quote:Originally posted by Coach A:
The only difference I teach seperate of you guys is the leaning to the side to catch the ball.I try to get them to catch it without moving anything at all. If you catch it close enough to the body, most of my guys can make it look good without reaching and the lack of movement from the catcher makes the pitch look a bit better to the umpire. Depends on the makeup of your catcher though. They can't all catch that way.
Coach A,
First of all Coach, where are you located in TX? I get calls all the time looking for instruction from parents of catchers in TX.
No to respond to your thoughts,
So there is no confusion, what I teach is not leaning but a weight shift of the entire body. Leaning to me would mean the shoulders would tilt, giving a real bad look to the umpire.
The purpose of the weight shift is to keep the close strike looking like a strike. It is to ensure that as the umpire looks over the catchers left shoulder at the pitch on the inside edge of the plate the widest thing he sees is the outside of the left shoulder. His eyes then travel down the catcher arm "towards" home plate, not away from home plate, and he then sees the outside edge of the glove hanging right over the edge of the plate. The balls in the glove, he's gotta say strike.
If the catcher didn't shift his weight, taking his shoulders with him, then as the umpire looks over the catchers left shoulder, the outside of the left shoulder is inside the glove. The left arm will extend out away from the body, and away from the plate. The umpire’s eyes will travel down the arm and be carried away from the plate by the time the eyes get to the glove.
You were also concerned about the movement of the catcher sending the wrong message to the umpire. If the catcher is not aggressive, then he will be moving while he is in the umpire’s line of sight and I would agree that would not be a good thing.
However, this technique works only when the catcher is an aggressive receiver and is committed to beating the ball to the spot. He will have "moved" at a time when the umpire does not have a good line of sight to the catcher. Therefore his slight shift will not be associated with "going to get a ball out of the zone"
The technique I teach, and I have very young (8-10 yr olds) catchers that do it very well, is best looked at after grasping a subtle concept of where the umpires eyes go during a pitch with the 60ft pitching distance. What he sees and what is out of his sight line.
1. Catcher giving sign ……………………..…umps eyes down at catcher
2. Catcher shifts to receiving position………. umps eyes down at catcher but rising to pitcher
3. Pitcher begins windup…………………….. umps eyes up at pitcher-catcher out of sightline
4. Pitch just before release point…………umps eyes up at ball in pitchers hand- catcher out of sightline
5. Ball just released……………………………. umps eyes up at ball- catcher out of sightline
6. Ball in flight………………………………… umps eyes up at ball- catcher out of sightline
7. Ball in flight until 6feet before plate………… umps eyes up at ball, starting to drop toward plate, catcher is now in lower peripheral vision.
8. Ball at plate, over plate……………………….umps eyes following ball, all movements of catcher are now noticed.
There is a window of time that the catcher is not in the direct line of sight and if his movements are soft, smooth, and end with the glove getting to the contact point before the ball, then it will appear to the ump that he was always sitting just in that location.
And yes, the time a catcher has to make this move is short, and not every catcher will master it. But it will still be a better "look" to a pitch if the shoulders are at the edge of the strike zone and the glove is positioned inside the shoulders, rather then the shoulders stay put and the arm is extended out at an angle away from the body that will send the umpire eyes away from the plate instead of back towards the plate.