Young pitcher with a catcher who can't catch her

MNDad said:

Catchers put in just as much work, if not more than pitchers. For starters most pitchers can’t hit the broad side of a barn so the catcher has to chase the ball everyplace. They do all of their individual work AND catch for the pitcher at her lessons. They arrive at practice early and leave late to lug all the heavy equipment around. Catchers drag that huge bag around that wheels fell off in the first week while pitchers have their parents carry their bag so their arm doesn’t get tired. The closest a pitcher comes to running is sprinting out of practice early to get out of helping put things away. And the biggest difference is catchers parents don’t make sure everybody knows how much harder their kid is working.

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Yes good catchers do all those things you listed, my point was I see a lot of catchers do not. No player on our team is allowed to have their parents carry their bag, ever.

I've seen it from both sides of the plate on my daughter's 10u all star team this year. We started with 3 catchers 2 main and 1 backup. My little beast does all team practices, plus at least 3 hours of catching work on her own each week. She takes out several stealers a weekend and easily catches pop ups. Thankfully now that our pitcher is improving she doesn't have to block as much but she is getting much better at it and very fast to grab passed/wild pitches and get runners at home plate. But catcher #2 decided that she would rather play 1st or outfield because becoming a really good catcher required too much work.

We also started off with 2 main pitchers and after 3 weeks, #2 again decided it was too much work to become a good pitcher.

Luckily DD and Pitcher have thrived under the spotlight and the team is winning against teams that are supposed to crush us. All the extra innings and practice these two are doing is amazing, especially at their age. But does show me that after this we are done with rec ball because she is a gamer and doesn't like the ugh who cares attitude of her teammates.


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A sad update: DD's catcher had been doing a little better, flinching less and catching more and more pitches.

And then catcher got hit in the elbow by a batter. (I think she was so focused on the ball that she forgot about the batter.) X-rays were negative, luckily, but she's still in a lot of pain so she's done for the all-star season.

Been there done that with my DD in rec as a pitcher. I unfortunately was the coach and the dad. I had to pick the most athletic, tough and gritty girl on the team to put behind the plate. As the coach I went to her and built her up the most I could and did all I could do to keep her courage and want to up. We lost no hit games due to dropped 3k. 15 k’s and still lose games. We made the move to travel ball and got out of the rec system. It is a very frustrating time for young pitchers but when we started moving to travel and playing with good catchers it made things much better. Most rec players don’t sign up to get behind the plate with 45 mph+ balls being thrown at them from 35 feet. I know it’s been said to tell you daughter to keep her head up and it will get better but sometimes they can only hear that so much. Maybe start talking about other options to get on a team with players of the same level. If your daughter is in that 42-45 mph then she needs to be pushed facing better batters then most rec leagues provide.

Agbracing said:

Been there done that with my DD in rec as a pitcher. I unfortunately was the coach and the dad. I had to pick the most athletic, tough and gritty girl on the team to put behind the plate. As the coach I went to her and built her up the most I could and did all I could do to keep her courage and want to up. We lost no hit games due to dropped 3k. 15 k’s and still lose games. We made the move to travel ball and got out of the rec system. It is a very frustrating time for young pitchers but when we started moving to travel and playing with good catchers it made things much better. Most rec players don’t sign up to get behind the plate with 45 mph+ balls being thrown at them from 35 feet. I know it’s been said to tell you daughter to keep her head up and it will get better but sometimes they can only hear that so much. Maybe start talking about other options to get on a team with players of the same level. If your daughter is in that 42-45 mph then she needs to be pushed facing better batters then most rec leagues provide.

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DD's rec league is pretty strong so I have no problem keeping her there for a while. She's fast and accurate (for her age), but she's not a supernatural talent or anything like that. And opening the door to TB will mean closing a door to other sports and activities, which isn't worth it to us.

BuckeyeBW said:

It is too bad that on a lot of teams you have pitchers that work their butts off to get better and the catchers just show up to catch. A good catcher needs to have just as much skill as the pitcher and should train, get lessons, etc. just like a pitcher.

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A lot of teams? Really? This hasn't been our experience. Catchers that aren't doing the work they need to to keep their skills improving quickly get left behind by the ones that are.

Eric F said:

A lot of teams? Really? This hasn't been our experience. Catchers that aren't doing the work they need to to keep their skills improving quickly get left behind by the ones that are.

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That seems to be true with most every position. Those who put in the work get better, those that do not get left behind. I have found that there are very few exceptional catchers out there, and just as many exceptional pitchers. What passes often passes for being good is a pretty low bar. The only difference is that you can train someone to be a serviceable catcher, much quicker than someone to pitch. But all that does is get them in the game. It take a lot of hard work to get to an elite level. Very few ever get there.

riseball said:

That seems to be true with most every position. Those who put in the work get better, those that do not get left behind. I have found that there are very few exceptional catchers out there, and just as many exceptional pitchers. What passes often passes for being good is a pretty low bar. The only difference is that you can train someone to be a serviceable catcher, much quicker than someone to pitch. But all that does is get them in the game. It take a lot of hard work to get to an elite level. Very few ever get there.

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Fair enough.

My issue with Buck's comment was that a lot of teams have catchers that don't work to get better like pitchers do. Last time I saw one of those was 10U rec ball. Sure, some work harder than others, and those are the ones who start separating themselves from the pack. Same is true of pitchers, from what I've seen.

Eric F said:

Fair enough.

My issue with Buck's comment was that a lot of teams have catchers that don't work to get better like pitchers do. Last time I saw one of those was 10U rec ball. Sure, some work harder than others, and those are the ones who start separating themselves from the pack. Same is true of pitchers, from what I've seen.

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I will retract my statement as really I have no idea how much they work and how much they don't and that is true for all positions. It "seems" a lot of them work on blocking and throwing to second but really don't do a lot of the little things like setting up or framing etc. that make a really good catcher. We see some amazing catchers but I see more that I am surprised they are catching at the level we play at. I can speak for our team and a couple others that I know pretty well and the pitchers seem to be leaving the catchers behind a little and by that I mean that they are really refining their skills. The catchers not so much. Our 3rd catcher has actually made some big strides this year and it is too bad she just doesn't have that great of an arm. Please don't take my posts as a lack of appreciation for catchers in any way as I think their position is the hardest on the field. I also believe that a great catcher can dominate a game almost as much, if not as much, as a great pitcher especially at the 11u/12u age where we play.

I think that the thing about catchers is that it's not a really flashy position, like pitching. A really good catcher makes it look so easy that you think it is really easy. But having to catch a wild pitcher with velocity is WORK. My DD has become a real pro at blocking this year because of all the inaccurate pitches she's catching. And learning how to pop up and grab that ball when it goes over her head is work too. It's sort of like when I watch Olympic gymnastics; they make it look really easy when you know how ridiculously hard it really is.