Coaches Video

Others may disagree but for catchers I think you can accomplish a lot more quickly in video if you don't show as much game video.

You can set up receiving, blocking, and throwing and condense in a video much easier when not using live video.

Sprinkle in a little game video and you will have a much better end product in my opinion.

PS. As a totaly unrelated aside. On plays where he might be involved at the plate get on him to keep his mask on. Want to keep that protection if you can.

I assume your son is a junior in HS? My experience for catchers is that scouts are looking at their pop time. Anything below 2.0 is what they are looking for.

I have seen kids get offers on the same day if their pop was below 2.0.

Video helps, but IMO it is all about the POP.

Lefty

IJD,

I recommend that you search YouTube for “catcher recruiting video”. You’ll find many good examples of what most people think is important. Basically it’s receiving, blocking, and throwing to 2nd base. I agree with others that this is best accomplished on a practice field. Take him and a couple of friends out this weekend. Only include his best performances; like a good movie trailer, leave them wanting to see more. If you feel like you can measure an accurate pop time, add the result to the titles.

It doesn’t take long to set up your own YouTube account if you want to post them there too.

Good luck.

Watched it....lot of hustle, hard nose play, focus, and desire, which you need as a catcher.

Agree with BackstopDad32 on approach with video.

As far as shortening the live video.......to much video of him receiving and framing. Coaches can get a good feel on receiving abilities in about 10 total pitches.

Not sure if he blocks much or has got use to that being newer to catching, but I did not see any blocking footage....A lot of scooping balls with runners on base. Coaches will look for blocking technique and lateral movement.

Video of him throwing to second as they do at showcases (similar to what he did with his coach during warm-ups in your video) with a few POP times recorded would be a nice touch to compliment viewing the footwork and transfer.

With good editing, everything can be covered in a 2-3 minute video.

Agree on comment about mask......only time comes off is for foul balls which he did a good job of doing.

quote:

Originally posted by BackstopDad32:
Others may disagree but for catchers I think you can accomplish a lot more quickly in video if you don't show as much game video.

You can set up receiving, blocking, and throwing and condense in a video much easier when not using live video.

Sprinkle in a little game video and you will have a much better end product in my opinion.

PS. As a totaly unrelated aside. On plays where he might be involved at the plate get on him to keep his mask on. Want to keep that protection if you can.

Thanks. I got it down to 13 minutes from the 20. Will have to go through and sacrafice some stuff, I guess. Agree on protection too.

quote:

Originally posted by Sdlefty:
I assume your son is a junior in HS? My experience for catchers is that scouts are looking at their pop time. Anything below 2.0 is what they are looking for.

I have seen kids get offers on the same day if their pop was below 2.0.

Video helps, but IMO it is all about the POP.

Lefty

The last time he was timed on that was 2 years ago at a baseball factory event. He went for a catcher just for the heck of it since he had to catch in states that year right before the camp.

At that time his release time ( I imagine that this is the same as pop time?) he was at 2.3 seconds. He's gotten a lot faster over the last two years and I think maybe his next camp may be for catching. Should probably get a good accurate time on him now as well as do a little work on it. He's been doing a lot of long toss this fall too so that's good, I guess.

He probably won't be catching again until next summer though when he starts his travel season up but even then he may end up in the middle infield too more than anything. He really only catches when he has to but it's always good if you can catch. So they say.

Thanks.

quote:

Originally posted by MidAtlanticDad:
IJD,

I recommend that you search YouTube for “catcher recruiting video”. You’ll find many good examples of what most people think is important. Basically it’s receiving, blocking, and throwing to 2nd base. I agree with others that this is best accomplished on a practice field. Take him and a couple of friends out this weekend. Only include his best performances; like a good movie trailer, leave them wanting to see more. If you feel like you can measure an accurate pop time, add the result to the titles.

It doesn’t take long to set up your own YouTube account if you want to post them there too.

Good luck.

I had seen some of them on youtube. I just never understood how anyone looking on youtube to recruit was possible. How does a recruiter know to search for your video?

I saw some good ones though.

Thanks.

quote:

Originally posted by DAD_4CATCH_ESTAR27:
Watched it....lot of hustle, hard nose play, focus, and desire, which you need as a catcher.

Agree with BackstopDad32 on approach with video.

As far as shortening the live video.......to much video of him receiving and framing. Coaches can get a good feel on receiving abilities in about 10 total pitches.

Not sure if he blocks much or has got use to that being newer to catching, but I did not see any blocking footage....A lot of scooping balls with runners on base. Coaches will look for blocking technique and lateral movement.

Video of him throwing to second as they do at showcases (similar to what he did with his coach during warm-ups in your video) with a few POP times recorded would be a nice touch to compliment viewing the footwork and transfer.

With good editing, everything can be covered in a 2-3 minute video.

Agree on comment about mask......only time comes off is for foul balls which he did a good job of doing.

Thanks for watching it as well as the once over.I know it was pretty long. I did put a lot of catching and framing in there and am just trying to decide exactly which clips to remove.

The blocking I haven't ever said anything about to him. He's actually caught since he was 8 but just not regularly. And he's always been a picker instead of a blocker. Doesn't really let anything by at all. It's just his natural way and tough to fiddle with. But yes, I know what you mean about blocking. The fastest pitching he's caught has been in the 85-90 range and even those he picks up pretty good. He can actually block and go through the motions if he has to but he just never does. He picks everything. Throws a lot of runners out too.

That is something to maybe throw in though.

Not to dishearten but I can't imagine any college coach at any level to be very interested in a catcher who doesn't block no matter what video you put out there. I think this is a basic requirement for the position at those levels.

Some kids won't block. Some kids can't block. Coaches expect catchers to block.

quote:

Originally posted by BackstopDad32:
Not to dishearten but I can't imagine any college coach at any level to be very interested in a catcher who doesn't block no matter what video you put out there. I think this is a basic requirement for the position at those levels.

Some kids won't block. Some kids can't block. Coaches expect catchers to block.

Yep. Going to have to get him in front of some really fast wild ones in the dirt. I just don't have anything is all. Was excellent advice to get him out for it. He did a good amount of blocking in his baseball factory video a couple of years ago but thy were duds with hardly any speed. so slow that you couldn't really demonstrate a proper block.

I agree though. Blocking is just something folks always want to see from a catcher.

Thanks.

Ok Jr's Dad, here is my $.02. Take it for what it is worth, and please don't be offended.

To me, it looks like he could use a refresher on some catching fundamentals. I understand he isn't a full time catcher. But if he is going to talk future coaches about catching and send video, he should work on the fundamentals. Right now it seems as he is getting by on his athletic ability.

For example, at about 1:50 we see a past ball in the dirt with a runner on third. Not even an attempt to block it. Even though he got the out, I would not include that footage as it was not a "textbook" play. Along the same lines, I would not include any "picking" footage as it is not a fundamental play. His competitors will be blocking those balls. My guess is future coaches will want to see a mastery of the fundamentals.

There are other things I won't go into, but I would get him with a good catching coach. Then after a few weeks of refinement, shoot some video from a few angels. Edit it to about 5 mins. Good luck.

Junior's Dad....

I shoot many of these every year and have received great feedback from college coaches on what they want to see.

The key is showing enough to spark a coach's interest, but not so much as to bore them.


Here is an outline of what I have found to be the best way to demonstrate skills behind the plate to a college coach.

http://www.catchingcamp.com/ar...-video-for-catchers/

quote:

Originally posted by I'm Junior's Dad:

I had seen some of them on youtube. I just never understood how anyone looking on youtube to recruit was possible. How does a recruiter know to search for your video?

I saw some good ones though.

Thanks.

If your son starts corresponding with coaches via e-mail, he can include the YouTube links. You can also make specific videos "Unlisted". That means only people with the link are able to view them.

Not necessarily any better than using BeRecruited, just another option.

quote:

Originally posted by Golfman25:
Ok Jr's Dad, here is my $.02. Take it for what it is worth, and please don't be offended.

To me, it looks like he could use a refresher on some catching fundamentals. I understand he isn't a full time catcher. But if he is going to talk future coaches about catching and send video, he should work on the fundamentals. Right now it seems as he is getting by on his athletic ability.

For example, at about 1:50 we see a past ball in the dirt with a runner on third. Not even an attempt to block it. Even though he got the out, I would not include that footage as it was not a "textbook" play. Along the same lines, I would not include any "picking" footage as it is not a fundamental play. His competitors will be blocking those balls. My guess is future coaches will want to see a mastery of the fundamentals.

There are other things I won't go into, but I would get him with a good catching coach. Then after a few weeks of refinement, shoot some video from a few angels. Edit it to about 5 mins. Good luck.

Oh, I'm not going to get offended for input. especially when I asked for it. There seems to be some pretty knowledgeable folks who frequent here after spending some time reading the threads is why I asked in the first place.

What I'll probably do is just give him what I have and let him fiddle with it. Really I was looking to know what I should be actually filming and from where, I guess. At least on my end or whomever happens to be manning the camera on a given day.

The video that I uploaded to his profile was more so to use as reference for anyone who was willing to maybe take a look at it and give some advice if they knew anything about what a catcher should be demonstrating. I appreciate all of the feedback.

I'll probably take it down and then let him make a video out of what I have and he can put in what he wants to show and then he can go ahead and upload it himself.

If I don't have any blocking we can always go out this weekend and set the pitching machine up and have him do some blocking. He's actually got very good sideways agility too and is a good blocker so just have to go to it, I guess.

One other thing is that he's played with basically the same group of kids his entire career. As in from Tee-ball up till now. He kind of knows exactly how the ball is going to come to him from the mound which is probably why he picks the way that he does in games. Usually when he does do a lot of blocking it's usually in a situation where he is catching a pitcher that he's never caught before.

quote:

Originally posted by MidAtlanticDad:

quote:

Originally posted by I'm Junior's Dad:

I had seen some of them on youtube. I just never understood how anyone looking on youtube to recruit was possible. How does a recruiter know to search for your video?

I saw some good ones though.

Thanks.

If your son starts corresponding with coaches via e-mail, he can include the YouTube links. You can also make specific videos "Unlisted". That means only people with the link are able to view them.

Not necessarily any better than using BeRecruited, just another option.

Oh. OK. I see what you were saying. I guess it would be about the same, huh.

quote:

Originally posted by CCJR:
Junior's Dad....

I shoot many of these every year and have received great feedback from college coaches on what they want to see.

The key is showing enough to spark a coach's interest, but not so much as to bore them.


Here is an outline of what I have found to be the best way to demonstrate skills behind the plate to a college coach.

http://www.catchingcamp.com/ar...-video-for-catchers/

Thanks for that. I'll go have a read. I can see where this particular video was a little boring with all of the framing added. It was a lot.

Thanks.

I only watched the 1st minute or so and these are my thoughts:

-Its mostly about hitting, start and focus on at bats.
-Next its about arm stength and being athletic.
-filming should be done on a tripod
-filming should be done from the 1st base side where no umpire etc. will interfer with the shot and his hands and arm action can be seen.
-You should zoom in more so that he's the main focus of the video, i.e. the entire batter and umpire don't need to be in the video so its easier to see his technique.
-a few throws should be shot from behind home plate so the coach can see the carry or cut and time of the throw. You can shoot the inbetween ininng throw downs.
-don't include any film of players standing around waiting or tossing the ball back to the pitcher etc.
-Don't bother filming non-runner ready shots and I would not include any non-game shots of recieving pitches, the only non-game shots should be throwing and maybe blocking.
-no one really cares about popups, i'd get rid of those unelss they show that he's atheltic.

You should be able to get all thats needed in under 3 minutes easy. i.e. each scene shouldn't be more that 2-3 seconds unless it involves a throwdown or blocking or running.

Having said all of that, the next level is always about hitting, if your son doesn't look like he can hit college pitching it won't matter how well he blocks or recives.

Good luck.

quote:

Having said all of that, the next level is always about hitting, if your son doesn't look like he can hit college pitching it won't matter how well he blocks or recives.

Not trying to hijack the thread at all. But with all due respect, this couldn't be more wrong.

This dad posed a great question about what college coach will want to see on video and if he was in the right direction, so I figured I would throw in my two cents based upon the handful of conversation I had with D1 college coaches just last week.

Direct quote from one of the more successful D1 baseball coaches in the Northeast - "I don't care if the kid can even pick up the bat, but please be able to throw runners out and keep the (freaking) ball in front of them." Direct quote.

This is the theme I continue to encounter when talking with high level college programs about my students or theirs when I have my other hat on.

A catcher who cannot handle the position defensively in HS, but hits the **** out of the ball isn't a catcher in college. It is as simple as that. However, a catcher who excels at receiving, blocking and throwing will find a spot. I've never heard of a college coach turning away a brick wall with a 1.8 arm. Doesn't happen.

Hitting matters in a recruiting video, but we always put it at the end so the coach continues to watch the other skills to get to that part. If they make it through the defensive section and are impressed, when they get to the hitting section, that will only determine how quickly you hear back from them, not whether you will.

Again, the whole point is to get a college coach interested enough after watching the video to go see you play live. He's not getting a scholarship or a roster spot at any level from a video. The video is the bait.

quote:

Originally posted by CCJR:
[QUOTE]

Again, the whole point is to get a college coach interested enough after watching the video to go see you play live. He's not getting a scholarship or a roster spot at any level from a video. The video is the bait.

The thing that makes me want to make sure that he has something presentable to give this coach as far as catching is that 1st, he asked me to see if I had anything and 2nd because the coach already knew who he was before he even ever decided that he wanted to go to their camp. I guess just because of newspaper articles or whatever. When he came in as a freshman on his varsity team he basically led almost every offensive statistic. In fact a few other HS coaches had mentioned that he was a huge part in the success and turn around of his HS team.

This was a team full of juniors and seniors that he came into as a freshman that only ever won a couple of games per season and when he came along the entire program just kind of changed and they ended up with a winning record on top of that. A lot of coaches know who he is but they know him as an infielder. 3rd base, 2nd base, SS. His HS coach really doesn't have any idea that he can catch too but I guess the boy just wants them to see that he can do it and may even see it as helpful looking forward. I mean, everybody looks at catchers. Right? May be worth going to a camp as a catcher once you know what the heck they truly want to see from a young catcher is probably his thinking.

I don't know. It's just one of those things where he asked me for some catching video and really I've never tried to get anything intricate as far as catching. As I said, I didn't really know what they look for typically so really what you see is what you get unless we go out and really try to do some thorough catching drills. That link you shared was very helpful in thinking about how it should be done and will certainly try to pull it off in some manner.

One thing though that I just want to say and certainly nothing to cause a stir because I do appreciate all of the feedback from those who may know a bit more than me about presentation but I've seen many, many, many textbook catchers over the last couple of HS and travel ball seasons (and even the years before that)who really try to hard to do everything textbook to the extent that they think way too much about it and forget what's going on on the other side ofthe plate. It always seems like they try to hard to be perfect under scrutiny whereas a natural athletic catcher always seems to be the more go get em kind of player.

Just to use my own son as an example as far as base running on the catcher, he typically has 2 or 3 delayed steals per game. He had 7 or 8 in this past USBC 17 Div tournament down in Richmond. Two were at the plate for the run even. These were all against textbook catchers. Every single one. Some of them against nationally ranked teams.

I'm not disagreeing with the logic about what's technically correct as far as a catcher because as I said, I really have never thought about it which is why I asked but I do think they should demonstrate some spunk and natural athleticism and awareness outside of the textbook type mindset so when they come across a good baserunner they don't get in the way of themselves. There's just nothing unique about that.It's like if you've seen one you've seen them all. To me at least. Of course that's just me as a spectator on the other side of the fence. I'm certainly not a coach trying to build the best. Heck, I try to stay on the other side ofthe fence and out of the way of junior for the most part. I almost didn't even scribble up thsis thread but when he asked about it i knid of had to. There is a lot of useful speak around here, I've noticed.

quote:

Originally posted by CollegeParentNoMore:
I only watched the 1st minute or so and these are my thoughts:

-Its mostly about hitting, start and focus on at bats.
-Next its about arm stength and being athletic.
-filming should be done on a tripod
-filming should be done from the 1st base side where no umpire etc. will interfer with the shot and his hands and arm action can be seen.
-You should zoom in more so that he's the main focus of the video, i.e. the entire batter and umpire don't need to be in the video so its easier to see his technique.
-a few throws should be shot from behind home plate so the coach can see the carry or cut and time of the throw. You can shoot the inbetween ininng throw downs.
-don't include any film of players standing around waiting or tossing the ball back to the pitcher etc.
-Don't bother filming non-runner ready shots and I would not include any non-game shots of recieving pitches, the only non-game shots should be throwing and maybe blocking.
-no one really cares about popups, i'd get rid of those unelss they show that he's atheltic.

You should be able to get all thats needed in under 3 minutes easy. i.e. each scene shouldn't be more that 2-3 seconds unless it involves a throwdown or blocking or running.

Having said all of that, the next level is always about hitting, if your son doesn't look like he can hit college pitching it won't matter how well he blocks or recives.

Good luck.

I do actually have just a ton of batting video. I'd say tht I have every at bat he's had since '08 on video. What I see that he's doing though is taking it all and just loading it all up on a single video with everything else and that will probably be some work to go through and pick out hitting among everything else it's with.

With the batting, I wonder what folks think about including baserunning with it or should that be separate? I think it's good to see a nice fast time from home plate to 3rd on a triple.

I almost want to try to attempt to get a three minute video with everything. hitting, base running, infielding from 3rd, 2nd and ss along with catching. He may pitch this year too. that's a lot for three minutes but it might be able to be done. If each scene was just few seconds it may work. Sounds like it would be tough though.

Or are you talking about just a skit with batting only? No running or anything...

He does have one video of middle infielding where he added some batting there at the end like ccjr was saying. Not much though. The best swings have been live game play action. Of course though there I go with the wanting to add baserunning shenanigan to it too. Do you see my madness?

I'm probably getting off topic though. Probably best to keep within my own premise and not get off into other factors. I really do want to get him something presentable as far as catching since that's specifically what he asked for and then he can take it and do with it what he wants before deciding on a camp or whatever. The worst that can be said is an honest evaluation. That's really all he's looking for at this particular position.

I agree with you on the camera work though and I've told myself that very same thing about where to film from and where to zoom. Good ideas on game and none game filming as well. I havve both so maybe will think about that.

Thanks.

Thanks for all of the input, folks. I'll see what i can do with it.

quote:

A catcher who cannot handle the position defensively in HS, but hits the **** out of the ball isn't a catcher in college. It is as simple as that. However, a catcher who excels at receiving, blocking and throwing will find a spot. I've never heard of a college coach turning away a brick wall with a 1.8 arm. Doesn't happen.

I too don't want to sidetrack the discussion, however I do believe hitting is the key attention getter for D1s and pros.

When my son played I quite honestly don't remeber him playing against many catchers that couldn't hit d1 pitching. I do remember seeing a number of D1 and JC catchers that could hit but barely catch. I have seen numerous teams with really good bullpen catchers.

I think its important to show that you have the swing mechanics and/or ability to hit high level pitching and nothing my son experienced would indicate otherwise.

With respect to showing baserunning, especially delayed steals, I think that's pretty low on the list of what coaches want to see unless you have nothing else to show his athletism. I would not send a video showing all the postions unless the coach asked for it. If you want to show him playing other positions I would just limit it to ss.

I have a different question. Does he want to catch in college, and does he believe he can be a D1 catcher? He is getting to the point in the recruiting process where focusing on goals is important. I haven't watched his video yet, but from your description and his size, he sounds like a middle infielder with good speed. My suggestion would be to consider focusing on his 60 time and velo across the infield.

Good luck!

quote:

Originally posted by twotex:
I have a different question. Does he want to catch in college, and does he believe he can be a D1 catcher? He is getting to the point in the recruiting process where focusing on goals is important. I haven't watched his video yet, but from your description and his size, he sounds like a middle infielder with good speed. My suggestion would be to consider focusing on his 60 time and velo across the infield.

Good luck!

Well...Therein lies the issue that I floated around with to myself. I didn't say too much about it when he asked about catching video except that I would see what I had. And you're right, you do really have to focus on what you want to do in a manner that would depict actual goals. In fact, my response was basically "well, if that's what you want..." One thing that I learned early on (like when he was 10 or so) was that it's not what I want in all of this it's what he wants. He heard those words from Cal himself a long time ago and it sort of stuck with me and I think that it did with him too. I'd like to think that he wouldn't have mentioned it unless he did want to but earlier on in the summer he was going to camps for middle infielding as well so....yeah. That's a good question. I think he's just in the middle of figuring out the relevance of goals during a process such as this and perhaps it comes at a good time. Who knows.

I don't know that many folks really understand how hard it is to accept that but it is actually difficult (meaning let the kid decide what he wants to do). I think it's great once you do but it sure does make for an interesting twist in a situation like this. It's easy to say well, if that's what you want to do but the flipside of it is the question of "based on what?"

He does work on his 60 as well as velocity. 60 fluctuates from 6.8-7.3 but consistently at 7.0 I'd say. That's about his average time. Velocity the last time he had a radar gun on him was 76 mph throwing from 3rd to first just practicing. Obviously some improvement to be made there but he has been spending a lot of time doing long toss since the end of summer so I expect he's improved. Of course, there's a lot to be said for adrenalin too. He throws much faster in an actual game than any time he has a radar gun on him in a practice or whatever. Practice usually he's not throwing at 100% just because with playing 9 months out of the year he starts to feel like rubber. I know that the last two camps he attended late summer he was coming off a steady tournament schedule and really wasn't throwing as hard as he could have been when it came time for throwing in front of the radar gun across the field. So that's a lesson learned about coming into these camps fresh, I guess.

Thanks.

Dad, I'm guessing most of us can relate to what it is like to watch and wait for a kid to decide what to do. I know I know! What I tried to do a year ago was help my son understand options, and how to keep those open. I went to enough showcases to know that his development curve put him more in the D3 world, which works for him anyway.

The good news is your son can hit. I suspect that is why the coach is trying to see if there's a defensive position he can play.

Good luck. These things have a way of working out!

He never did shorten that catchers video. I haven't really checked his page in a while and now that i have i see that all of his videos are maybe too long. It's like talking to the wall, I'm telling you....

 

I don't know. He said he's being moved to SS this year so probably only catching for his travel team when needed.Will see, I guess.