Persuasive Essay On Catchers And Drills

Fundamentals of Catching
To become a better at anything you must start with the basics. That is no different for catching. I am here to talk to you about becoming a better catcher and the drills and tools you can use to achieve your goals of being a better catcher. Catching isn’t for everyone. It’s like volunteer work; you have to work hard and it isn’t very rewarding. A majority of the time volunteer work is unpaid and in the MLB catchers are the lowest paid position players. But when people step back and see what volunteer workers do they are impressed by what the workers are willing to do for such little reward. The same goes for catchers, people are always impressed by what a catcher has to do each game for the little amount of credit received.
The first fundamental is proper squatting form. Proper squatting form is crucial if you want to be a better player and if you want to be in the game for a long time. Your feet should be pointed outward and you should be on the ball of your feet. I should be able to push you but not push you off balance. Keep your butt off the ground the higher you can keep it while still squatting the more athletic you will be. With nobody on base you can be more relaxed I your stance. Once a runner is on base you must be in an athletic position ready to pop up and throw if the runner goes.

Now that squatting is covered we can talk about the most important skill any catcher has to have; receiving. The name of the position is catcher so obviously the most important thing you must do is catch the ball! Before you can even catch the ball you need to be able to track the ball all the way into your glove. Tracking the ball is where most problems with receiving begin. Catchers get lazy and don’t follow the ball out of the pitcher’s hand to see where the ball is going. A good drill for tracking is having a coach or another player flip you balls and watching them all the way into your glove. This is also a simple easy way to warm up. Once you’ve tracked the ball you have to properly receive the ball. To do this you want to keep your thumb under the ball and catch it in the web of your glove like you would with any other type of glove. A drill to help this is the no glove drill, where someone flips you a ball and try to catch it with your index finger and thumb only. Another more advanced drill is rapid fire ball flips with no glove. Both of these are also good warm ups.

When the pitcher loses his control and spikes a ball in the dirt what are you going to do? You are going have to block that ball and keep it in front of you. This is the factor that weeds out most players from catching. The first step to properly blocking is always be prepared to have to block on every pitch. The next step is reading the ball out of the pitcher’s hand (this goes back to tracking). You must to be able to tell if the pitcher is going to throw the ball into the ground or anywhere unexpected. Once you read the ball and know it is going in the dirt kick your legs out behind you. When your knees are on the ground have your glove covering the gap between your legs (5 hole). Make sure to put your non glove hand behind that in order to protect it from getting hurt. Another safety tip is to keep your head down to protect your throat from getting hit. While your head is down keep your shoulders hunched inward so if the ball bounces up it will keep the ball in front of you. An excellent drill for this is the block and scramble where a ball is thrown at you and you have to block it and find it to get ready to throw. If there is a wild pitch to the side lean that way, then kick out your legs and slide to that side. Try block at an angle that puts the ball back to the plate. Another excellent drill for this is the point and go drill. For point and go have someone point down, left, or right and that is the way you have to block.

Weather you have blocked the ball or caught it in your athletic catching position the runner on base decides to go you’re going to have to throw him out.
In order to do this, you are going to need the right throwing mechanics. When the runner is going you don’t have much time to throw him out. The correct arm slot is important in this case. A catcher shouldn’t have a long wind up to throw. Instead you need to throw from your ear for a quick release (similar to a football throw). To get the ball there you need to have a smooth transfer which requires you to bring your glove to your ear where your throwing arm should meet the ball in the glove. A good way to practice this is just sitting on the couch and practicing your transfer. Another drill is to blind fold yourself and practice the transfer to make it muscle memory faster. After you have made a proper transfer and are ready to throw you have to get your throw power from somewhere. That power is in your legs. When you are throwing drive off of your back leg to create power towards your target. A drill that is great for throwing as a whole is the receive and pop drill. Have a teammate throw you and ball and right before you are about to catch it drive forward as you pop up to catch and throw down. Have your coach time you on your throws down to second base to record your pop time. The average high school pop time is 2.0, anytime under that is when coaches start to notice
you.

When you reach a higher level of baseball out of little league you begin to have to call pitches and plays for your team. Before you can call anything you should talk to your coaches and teammates about what your signals mean. Signals allow you to talk to your teammates without the other team knowing what the play call is. Pitch calling is the most important of all though. To be able to smoothly call pitches talk to your pitchers before they start on what each finger you put down means and what they are comfortable with. The worst thing any pitcher and catcher can do is get crossed up and throw a different ball than called. This is dangerous to the catcher and can cause a passed ball and possibly runs to score. When calling pitches, you don’t want the other team to steal your signs and know what pitch or call is being made. To hide signs, make sure your legs are closed concealing your fingers from the other team. If there is an opposition who can still see your fingers, faux signs help keep them from knowing the true call.

If you want to stay in the game for a long time proper arm care is necessary. Although most of your throwing power is from your legs, the arm is what transfers the power so it must be able to handle the stress. Arm strengthening through weighted ball work is a good start. It promotes strengthening of the decelerators which is equally as important as the parts of the arm that throw the ball. Long toss is also a way to improve arm strength. Running after each game is needed to break up harmful acids in the arm that builds up from throwing. A catcher throws as much if not more than the pitcher therefor it is necessary to run the acids out. Since the catcher throws as much as the pitchers a good way to stay in shape is to work out with the pitchers when they have to do their recovery and other work to stay in the best possible shape. Squatting the whole game and having to throw so much catchers should be in the best shape of all.

After all this why do players still want to catch? They love it. It’s the toughest least rewarding job on the field but somebody has to do it. Not a lot of people are willing to put themselves behind the plate, in front of unpredictable pitches. Once you find the love in doing that you’ll be able to be the best catcher you can be. But the most important thing any catcher has to do is trust themselves. The coach put you out there because he trusts you. Trust yourself and do the best you can. You have prepared mentally and physically to preform your best. You can do it!