How To Succeed As A Leader While Catching

So catchers are essentially the managers on the field. We tell the pitcher where to get over. Were in control of a whole lot of things that occur out here. Were leaders on the field. We’ve got to. Were the only one’s that see the whole field. It's a rule that if you don't like it, don’t catch because you have got to be a leader.

So were going to talk about giving catcher signs . Once again were in control of this. A signal might be coming from our manager in either dugout or were just telling the pitcher what we believe he should do. From this stance, like we talked earlier, were in our position to give signs. We were given our 3rd base coached blocked. We got our first base coach blocked. We would like to give our signs. We wish to give them in a way where only our pitcher and our middle infielders can see them.

Now when we discuss giving signs it is not a big thing if there's no one on base because there’s only a few people out there that will see them. But if there’s somebody on second base, that is a little different. If there’s someone on first that may also be different.

We want to use multiple signs. We want to disguise it because this is our info. This is not public knowledge. We do not need everyone to understand what’s coming. If a hitter knows what’s coming he is sure going to put some damage into your pitcher.

The other part of that is if a man on first base knows what’s coming and he sees a breaking ball, he knows it’s a good chance to run. He knows the pitch is going to be slower. That's the reason why we wish to keep these closed. It’s often a good time for a base runner to steal when there's a breaking ball coming because it’s potentially going to bounce. Irrespective of what, it’s going to be slower. So that's why we want to stay closed and give good signs.

I'm going to give you 1 or 2 examples of different sequences to use. One of them that is often used, way to regularly would be 2nd sign. So we might go 3, one, 2, one. That'd be a fastball. That is rather basic. Some more in depth ones would be sign after two. So it might be 3, 2, one, three. That'd be a fastball also.

There’s a lot of different sequences you can use. Look the idea is to keep the person on 2nd from knowing what’s coming or a man on first from understanding what they would like to run. We do not need this hitter to grasp what’s coming. This is our data. Were in charge of this. So next time your behind home plate, keep them to yourself. Disguise them a tiny bit. Don’t tell everyone what’s coming and have a good game behind the dish.

Greg Thomas is now a little league coach, but has experience working among the pros. He shows his team tutorial videos about the significance of the catchers stance and hitting instructionto help improve their skills.