Often times I am contacted by coaches or parents referring a player for catching instruction. Their goal: a sub two-second throw. That’s every catchers’ goal, right? “If I can throw 1.99 to second base, I can play college baseball.” The truth is, no.
The skill of throwing as a catcher is overvalued in most young catchers’ (and parents’) minds. At a young age, i.e. 12U baseball, the ability for a catcher to control the running game can win or lose a game. This is mostly due to the fact that pitchers are so focused on the hitter, they have a hard time controlling the running game. What do the coaches and parents see? The inability for the catcher to get the runner out on a stolen base. They seek help to get the throws to be quicker and more accurate and with a few pointers, it can be accomplished. Great for the catcher and hopefully the team, but it's not enough for the development of the catcher.
If you were to ask coaches to rank the fundamental skills of a catcher (throwing, receiving and blocking), 9 out of 10 coaches would say #1 Receiving, #2 Blocking, and #3 Throwing. Why is this? I will use the professional level as an example because there is data. And, before you say it, I know MLB and NCAA are very different animals (as is the NCAA and High School game). Here’s the data: in an MLB game, catchers are thrown an average of 146 pitches (Reference 1). Of those pitches, they will probably have to block 15-30 balls, more or less depending on the pitcher, and will have an average of 1.11 stolen base attempts (Reference 2). While this is based off the MLB style game, we start to get an idea about these ratios.
This is why I prefer to spend most of my time working on receiving.
While I like (slash love) to work on receiving with pitching machines, I believe catchers develop the best working with pitchers in the bullpen. The bullpen is the next best thing to catching in a game. It is a great opportunity to work on your craft and develop a relationship with your pitchers. Many catchers look at catching in the bullpen as punishment. That’s a negative mindset, if you don’t recognize the opportunity to get better in the bullpen, you are wasting an opportunity and everyone’s time.
Now, let’s do a quick run through of some of my favorite catching drills, focusing on drills you can do at home with tennis balls.
First, when working on receiving with tennis balls, hold a tennis ball in your palm with just your pinky and ring finger (see image)(Xan Barksdale, Catching 101 & CatcherCon.com). This will force you to catch the ball in the correct location of your hand and therefore in the “sweet spot” of your glove.
There are TONS of drills you can do with tennis balls and the best part is, there really isn’t a bad one. The most important thing is that the catcher is focused and treating the catch as game-like as possible. The same actions should be done as if it is a “make it or break it” pitch in the biggest game of the year.
These are pitches right down the middle - a good way to "warm-up." Notice I am flipping from a short distance in front of the catcher. I am trying to flip it directly at his hand to reinforce the feel of being quiet and soft. The less amount of movement, the better. There should be NO movement with his head or body on this pitch. You can do this for every location around the plate. Tell the catcher where you are throwing the pitch and let him make an efficient move to receive the ball. With different zones, he may have to move his body. For example, I personally like dropping the left knee on low pitches. Also, notice in the video there is a connection ball behind the catcher, use that to reinforce being “soft” by putting it between the forearm and bicep.
Next, mix in some “opposites.” Doing opposites is a great drill for what comes down to glove control. Glove control can make or break a catcher. I know what you’re thinking, how does a bare hand drill work on glove control? It’s all about the catcher’s ability to beat the ball to the spot and manipulate his glove (wrist/hand) to do so. Keeping this basic, the “opposites” I like to do are left to right, up to down, and diagonals. Check out the video for an example of the diagonal of down glove-side to up throwing-hand-side.
Now that we have done drills for each location, I like to then do a round or two of rapid fire. For this, I tell the catcher what we are about to do, then start with as many balls as I can in each hand. Mixing zones and speeds, I challenge the catcher to receive all the pitches perfectly (see video). How fast can they get to the spot?
To add a little spice, I like to use a tennis racquet. This makes it more fun for me too. The tennis racquet makes it a little tougher for the catcher to anticipate where the pitch is going to be, adding an element of athleticism, or adjustability. As you will see in the following video, I also like to mix in a few balls in the dirt when doing these drills. In all of the videos, the catchers are in their primary (or receiving) stance, these drills can be done in their secondary (or active) stance as well. Since these guys are in their primary stance, when I mix in a ball in the dirt, all I ask is that they flip their hand and get their hand behind the ball. This can help with catchers who are late with their glove on balls in the dirt.
The next video is tennis racquet and rapid fire! Thanks Coach Sprague for helping me with this one and Joey for getting thrown into the fire.
Here is the secondary stance for this catcher, an example for you to see. He is in a more active stance where he can move freely and block when necessary. Notice the tennis balls in this picture, that is set up for our “three ball drill.” A very common blocking drill which can easily be done to work on correct blocking technique and reaction to different pitches (by coach pointing at which ball to block).
