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The Catcher\
If you are a coach or the parent of a catcher, this might be of interest to you.
In softball even more than baseball, the catcher can make the critical difference between a win and a loss. Here’s why. In 12U
softball, there is the dropped third strike rule. Furthermore, the base runner can leave on the release by the pitcher rather than
the ball reaching the plate. With the plate 4 feet closer to home than in baseball, and the runner with a major head start in a theft
attempt, the catcher has a slimmer chance of throwing the runner out. These two factors alone make the position of softball catcher
more difficult than their Cal Ripken counterparts.
With more than 30 years of coaching and officiating, I have collected some observations concerning the general status of the
average catcher. I will say at the start, that the catcher is one of the most critical positions on the field, and yet, in general,
one of the least coached. I say that because I rarely encounter one, especially at 12U, that understands the fundamentals of their
position.
So, here are some items for you to consider.
Selection:
Exemplary catchers all have some common traits.
They are one of the best athletes on the team.
They love the game and want to be in a commanding role.
They are tough and aggressive.
They are quick-witted, smart, and know the rules better than most.
Safety:
Two things that plague me as an umpire are (1) ill fitting equipment and (2) protection of the throwing hand.
Equipment: I understand the difficulties in getting properly sized equipment, but sending a catcher to the plate with
shin guards that do not fit, and a chest protector that hangs below the sternum deserves some attention. As a coach, player safety
is one of your primary responsibilities. Once you have decided who your catcher(s) will be, pay great attention to how your equipment
fits them and get replacements if needed. As a parent of a committed catcher myself, my choice was to buy my son his own equipment,
sized to his specific needs. As he grew, we updated. It’s worth considering if your daughter is serious about playing ball.
The Free hand: At the 12U level, in baseball and softball, at least two thirds of the catchers I work behind for the
first time have part of their free hand exposed. Typically, this is a splayed hand placed behind the mitt. If a foul tip or missed
pitch catches the tip of an exposed finger, there will be either a painful injury, a break, or worse, the finger will get split
lengthwise. All are ugly and unnecessary.
The free hand should be a closed fist placed either fully behind the mitt, or behind the back.
Rules:
There are two rules specific to Babe Ruth Softball that most catchers seem weak on. (Frankly, I’d say most coaches are weak on
them too, otherwise, they would have taught their catchers better. Also, there are some umpires that are not too sharp on these
two either.)
Dropped Third Strike: There is only one thing worse than a dropped third strike leading to the batter making it safely to first, and that is an
unnecessary throw down to first leading to other runners getting extra bases they shouldn’t have. If there are less than two outs
and first base is occupied, (Runner on the base at the time of the pitch) the batter is automatically OUT on a third strike,
caught or dropped. I cannot count the number of times in this situation, I have heard the coach yell to get the runner and then
seen the ball whiz into right field.
In this situation, it is often a gift double play. If the base runner breaks late for second, forced off the bag by the
approaching batter (because they don’t know the rule either), the catcher’s play is to second. Nail that runner, and with the
batter automatically out, you get two outs instead of one.
Runner off the bag: My personal favorite softball rule is the “immediate move” rule as it applies to baserunners.
When the ball is returned to the pitcher in the circle, the baserunner must immediately make a move back or forward. If she
hesitates, she is OUT; if she feints one way and then reverses, she is OUT.
Why is this my favorite rule? It eliminates that time consuming cat and mouse game where the catcher runs the player back to the
base. All this does is waste time and tire the catcher. What drives me nuts? When the catcher holds the ball and runs up the third
base line. This can happen on every pitch with a runner on third. It’s a terrible waste of time and energy.
The proper play is for the catcher to take a position in front of home plate and then get the ball to the pitcher in the circle.
Missing Skills:
The Throw Down:
One of the hardest things for a young catcher to do is throw out a runner stealing second.
The throw: Most of the time, I’ll see a catcher, who even with a possibility of getting the runner, fire an arching
rainbow out towards second. The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. A rope-like two hopper will beat the
rainbow throw to the bag every time.
Steps: No Steps! It is all too common to see the catcher take three or more steps prior to the release. The runner is
already at full speed. While the catcher takes her three steps, the baserunner has taken at least that many if not more. If standing,
the catcher should take no more than a half step as part of the act of throwing.
The release: The ideal release is a short-arm snap throw from the ear. This takes practice and arm strength, but once
developed, that catcher can throw from a squat and greatly increase the odds of bagging that runner.
The Play to First: This one drives me nuts. The fielded bunt or dropped third strike should be a 90% out.
Unfortunately, it is often not. Here’s why. The baserunner is usually in the line of fire from the catcher to the first base person.
That means the ball is either not thrown, thrown and dropped, or worse, propelled over everyone into right field.
Proper play is the “Inside-Outside” call. The first base person needs to shift laterally, one foot on the bag and the body and
catching arm extended to the side of the field where the ball is. (Foul ground if behind the plate, fair ground if the ball is in
the infield.) She needs to give the catcher a good target. The catcher should call out “Inside or Outside” depending upon the situation.
Perfect this one play alone and the team earns more outs, allows fewer errors, and prevents runs.
The Squat: This one is tough, but at the outset, I said the catcher should be one of the best athletes on the team.
Here is one reason why. With two strikes on the batter and any time there are runners on base, I don’t see more than one catcher
in a hundred rise up out of the squat and get on their toes. Proper position is on the toes, with the line of the back parallel,
(not perpendicular) to the ground. This is very physically demanding and requires strong legs and lots of stamina. However, it is
essential to the position. Only in this position is the catcher more likely to reduce passed balls, knock down wild pitches,
scramble for foul pop flies or short fielded bunts, and get off that quick throw to nail a potential base stealer. Only in this
position does the catcher have the ability to range left, right or high up to catch or block a bad pitch.
Play Calling: Besides mastering the skills mentioned above, the factor that impresses me most about a good catcher
is one who assumes the roll of field general and calls the plays. The catcher has the best vantage point of the field over any
other player. The catcher is the only person who can observe all baserunners and the position of the ball at the same time.
If the catcher is on her game, she can make the best decision of where the play is to be made.
With the ball in the outfield, there are at least three or more defenders with their backs to the infield. Furthermore,
the players do not hear the coaches; all they hear is a wall of noise coming from the bench and spectators, often with
conflicting advice. The catcher should learn essentially seven commands and when to use them. They are simply, 1, 2, 3, 4 for
each of the bases, Cut, No Cut and Run it in.
She should shout out the command no less than three times to make sure the rest of the team knows the play.
1, 2, 3, and 4 (denoting First through Home) tells the rest of the field where the best play is most likely to be made.
A ball is CUT off when it is either off line, thrown weakly, or the baserunners have stopped.
A ball should be NO CUT when it is well thrown, on line, and aimed at a point where a play is possible.
(NOTE: Cut Off players should be aligned with the leading base on the play NOT positioned in the outfield between bases.
The catcher will determine where that spot is. If the ball is in left field and the Catcher yells 3, 3, 3, the cut off person
needs to get in line with the third base bag and the outfielder. )
“RUN IT IN” can often be a crucial call and yet it is one seldom heard. If the ball is short in the outfield, under control of
the fielder, and the baserunners have stopped, running the ball in will freeze the runners. By contrast, with the coaches screaming
throw it in, the runner on third has an excellent chance to score on the throw, most likely heading towards second. The ball will
then be fired at the plate and the runner on first will grab second. It turns a controlled play into uncontrolled chaos.
A runner on second, advancing to third will score 90% of them time if the ball is routinely thrown into second base. If on the
other hand, on a short single, the outfielder runs the ball in, the base runners must freeze because the ball is still in control of
the defense. Remember, this is just a 60 foot diamond so while the ball is in the air, the baserunner can easily eat up half the
distance to the next base, requiring a fast, hard accurate second throw to make an out.
The Pitcher: Outside of the coach, no one should know the pitcher better than her catcher. If a pitcher is having problems,
the coach is allowed just one visit per inning without pulling her from the mound. If the coach sends the catcher out to talk to
the pitcher, it too counts as a “visit”. But there is nothing that prevents the catcher from asking for time and going out to settle
the pitcher on her own.
The catcher is a critical element of the game and is playing the most difficult position, both mentally and physically.
An excellent catcher, more than any other single player, can change the entire fortunes of a team. While a pitcher must spend
many years perfecting her skills, the catcher must do likewise AND learn the rules AND be able to make accurate snap decisions in
every defensive situation. The catcher requires and deserves on-going focused coaching in order to learn the most difficult position
in the game. However, if you talk to a committed catcher, you just cannot find a more dedicated player with a higher love of the game.
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The Batter
It has been said many times, and never argued, that the most difficult thing to do in any sport is hitting a pitched ball.
Certainly, diamond sports where a batter may fail 75% of the time and still be considered valuable, is evidence of that axiom.
Consider this.
A 50mph windmill fast pitch travels over 73 feet per second. A reasonably sized pitcher will release the ball three feet in
front of the pitching rubber set at ’42 feet from the back of Home plate. Therefore, the elapsed time from the fingertips to the
back of the plate is a fraction over half a second. In that half second, the batter must determine if the ball will be in the
strike zone, whether to swing or not, and if yes, to somehow gets her hands and bat through the ball at the precise instant required
to put the ball in play.
If the ball is coming at 60mph, well………….
There are countless books, tapes, videos, and skilled coaches that will help train players to be better hitters.
For the purposes of this document then, I only want to point out three things that I know work, and yet seldom see employed.
The rest I’ll leave to the more detailed experts.
The three things are: (a) Hand Position, (b) slap-swing (choke & poke) and (c) Foot position.
Hand Position:
With so little time to make a correct decision with regard to the pitch, why do so many batters have their hands positioned
above their shoulders, sometimes, even over their heads? First, it takes extra time to get the bat and hands into the strike zone.
Second, and this is just a theory mind you, but with the bat already up that high, is it any wonder that batters so often swing at
those eye-highs that leave you groaning in the dugout?
My preferred hand position is slightly back from the body no higher than the arm-pit, and possibly even lower. With the hands
and bat already in the strike zone, the batter has a fraction more time to make a decision, and a higher probability of making
solid contact. I have worked this concept in batting cages and seen my players increase their contact frequency by 50% or more.
Slap-Swing:
There is a very basic principle to offense; you can’t make anything happen if you don’t put the ball in play. If your team is
averaging 8-12 strike outs in a game, you are going to be on the low end of the list unless you have a superb pitching staff
and flawless defense.
The slap-swing is the opposite of the from-the-heels wrap-around full swing. It is a quick short stroke aimed at creating
singles or just putting balls in play. The batter has more time to make a swing decision and a more focused target area for contact.
This is easy to teach but hard to in-grain in a hitter with a well established habit of swinging from the heels.
It has been used very successfully in three different situations.
The first is with a strong hitter who would like to add points to the batting average. Give them their first two strikes
their way, but with two strikes, they take a shortened swing, about ½ to ¾ -from just behind the trail hip to just in front of the
lead hip.
I had a good player who was quite proud of his 380 batting average, until I told him that at age 12, he could be hitting well over
500. Fortunately, Andy was about the smartest kid on my team and was easy to coach. He mastered the slap swing right away, and
finished the season hitting well over 600. Furthermore, he played against me in Babe Ruth and my team could just not get that boy
out. I’ll bet you that 75% of his base hits came with two strikes. He drove my pitchers nuts. Every time he killed us with a
two strike base hit, all I could do was smile.
The second situation is with a batter who just isn’t hitting at all. For them, insist they utilize this swing all the time
until they are making consistent contact with the ball.
On my Babe Ruth Jr. team, I had a young man who loved to play, was one of the sweetest kids I ever coached, but was a total
train wreck at the plate. In his 14 year, before I took over the team, he amassed one base hit on the season and at 15, a third
of the way through the schedule, was batting 000. I decided to make him my project. Prior to the next game, I took him aside for
20 minutes. I told him he was going to start and stay in for the full 7 innings. I said I was going to show him something and if
he would use it in the game, I guaranteed him a base hit. We practiced the short swing for about 15 minutes.
In his first at bat, he chopped a two hopper to short and was thrown out be a good 35 feet. (He wasn’t very fast either).
But you should have seen the smile on his face. You would have thought he had hit a walk-off homerun. I told him that swing was
TOO short, to widen it a tad next time. He got five at-bats that game. His next four produced three consecutive singles and then
a ground rule double. He finished the season hitting over 300 and would have done better if he could have just run a little faster.
The point of these little stories is that this tactic really works. I don’t think there is one coach in 100 that uses it.
But when I see one that does, and has his whole team drilled well, they are usually a run scoring machine.
The third situation is when you are facing a pitcher who is much faster than you are accustomed to.
If your hitters are having difficulty making contact, invoke the slap swing offense.
Foot Placement
This is a tactic that should be taught after batters have learned to make consistent contact. There won’t be many players
at a young age able to master this tactic, however, it can be done. The good contact hitters should be taught this.
A “Normal Stance” has both feet evenly aligned with respect to home plate.
A “Closed Stance” refers to a batting position where the trail foot is set back away from the plate. That is, the batter’s
torso is “closed” to the pitcher. The purpose of this stance would be to hit to the opposite field.
An “Open Stance” is where the lead foot is set further away from the plate, thus opening the torso to the pitcher. This
stance is used to pull the ball.
If you have a batter that is consistently pulling the ball foul, close her stance. If you have a batter that is consistently
hitting late and fouling off to the opposite side, open her stance. That’s a handy way to help a batter improve their hitting.
But here is where it gets strategic.
There is an old baseball axiom that you should hit “behind” the runners, that is, ideally, the ball should be hit towards a
spot where the runner is running away from. Hitting behind the runner is more likely to get them to the next base vs.
hitting in front of the runner.
A batter can alter where the ball is likely to go by adjusting their foot position. For example, with a runner on second base,
a right handed batter should close their stance, and can punch the ball towards the right side.
Here’s another strategy.
Do you pay attention to the other team’s defense to see who is talking the throw to second base? It is
SUPPOSED to be the fielder on the opposite side of the batter, that is, the second baseman for right-handers, and the shortstop
for lefties. That’s based on the assumption that the batter is more likely to pull the ball their way. So, if a base runner is
stealing, defensively, you want to leave the defender on the batter’s side in place.
At the youth level however, this is not often the case. Most teams designate either the shortstop or the second baseman
to take all the throws. What is the team you are playing doing about this? Is one, the other or both infielders collapsing
on the base?
So, why does this really matter?
In softball, the base runner may leave the bag on the release of the pitch. That means by the time the ball reaches the batter,
the base runner is in motion, and most likely, one or both of the middle infielders are heading towards second base. This is the
perfect opportunity for a hit-and-run play. If you have watched the other team and know how they play the steal, then you know
where the infield hole will open up. That’s where you want the batter to put the ball and that’s where foot position can
greatly increase the odds of a successful play.
With a runner on base, adjust the batters foot position, send the runner, and have the batter execute the slap swing,
driving the ball into the created defensive hole. The team that can execute the Hit-and-run will score more often,
turn routine outs into base hits, and create havoc with the other team’s defense.
If you can create a batting discipline that includes proper hand position, bat control (swing arc) and foot position,
you will create a powerful offensive team.
Playing Third Base
I only have one thing to say about this position. However, the frequency with which I see this position mis-played earns it mention.
Other umpires I have spoken with agree.
For the umpire, calling a tag play at third may be the most difficult call in the game. Why? Most of the time, the third
baseman is OUT OF POSITION, misses the tag and at the same time, is partially or totally blocking the umpire’s view.
I do not for the life of me understand why this is such a common mistake. It is so obvious and so easy to correct.
When getting ready for a tag play at third base, the defender should be straddling the bag.
- For a play from the plate, she should straddle the bag from foul side front corner to fair side back corner.
She can see the throw, and the runner and slap the tag.
- For a play from the infield she should straddle the bag from back, outfield side to front, infield side.
- For a play from the outfield, she should straddle the bag in a ¾ position from the source of the throw, be it
the outfielder or the cut-off fielder.
Playing Cut Off
Here is another one that drives me nuts.
The purpose of an infielder running into the outfield to take a cut-off throw satisfies two needs:
(1) The first is where the outfielder retrieves the ball deep and cannot make the throw into the infield.
(2) The second is to be able to redirect the throw to the best base, OR to freeze the runner(s).
The most common mistake is that the infielder takes a position in the outfield that is NOT necessarily lined up
with the best play. (See “Catcher”).
A ball hit to deep left with the shortstop in the outfield between the bags, will guarantee that the runner will be safe,
AND quite possibly get an extra base. Instead, the cut-off player should be on a direct line between the outfielder and the best
base to throw to, (where the Catcher calls it out, e.g, 3! 3! 3! ). Then, depending on the strength and accuracy of the
throw, the defender on the target bag can yell “CUT” or “NO CUT”
Using these tactics, you should be able to score more outs on the base paths, and greatly reduce the number of extra bases taken.
A corollary to this tactic is teaching the outfielders to throw on low lines rather than high arching rainbows.
A hard, flat two hopper to the fielder is far better than waiting for a rainbow to come to earth.
Conversely, if you are playing a team that does NOT utilize proper cut-off tactics, then offensively, it’s time to
start running the bases and taking what they give you. It will win games for you.
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