Fantastic Pop Time Fanatics

[radness]

In baseball anything below 2 seconds is pretty good. Pudge was a 1.75 but he was the best of the best! I think these times are pretty comparable to softball times. When focusing on pop time we need to really tell your catchers to get the ball in the air as soon as possible. Transfer from glove to hand and have your focus be on getting the ball out of your hand fast. Footwork is essential too. Practice practice practice....

After a quick glance goooogling....
MLB baseball pop times.
Yes 2.0 seems the norm or better averages 1.9's.

To compare

Have 12 years olds in softball throwing 2.0 entering the 14u division of travel ball.
Top %.

Yes i just compared
Pro baseball to a 12 yr old in softball.

1.7 is a TOP D1 preferred softball college pop time.
And breaking that!


* Add
There are different factors in differentiating the two sports.

*Most important being in fastpitch softball the catcher is responsible for holding runners closer to the base.

* There are incredibly much more percentage of back pics in fastpitch softball!!

Enjoy

 

[BRsoftballDad]

Keeping in line with this thread. Here is a video of my daughter from the Fall. She is a second year 12u 2025 on an A class team. I am getting a pop time of about 2.2 (2.23 to be more specific). Am I timing that right? Let me know what you think. She is going to continue to work to get faster but what do you think? Average? ahead of the curve? behind the curve?

 

[erniekru]

Keeping in line with this thread. Here is a video of my daughter from the Fall. She is a second year 12u 2025 on an A class team. I am getting a pop time of about 2.2 (2.23 to be more specific). Am I timing that right? Let me know what you think. She is going to continue to work to get faster but what do you think? Average? ahead of the curve? behind the curve?

Awesome, really enjoy seeing videos of runners getting thrown out. Just initial impression, but there is a lot of time to be saved on the transition from catching to release in the video you've posted. To me there are two components to a pop time

1. Everything from the catch to the release
2. The balls velocity

Work on #1 with a video camera focused on your catcher from the side. Pitch to her and nitpick in a fun way all of the inefficiencies. It is more about learning how to throw hard without a giant arm circle release. It takes time.

To work on #2 is easier. Set aside time to practice the mechanics. Wasserman's High Level Throwing was good for me to help with my kids. DD1 always had a cannon, so I didn't really need to work with her on that. I had to work on training the giant arm circle out of her.

here is a video of a throw down of DD1. I like to video her in game situations to make sure she's doing what we practice. DD is at 13yo 2024, overhand throw is 61mph. Glove to release on this video is .78s

 

[BRsoftballDad]

Here is another one where her 12u team was playing up in a 14u tournament. This is the championship game. It's not as accurate of a throw but I feel like she gets rid of it quicker. Plus the video is a lot closer so it may be easier to see her mechanics. Thanks for the feedback so far. It is much appreciated.

 

[erniekru]

Here is another one where her 12u team was playing up in a 14u tournament. This is the championship game. It's not as accurate of a throw but I feel like she gets rid of it quicker. Plus the video is a lot closer so it may be easier to see her mechanics. Thanks for the feedback so far. It is much appreciated.

When I slow the video to 4x, I get a release time of 4.06sec and divide that by 4 gives a 1.01sec release. If you focus on the release time I would imagine that a .15s or so improvement over the next season or so is attainable. I liked in this video how she didn't gain so much ground towards the pitcher. Believe it or not, most of the time comes from the 1st step. If you look closely at the video you posted and the video @Eric F posted on pg 2, notice how maddie is coming up to get the ball as it hits her glove... Her throw down has essentially started when she picks up the runner leaving and then locates the pitch as middle/high~ish and starts coming up to get the ball. The video that you've posted, your DD is catching a high pitch down in her crouch. These tiny things are the components that can shave off .1-.2sec (which is NOTHING to the untrained eye)


pic showing her receiving the ball

She's doing great for her age. Throwing runners out is the important thing and it seems she's doing that regularly.

 

[Jdaddy]

When I slow the video to 4x, I get a release time of 4.06sec and divide that by 4 gives a 1.01sec release. If you focus on the release time I would imagine that a .15s or so improvement over the next season or so is attainable. I liked in this video how she didn't gain so much ground towards the pitcher. Believe it or not, most of the time comes from the 1st step. If you look closely at the video you posted and the video @Eric F posted on pg 2, notice how maddie is coming up to get the ball as it hits her glove... Her throw down has essentially started when she picks up the runner leaving and then locates the pitch as middle/high~ish and starts coming up to get the ball. The video that you've posted, your DD is catching a high pitch down in her crouch. These tiny things are the components that can shave off .1-.2sec (which is NOTHING to the untrained eye)

View attachment 15844
pic showing her receiving the ball

She's doing great for her age. Throwing runners out is the important thing and it seems she's doing that regularly.

Here is an example of DD coming up and starting to square before the catch. Nothing a catcher loves more than a steal attempt on a rise ball!

 

[Jdaddy]

Here is another one where her 12u team was playing up in a 14u tournament. This is the championship game. It's not as accurate of a throw but I feel like she gets rid of it quicker. Plus the video is a lot closer so it may be easier to see her mechanics. Thanks for the feedback so far. It is much appreciated.

She looks great for 12U! She’s got a very bright future.

 

[ang2bmd]

Awesome, really enjoy seeing videos of runners getting thrown out. Just initial impression, but there is a lot of time to be saved on the transition from catching to release in the video you've posted. To me there are two components to a pop time

1. Everything from the catch to the release
2. The balls velocity

Work on #1 with a video camera focused on your catcher from the side. Pitch to her and nitpick in a fun way all of the inefficiencies. It is more about learning how to throw hard without a giant arm circle release. It takes time.

To work on #2 is easier. Set aside time to practice the mechanics. Wasserman's High Level Throwing was good for me to help with my kids. DD1 always had a cannon, so I didn't really need to work with her on that. I had to work on training the giant arm circle out of her.

here is a video of a throw down of DD1. I like to video her in game situations to make sure she's doing what we practice. DD is at 13yo 2024, overhand throw is 61mph. Glove to release on this video is .78s

Those are nice mechanics...no extra wrist movements, double clutches or other time wastes just snap and throw...love it.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

 

[Fury_Mike]

Keeping in line with this thread. Here is a video of my daughter from the Fall. She is a second year 12u 2025 on an A class team. I am getting a pop time of about 2.2 (2.23 to be more specific). Am I timing that right? Let me know what you think. She is going to continue to work to get faster but what do you think? Average? ahead of the curve? behind the curve?

BRsoftballDad,

For a 12U catcher, she is doing a lot of things right.

A couple of thoughts:

I inserted a stopwatch into the video, and it looks like a 1.10 catch to release and roughly a 2.43-2.50 POP time. I say roughly because the video is a little blurry after I uploaded it. Here are a few things that I believe will help her:

1. Her butt is pretty low when receiving the ball. Runners on base, but stays slightly above the knees.
2. I would recommend shortening the jab step and create more forward knee bend/leverage of the back leg. If the jab step is too forward, she has to get her body back over the top of the foot to create leverage.
3. I really like her throwing mechanics except for her glove. She does a great job separating thumbs down and rotating the throwing elbow forward to create arm whip, but the glove drops to her waist pulling her left shoulder to 3B which elevates the throw and takes energy away from it. I teach my catchers to rip the elbow back in rotating the palm up. I tell them to pull the actual glove to the heart. This squares up the shoulders to your target. I also have them "pinch their fat" on their left side and release over their front foot.
4. Have her throw through the pitcher's left shoulder to bring the ball down.
5. Learning how to create a back leg whip will help.
6. I'm not big on having a big stagger in the stance, as it creates issues with blocking and framing. Consider squaring up some and tucking the left knee as the ball approaches when a runner is steeling

 

[Fury_Mike]

Here is the video with a stopwatch. In the end, you can see how I go back and forth to narrow down the catch at 2B