Our Catchers...

On the JV team this year we have three catchers. When I was playing fastpitch growing up this was my favorite position. Now that I'm a coach if I'm not working with our hitters I much prefer to work with our catchers. Unfortunately this is a position that can easily be neglected in practices and I see it happen to our team regularly. It's frustrating for me because I used to be a catcher and I know what it feels like to be looked over in practice.

There are several things that catchers really need to work on in practices in order to really advance their skills. Blocking is a skill that a lot of young catchers need to develop as soon as possible. In game situations it is important for the catchers to keep the ball in front of them at all times otherwise you risk a runner stealing a base and errors only equal runs. A lot of catchers when they first start learning how to block they have a difficult time with the concept of kicking your feet back and smothering the ball. I tried to work on this with our girls throughout the season but I haven't seen much improvement from the girls who struggle with this. Another part of catching is framing a pitch. Sometimes I feel framing a pitch is more important than blocking a ball in the dirt. The reason I think framing is more important is because it can really help a pitcher in many different ways. If a catcher can frame a pitch just right and sell the pitch to the umpire it will help keep the pitch count low for the pitcher. One of the games this season we actually had an umpire tell one of our catchers who struggles with framing that she needed to do a better job at "sticking" the ball. This catcher in particular will catch the ball but she lets her glove travel even after the ball has hit the glove.

It was interesting to have three catchers on the team this year because each one of them had a strength where the other had a weakness. One girl did a great job at framing pitches, another girl was great at blocking and the other has a great arm when throwing down to second base. If I could combine all of the girls skills into one catcher you would have a stud of a catcher! Unfortunately that can't happen and it's up to me to develop their skills. I wish I had more time to work with the catchers during the season but there just isn't enough time. Again it's hard to work with the catchers in practice and they easily get looked over. So far we only had four or five practices where the catchers could spend some time with me working on catching skills. I hope that as the years continue I can see these kids grow. Each of them has the potential to play for Varsity but I'm afraid it's going to come down to politics. It's not really a fair system but I really don't know how to change it. As an assistant coach you don't really get much say in what happens with the teams regardless of what my opinion is. Hopefully in the off season the girls will be able to work on their skills and come back next season with a vengeance.