By: William King, Myers Park High School
Rapid Fire helps a catcher with framing a pitch. Reason for the drill: Well allow the catcher to make pitchs that are a little too high, outside, or inside appear to be strike to the plate umpire. 3 to 5 are needed to perform the drill with one catcher in the group fully dressed. Equipment: Lost of baseballs Break the group up into throwers and a catcher. Have the throwers take a knee 10 feet away from the catcher. From there they will throw their balls one after the other. (If there are 3 throwers it would go like this. Right Middle Left Right Middle Left The next thrower starts to throw as soon as the catcher drops the ball that he just caught.) The catcher will frame each pitch that is thrown to him. A pitch on the left side of the plate (For a right handed catcher) should catch the ball with the thumb on the plate side and the hand should be pointing up (fingers to the sky). Then slightly curve the glove in towards the plate making it look more like a strike. For a High Pitch the catcher should catch the ball with the thumb paralell to the plate. Once the ball is caught, angle the glove down toward the plate slightly bring the glove back into the strike zone. For a pitch on the Right Side of the plate. The catcher should turn the hand over so that the thumb is on the plate side and and hand should be pointing down (Fingers to the ground). Once the ball is caught, curl the hand in towards the plate. The rang of motion for the catchers mit should be a Horse Shoe.
Date: January 20, 2000 at 14:19
Plate is optional