Can Your Team Play A Good Game of Catch?
When we’re teaching little kids to play catch we emphasize proper mechanics that are necessary to make a safe, accurate, and powerful throw. We talk to them constantly about moving their feet, using their legs, getting their elbow up, and following through. Once we think they’ve got the basics down, we shift our focus to other things and stop stressing the importance of throwing and receiving. Baseball and softball are complicated games that require a lot of different skills, so it’s easy to jump to the next drill in order to cover everything. There are double plays, and relays, and 1st & 3rds to teach. The problem is, if the can’t play catch, they won’t be able to complete any of the higher level plays.
Being able to play catch is one of the most important components to a great defense and one that's often underemphasized in practice. Most outs are made at first base, which requires a throw.When the ball is hit to the outfield it requires and accurate and strong throw to the infield.
Unfortunately, when some teams go out to warm-up their arms, that’s exactly what they view throwing as; a warm-up. Rarely do they approach throwing as a drill. Compare it to how players and coaches approach a hitting drill. When practicing a hitting drill, they treat it as something to work at and improve on. They analyze, or the coach analyzes every swing. When they go throw, they just go throw. Players are making more throws during their warm-up than they will in a game. Throwing warm-ups should be viewed and discussed as throwing practice. Players (at all levels) are creating good or bad habits with their throwing and receiving.
I ran a camp a few years back with a friend who coaches at Oregon. After camp, we sat down with the campers for Q & A and of course, the golden question was asked: “What do you look for in a player when you’re out recruiting?”
The college coaches went around and shared their answers,
but Chelsea’s stuck with me.
She said, “The first thing I look for is if you can play catch.”
All the kids were silent for a moment and Chelsea went on. She explained how she often shows up early to a field if a kid is on her list to see how she warms up.
“If you can’t play a great game of catch, you can’t play at Oregon.”
I loved her answer. It was so simple and so true. Sometimes when teams go go “warm up”, it’s a fireworks show of overthrown balls, lack of effort in receiving well, and a lot of unfocused chatter. Many coaches aren’t really even watching warm ups. They’re figuring out what they’re going to do for practice, so the bad habits kids create during throwing go unnoticed.
If we make it important, our players will make it important. Take the time, make the effort and stress the importance of not just touching the ball, but actually catching the ball. I’ve never seen an umpire give an out for an ALMOST catch. Every team I work with hears this message: In warm ups and practice, every ball you catch is an OUT. Every throw that hits the ground means that your opponent is SAFE. If we train our athletes to believe that every throw they make matters, they’ll make better throws when it counts.
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