Obviously the faster the pop time the more immediate the attention. Granted my 2020 is only in 9th and plays travel. His best throws currently come in around 2.2 or so. His co-catcher has a gun. But T predominately gets the starts. Past two tournaments he caught 19 innings out of 27 (Other two catchers split 8) and this past weekend caught 17 out of 21. Main reason is his ability to block and receive behind the plate. 14/u guys can tend to struggle and it is not unheard of for T to have to block over ten balls during an inning. I have counted his co-catcher have 10 balls get by him in an inning. NOT a game but an inning. Plus T's catcher IQ is there. We actually had his back up give up the eventual game winning run on a play he should have never attempted (throw down to second with a guy on third). This weekend. Assistant coach reached out and was lamenting on how he thinks that T should have been in. HC was trying to give T some time off his knees. As soon as that debacle occurred, he put T back in to finish the game.
We have been dealing with arm strength, throw down speed his entire catching career. Kids who had stronger arms always got nods. Yet every damn time you see a photo taking after a tournament win, who had the gear on? T did. This kids coming up through 10-11-12/u had great arms but they would give up 2-3 or more runs on passed balls. No kid in his right mind wanted to get in front of a 12/u throwing mid 60's. T did. And even did it when no one was on base. But the daddy coaches never respected him for it.
Last year we moved to a different travel club and the love was immediate. Hell one game he pulled himself from one start cause he had some elbow soreness. The co-catcher (Coach was awesome. Flipped flopped catchers every other game with out fail) had some issues handling the pitcher and then failed to get out to the side and block. HC looked at T and said get your gear on. As soon as the team came in, he sat the other catcher and looked at T and told him he didnt care if he had to roll the ball back to the pitcher. Just do what you do.
Now every team he plays for (HS, Legion, Travel) all appreciate him for what he does BEHIND the plate. Now that pitchers are learning to slide step pitch, he gets his throw outs. But 90% of the love comes from his ability to get balls called strikes and to keep it in front. He doesn't need a coach to call his games. If the JV coach who calls it for the junior lets T call his own games.
Arm velocity is important. But if its a work in progress and your waiting to hit your growth spurt like T is ( 5'9 135lbs), then perfect all the other aspects of the position. Work on the mental side of it. The top MLB catchers today still spend hours perfecting their blocking technique. Watch how the better catchers call the games. Phillies catchers just had their butts handed to them by the pitching coach in the media for bad pitch selection at crucial points. Work on the feet so that a throw down at 75 gets there just as fast as a 80 or 85.
If your throwing 90 and cant do a damn thing behind the plate, cant learn to block or call a game or stay down on a curveball, either they are gonna try and pitch you or put you in the outfield. Your not gonna be catching for long.