Developing a catcher (9-10yrs old) advice

[The Man In Blue]

Well, you took that completely the wrong way ...

Selling pitches is trying to drag a pitch into the strike zone. Yes, you might “get one over” on a lesser umpire, but a better umpire won’t be calling pitches in the mitt. You can start to sell yourself out of close pitches if you are moving everything.

Framing is a term that is commonly misused, and that is what I was referring to. Framing is providing the umpire with a good look at the pitch. It is keeping the arm straightened (not back by the body), sitting in the right position to give the umpire a good look, and not moving around. It is called framing because a good catcher will create a “frame” for the umpire to look through. (The batter, the catcher’s arm, and the catcher’s head provide three sides of the frame. The umpire’s eyes should be at the top of the zone giving the fourth side.)

 

[Chad504boy]

So quick update.

DD had a great season. She has gotten better as a catcher in many different ways throughout season. They had last tourney last weekend.

BUT about 3ish weeks ago she started complaining about her elbow (inner). I've had her rest it as much as possible (practice and at home etc) and she still fought through her last tourney with the pain. Brought her to doc today, little league elbow. Been reading up on it a lot today, everything to the T describes her.

She's got 6 weeks of no throwing/rest/PT and if she's cleared from that she goes to a back to throwing program for another 6 weeks. That's 3 months at best of being mostly sidelined from a throwing perspective. Thinking about having her not play catcher at all this fall. Eats me away. I guess i'll have to see how her rehab goes in a few months but definitely a bummer. I do want to make sure we make her right for long term health.

 

[So Cal Seth]

So quick update.

DD had a great season. She has gotten better as a catcher in many different ways throughout season. They had last tourney last weekend.

BUT about 3ish weeks ago she started complaining about her elbow (inner). I've had her rest it as much as possible (practice and at home etc) and she still fought through her last tourney with the pain. Brought her to doc today, little league elbow. Been reading up on it a lot today, everything to the T describes her.

She's got 6 weeks of no throwing/rest/PT and if she's cleared from that she goes to a back to throwing program for another 6 weeks. That's 3 months at best of being mostly sidelined from a throwing perspective. Thinking about having her not play catcher at all this fall. Eats me away. I guess i'll have to see how her rehab goes in a few months but definitely a bummer. I do want to make sure we make her right for long term health.

Get Wasserman's High Level Throwing book. If your DD consistently throws back to the pitcher like she does in your avatar, I can see why her elbow hurts.

Rest should do a lot of good. But gotta nail those throwing mechanics. Look in to pre and post throwing care. These are things I need to look in to for my DD (Wasserman, Jaeger bands, etc) but I'll admit that I haven't done so yet.

Enjoy the summer. She can still work on blocking, she can still work receiving, and maybe she can hit? But enjoy that summer!

 

[CoachJD]

They have revised some of their info over the last 5 years, but this video remains an excellent resource for coaches and parents.

Everything I know about catching technique is from that video, so I'm curious about what they've revised. Anything significant?

 

[Chad504boy]

and maybe she can hit? But enjoy that summer!

hitting is kind of subjective. anything that she feels pain doing... don't do. I'm probably going to lay off the hitting for a few weeks. She does have tryouts at end of month so she may need to do some hitting there but i'm not going to do any more than needed. I want her elbow to heal as best as possible.

 

[Dabears17]

Everything I know about catching technique is from that video, so I'm curious about what they've revised. Anything significant?

Jay is constantly making minor tweaks to his material based upon studying the game and learning how to explain the material better. Biggest change is throwing technique. My daughter has his attended camps in 2013, 2015, and 2017, and each time its a little different, but the DVD/Vimeo is still a solid baseline on receiving and blocking (ignore the throwing technique in DVD). I talked to him for a while last September and he had made some minor changes since Feb 2017.

I bought the DVD back in 2011 and still think its the best money I've ever spent on a softball resource.

 

[uncdrew]

I'll have to look up Little League Elbow.

I do worry about my DD's arm and really need to consider some workout program with bands and such. If anyone has good recommendations I'm all ears.

 

[Eric F]

So quick update.

DD had a great season. She has gotten better as a catcher in many different ways throughout season. They had last tourney last weekend.

BUT about 3ish weeks ago she started complaining about her elbow (inner). I've had her rest it as much as possible (practice and at home etc) and she still fought through her last tourney with the pain. Brought her to doc today, little league elbow. Been reading up on it a lot today, everything to the T describes her.

She's got 6 weeks of no throwing/rest/PT and if she's cleared from that she goes to a back to throwing program for another 6 weeks. That's 3 months at best of being mostly sidelined from a throwing perspective. Thinking about having her not play catcher at all this fall. Eats me away. I guess i'll have to see how her rehab goes in a few months but definitely a bummer. I do want to make sure we make her right for long term health.

I understand your struggle. In 12U, my DD went through the same thing - twice. The first was like you described, but we never really solved the root issue, which was her mechanics. The second time, she created a significant irritation of her ulnar nerve that required PT and learning to make an adjustment to her throwing pattern. She was unable to play in the field for 10 weeks. Thankfully, she was still able to hit.

For my DD, she was using too much of the front of her shoulder, and it created an imbalance that the ulnar nerve didn’t like. She had to learn how to properly get into her scap and involve the back of her shoulder more.

Here’s the thing...Get it resolved properly now. 6 weeks at your DD’s age won’t dramatically affect her development. Having and issue that ends her ability to play would be a much tougher thing to deal with.

 

[Dabears17]

Here’s the thing...Get it resolved properly now. 6 weeks at your DD’s age won’t dramatically affect her development. Having and issue that ends her ability to play would be a much tougher thing to deal with.

Agree with Eric. Get it resolved properly. My DD was shutdown for 12 weeks this spring because the Doc and PT folks wanted her 100pct before returning to play. It was killing me the last week when they said they were 90pct sure they would release her to play in a week and I wanted to do some light batting practice so she was ready for a tournament the day after they were going to release and they said no.

 

[_MIA_]

Improper throwing mechanics is the one of the biggest, if not the biggest, issue I see with girls at all ages but in particular at 10U and 12U. Many of them look like they are throw or two away from blowing out their arms with the way they throw.