Catchers Stretches

Beyond the stretches you'd normally think of, for catchers, I've learned about some important areas that are regularly overlooked... My son had to take his fall season off due to an elbow injury... He's been in PT for a while now and his therapist is working hard to have him strengthen his shoulder 'girdle' (from what I'm understanding, this is the area of muscles, ligaments, etc., that runs along the back, between both shoulders) AND his hip flexors, particularly the one on his throwing side... It was explained to me that if these areas are stronger/more flexible, it will take pressure off of a catcher's elbow, thus lessening the risk of injury...

My son is now doing stretching exercises, for these areas, before he conditions and/or throws...

Catch43- I havent been on here for a while so I hope this delayed reply can still add some value! In short, I teach catching AND catchers agilities. Besides Kevin Schnall down in Coastal Carolina, there arent many of us that do it.

Flexibility, strong hip flexors and core strength is some of the most important areas for a catcher. Yes, a player should do at least a 3 minute jog before stretching and dynamic stretching is more useful than static, assuming space and time is available. My agilities include a 5 minute run, then 15 minutes of dynamic stretching. Then we start the class! We used to go right into Plyometrics but we just purchased a new piece of equipment called the VERTIMAX. It is a Plyometrics with resistance training platform that really helps all players but pitchers and catchers can really benefit from it!

Hope this helps!
Coach Fletcher