First of all, a quick hello to any students from Mr. Nikolich’s Marketing 470 class at NIU who decided to stop by and see if I was as full of it as I seemed the other day. If any of you come by, please leave a comment below and I’ll see if I can wrangle a little extra credit for you. Ok, now on to fastpitch catchers and their needs.

What I’m talking about today is actually a fairly common issue, especially with young catchers, baseball as well as fastpitch. We talk a lot about “pop” times and the importance of getting the ball down to the base quickly on a steal.

So what happens? As catchers come up from a squat to a throwing position, often times in their haste they don’t get their bodies turned properly. When that happens they lose both power and accuracy on the throw. They wind up more like one of those yard sprinklers, spray balls all over the place.

With some training they can learn to get into the proper position when they’re not making the throw, or they’re under pressure. But sometimes they just can’t make the transition, no matter how much you yell at them. 🙂 That’s when you need to get a little creative.

In some recent catching clinics with the Midwest Glory, I had been having the catcher work on their foot quickness with a speed ladder. They would straddle the ladder, then “jump on the skateboard” to get in place, going as rapidly as they could. Then we moved to real throws.

Some were ok, but others had some trouble. When they popped up they would wind up with their feet at a 45 degree angle to the target rather than being fully turned. That’s when it hit me.

That speed ladder I’d just been using would work perfectly as a guide to get the feet aligned. So I dragged it over, set it up and voila! Great positioning and better throws.

In the photos, Brinn McNeill is demonstrating how it works. The first photo shows Brinn in a runners on base stance, straddling one of the opening on the ladder. The second photo shows her after popping up into a good throwing position – shoulders, hips and knees aligned toward second, elbow pointed forward, knees still slightly bent.

She could now make an accurate throw blindfolded – and in fact has done just that. But that’s a story for another day.

If you have catchers who are having trouble getting lined up properly, give this technique a try. By the way, if you don’t have a speed ladder you can draw one in the dirt. If you’re indoors and don’t have dirt, use tape (with light adhesive), or sticks, or anything you can find to create two boxes for the feet.

And if you do try it, let me know how it goes in the comments below.