- Jun 18, 2013
- 322
- 18
As most of you know, Cricket is moving into travel ball and moving up to 12U at the same time. Last night we had our second practice with the new team plus we had some new faces that were there to be evaluated to fill in the roster. So she was trying to catch for girls that she has never caught before, that throw harder than she has ever really dealt with, that throw more pitches than she has seen before, and were trying to prove something. She is still struggling to pick the ball up out of the pitcher's hand but we are working on that. We had a practice session on Monday and she did much better with me. I have a few concerns that I want to ask how you would address.
First, she is seeing the other catchers do well using an incorrect stance and it is aggravating her because she is trying to use proper mechanics but having difficulty moving as well. They are setting up like this to receive.
So essentially they are just staying in the sign giving stance and never getting down in the proper no runners stance so when the pitchers are a little wild they have better mobility to jump up or move around. It makes her look less reliable to the untrained eye because she is down in the proper position. It is doubly aggravating because the girl that coached our first practice didn't know the proper mechanics and tried to put her up into the sign giving stance to receive. She sets up like this.
Only, she gets a little deeper in her stance. She actually gets low enough that the ball can't get through the 5 hole. I am not sure how to address the mobility issue from this position though. The whole point of getting down this far is to be stable and to present a very steady target when there is no threat of a runner. I don't want her to be constantly popping into runners on during pitching sessions and wearing out her knees and legs just because the pitchers are struggling to hit their spots.
The other issue that she had is that she hasn't dealt with multiple pitches before. At 10U everything was essentially a fastball of various speeds. Last night one of the girls was throwing to me at first and I asked her what she threw and she rattled off 6 pitches. I shook my head and told her to stick with fastballs and change ups for me for right now so I can see what those can do. Then Cricket stepped in to catch for her. She did fine when the pitcher was throwing fastballs. Caught some and had some go by but nothing unusual. Then I told her that she was going to throw a change up. The pitcher threw it up high so Cricket popped up to catch it and it didn't get there and she freaked because it wasn't where she expected it to be. It confused her so bad that she almost had a complete meltdown on me. I calmed her down and explained what a change up was supposed to do and told her to expect it to come in spinning backwards and to drop when it got to the plate so to be prepared to block it. Then I told the pitcher to throw it again. She pulled back and threw a hard fastball that drilled Cricket right in the side of the helmet. Almost in the throat. We called it a night on the catching after that. I can throw consistent fastballs to her to teach her how to position herself and what to look for from those, but I don't have other pitches in my arm. How do I teach her what to expect from other pitches short of getting her up there with other kids once a week and letting them throw to her?
First, she is seeing the other catchers do well using an incorrect stance and it is aggravating her because she is trying to use proper mechanics but having difficulty moving as well. They are setting up like this to receive.
So essentially they are just staying in the sign giving stance and never getting down in the proper no runners stance so when the pitchers are a little wild they have better mobility to jump up or move around. It makes her look less reliable to the untrained eye because she is down in the proper position. It is doubly aggravating because the girl that coached our first practice didn't know the proper mechanics and tried to put her up into the sign giving stance to receive. She sets up like this.
Only, she gets a little deeper in her stance. She actually gets low enough that the ball can't get through the 5 hole. I am not sure how to address the mobility issue from this position though. The whole point of getting down this far is to be stable and to present a very steady target when there is no threat of a runner. I don't want her to be constantly popping into runners on during pitching sessions and wearing out her knees and legs just because the pitchers are struggling to hit their spots.
The other issue that she had is that she hasn't dealt with multiple pitches before. At 10U everything was essentially a fastball of various speeds. Last night one of the girls was throwing to me at first and I asked her what she threw and she rattled off 6 pitches. I shook my head and told her to stick with fastballs and change ups for me for right now so I can see what those can do. Then Cricket stepped in to catch for her. She did fine when the pitcher was throwing fastballs. Caught some and had some go by but nothing unusual. Then I told her that she was going to throw a change up. The pitcher threw it up high so Cricket popped up to catch it and it didn't get there and she freaked because it wasn't where she expected it to be. It confused her so bad that she almost had a complete meltdown on me. I calmed her down and explained what a change up was supposed to do and told her to expect it to come in spinning backwards and to drop when it got to the plate so to be prepared to block it. Then I told the pitcher to throw it again. She pulled back and threw a hard fastball that drilled Cricket right in the side of the helmet. Almost in the throat. We called it a night on the catching after that. I can throw consistent fastballs to her to teach her how to position herself and what to look for from those, but I don't have other pitches in my arm. How do I teach her what to expect from other pitches short of getting her up there with other kids once a week and letting them throw to her?