How do you rotate your catchers?

Welcome to Discuss Fastpitch

Your FREE Account is waiting to the Best Softball Community on the Web.

Jun 18, 2010
2,624
38
How many catchers does your team carry and how do you rotate them?

Do you pair up pitchers and catchers so they develop a rapport?

Do you rotate your catchers as much as your pitchers?

Are you concerned about overuse injuries for your catchers?
 

marriard

Not lost - just no idea where I am
Oct 2, 2011
4,312
113
Florida
How many catchers does your team carry and how do you rotate them?

Do you pair up pitchers and catchers so they develop a rapport?

Do you rotate your catchers as much as your pitchers?

Are you concerned about overuse injuries for your catchers?


We carry like to carry 3 especially if it is the hot part of the year. Summer in Florida I like to have a 4th 'can-catch-if-needed' player as well. In general if we have a 3-game seeding I like to give them one game each. We will swap out during a game if they get tired or are having a bad day catching but we wont switch them if a relief pitcher comes in. On elimination day the third catcher is unlikely to see action at catcher (much the same as the third pitcher) unless we get a really easy game or we are blown out of a game.

In general, I do pair up starters and catchers. My #1 starter and #1 catcher paired up and a season in can pretty much call a whole game by themselves. (Catcher will glance over to me if she is unsure what to call and we talk about what we called after the game).

My main concern for catchers is getting fatigued or over-heating. I haven't ever worried about overuse injuries.
 
Feb 3, 2011
1,880
48
1) 2 + 1, rotate as needed
2) yes, as best we can
3) no
4) not really

We've got 2 regular catchers, plus 1. We don't have a set rotation. My preference is to pair pitchers and catchers, but this isn't set in stone. If we make a pitching change, we may or may not make a change at catcher. Rotations depend on the game situations.

Overheating is the primary concern for us in the summertime, so we might play them 2-3 innings at a time. The potential for overuse is always there, but probably not long-term, as we aren't a 175-game/year travel team. That is more of an issue for the girls playing at higher levels on teams that play tons of games and prefer to ride starters until they are worn out.
 

redhotcoach

Out on good behavior
May 8, 2009
4,706
38
How many catchers does your team carry and how do you rotate them?

Do you pair up pitchers and catchers so they develop a rapport?

Do you rotate your catchers as much as your pitchers?

Are you concerned about overuse injuries for your catchers?

We have 2, well dd and a back up. Dd catches until she says she needs a break. That is about 1/2 game every tournament, a full game if we make her stay out.

Concerned about overuse injury? No. Overuse of what? Knees/legs? We make she stays in good shape and warms up/streatches. I am more concerned with over heating.
 

redhotcoach

Out on good behavior
May 8, 2009
4,706
38
First, I have seen some bad stuff with growth plates in gymnastics from overbuilding quads at the expense of hamstrings.

As an adult coach, I am liable for injuries, such as to growth plates or dropping weights on body parts or tearing muscles. Any athlete in HS is not supposed to go more than 10% in any effort from the previous week, and this is a long process with HS kids that has to be supervised. HS kids also have to maintain this program, use a spotter and lift to maintain the balance across the muscles.

So the kid has to lift correctly and some kids may not be ready for that both physically and mentally. The parents can sue me if it goes awry.

Sorry but that's the truth.

Lastly, I am cautious as kids today are full of aches and pains that I don't ever remember having.

Dd was in gymnastics until 10 when we decided that a 10 year old shouldn't be losing sleep because her back aches, or limping every morning because her ankle hurts. She was (as all of them were) unbelievably strong. They did things like hand stand walk to one end o the gym, do 5 hand stand push ups, hand stand walk back, and repeat. Or the lunge walks with a partner on your shoulders. Gymanastics coaches use their eastern european and chinese methods of training to build mini super athletes with no care of what happens after they are past 16 or so. If you think the gyms are there to give a good experience to all girls, try bringing two 4 year olds to a gym, one tall for her age with tall parents and one small for her age with small parents, just see if they get the same treatment. My younger dd was small (took a huge growth spurt since), when she was 6 she was "selected" for a new group, she cried that she didn't want to go after trying it out, so after 2 times dw spied on the class, she called me and said, "well first there are 5 girls in the group, dd is the only one without boobs (dw words), the rest are teenagers, the coach is having no compassion at all for dd's nervousness and tears."
I truly believe in strength conditioning, but hope sball teams never take it to where gymnastics is at. I see a few girls from the gym around town now that I hear are just kind of lost. They spend 6 days a week 4 or more hours a day (at some level they force you to home school to allow more time in the gym), now they are late teens and were thrown to the side because the new model superstar walked in the door.
 
Jan 23, 2010
802
0
VA, USA
First, I have seen some bad stuff with growth plates in gymnastics from overbuilding quads at the expense of hamstrings.

As an adult coach, I am liable for injuries, such as to growth plates or dropping weights on body parts or tearing muscles. Any athlete in HS is not supposed to go more than 10% in any effort from the previous week, and this is a long process with HS kids that has to be supervised. HS kids also have to maintain this program, use a spotter and lift to maintain the balance across the muscles.

So the kid has to lift correctly and some kids may not be ready for that both physically and mentally. The parents can sue me if it goes awry.

Sorry but that's the truth.

Lastly, I am cautious as kids today are full of aches and pains that I don't ever remember having.
While I don't think that little kids should be seriously lifting, a little weight training won't hurt them. I have yet to have a team that had access to any sort of weight room, however, but there are a lot of exercises that girls probably do in PE that would help increase their strength like sit ups to work the core muscles, where your power comes from.

I will agree with you about the kid being ready both physically and mentally... part of coaching is knowing your athletes, knowing who is capable of what and how to get them to their full capacity, safely.

I truly believe in strength conditioning, but hope sball teams never take it to where gymnastics is at. I see a few girls from the gym around town now that I hear are just kind of lost. They spend 6 days a week 4 or more hours a day (at some level they force you to home school to allow more time in the gym), now they are late teens and were thrown to the side because the new model superstar walked in the door.
I don't know a lot about gymnastics, but I know that the competition is fierce and I can only imagine what they have the girls doing. Some of the strongest softball players I know in the youth level are in gymnastics or were at one point.
 
Jan 31, 2011
453
43
How many catchers does your team carry and how do you rotate them?

Do you pair up pitchers and catchers so they develop a rapport?

Do you rotate your catchers as much as your pitchers?

Are you concerned about overuse injuries for your catchers?


I have 2 proficient catchers.
I split games with them. First catcher gets 3 innings, 2nd one gets 3-4 innings. I try to swap the rotation each game unless we play back-to-back.
I do not pair up a battery. I like the flexibility.
I am concerned of overuse, that's why I split games. When not catching they both play other positions.

This is my opinion & how I do it.
 
Jan 15, 2009
585
0
I don't know a lot about gymnastics, but I know that the competition is fierce and I can only imagine what they have the girls doing. Some of the strongest softball players I know in the youth level are in gymnastics or were at one point.

True for many girls sports. Core kids in most sports in my school were gymnasts who got too tall (FYI 5'0" is tall in gymnastics)
 
Jan 23, 2010
802
0
VA, USA
True for many girls sports. Core kids in most sports in my school were gymnasts who got too tall (FYI 5'0" is tall in gymnastics)

If I had any coordination at all, I'd be the perfect size. I'm five feet tall, just a little too round and uncoordinated to master those moves.
 

Forum statistics

Threads
42,830
Messages
679,477
Members
21,445
Latest member
Bmac81802
Top