Need some help

Relax and enjoy it.

I had a catcher last year who went to a place for private instruction. His brother went with him to get lessons on pitching. Two of the pitching instructors play in the minors. One is AA and the other is A I think but not sure.

After they got finished working with the pitcher they made the catcher do a bullpen with them. They were probably throwing between 85 - 91 mainly to work on mechanics but they would turn some loose.

I went with them one time just to watch and I was really proud of how my guy caught them. He said the biggest thing with catching them is to relax because they are going to hit their spot almost everytime. He would put the mitt up and the ball was there. Everytime he tensed up he had trouble moving to the ball.

I believe once you get about 4 or 5 pitches you will settle down and do a good job. If you catch him enough it's going to make the HS pitchers you catch look very slow.

Good luck and tell us how it goes.

Thanks a lot. That post made me feel good. I am definitely excited for this oppurtunity. I'm Definitely more excited than nervous, I think the biggest thing for me will be relaxing just like you said, it just feels better when someone else says it. I will let you know how it goes. Thanks again.

Definitely relaxing, thats the key- and you won't believe how fast you'll adjust to the speed. I still remember the first time I caught someone who threw 90, and I didn't drop the ball, or have trouble catching it, but I was tense. It still annoyed me at the time that I wasn't in my "comfort zone".

I remember running up the line on a groundball thinking, "its a great experience, but I want to get it over with." I made sure to just relax, let the ball get to me and be easy with it.

Don't be discouraged if you can't relax right away, but you'll get there. Best of luck- let us know how it goes.

Spartan, you ever heard of the Mon-Clair league on the Illinois side of the river? There's a couple of teams from St. Louis in it too, but it's mainly Monroe and St. Clair counties (hence the name)

Anyway, I was asked to catch in the bullpen for them my freshman year of high school. These are guys who are straight out of professional baseball for many of them. Some are "only" Frontier League, but there's a few former Major Leaguers on those teams.

I was SCARED to death to catch them, but they understood that I was going to make mistakes. Sure, it probably was a little frustrating for them when I'd miss one, but they wouldn't show it.

Like has been stated above, just relax and have fun. Remember-- that's what baseball is all about in the big picture-- HAVING FUN.

Thanks a lot for the response, I'll try to relax, and I'll let you guys know how it goes tomorrow

Spartan, Fungo is a great resourse on here when it comes to catching advice. I'm certain a PM to him would be worth it.

I just got done catching for about an hour, and you were all right. It wasn't bad at all as soon as I relaxed. A couple got away from me at the beginning but then I settled down and did pretty well the rest of the session. His slider was easily the nastiest thing I have ever seen in person. Now I've got to catch him tomorrow and Sunday as well and I'm not worried about it at all. Thanks a lot for the help

That's awesome and glad to hear it went very well. This is an amazing experience for you and you need to just soak it up. Plus it will make you a much better catcher handeling your pitchers in HS. You will be able to stick / frame pitches that you had trouble with before.

Keep us updated on the weekend.

Coach, you are 100 percent right. I caught a buddy of mine after school today, and it was much easier to frame and stick the ball. And I had so much fun I can't wait to do it again tomorrow. Thanks a lot