Who catches pitching lessons?

[Hillhouse]

I’ve seen it done by some instructors when girls are younger but not with older, experienced pitchers who throw with decent velocity. Kudos to Bill for being willing to do it and for being able to make corrections to the pitcher for what he’s seeing. I’ve got to imagine it takes a lot of talent to be able to do that - see the ball and know exactly what the pitcher is doing wrong mechanically at the same time!

That sounded like sarcasm to me. lol.

I don't know about it taking "talent" to do this. I would say it came with practice, and lots of it. And by practice I mean, countless hours of doing it during countless hours of lessons. These days, I like when pitchers bring catchers because then I can do things from both sides, standing next to her and catching. Once warmed up, I jump in to catch to see the spin and see things from there. When I stand next to them I can tell if they are trying to do the corrections I gave from when I was catching, but the instruction I give them is mostly based off what I see when I was catching from the rotation of the ball. To be honest, I worry about what happens when I'm unable to catch because of age and poor reflexes. While it's been gradual, I have noticed a slight reduction in my reflexes. I miss some pitches that I used to catch easily. But, I'm going to stop when that issue becomes dangerous. Right now it just feels sloppy, I don't feel in danger. The hardest part is going from a 10 yr old to a college age kid in back to back lessons. Not to mention sometimes, some locations have less than ideal lighting too. In other words, I know I'm getting old.

Maybe I won't have to worry about it. I have tickets for tonight's $1B Powerball and plan on winning. Once I do that, I will NEVER look at a softball again.

 

[njparent]

I look at lesson day as leg day for me...

Makes sense I catch so instructor can look and fix, I feel it makes a huge difference. I'd bring their catchers, but they all live in the opposite direction of where we go.

So I get 2 hours once a week right now. Never got used to sitting on bucket, especially now with pitches starting to come in a lot faster, and with break...

 

[Vertigo]

That sounded like sarcasm to me. lol.

Nope, definitely wasn’t. I just know how difficult it can be to focus on the ball coming at you while trying to also look at the pitcher’s mechanics. Just giving you a compliment - a little disappointing that you thought it was anything but. I’ve always respected your expertise with regards to pitching.

 

[andynayrb]

My daughter's coach catches her part of the time and part of the time I catch. Just depends on what they are working on at any given time. I probably catch most of the full pitch and walk through stuff. With her old coach I did all the catching.

 

[Cannonball]

My dd's first pitching coach would do this after a couple of lessons. He would have 3 pitchers throwing for most of his lessons but with our lessons, he tried to have my dd and one other throw. On that 3rd lesson of each session, he would catch for about half of the lesson and switch to the other student. He made comments to my dd and the other pitcher as he caught them. From there, he might do it a time or two again during that string of lessons.

When I coached baseball, I put the "tools of ignorance" on a lot to catch my pitchers as they threw to hitters. I thought that this helped me to coach both pitching and hitting.

 

[HunterMO]

DD's first pitching coach would catch a lot of his pitchers during lessons. And caught DD over the first few lessons. Then he asked if I was willing to catch for her so he could start evaluating from the back and side. From then on, I caught for her during lessons up until she decided to stop pitching.

As some have already mentioned, you do get use to watching and catching. As weird as it sounds. I ended up catching for DD during individual practice and for lessons. I got pretty good at reading her mechanics and still being able to catch the ball. Though we still always took video from side and/or back. It really helped for working at home. Well....until she got tired of my feedback....

 

[Jeffrey]

I catch about half my students. The other half I jump in occasionally just to get another perspective. I have a video replay set-up I use when I need it, but now that I'm catching somebody almost every day I've become fairly good at seeing flaws from my stool. Sometimes I have a parent film from the side. When we're working on something that needs close attention every pitch we go to the ball bucket and they throw at the backstop. Sometimes we do the backstop thing so they don't have to worry about beating up their catcher and can focus on the mechanics rather than the result.

 

[steve1244]

I catch my daughter in lessons. I wore a 58 mph screw on the meaty part of the calf a month ago and I still have a knot and a bruise. I wear shinguards in BPs at home and am going to do so in lessons from now on. It's worth it to me, though, as I'm learning in the lesson too and catching her is the best way to see what she's doing wrong/right and to absorb what the PC is telling her. Her PC catches lessons from time to time when a catcher or parent is not available, but she doesn't do it frequently.

 

[Hillhouse]

Nope, definitely wasn’t. I just know how difficult it can be to focus on the ball coming at you while trying to also look at the pitcher’s mechanics. Just giving you a compliment - a little disappointing that you thought it was anything but. I’ve always respected your expertise with regards to pitching.

Well, you know how it is. It can be easy to read an unintended "tone" in a post, a text, an email that wasn't intended from the writer. And, I didn't take it as hostile or anything. It just sounded a little sarcastic. lol. Maybe that's because sarcasm is actually my native language. lol.

For me, the hardest part is the location of the lessons I do when I catch. Sometimes there is a batters box mat in the cage that has a lip out in front of it. That is scary when the ball hits those. A couple years ago I had a girl hit the lip of that thing, and it came up to nail my face breaking a tooth in half. Good times.

Mostly though, I pay attention to the ball and it's rotation. From the rotation I can usually tell pretty quickly what is good and bad about the pitch, from the mechanics no matter who's pitching. Sometimes it takes a couple pitches, as I go through a mental check list of what she's doing on a particular pitch. Bullet spin on a riseball, for example. This one is simple, bullet spin means she's turning her wrist at the release but then the question becomes, WHY? Is she closing her hips too fast? Cupping the ball in her hand too much? Not following through properly? So after a few pitches of seeing the spin, I start to focus on the cause. I guess I've been doing it for so long that I've never given much thought.

For me, the most frustrating thing is when the girls don't pay attention to their own pitches and spin. They NEED to pay attention to it so they can identify good and bad for themselves. I always tell them, in any game during any inning, if a particular pitch isn't moving for you, the #1 question they have to ask is: Do I have the right rotation on the ball? Unfortunately, this is a systemic problem that starts when they're young. Far too many girls don't pay attention because they're not taught how to develop instincts and a feel for the game. From the time they are 10 years old, every pitch they throw is coming from the dugout from some guy on a bucket. Even if they don't have movement pitches, the location they work on and possible change of speed pitches all come from that coach. Most try to throw whatever that coach has called, without giving it a thought. Ugggh, I feel a rant coming on so I better stop now.

 

[Vertigo]

Well, you know how it is. It can be easy to read an unintended "tone" in a post, a text, an email that wasn't intended from the writer. And, I didn't take it as hostile or anything. It just sounded a little sarcastic. lol. Maybe that's because sarcasm is actually my native language. lol.

For me, the hardest part is the location of the lessons I do when I catch. Sometimes there is a batters box mat in the cage that has a lip out in front of it. That is scary when the ball hits those. A couple years ago I had a girl hit the lip of that thing, and it came up to nail my face breaking a tooth in half. Good times.

Mostly though, I pay attention to the ball and it's rotation. From the rotation I can usually tell pretty quickly what is good and bad about the pitch, from the mechanics no matter who's pitching. Sometimes it takes a couple pitches, as I go through a mental check list of what she's doing on a particular pitch. Bullet spin on a riseball, for example. This one is simple, bullet spin means she's turning her wrist at the release but then the question becomes, WHY? Is she closing her hips too fast? Cupping the ball in her hand too much? Not following through properly? So after a few pitches of seeing the spin, I start to focus on the cause. I guess I've been doing it for so long that I've never given much thought.

For me, the most frustrating thing is when the girls don't pay attention to their own pitches and spin. They NEED to pay attention to it so they can identify good and bad for themselves. I always tell them, in any game during any inning, if a particular pitch isn't moving for you, the #1 question they have to ask is: Do I have the right rotation on the ball? Unfortunately, this is a systemic problem that starts when they're young. Far too many girls don't pay attention because they're not taught how to develop instincts and a feel for the game. From the time they are 10 years old, every pitch they throw is coming from the dugout from some guy on a bucket. Even if they don't have movement pitches, the location they work on and possible change of speed pitches all come from that coach. Most try to throw whatever that coach has called, without giving it a thought. Ugggh, I feel a rant coming on so I better stop now.

It’s all good, Bill. I can be very sarcastic as well, so I totally get it. However, I’m usually only sarcastic with those who know me extremely well or those who annoy the crap out of me - and you don’t fit into either category (yet).