10 boys and 10 girls (60 subjects) were randomly selected from kindergarten, first, and second grades. Each subject attempted to catch balls of 6-, 8.5-, 10-, and 13-in. diameters through 28 trials (seven attempts per ball per subject). A special apparatus was designed to roll the ball consistently into the subject's arms from a horizontal distance of approximately 4 ft. The quality of each attempted catch was evaluated using a five-point scale. The main effects of ball size, grade, and sex were significant. A linear trend described the relation of ball size and grade. The over-all quality of the catching performance improved from kindergarten to second grade and from the small ball to the larger sizes.
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