Catching - Softball's Thankless Job

Few people recognize the importance of a good catcher.

Many regular players and most parents (unless they have played the game) don't really understand how important the role of a catcher is.

A catcher does so much more than just catching balls.

However, most coaches (especially after a while) and all pitchers do realize how important catchers are to the success of a team.

Yet, they rarely get the recognition they deserved.

It's a thankless job.

Worse, they often get ignored by their own coaches.

Even the coaches that do recognize how important catchers are will mostly use their catchers only to catch pitchers or feed them ball during practices or infield warm-up.

They almost never get individualized attention to work on their  position-specific skills.

And there are quite a few skills to master. And they are NOT easy to master.

Since I do recognize that but that I am no catching specialist, I took  my 3 catchers and my catching coach to see Coach Dave Weaver of New  England Catching Camp near Boston, MA. He's recognized as one of the
best catching coach (baseball and softball) in the east.

What a great workshop. Dave is really a great teacher in addition to knowing his stuff. The girls (and the coaches too really enjoyed it).

And I believe more than ever than we have to spend time working with our your catchers and get them the attention and the help they deserve.

I wanted my catchers and my catching coach (which was super excited about this) to get instruction from one of the best so we could set the foundation right with our catchers.

They all came back very enthusiastic (and yet very tired) of this 4-hour intensive catching clinic.

Don't neglect your catchers.

Coach Dave Weaver visits my softball fastpitch forum regularly. You can leave your questions for him in the catching section.

And he also sells a DVD on his website.

Train hard. Play hard.

Marc
"Your Softball Peak Performance Coach"

What about you? What are your thoughts on this subject?

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