WebBall.com - 6 Steps to Success

6 Steps to Success

Ryan Sienko Ryan founded Catch and Throw, a catching instruction, information, and conditioning company, in late 2005 and started conducting comprehensive catching camps in the summer of 2006. He works catching camps for USC baseball, Las Vegas Baseball Academy, and is the catching consultant for many travel teams across the country. He also speaks nationally about all aspects of catching, blocking, throwing, conditioning, and strategy. An associate scout for the Baltimore Orioles, Ryan is also co-founder of Prepared Coach, a company that trains coaches of all levels. He was Dir. of Operations for the National Pitching Association from 2002-2007, in charge of the NPA Performance Center and Motion Lab. Each year Ryan works with over 1,000 pitchers, coaches, and parents at pitching camps and clinics. He has personally worked with 14 players who were drafted in the 2008 MLB Draft and works with several professional players every off-season. Before joining the NPA, he was a catcher at the University of Iowa then played professionally for 8 seasons with the Texas Rangers, Chicago White Sox and as an all-star in independent baseball. He also has taught for a number of Baseball Academies and is a consultant for Bedinger’s Bullpen, a baseball academy, in Joliet, IL and now coaches a highly competitive travel baseball team out of Rancho Santa Fe, CA that prides itself in the health and performance of all of its players. (Click to close.)

By Ryan Sienko - Catch & Throw founder

Throwing the ball to cut down potential base runners is the thing that you do least as a catcher, but has become one of the most important skills that college recruiters and professional scouts look for. At this point, a catcher must be just as good of a thrower as he is a receiver and blocker. At my facility I have simplified throwing to help everyone become an above thrower regardless of one’s arm strength.

There are two segments each with three different pieces that make up the fundamentals of throwing for a catcher to any base. If performed properly and in the correct sequence, the timing of the throw from the catcher should be perfect.

Receiving Phase...

1CATCH THE BALL

Rule # 1 is still to catch the ball (see Grass Roots article). Just because a runner is trying to advance to a different base, it still doesn’t change that you are a catcher first. Rule # 1 rings true in the throwing phases of the game because without the ball, you cannot throw it. If the ball is not caught and dropped, there is no way to throw out a runner.

2 TURN THE GLOVE TOWARD THE FACE

The second piece to throwing is to turn the glove toward the face. Once the ball is caught - depending on the location of the pitch - bring the ball back toward the middle of the body or the spine and turn the glove toward the face to set up the next piece of the equation taking the ball from the glove and separating the hands to get ready to throw. This is going to accomplish a couple of things. First, it is going to help set the timing of the throw because there will not be any sweeping of the glove back toward the throwing arm ear and second it will help the put the fielder back into the catcher and allow him to get his hand on the ball as soon as he can. As the catchers get more advanced, catching the ball and turning the glove toward the face becomes much quicker.

3 TAKE THE BALL FROM THE GLOVE

Many opportunities to potentially throw out base runners is lost because the catcher does not get the ball into the throwing hand either in time or not at all. The second piece of turning the glove toward the face allows the catcher to see the ball.

Do not give the ball to the throwing hand, this causes energy going in the wrong direction and increases the chances of ball being dropped in the exchange ruining the opportunity to throw out a base runner.

Ideally, the catcher would like to get a 4 seam grip on the ball, but that doesn’t always happen. Whatever the grip, learn how to throw with it. Especially in practice, don’t redo a throw because of a bad grip. Learn how to throw with every grip possible because in the game, there are no redo’s. Also, by taking the ball from the glove, the body will start its forward momentum and direction toward the intended target. Now the body is going toward the target instead of the hands coming back to the body.

Throwing Phase

4 RIGHT FOOT GAINS GROUND TOWARD THE TARGET

The amount of ground that is gained toward the target is going to be a function of...

The Pitch Location
The Quickness of the previous three steps (Catch, Turn, and Take)
The Quickness of the feet of the catcher

This is where many catchers run into problems and make the throwing harder than it is. Many people try to get the feet into position before the ball is in the throwing hand. By the time the ball is ready to start the throwing motion, the movement, momentum, and direction by the lower body is finished and the timing and sequencing of the throw is ruined. So...

As soon as the throwing hand has taken the ball from the glove start the right foot going toward the target. The size of the step will vary do to the ability, quickness, and confidence that a catcher has. When learning the skill, take as big a step as needed to get the body going toward the target. Get the momentum going like you're an outfielder or infielder coming through the ball.

5 LEFT FOOT DOWN - ONLINE WITH INTENDED TARGET

This is the easiest of the pieces in the throwing process. As long as there is momentum - created by the body in the previous step - all that has to happen is that the catcher should try to put his left butt cheek on the target. The left foot will get down and a proper weight shift will take place - as long as the momentum is created.

How a catcher lands with the front foot is unique to him and should not be altered much in the same way that if the catcher throws slightly closed, open, or straight should not be changed. The timing and sequencing with separation and the timing of the release of that throw is unique to each individual catcher.

6 THROW THE BALL

If the previous steps are done correctly, throwing the ball should be just as easy as an infielder throwing the ball across the diamond or an outfielder throwing the ball to the cut-off man. There are certain biomechanical variables that need to take place during a throw, but if the hands and feet do the right movements, the throw should not be too much of a problem.

A couple of keys to throwing are...

Keep that momentum going as long as possible to help proper throwing mechanics AND proper deceleration of the throwing arm in the follow through
Keep the posture the same while maintaining balance throughout the whole throw.

If a catcher can keep the head, belly button, and chest upright throughout the whole throw, the body will be able to properly rotate and deliver the throwing arm to a strong release point.

Remember...

The catcher is just like everyone else on the field and should catch the ball and throw the ball just like everyone else. The only differences are that they start from a crouch and have to speed the entire process up because of a shorter time available to successfully retire a base runner.

So remember... Catch, Turn, Take, Right, Left, Throw for success.

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