Latest / The Mound Visit / How to Improve Your Catch Play

Transcript

How to Improve Your Catch Play · The Mound Visit

• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Welcome to another episode of The Mound Visit Podcast. Sorry,
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: it's been a few weeks since I've actually done a show.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: I can't even remember actually the last time it was.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: It might have been two weeks ago or so. Been
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: a little inconsistent lately, just with some things going on
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: with the business and training and doing all those things
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: with the guys.
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: The podcast has just kind of.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Slipped a little bit. There's been a couple of changes
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: moving forward. As of now, it's just going to be
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: me running the podcast. I'll have guests on every once
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: in a while, and even Josh still might make an
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: appearance on the show every once in a while, but
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: primarily it's going to be so episodes similar to this
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: and then having a guest on periodically.
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: So I'd love to have your.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: Guys' feedback on questions that you have, topics that you
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: want me to cover.
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: I want to make sure that.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: This is a helpful resource for coaches and for players,
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: and at the end of the day, that's what the
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: mission and the goal of this podcast is is to
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: serve you. So if I'm not doing that, I want
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: to make sure that you let me know and that
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: you tell me the things that you want to learn
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: more about so I can serve you better. So today
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: I want to talk specifically about catch play. You know,
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: you might be thinking that's kind of a boring topic,
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: like just playing catch. It's not pitch design, it's not
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: velocity training, it's not command work, all those things, but
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: catch play is something that we do daily. This is
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: something that is super super important when it comes to
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: our long term development because we make more throws playing
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: catch than anything else. So if we're not doing that well,
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: we can't expect to be doing the other things in
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: development well, like pitching and things on the mound if
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: we can't do something as simple as playing catch with
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: our partner effectively. And I specifically want to dive into
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: a couple of different categories of ways that we can
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: improve our catch play. And it's really going to stem
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: from this idea that guys really struggle from closer distances.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: They struggle with regulating their intensity. And if we can't
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: regulate our intensity effectively, then you know, whether it's a
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: low day, a medium day, or high day, we're not
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: going to really fully be accessing what we want to
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: accomplish on those days if we don't know how to
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: control our arm and control what we're trying to accomplish
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: on any given day. And I'll be honest with you,
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: this has kind of been a surprise to me, a
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: slight surprise. I've obviously known, you know, with younger players,
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: there's typically a little bit less feel. It takes a
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: little bit more time for them to understand what they
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: need to do on any given day. But ever since
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: I started doing you know, full time in person training
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: with players in the private sector about a year ago,
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: I've noticed a common trend, and that trend is is
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: that guys really struggle from short distances, and if they
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: are throwing from a short distance, they feel like they
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: have to throw it hard in order to be accurate.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: So if they're not throwing it hard, then they're just
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: lobbying it and they're getting very pushy. They're throwing it
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: over their partner's head, they're spiking the ball, they're doing
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: all of these things that just don't look natural or comfortable,
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: and obviously that can lead to a long term issue
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: potentially of something like that the yips and struggling, you know,
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: from further distances, struggling on the mound. So I really
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: want to bring an emphasis and some thoughts and ideas
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  Speaker 1: to help eliminate some of these issues.
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  Speaker 2: And the first thing that I want to.
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: Talk about when it comes to regulating your intensity and
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: specifically throwing at lower intensities without getting pushy, without slowing
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: down into release and really affecting the throw, is this
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: idea of still accelerating the arm. So what I mean
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: by accelerating the arm is as I'm going into ball release,
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: my arm should.
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: Be gaining speed.
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  Speaker 1: What I see oftentimes is guys will go at their
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: normal tempo, their normal speed into their leg lift, and
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: the second they go to throw the ball, they slow down.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: They're slowing down, their elbow drops, they get pushy, and
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: the ball is thrown all over the place. We want
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: to make sure that we are still accelerating. Now you
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: might be asking, okay, that's great. Now, how do I
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: accelerate without actually throwing the ball hard? And it's very simple.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: You're starting speed, you're starting tempo in your delivery just
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: simply needs to be slower. So let's just use you know, percentage.
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  Speaker 1: I think percentages is one of the easier ways to
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  Speaker 1: understand this. If my starting tempo is at let's just
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: say thirty percent of my max speed. My body can move,
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: and I'm eventually gonna build it from thirty percent to
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: one hundred percent effort on a max effort throw. Then,
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: if I'm going to go at let's just say fifty
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: percent effort of a throw, I can't be starting at
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  Speaker 1: that thirty percent effort in the delivery because if I
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: do that, it's gonna feel like I'm slowing down. It's
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: gonna feel like I have to change something later in
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  Speaker 1: the delivery to not throw it at one hundred percent
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: effort or to throw it at least at a higher effort.
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  Speaker 1: So maybe our starting tempo needs to be ten percent,
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: So ten percent speed, so I'm moving a little bit slower,
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: but I'm still able to gradually gain speed into the
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: throw and accelerate my arm into release. Another simple way
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: to think about this is just to have rhythm.
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  Speaker 2: Right.
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  Speaker 1: Oftentimes when you see guys throwing slow or slowing down
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: to release, is they just have no rhythm. They're choppy.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: They go fast at one point then slow at another,
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  Speaker 1: or vice versa versus just a nice easy I'm flowing,
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  Speaker 1: I'm gradually picking up speed. I have rhythm. I have
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: temp that is what we are looking for. We're looking
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: for freedom and rhythm in the throw. That is by
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: far the number one thing I see as the biggest
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: issue for catch play from shorter distances or just.
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: Trying to throw at lower intensities.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: Now, if you're someone that still really struggles with this,
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: there's a couple of ways that we can mitigate these
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: types of situations or mitigate these types of throws. One
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: of them is to simply throw from further distances to start,
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  Speaker 1: So maybe I don't start at forty five feet instead,
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: I start at sixty or seventy five feet even And
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: if you're doing a proper warm up, if you're taking
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: yourself through a dynamic and mobility, you're doing plios or bands,
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: whatever it might be, you really don't need those forty
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: five foot throws are definitely even closer than that, So
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: your first few throws could be from a little bit
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  Speaker 1: further distance, so you just feel like you have a
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: little bit more freedom and you're not as restricted. A
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: couple other ideas would just be on those low effort
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: days is to spend more time on the plios, and
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: maybe you don't even do baseball throws on those days,
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: but I would argue that it's not necessarily solving the problem.
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  Speaker 2: You're just kind of avoiding it and putting a band
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: aid on it.
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: But in some cases, if if the issue severe enough,
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: you might have to do stuff like that to start,
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  Speaker 1: or you just throw into a net with a target
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: to where you have a little bit more freedom and
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: you don't feel like there's as much pressure to make
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: a good throw with your partner close. So it's just
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: a couple simple ideas. Once again, a lot of those
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: are kind of just masking the issue. We want to
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: make sure that we're attacking it head on, Like you
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: should be able to make a throw from forty five
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: feet accurately without feeling like you have to change your mechanics,
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  Speaker 1: drop your elbow, get very pushy. I think the biggest
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: thing that you'll see is once you learn how to
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  Speaker 1: just start slower with your tempo, be loosed, and still
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  Speaker 1: accelerate your arm through release, you're going to feel like
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  Speaker 1: this is much easier. Another thing that you can do
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  Speaker 1: with this is to do more constraint throws from these
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: closer distances. So maybe you're doing like a tent to's
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: where you're facing square to your target, you're counter rotating
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  Speaker 1: you're making a throw. Maybe you're doing like a figure eight,
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  Speaker 1: or you're doing a rock, or you're doing something that's
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  Speaker 1: putting yourself in a little bit more of a constrained
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  Speaker 1: position to where you're already not going to throw as hard,
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  Speaker 1: and it's more focus on the drill rather than just
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: trying to place the ball and baby it to your partner.
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  Speaker 2: So that's the number one thing.
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  Speaker 1: The second thing, and this is something that I talked
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  Speaker 1: about with Alan Jagermy and Jostu when he was on
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: the show, is the benefits of longos and long tooss
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: is obviously something that we talk about a lot from
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  Speaker 1: a velocity development standpoint of using it as an arm
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: strengthening and conditioning part of your programming, but I would
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: argue that long tooss really helps improve the feel of
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: the baseball and understanding how to regulate your intensity, understanding
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  Speaker 1: the effort that needs to go into each throw to
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: reach your partner and throw it accurately. Long tooss is
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: another version of variability training. We're changing the distances, we're
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: changing the height we're throwing it, we're changing the velocity,
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  Speaker 1: and still trying to do all that while throwing the
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: ball right out our partner's chest. And it's funny. I
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: was talking to one of my clients who's more of
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: a veteran player. He's in his early thirties, and we
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: talked about long tooss and how we both thought that
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: that helped us with command because you're constantly throwing from
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: different distances. You're going out to three hundred plus feet
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  Speaker 1: and still trying to throw the ball within a window
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: of the body and still trying to be accurate. Then
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: you start coming down, you're doing pulldowns. So what do
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: you guys mostly do when they do pulldowns after long
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: toss is they miss up, So you have to control
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: for that. You have to adjust. You're constantly adjusting your
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: targeting and trying to hit your partner in the chest.
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: And this is something that I'm starting to learn now
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: in the private sector and doing a lot of throwing inside.
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: In some cases, especially during the summer in Arizona when
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: it's one hundred and twenty degrees outside. Is there is
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: a huge difference between lng tossing indoors into a cage
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: compared to long tossing outside. A couple of reasons for that.
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  Speaker 1: The first one is you obviously don't have a clear
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: target that you're throwing to. You can try to build
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: up the net, you can try to simulate at the
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: best you can, and it's a great alternative when it's
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: all you have. But it can be very easy to
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: not necessarily know where you're throwing it or have a
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: clear focus on a target, and that is by far
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: one of the biggest issues I see with guys. If
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: they just throw into a net all the time and
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: they start throwing outside in this big open space and
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: they're trying to throw it to a specific target, those
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: guys tend to struggle, at least at first with getting
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: that feel and that adjustability. So we want to make
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: sure that we're stretching it out to far distances. For
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: that alone, I just think it really does a great
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: job of increasing your feel and just your understanding of
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: how you need to release the ball, regulating your intensity
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: to reach your partner, along with numerous other benefits of lolentoss,
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: and it's kind of something that a lot of guys
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: don't do as much anymore, at least from the people
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: that I work with and just watching from the outside
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: from some other places, just like very far max distance
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: Loan tooss isn't as common anymore, so I would encourage
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: you to stretch it out more, go to those longer distances,
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: work on the feel of the ball and understanding how
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: you need to regulate that intensity and being able to
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: control the ball. The third one, this is a very
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: common thing now, is more athletic base throws. So just
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: instead of being that robotic position of trying to throw it,
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: you know, to your partner right from pitch number one,
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: out of your leg, lift, let's move your feet, pretend
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: like you're a shortstop backhand of ball. You know, feel
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: that like you're coming in for a slow roller. Anything
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: that we can do to keep us free and athletic,
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: the better, because it, once again, it comes down to
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: variability training. Once again, we're throwing from different angles, different positions,
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: and still trying to hit our partner in the same
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: spot every single time. And I had another conversation. She
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: was the same conversation with the same guy that I
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: work with. We were talking about how a lot of
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: pitchers in high school now are pos versus When we
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: were in high school, it was pretty uncommon for guys
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: to be pos. You know, maybe you had one, maybe
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: two on each team, But for the most part, guys
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: were two way. They were playing the field when they
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: weren't pitching, and the benefit of that is you're playing
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: other positions. You're making throws from the outfield, from the infield,
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: and you're just staying free and athletic. And sometimes when
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: you're a po too early, it can be easy just
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: to focus so much on your mechanics. You become so
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: robotic that literally every throw you're doing a leg lift
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: or your focus on something specific mechanically, Sometimes the best
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: thing you can do is just to free yourself up,
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: move your feet, be athletic, have fun while all while
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: still trying to hit your partner in the chest. So
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: that one's one where you can kind of get creative
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: and you know, and have some fun with it. It
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: doesn't need to be super regimented. But like as you're
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: going out, as you're going to different distances, like throw
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: from different angles, pretend like you're feeling the ball. I
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: can didn't feel their, do crohops, do all these different
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: things that are going to challenge you to still throw
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: the ball at your partner. And then the last one,
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: which is you know, one of the most important ones
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: by far, is the mental side. And this doesn't apply
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: just to catch play. It can apply to your bullpen work.
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: It can apply obviously to anything in life, not even
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: just in baseball. But one of the most common things
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: I hear when I ask someone what is going through
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: your head when you're throwing the ball? Specifically guys that
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: struggle with throwing it accurately and they're, you know, they're
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: trying to force the ball to be perfect. I ask
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: them like, what are you thinking? What are the type
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: of thoughts that you're telling yourself before you throw the ball?
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: And nine out of ten times they will say something
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: along the lines of don't make a bad throw or
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: don't make a mistake. Here they're always telling themselves what
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: they don't want to do, rather than telling themselves what
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: they do want to do. And the mind is a
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: very powerful thing. When all we tell ourselves is what
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: we don't want to do. I feel like, and this
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: is a common thing that people say. I don't know
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: if it's actually true, but it does feel true for me,
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: and I know other people have felt this as well.
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: Is when you tell yourself what not to do, all
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: you hear is the last part. So if I tell
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: myself don't make a bad throw. All my mind here
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: is make a bad throw, and that's what I tend
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: to do. Versus if I tell myself be aggressive with
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: the fastball, or throw the ball through your partner's chest,
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: things like that that are positive, aggressive mindset actions, you're
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: more likely to accomplish that because your mind is hearing
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: what you want to do rather than what you don't
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: want to do. So that's just a simple fix on
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: the mental side that you can start to shift your
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: mindset of the way you think that I think can
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: be super beneficial. So this was a short episode. I've
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: just been thinking about this quite a bit, just playing
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: catch with guys every day, watching them throw, and you know,
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: we make so many throws a day and catch play
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: like this is it's done daily, right, Like we don't
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: throw bullpens every day, but we do play catch every
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: day or every day that we pick up a baseball
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: at least. And if we're not focusing on the things
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: that we need to focus on, or we're not maximizing
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: this time, I think we're missing out on a little
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: bit of the development piece. And I think there can
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: just be a lot of really good things that can
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: happen as a result, so I appreciate you guys listening.
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: I'd love to hear your feedback on things that you've done,
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: maybe as a player or as a coach. You things
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: that you've seen that players struggle with, and maybe some
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: things that you have used to help them get better
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: and work through this. I'd love to hear your thoughts,
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: and as always, feel free to reach out on social media.
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: You can direct message me or you can send me
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: an email. I'd love to talk pitching and until next time,
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: I'll see you guys then