New Articles on Catching

It's been a while since I added articles to the Articles Page, but there are now two new catching articles up there for you to read.

Both are written by Dave Weaver founder of The New England Catching Camp LLC. Coach Weaver teaches at numerous facilities throughout New England and conducts group clinics, team workshops, coaches clinics, as well as private sessions with catchers of all ages.

The first article is called Never Teach Your Catchers to Frame a Pitch.

The second article is Blocking is the Easy Part.

Both articles are absolutely free for you to read and learn from. Check out the articles and let me know what you think of them by leaving me a comment below. (Click on the "What do you think? link)

Keep Your Catchers Injury Free

I got a question from my good friend Stacie Mahoe from http://www.allaboutfastpitch.com asking me about preventing knee injuries for catchers.

I thought this is information you would like to get.

Yes, catchers have a greater risk of developing knee issues just because catching puts more stress on the knees than any other position.

What can you do to prevent this?

1) Use the Knee Savers. These are support padding that you attach to your shin pads and that gives you good support when squatting down. It takes away close to 85% of the stress when resting before you get into your catching position.

Some people think it makes your catcher lazy. To me, you can't play with knee safey. However, I don't buy the lazyness thing. A good coach will know how to properly train their catcher and if the catcher is hard-working, this is a non-issue.

Now, it is not mandatory to wear them but it can really help to prevent a lot of the stress placed on the knees.

2) Do Hindu Squats - old, silly-looking, martial art exercise that many personal trainers would tell you "It's bad for the kneess" exercise because the heels are coming off the ground but guess what.. every catcher has their heels coming off the ground.

It is actually a great muscular endurance exercise for catchers. I would do 50-100/day several days a week.

After that, you catcher will have the best conditioned legs of any catcher in your league.

Check this exercise:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPSVpo4mzNI

3) I would get also get them to do single-leg squats for strength and stability. They are killers but boy do they work.

Check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hu-6ywxbu1A


4) Make sure you teach proper catching techniques; especially the basic catching position. You want to make sure that their weight is well-distributed. Teach them good fundamentals and you will take a lot of the stress away.

From experience, most softball players with knee problems are not catchers but former/current gymnasts, basketball or soccer players.

Make your catchers injury-proof.

Who loves ya? ;-)

Marc
"Your Personal Softball Peak Performance Coach"