- Aug 21, 2008
- 2,393
- 113
That sounded like sarcasm to me. lol.I’ve seen it done by some instructors when girls are younger but not with older, experienced pitchers who throw with decent velocity. Kudos to Bill for being willing to do it and for being able to make corrections to the pitcher for what he’s seeing. I’ve got to imagine it takes a lot of talent to be able to do that - see the ball and know exactly what the pitcher is doing wrong mechanically at the same time!
I don't know about it taking "talent" to do this. I would say it came with practice, and lots of it. And by practice I mean, countless hours of doing it during countless hours of lessons. These days, I like when pitchers bring catchers because then I can do things from both sides, standing next to her and catching. Once warmed up, I jump in to catch to see the spin and see things from there. When I stand next to them I can tell if they are trying to do the corrections I gave from when I was catching, but the instruction I give them is mostly based off what I see when I was catching from the rotation of the ball. To be honest, I worry about what happens when I'm unable to catch because of age and poor reflexes. While it's been gradual, I have noticed a slight reduction in my reflexes. I miss some pitches that I used to catch easily. But, I'm going to stop when that issue becomes dangerous. Right now it just feels sloppy, I don't feel in danger. The hardest part is going from a 10 yr old to a college age kid in back to back lessons. Not to mention sometimes, some locations have less than ideal lighting too. In other words, I know I'm getting old.
Maybe I won't have to worry about it. I have tickets for tonight's $1B Powerball and plan on winning. Once I do that, I will NEVER look at a softball again.