Anybody have any tips on receiving pitches that are going hit the batter but they are able to get out of the way? Should these be expected to be caught? My son can receive and block just about anything, but he has a hard time with the balls on the batter. Sometimes he says he loses sight of the ball that is blocked by the hitters hands.
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Is it glove side, lefty hitter, or both? I'd guess that pitches in on a righty are where he's having trouble. Pitches that are inside, particularly up and in need to be caught. They can hit the umpire or give up bases if there are runners. Something he just needs to work on. Usually if you are tracking a ball you can get your mitt in position without seeing the ball into the mitt. He might be rising up and cutting off his line of sight... if so try working on staying down and just reaching up for the ball.
I think he needs to receive more of those pitches with movement so that his brain can predict the trajectory more consistently. Maybe put him in front of a pitching machine set it inside and try to distract him as it comes in?.
It’s both. Watching the video I don’t see how it is possible to get to the two he missed. However, I don’t know if he’s just reading it late. The P is a lefty throwing 90. On the righty hitter the pitch was supposed to be outside and would have hit the batter in the head if he didn’t move. The lefty hitter was also supposed to be outside and was just inside the chalk of the lefty box
It's one thing if the pitched called is a fastball inside or up and in and the pitch gets a way a little bit to the inside. It's another thing when the pitcher misses by 3+ feet to the other side of the plate, those you just do the best you can but you aren't going to get to all of them. Also, 90mph is tough at the HS level, particularly if the catcher isn't catching regular bullpens from the guy.
Thanks Smitty. He only catches the kid during the HS season. Looking at the video I didn’t see what he could do differently to catch those balls.
We are going to do some work with the pitching machine catching those balls.
One of the things I do with my catchers is to get a couple of pool noodles and wave them up and down while the ball is being thrown to them to help them see past the distractions to the ball. It helps with catching balls through batters and swung bats. We play a little game and keep score. They get double points if the ball hits one of the noodles and they still catch it.
He's never had an issue with receiving on a swing and miss. He's actually quite good at catching foul tips. It's mostly a ball on the hands where the batter pulls his hands back last second or balls that the batter needs to jump out of the way.
The question is: would he catch it if the batter wasn't there? Chances are, he would.
He's likely anticipating the batter being hit by the pitch and is therefore is not getting his glove where it needs to be in order to catch the ball. His glove needs to be at the other end of the trajectory and has to assume the ball will not hit the batter. There is no other way!
I think someone stated earlier: set up a machine, get used to receiving the inside pitch and then have someone step in to distract him. Perhaps hang some paper (or something that won't deflect the ball too much) on the inside of the plate and have the machine throw through the paper. The ball should be caught even after hitting the paper. Of course it may be a pain to set up the paper over and over again but this has to be corrected.
