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I want to make sure that everybody understands that prior to throwing, even touching that baseball for the first time, that you go through unappropriate stretching program and get yourself loose and physically ready to go. When you reached the age that JD has reached, if you do not stretch your body and gets the blood flowing through the muscles a little bit, you run the little risk of hurting your self sometimes on a permanent basis.
So, the thing that I asked to all my players to do regardless the position they play, is to work your technique when you throw. That is your opportunity for a few minutes to get yourself loose, and they get better on a daily basis because that is one thing that you are going to do everyday before you practice or play.
We received the ball, we want to make sure that JD does just a couple of things physically right to help him self receive the ball. When his partner is throwing to him, as the partner was throwing right to him, I want JD to “spread his feet at least shoulder-width apart”. I want him to “flex his knees” a little bit and we want the glove, may I have the ball here, we want the glove to “form in his arm, his right arm, to form a box and we want a target, there is a partner that is going to throw it to you to be right in the middle of that box” and if it is great, then we move the hands together and we make the catch with two hands. If it is outside that box, JD’s job now becomes to put that box in front of the ball. So, if the ball comes here, he is going to slide and move to meet the ball, okay.
And that is just little something that you can take pride in. You do not have to do that, you can be lazy and stick your glove out and catch the ball certainly, but that is not taking any pride in what you are doing and it takes you longer to get you rid of the ball that way as well. So, we are defeating the purpose to different directions.
The Ball is above the waist. JD is going to slide those thumbs together, catch with two hands but the ball happens to be below the waist. He is just going to put his pinkies together and catch the ball with two hands. A catcher especially if the ball is down on his own he can drop and either go down and get it this way or better yet, he can either drop his knees and catch the ball right here. Catch it this way, right here and then stand back up. It does not hurt him to do that that is just like he is receiving position when he is throwing the second base on a straight still. So, we can make sure that we get some flex on the knees and get that good target and take a little bit of pride in moving your feet and get in front of the ball.
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Now, JD is going to square himself here and we are going to work to a target. We are going to work to a partner. We always want to make sure that the hands come together in front of the chest. When they come together and the catcher’s technique, we want the elbows to go up. This is a little different than end field throws, out field throws, or pitcher’s throws. This guy has less time to operate with in angles from first to second, a good runner can get from first to second base in 3.7, 3.8 seconds major leagues, 3.5 or less. That being the case, he does not have a lot of time.
The goal for a high school player, college players, is to get somewhere between two seconds and below. In that vicinity, he has to get the ball out of his glove and he got to travel second base and hit the short stops club in two seconds or less. It does not give him much time. He cannot take the hand out and drop it down and come back up. If he does, this man is gone, stolen second base. He did not have that time, so we have to make use of what time we do have. Elbows come up this way, he is going to split his hands and he is going to get a nice arm whip right here. He transferred that glove back into his chest and he will get his good arm way up here, okay. So, again elbows go up, he will point his shoulder, his hip, and his knee right out of his target and he will make the throw, right there.
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