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darrellw

I coach a 7th/8th grade team and have one young ladie that loves to catch. We are working on her skills behind the plate but the one thing I have some trouble with is trying to get her to be more vocal. I want her calling out the field situations, reminding the infielders to get down into their ready postion, communicating more with her pitcher, etc.

She has the ability to be an on field leader but feels "funny" about being so vocal. Any ideas?

Thank You.

Darrell

Winchester

Some kids personalities are different. They don't want to be seen as "bossy" or they are not in the right click and don't want to be made fun of. Try having her relay the information you want. During practice, nothing happens until she relays the information you give her during game situations or infield practice. Just like the other skills they aquire, vocalization is something they can accomplish with a little help from the coach. This will take a little heat off them since they are only relaying information from the coach.

StacieM

I felt funny about being vocal as well, but I wasn't a catcher.

This skill is something that we actually practice with our catchers in practice. We have them call out plays and such while we're doing our defensive practice. As coaches, we won't even tell the defense the situation. We tell the catcher only and have them relay it and from there, the players on the field also have to pick it up and communicate it again to each other.

Many young ladies feel like they are being "bossy" if they are telling their teammates what to do. But this is definitely a great skill to master if you are in the catching position. So even if it's "not her nature" helping her develop this skill will help her take a great stride forward as a catcher.

It wasn't until I was in college that I realized how much my teammates WANTED me to be vocal. They didn't think I was being bossy at all. I learned this through an exercise where each of us were evaluated by 2-3 of our teammates. Each person that had me wrote down that one of the things they thought I could improve was being more vocal on the field. As a freshman in college, I felt like I didn't "have the right" to tell anyone on that field what to do. But my teammates didn't have that perspective at all and it helped to hear it from them that they actually wanted me to talk more.

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Stacie Mahoe
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ang4yanks

I just posted in the Speed and Power Forum pertaining to this matter. I think a solution for better vocalization can be found in teambuilding exercises or programming. In the corporate world personality-type, learning styles, team roles are defined to maximize performance. Understanding myself in these areas has helped in my life performance. I believe athletic teams have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Also, athletes and coaches are best served when they can eliminate dysfunction to the best of their ability by preventing and addressing controversy with the least amount of words possible. Major on the majors and minor on the minors; principles before personality; and good matches between team and family philosophy. Within the realm of "good team," there are still different philosophies that could create a mismatch.

Ang

bigdaddy

My DD is a pitcher not a catcher and is in 6th grade, but I've been having similar discussions with her.

We talk a lot about leadership. I explained to her that being vocal is necessary and the other girls are actually looking for leadership from the circle.

I encouraged her to start small. We talked about just announcing verbally and with hand signals the # of outs. After she felt comfortable with that we moved onto verbally and demonstrably acknowledging good plays by her teammates. We also added picking up a player after a mistake/error.

I told her that if she did these things the team would run through a brick wall for her...and that's exactly what has happened!

My son plays lacrosse and much of his success is dependant on other players. I told him not to celebrate after a goal, but to immediately seek out the player with the assist and let him know what a great pass or whatever. I also told him to take the "blame" for any play he's involved with that doesn't workout. IOW, if a player makes a poor pass that my son can't handle he says "my bad". If my son makes a great pass that isn't caught he will say something like. "Great cut...I'll get you another ball". The result of this is that kids will half kill themselves to get him the ball!

Keith

Keith

1tufcuky

It seems to me that maybe communication need not be vocal...my daughter is the catcher for her high school varsity team. Even last year as a freshman, she was "vocal" with hand signals and subtle meetings called to the mound. You never hear her voice and she never has issues communicating to her teammates...I would say let the catcher communicate in a way that she's most comfortable with...especially when dealing with teen and preteen girls!

halskinner

"I want her calling out the field situations, reminding the infielders to get down into their ready postion, communicating more with her pitcher, etc."

Wrong. You do want the catcher to be vocal, NON-STOP vocal to her pitcher. You have 7 other players on the field and a coach that can do the other crap you are referring to. Unless she is in a throw down situation, she needs to be talking to her pitcher and keeping that pitcher's focus on the business end of the position; THE STRIKE ZONE!

Part of a great catcher's game plan is to be VERY loud and distracting to the batters of the other team. You cannot say anything directly to the hitters, however, a catcher can say pretty much anything ABOUT them to the pitcher.

Keep the pitcher's focus on the catcher and the strike zone and keep the hitters thinking about something other than hitting the ball. Let everyone else think about everything else.

When a pitcher has the ball in the circle, there are only 4 people on the field that matter;

1. The pitcher.
2. The catcher.
3. The umpire.
4. The next strike out victim.

NOBODY ELSE IS IMPORTANT UNLESS THE BALL HAPPENS TO GET HIT. If the pitcher is distracted by the catcher and thinking about a runner, or where to throw the ball if it is hit to her, or whatever, she will NOT be the best she can be.

Catchers and coaches need to figure that out if they want a winning team.

Hal