Girls Softball Drills Catchers Catcher's Checklist

[TheSoftballZone]

A Catcher's Checklist

I. Position/Setting Up

1. Catcher positions herself arm's length from the batter.
2. In a squat position, feet slightly wider than hips.
3. Give a large target to the pitcher.
4. Hold still and stay low.
5. No runners on base, butt can rest on heels.
6. Runners on base, butt parallel to ground.
7. Throwing hand making a soft fist, thumb inside.
8. Keep throwing hand in safe place, but ready to throw.

II. Receiving the ball

1. Elbows are outside of the legs.
   
2. Glove in front of knees to receive the pitch with soft hands.
   
3. Pause after catching to wait for call when there are no runners on base (be quick with throwing position when runners are on base).
   
4. Framing is the technique of turning the glove into the strike zone to make it more visible for the umpire.

III. Signals

1. Use the fingers for very simple signals.
   
2. Example: One finger-fastball; two fingers-drop; fist-change up.
3. Tuck the signal close to the body between the legs so that the signal can be seen by the infield but not the runners or coaches at first or third.

IV. Blocking balls

A. Ball to the side.

1. Step out
2. Drop the back knee
3. Keep body square to infield Round shoulders.
4. Tuck chin
5. Glove is open wide and cover-mg the space between the legs.
6. Keep the ball in front
   

B. Ball in front

1. Drop both knees
2. Keep body square to infield
3. Round shoulders
4. Tuck chin
5. Glove is open wide and covering space between the legs.
6. Keep the ball in front.

V. Catching Pop Ups

1. Take the mask off and hold it.
2. Locate the ball.
3. Call for the ball.
4. Toss the mask opposite the direction of the ball.

E. Catch the ball at eye level.

F. Catch with two hands.

VI. Passed Balls

1. Open up or turn to direction of the ball.
2. Get rid of mask.
3. Approach the ball with throwing side towards the ball.
4. Last step has throwing hand foot close to the ball.
5. Stay on your feet.
6. Push ball into glove.
7. Toss to plate:

1. Underhand toss
2. Side arm toss-lead with elbow

VII. Plays at Home

A. On a force play at home, the catcher moves to the front of the plate and stretches towards the ball the same as a play at first base.

B. Tag plays Blocking the plate

1. Left foot close to the left foul line and up the line about one and half feet toward third base

2. Watch the ball all the way into the glove

3. Catch with both hands, drop the right knee to brace for tag

VIII. Throwing

A. Throws from the catcher need to be quick.

1. Pull the arm straight back, and quickly throw with an aggressive wrist snap.

B. Footwork

1. Jump from crouch
2. Take one step forward with glove hand
3. Foot towards target
4. Snap throws to first and third drop to one knee

 

[yocoach]

There is an awful lot of information here and yet there isn't. It needs to be broken down much further. Also, while I agree with maybe 85% you say, the other 15%...

 

[TheSoftballZone]

There is an awful lot of information here and yet there isn't. It needs to be broken down much further. Also, while I agree with maybe 85% you say, the other 15%...

Hey yocoach, I agree with you on the catcher's check list. Im.not sure if you remember the Coaching 1.0 Software Package released by me on August 1999 and the website Coaching 1.0 Website that I started in 1998. I have over 280 drills that I packages together that came from the forum back in 1996-1998 and I'm now just getting around to placing all the drills inside the forum. My plan is to closes down the older site and redirect that traffic to the forum.

At the same time I'm cleaning up the sections to discuss catching and deleted all the tryouts people's been posting inside this section.