Backstop Catching

Face the wall from a distance of about eight to ten feet away with a thrower directly behind the right shoulder of a catcher.

Catchers: make sure we’re ready, hand up, prepared to react. We need to stay smooth and focused so we don’t stab at the ball and push it away from us.

Remember, you need soft hands and soft fingers to catch tennis balls!

Distance: 8 - 10ft

Method: Underhand wall bounce

Reps: 6 - 10 a round

Let's get quicker!

Lateral resistance blocking to keep those errant balls in the dirt in front of us!

Push off with the outside leg and get yourself into position with a slight tilt of the leading shoulder back towards home plate.

Ex: If you're blocking a pitch to our left, we push off with our right and bring our left side in towards home plate to create a barrier fir the ball. Not allowing it to deflect off of us towards the 3rd base side!

Reps: 4 - 8 each side

This is for learning to increase your focus and improve your hand eye coordination. To catch a ping pong ball properly we need to watch it the entire way and grab it out in front of our body. Do not push the pitch away but grab it and prevent it from dragging your hand away from the zone. Catch everything towards the plate and do not violently stab at the ball!

Distance: 6 - 8ft

Method: Underhand or overhand

Reps: 6 - 10 a round

Strengthen the path and motion of your transfers with weighted balls. Build a strong awareness of your body, keeping it in sync throughout the entirety of your throwing motion!

These are effective in preventing long swooping motions after catching the ball. This also serves as an accurate simulation of off-speed pitches and demonstrates how strong you need to be to redirect the ball from the downward angle!

Weighted ball transfers can be done with your bare hand or with a glove on!

One thing we must be mindful of is to not us a ball that is too heavy. Find weights that are manageable for you to keep proper form without being overpowered and forced to compensate, changing your form. Work your way up with the weight!

You can also mix in different weighted ball sizes to simulate faster or slower velocities of pitches!

Place a ping pong ball in your palm, holding it with just your pinky and ring finger. This stimulates your pocket with the remaining three fingers and also increases difficulty.

Distance: 6 - 8ft

Method: Paddle or underhand

Reps: 6 - 10 a round