Backstop Catching @backstopcatch

Wild pitch retrieval drill: 1) Lose your mask and find the ball 2) Get down to one knee while rotating back around towards the plate 3) Firmly grab the ball 4) Make a good throw right on top of home plate *If you are close enough, underhand the ball to make it easier on the…

Wild pitch plays at the plate: If a ball gets away from us and there’s a runner on third trying to come home, we recommend going down on one knee when fielding the ball and making the throw home to your pitcher. Doing so allows us to: 1) Be under control 2) Securely grab the…

This drill serves to strengthen your forearm and receiving muscles. We want to be strong and secure when the ball hits our glove—we want to stop that ball right on impact. This exercise should have your forearms flaming, which is great because that means we’re building the…

6 to 8 reps a round of fast paced receiving. Stay calm and quiet and catch every single ball during the round. Extreme focus is key. Put a ball in your hand for increased difficulty. Distance: 6 - 8ft Method: Underhand or overhand Reps: 6 - 8 a round

Continuously catch the ball with only your pointer finger and thumb while it is falling. Catch it firmly, preventing it from falling down any further after initial contact.

This is a good test to gauge how well you remain soft when absorbing the ball. Stay still and motionless while the balls are thrown at you. The goal is to keep them right underneath you. If they’re bouncing off you to great distances then we must adjust our shoulders into more of…

Can be done with baseballs as well! We want to feel the hip movements that enable us to be quick getting to the ground. So, we’re going to get our glove out of the way to start. Begin with your glove on the ground and once we get our downward read on the ball we’re going to…

Be up in your blocking position and mix in strikes along with balls in the dirt. Focus on being quick to the ground and on absorbing that ball to keep it right underneath you. Quickness is key. Try to stop all movement by the time it hits you. REACT AND DON’T GUESS IF IT’S…

This is an over-exaggeration of beating the ball down to the spot. Once we identify that downward angle, descend all the way down. Distance: Up to full distance or 15 - 20ft away for throwing on a knee Method: Overhand or machine Reps: 6 - 10 a round

This drill serves to help us feel and understand the movements necessary to get into proper blocking position when moving laterally. Start by having your glove as far to the side as possible with the palm facing up. Don’t move until the ball is in the air and you read the…

Vertical: Begin with your hand on the ground, keeping it there until the very last second and catch the ball working up in one motion. Rainbow: Start with your catching hand to the side on the ground and once the ball is in the air towards the middle of your body, catch it in…

The higher your staring point, the easier this drill is to accomplish. Drop both baseballs with the same hand and catch them both with your palm facing down after just one bounce.

A good drill to do if you’re by yourself. Adjust the tee up and down, moving it to simulate different pitches. Again, focus on the quick transfer and the separating of your hands. Distance: To second base or with no throw. Method: Tee Reps: 6 - 10 a round

When throwing we want as short of an arm motion as possible. This keeps our body in sync and allows for one smooth motion to bases. The shorter the path to our throwing slot the better. This drill allows catchers to feel that short motion and to keep everything short ands sweet.…

Tennis balls are a great way to both measure and improve our blocking form, particularly our absorption. It’s no secret that blocking can be a painful enterprise, and this knowledge can impede us from improving on our form and quickness. Tennis balls are also used to understand…

Enhance those reaction and trust your speed! Subtract fear from the equation by pushing yourself from distances you’ve never tried before. Believe—know—that you can block anything! This drill can be done in two ways; either from a machine, where the catcher takes a step forward…

Receiving with sunglasses on, preferably indoors, is a method of decreasing your overall vision, forcing us to really focus and rely on our reaction skills that we’ve been shaping. We are trying to make the ball harder to see, both mimicking a game scenario in which we may…

We practice no-hands blocking to improve our ability to use to our chest to deaden balls without our forearms getting in the way. Use this drill to work on your quickness getting down into blocking position. Try to be completely static once the pitch makes contact with your body.…

We can’t overemphasize the importance that remaining still plays in a catcher achieving his full potential. We want to remain quiet and focused, so place a cone or similar object that can be displaced by movement on the top of the head. This is a great way by which to measure and…

We practice no-hands blocking to improve our ability to use to our chest to deaden balls without our forearms getting in the way. Use this drill to work on your quickness getting down into blocking position. Try to be completely static once the pitch makes contact with your body.…