How Should a Catcher’s Skills be Prioritized?

I talk to youth baseball coaches frequently about their catchers.  These discussions usually involve conversation around how well (or poorly) their catchers throw on attempted base steals.  It is quite common that a youth coach will place a greater weight on their catchers' throwing ability than they do receiving or blocking.  There are a few…

Proper Receiving

We talk so much about receiving the pitch as a catcher, it seems maybe the position should be called "Receiver" instead of Catcher.  Regardless, receiving is the most important skill a catcher must learn.  Blocking and throwing are also critical skills for a catcher to learn and master but, those skills are called upon less…

What We Cover in Our Clinics

CO Catchers clinics are designed to provide a broad base of instruction to our participants.  We keep the clinic size small (maximum of 10 catchers) to ensure each catcher gets more attention. Playing catcher requires a lot of work and overall conditioning so we spend 30 to 40 minutes warming up and conditioning.  One of…

Do catchers get to practice their position?

Next time you are around a youth baseball practice, take note how much time is dedicated to the catchers to practice their skills such as receiving, blocking and throwing.  If it is anything like almost all of the practices I see then there is NO time dedicated to catchers.  The most the catcher might get…