How do you learn a new skill? Or improve an existing one?
Well, it helps to learn about it. It helps to watch other people successfully do the thing you are trying to do. But, eventually, you have to, yourself, actually try that new thing. You have to do something different with the intent to achieve a better result.
You don’t have to know exactly how you’re going to do it. You don’t even have to know if it’s the right thing to do. In fact, you won’t know either of those things until you try to do the thing. But, you do have to try. You have to explore different ways of doing things in order to find better ways of doing things. That’s what development is.
In catching, there’s all sorts of options as to how you can go about playing the position. There’s different stances, different ways of loading your glove, different arm slots, different mental cues, different warm-up routines, and so on. There’s nearly endless possibilities as to what a catcher can do and the methods he can utilize.
How do you find what is right for you?
Explore.
Do not be afraid, or even hesitant, to try something new. To do something uncomfortable. To fail. These are necessary components of growth. The faster you get to the failure, the faster you’ll get to the success.
Now, that isn’t to say that the bottom of the ninth inning with the winning run on third base is a great time to try that new stance you’ve been wanting to try, just to see. There’s a time and a place. But, what I do advise, is to take advantage of training environments, whether that be off a pitching machine, catching a bullpen, etc., as opportunities to try new things and push the limits of what you know you can do.
This approach is what the Backstop Bandits were founded on back in the off-season of 2022 when the original five of us trained together while home from college. At that point in our careers, the catching position was beginning to change drastically, and we knew we had to as well. Traditional squat-stances and “sticking” the pitch were being replaced with one-knee stances and moving the ball, among other evolutions of the position that were on display at the highest levels. With limited knowledge and resources available at the time, we had no other choice but to explore and try things out for ourselves. That winter, and the next several after that, were spent catching countless pitches off the machine, volunteering to catch any bullpen we could, analyzing video of ourselves, bouncing ideas off each other, giving each other feedback, and just figuring it out.
No matter how much better we got, there was always more room to improve. Catching, like any worthwhile endeavor, is a never-ending pursuit of better. With Backstop Bandits, our aim is to guide and support the exploration of every catcher that works with us. We aren’t looking to dictate what every catcher must do if he wants to be successful, or stuff catchers into a box. We want each catcher to take control of his own career and dictate his own development. A coach can lead a player in a certain direction, or remind the player of his capabilities. But, at the end of the day, the player’s success and future are in no one's hands but his own.
