Jay Weaver's Catching Camp

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Aug 8, 2022
27
13
Hi everyone,

Many of you suggested Jay Weaver's catching camp - thank you for the suggestion! I have my dd signed up for this weekend and I'd love some advice from any of you whose dd's have been through it.

- I didn't realize it was both softball and baseball, do they separate them or are they really all together the entire time?
- They highly recommend that parents stay - that's 4 hours each day! Do you think this is necessary? If not, is it better to stay for the first 1-2 hours or come early and be there for the last hour or so?
- Any other advice on how to get the most out of the two days? My DD is 16U, the second catcher on a team that played PGF premier nationals at 14u this past summer. She's looking to up her game as they move to 16U and working hard to get more time behind the plate.

Thanks in advance!
 
Nov 18, 2015
1,585
113
We attended one last winter.

For me - I likely wouldn't have signed her up at all if I wasn't allowed to stay! (I took about a page and half of notes).

They'll group all the girls together, but the instruction is the same. They just group them so they can use the same balls / machine for the whole group.

16 & 14 should put them in the older group (if it's big enough), where they'll go a little deeper into some of the techniques such as one-knee down, which wasn't covered in our 12&Under sessions.

To get the most out of it - ask questions for whatever she doesn't understand. What you won't get is any kind of "b/c this is how I was taught / this is how I did it when I played" type of answers.
 
Dec 2, 2013
3,410
113
Texas
DD attended a two session in HTX in 2013. Wow that is like forever ago! I stayed the entire time and I would recommend you do the same so you can reinforce the techniques. In all reality you should be her #1 coach...at least I was. DD took what she learned and used what worked for her as a foundation. A year later we found a newly graduated All American catcher to work with and we were able to share knowledge with each other on catching and hitting.
 
Nov 15, 2019
324
43
When DD took it a couple years ago, it was by far mostly boys. Maybe about 4 girls or so. So just prepare her for the fact that she may be one of just a few girls there.

I stayed all 4 hours both days. I found it really interesting, lots of great information. Not all parents stayed but a good amount did.
 
Feb 7, 2014
547
43
Definitely stay! Well worth your time. My DD has been to a few of Jay's camps - soak in the information. Best camp I have seen.
 
Aug 8, 2022
27
13
Thanks for all the advice, I really appreciate it. Looks like i'll be hanging out with a pen and notebook and taking copious notes.

She's excited to learn (not so excited about the baseball players being there!). 🤷‍♀️
 
Aug 8, 2022
27
13
I just wanted to say thanks again for this group and your advice on the catching camp. It was great for my DD. She learned a lot, I have pages of notes. She was able to put the new techniques to use this past weekend and she did great. She just "looks" better, not sure if she really is, who knows. No one even attempted to steal on her and she was much more aggressive with her runner mgmt (pickoff attempts, etc). Her receiving has always been good but little tweaks to her stance and "framing" (apparently Jay hates this word but not sure what else to use) made a big difference. I want to say she really helped her pitcher out although that's hard to tell, it's supposed to be subtle so how do you really know?

Thanks again - i highly recommend this camp. We'll for sure be sending her again if given the opportunity.
 
Oct 3, 2011
3,478
113
Right Here For Now
I just wanted to say thanks again for this group and your advice on the catching camp. It was great for my DD. She learned a lot, I have pages of notes. She was able to put the new techniques to use this past weekend and she did great. She just "looks" better, not sure if she really is, who knows. No one even attempted to steal on her and she was much more aggressive with her runner mgmt (pickoff attempts, etc). Her receiving has always been good but little tweaks to her stance and "framing" (apparently Jay hates this word but not sure what else to use) made a big difference. I want to say she really helped her pitcher out although that's hard to tell, it's supposed to be subtle so how do you really know?

Thanks again - i highly recommend this camp. We'll for sure be sending her again if given the opportunity.
According to Jay, framing is a bad "F" word. Framing has the connotations which many inexperienced {and even some experienced) team/rec/ tb coaches promote of taking a ball outside the strike zone and physically pulling it back into the zone trying to fool the umpire into a strike call. He prefers the word receiving instead. Receieving is, as he puts it, "keeping a strike looking like a strike and a ball a ball."
 
Nov 21, 2022
2
3
Northeast
Longtime reader, first time poster. I registered just to reply to this thread.

Jay's camp is the best we've found. DD has attended the week-long summer sessions, FL event and road trip camps 5 or 6 times in total. She'll be attending the PA road trip camp this weekend & was a volunteer instructor this August in NH. He & his team present information so well and in such a consistent way - your kid hears the exact same thing from Jay & everyone on his staff. He'll comment if there are any differences in approach for baseball vs softball.

She wouldn't be playing at the level she's at now without his instruction. She's old enough now she doesn't need me there, but I recommend staying just to see what you're paying for. There is so much knowledge passed along and the kids are working so hard, I enjoy watching each time.
He teaches not just the physical aspect of the position, but tries to get them to understand & appreciate the responsibility of the position and to take it seriously.
 

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