What's up? I'm Coach Dan Blewett in today's video.
Let's talk about some tips for you to improve as a catcher.
For those of you new here, I'm Coach Dan Blewett.
I'm a former pro pitcher.
Check out the links in the description below for more videos on Pitch
calling on other catching topics and all that sort of stuff.
And be sure to subscribe if you're new here.
All right.
So in today's video, let's get to some tips on how you can improve as a catcher.
So obviously in baseball, this is a long journey
to get to where you want to be, whether it's playing varsity
baseball, college baseball, pro baseball, whatever.
But the number one thing that any player can do is practice at home.
So the number one tip that I have is do your blocking drills at home
in the mirror.
I mean, it doesn't need to be said,
but it needs to be said because way too many players don't do this.
They don't go home, find a space in their basement,
get a, you know, $30 full sized mirror from Wal-Mart or Target or wherever
and just work on the drills that you get from your coaching instructor
or you just learned the field or from YouTube videos or whatever.
Go home, practice your mechanics dry.
That's the number one thing you can do is start to work on your mechanics.
Number two, receive balls at full speed.
This one can be a little more challenging.
So obviously, one of the best ways to do this is have someone,
whether it's a parent or a friend or someone who can go out and throw to you
so you can work on your blocking, you can work on your receiving.
A pitching machine is also a great investment.
But here's my third tip.
Go catch as many bullpens as you can.
So if you've seen my other video about, you know, what
it takes to be a great catcher, you've got to love catching.
And if you really want to be a great catcher,
then you should call up the local varsity team.
You should call up a local college team, call up a local minor league
team, even call up the adult league baseball teams in your area.
Ask them if they have pitchers who need bullpens.
Everyone looks for bullpen catchers.
Everyone looks for especially if you're in an adult
league baseball team,
you're going to get a lot of guys that used to play pro baseball.
You play college baseball and they just want to go out there and have fun.
But catching is hard, especially if you're just,
you know, a dad or you're just in the real world
and you don't really go out there and catch that often.
You're going to be super happy to have a high school kid or a middle school kid
come out and help catch bullpens to get pitchers ready during a game.
So if that's you and you're young player and you really want to get better,
call all the teams in the area.
And ask them who need you have pitchers can I come?
Catch is a really easy thing to do and it's the best way to get work to work on
seeing spend, to work on your blocking, to work on your receiving all that stuff.
It's a great thing to call people find bullpens to catch.
My next tip on how catchers can get better is to block
and treat every bullpen that you catch like it's a game.
So I see this way too often.
Amateur players, they think when they're in the bullpen
catching pitchers, which is part of your job during practice,
that they're just like going through the motions at that,
that the pitcher is practicing and that they're not really practicing.
As a catcher, you should be going and treating your bullpens like it's a game.
When you get to pro ball sure, you can just catch bullpens
because you've already caught thousands in your life and you don't
have to block in the bullpen.
But when you're a middle school player
or a high school player or youth player or whatever
and you're catching bullpens, those are your chances
to block that slider in the dirt, to block that curveball in the dirt,
to frame that changeup that's running out of the zone to work on sticking it.
So the best catchers, they treat their practice like it's a game.
And if you're catching bullpens, even if you got to catch six of them
in a row and it's August and it's hot, do your best to treat them like a game.
Block everything, frame everything, act like it's
your game time, practice just like it is for the pitcher.
My next tip is to throw throw throw.
And here's how you do this.
Obviously, I'm sure if you're a catcher, you're watching this video.
You take your dad or your mom or a friend or someone, your grandpa,
and you go somewhere and you work on your catcher pop time throws, right?
You find a field
that's empty
and you work on your throws down to second base and that's all well and good.
But every time you play catch, you should be going
through your catcher pop footwork at least some percent of the time.
You should also be rolling ground balls in front of you and you should be
picking them up bare hand and throwing as if you're feeling a bunt in a game.
All there's a bunch of different types of ways you're going to throw in a game,
whether it's blocking ball, getting up, recovering quickly, finding it,
and throwing the second base or blocking it, throwing a third base,
fielding a bunt, throwing the first, fielding a bunt, throwing the second
fielding a bunt, throwing to third,
going to the backstop, getting a ball and making a long throw from there.
All these are different types of throws that you have to make in the game
in addition to pop throws to second and third and back picks to first base.
So those are all ways you should be throwing
every time you play catch before game before practice.
So pitchers are going to do their pitching drills, infielders are going to do
their infield drills and throw in the run and throw
do all these different types of throws.
Catchers have their own types of throwing to do as well.
So you should mimic
that if you do throwing drills to work on your mechanics, great.
Once you're done all those and you've stretched out
a little bit, you should begin rolling yourself once you know
get down, block, recover, get up barehanded and throw at your partner,
treat your practice throwing like it's a game.
My last tip for today is to watch baseball
and try to guess what the catcher and the pitcher are going to call next.
So watch the game, watch what the catchers are doing
and try to go pitch four pitch. All right, it's 11.
The pitcher just threw him a first pitch, slider four called strike.
Then he went up and in with a fastball for a ball.
Now it's 11.
What do I think the catcher is going to call?
What do I think the pitcher is going to going to shake his head? Yes.
To go through the game like this,
watch and watch and watch and ask yourself, what would I do?
What did they do? And what was maybe the difference?
What if maybe I missed obviously you're not going to read their minds.
You're not going to know why they're choosing one pitch over another.
But there are a lot of different patterns.
The other thing to look at is where's the catcher setting up on different counts?
I have another video link to below about how the plate is sliced up.
And in the middle, the haves, the thirds, the corners, elevating and bouncing,
those are going to be highly dependent on the count in the situation.
So you're going to see the catcher set up on the outer
half a lot more than you realize.
They're not always setting up on the block.
You're going to see catcher
setting me up, setting up on the inner half, the inner third, the inner corner.
They're going to be doing lots of different stuff.
Really be a good observer when you watch baseball
and watch as much baseball as you can and go to local college games.
If you want to play in college, go watch college games, watch
how hard the catchers work, watch how physically built the catchers are,
see what their body type is, see see what the standard looks like.
So if you want to play at that level,
make sure you go out and see that level play firsthand.
All right. So thanks for watching.
If you have any any questions or comments leave it in the description below.
What other videos about catching do you want me to see?
Do you want to see more about pitch calling?
What are the questions you have? Feel free to leave it
and be sure to subscribe and I'll see you in the next video.