jdb posted:I'm a bit confused by your question. You said that you were thinking about trying out for catcher at the beginning of this post, then you said that you were cut from the team after tryouts. Are you asking if you should learn to catch and try out for catcher next year? Are you saying that the coach will allow you to try out again this year if you try out for catcher? Does your school have Freshman, JV, and Varsity teams?
The catcher's position is physically grueling, mentally demanding, and just plain difficult to master. If your hoping to make the Varsity by converting to catcher, that's really going to be a tall order. Now, if your willing to work your butt off on the Freshman team to learn the position...maybe that's a different story.
The first time you have a pitcher standing 60' 6" from you, a batter swinging a bat in the batter's box right in front of you, your gluteus maximus straining to keep you in position, a plate umpire leaning just inches over you, and a crowd of fans watching your every move; you might just wonder what in the world you got yourself into. That's all before the umpire even yells, "Play Ball !" The catcher's position, as many posts above have said, is not for the faint of heart. It is NOT the easy path to make your varsity baseball team.
With all that said, I hope that your coach offers you the opportunity try to learn the position. It can be very rewarding, when done right. However, it will take a lot of effort to learn the position.
As an aside, you mentioned that you want to throw runners out. Base runners don't steal on the catcher; they steal on the pitcher. If your pitcher does a good job holding runners and is quick to the plate, a good catcher has a shot at gunning most runners. If the pitcher doesn't do his job with runners on base, the best catchers have no shot at preventing stolen bases. That said, if you think of your job as protecting your pitchers and always trying to make them look good, you will help yourself out and help your team. Good luck Pete.
Thanks! I play for a rec league. I tried out for my school which is D1. They had around 60 people trying out for the JV and tons of people got cut including me.