Pop Times

[catcher22]

Hey all,
I would like some feedback please on pop times.
My 12 year old has recently been clocked at 1.90 1.97, 1.95.
that seems pretty good top me for a 12 year old. what do your 12 year old DD have for pop times?
Or if they are older what did they have when they were 12.
Thanks,

 

[riseball]

Pop times are typically highly unreliable and only represent a tiny fraction of a catchers skill set. It is an attempt to measure athletic performance in a setting that is about as far away from true game conditions as you can get. Kind of like assessing a pitchers ability while throwing in a bullpen or a hitters ability when hitting front toss. They are only useful to compare one player versus another within the session when they are measured.

That said, irrespective of pop times does she consistently get the ball to the bag in time for a competent SS or 2B to make a tag? If she does, that is all that really matters. At 12 years old a good catcher will regularly put the ball over the bag and into CF.

 

[Ken Krause]

Catcher22, the way to think about pop times is to think of the effect they will have on a runner stealing. A good pop time at one level, or with one runner, may not be as good as the next. Bear with me while we do some math.

At 12U, figure the ball will take roughly .5 seconds to get to the plate. Might be longer with some pitchers but that's a decent estimate. The rest depends on the runner. If the runner can go from first to second in 3 seconds, that means the catcher has 2.5 seconds to get the ball to second. But we still have to account for the tag, so maybe take .3 seconds off. Now you're down to 2.2 seconds. Based on that, a time of 1.97 is good. That should shoot down most runners, especially since you likely won't be seeing a ton of kids at 3.0 or under at 12U.

Make your adjustments from there. If the ball takes .6 seconds to go from the pitcher to the catcher's glove, that's .1 second less for the pop time.

What I like about pop times is it helps catchers learn to be quicker and more aggressive with their throws. If they start at 2.5 and get down to 2.1 consistently they've made improvement and will stand a better chance of throwing the runner out. So it's like pitch speed for pitchers. It shows improvement, but at the end of the day the actual numbers don't matter. It's all about whether they can get people out.

ETA: It also depends on who is running the stopwatch. A slight lag in pushing the button on either end, or both ends, can yield numbers that look better than they really are. To understand the effect it can have, try to start and stop a stopwatch within .1 second. It's pretty tough.