First of all, it's nice to see some action inside the catching forum. I know most attention is always on the hitting and pitching forums, but I have a soft spot for P2!
On to the home made gizmo... My daughter plays on a good 1st year 14u team. Honestly, I'm a bit surprised on how big of a jump there has been for my DD and my DD's team from 12u to 14u. Defense, Hitting, and catching too (the reason for my project). The base runners this year are WAY more savvy than they were last year. Girls are just plain faster and the they've been working on their craft. There is no easy throw out anymore. The girls get better jumps and they also set up their steals way better. Most times it takes a couple innings before the first attempt. My DD needs to work on her use of peripheral vision and staying alert.
Anyway, I've made a remote control activated stopwatch. The LED rope and LED clock are two separate things. The LED rope is designed to drape off of a tee (or anything else, i.e. bucket, etc) at 1B, the timer can go anywhere on the field, I put it out at SS. To use, I pitch to her and whenever I feel like it, start the timer on the release of my pitch. I stop the timer as the ball hits the net at 2B. I'm using 2.5secs as the goal for normal pitches and 3.25secs for balls in the dirt. In testing for our organization, the fastest 60ft time is 2.47sec +/- a couple hundredths across all age divisions.
I've got some simplifying to do still, but as a tool that is fun to challenge DD, I'm pleasantly surprised.
I'm putting this out there because my inner tinkerer was pretty pleased with the outcome and I'd like to see what others think of it.
Happy Holidays to everyone - E
On to the home made gizmo... My daughter plays on a good 1st year 14u team. Honestly, I'm a bit surprised on how big of a jump there has been for my DD and my DD's team from 12u to 14u. Defense, Hitting, and catching too (the reason for my project). The base runners this year are WAY more savvy than they were last year. Girls are just plain faster and the they've been working on their craft. There is no easy throw out anymore. The girls get better jumps and they also set up their steals way better. Most times it takes a couple innings before the first attempt. My DD needs to work on her use of peripheral vision and staying alert.
Anyway, I've made a remote control activated stopwatch. The LED rope and LED clock are two separate things. The LED rope is designed to drape off of a tee (or anything else, i.e. bucket, etc) at 1B, the timer can go anywhere on the field, I put it out at SS. To use, I pitch to her and whenever I feel like it, start the timer on the release of my pitch. I stop the timer as the ball hits the net at 2B. I'm using 2.5secs as the goal for normal pitches and 3.25secs for balls in the dirt. In testing for our organization, the fastest 60ft time is 2.47sec +/- a couple hundredths across all age divisions.
I've got some simplifying to do still, but as a tool that is fun to challenge DD, I'm pleasantly surprised.
I'm putting this out there because my inner tinkerer was pretty pleased with the outcome and I'd like to see what others think of it.
Happy Holidays to everyone - E
