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Rule #1 for Catchers
The single most important thing to do
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Rule #1 for Catchers

Ryan SienkoRyan 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.)

People ask me, "What is the single most important thing for a catcher to do?"  I reply that it is Rule #1.  They ask, "Rule #1?  What is that?"  Rule #1 for a catcher is to CATCH THE BALL. 
 
While obvious, catching the ball is the most important thing for a catcher to do.  It is even in the name of the position.  CATCHer.  Find us an athlete who can catch the ball, and we can make him into a catcher.  If you cannot catch the ball, you cannot be a catcher, plain and simple.  A catcher must heed this rule better than anyone else on the field.  Nothing good can happen if the catcher cannot catch the ball.
 
Here are two of the biggest reasons...
 
1 If he can'i catch the ball, he can'i play the position
2 If he misses the ball, nothing GOOD can happen
  • Runners can advance bases
  • Runners can score
  • Strikes can be lost by dropping or missing the ball
The first job of the catcher is to make sure that the ball ends up securely in his glove.  Many people feel that a catcher must run the game first or block or throw first, but without catching the ball, none of this is even possible.  Throwing and blocking the ball are a very small percentage of the catcher's plays.  90%+ of the time, his job starts and ends with catching the ball.
 
The goal of every catcher should be to catch every pitch.  If he can do that, he can have some success as a catcher.  Of course, it is easier said than done.  The amount of skill and concentration needed to catch 150-250 pitches in pregame, in between inning warm ups, and the game itself is not easy.  Challenging yourself as a player or your players as a coach to not drop a ball during a practice or game is a great goal to try to achieve.
 

Catch & Throw Fact:        

The fewest amount of pitches thrown in a game was 58 by Red Baret, The longest game in the history of professional baseball lasted 33 innings, with a total of 882 pitches between the two teams.

Look for more articles by Ryan Sienko in our main section on Catching.

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