Curveballs

Welcome to the site and congrats on picking the toughest position on the field. Not everyone is cracked up to be a catcher physically or mentally. It takes a lot of mental toughness, skill and leadership.

As to your question what exactly are you having trouble with? If you could tell us that then we may be able to give much more specific tips / hints.

What I see most with new / young catchers is they want to use their mitt hand to track the ball as it breaks. There is no way your hand will move as fast as the ball does whether it's a fastball or a breaking pitch. If this is the case then you have to learn to trust the break of the pitch to be in a certain area and then you make adjustments to catch the ball.

For example - if you have a curve breaking into the zone then you're going to set up on the inside portion of the plate near the shoulder or slightly below. Or if you have a curve breaking out of the zone then you'll want to set up on the outer portion of the plate at the knee.

Another thing I did was hand placement inside the mitt. If I was catching a fastball then I would slide my hand a little out of the mitt. It helps protect the palm and gives a little extra reach on the corners for framing. On anything breaking I would try to get my hand inside the mitt a little more so my palm was catching the ball. I just liked the feel of having my hand on the ball. This may not work for you but I felt it helped me some.

Give us more information and we can give you some better help but hopefully that little bit does help some.

as an old catcher let me say this-----PRACTCE, PRACTICE,PRACTICE

The problem was simply getting the glove on the ball. The ball hit me in the knee, the foot, etc. It looks alot easier than it is.

Sounds like you're trying to track the ball with your hand. You have to trust the break will be in a spot around the plate and let it come to you. Don't attack the pitch.

Couple of drills or things to focus during drills which may help.

1. Take your mitt off and have a partner toss balls at you and learn to catch the ball with index, middle fingers and thumb. Work on receiving the pitch softly and learn to trust your hands.

In this drill have the partner throw them straight at you to resemble fastballs and then throw them up with a hump so you are catching them on the way down.

2. Volunteer to catch as many bullpens as you can. Learn to trust the break and just recognize what you do wrong when you make a mistake. Then fix it.

3. Do as TR says - practice, practice, practice