Congratulations on purchasing a brand new baseball glove! You more than likely have realized by now that your brand new mitt is most certainly extremely stiff and difficult to play with. Don’t fret, because this is totally normal. Your new glove has to be broken in to be able to perform properly and fit comfortably during a game. Although everyone has their own traditions and recommendations when it comes to breaking in a brand new mitt, here are some of the best techniques I’ve discovered.
Simply Use It: This is undoubtedly the best strategy to break in your new baseball glove. However, it also takes the longest of the approaches listed here to work. Simply play catch together with another player daily for a couple of weeks and your baseball mitt will begin to feel a great deal more comfortable and will sooner or later be ready to play with in a game. In the event that another player is not available, just throw the ball into your other hand as hard as you’re able repeatedly. Use this strategy when there is hardly any rush to begin playing with your new glove.
Heat: A different way to soften up your baseball glove is with a type of heat. Although there are quite a few different techniques and methods to softening your brand new baseball glove using heat, quite a few are dangerous and are not recommended. Some of these include heating your baseball glove in the microwave and warming it in the oven. These methods are unsafe in my view and really should be avoided. One way that we found which works just as well is to leave your new baseball mitt in the vehicle on a summer day for about sixty minutes. Automobiles can get very hot during the summer (up to about 150 degrees Fahrenheit) and tend to be much safer compared to ovens and microwaves.
Oils: Though I do not recommend this method, some people like to put lubricants in their new baseball glove to soften it up. Some ideas are baby oil, vaseline, shaving cream, saddle soap, or specialty glove oils. I don’t recommend this technique simply because it is disputed whether or not it deteriorates the life span of your baseball mitt and can make your baseball mitt heavier because the liquid soaks into it. With the extremely high price of baseball mitts nowadays, I for one am not going to take any risks.
Mattress: One old-school technique to break in your baseball glove is to store a baseball in it all the time, and to keep it underneath your mattress a few nights when you go to bed. You could also try turning it inside out and doing the very same thing.
Remember, having a new baseball glove is nice, but it won’t make you a better player! You have to do that yourself! Work hard on your baseball workouts, and put that glove to use!