hours each night.....for years.