Baseball Drills: Catching

Drill: Blinking & Flinching

Purpose:
This is a 2 part drill that helps the inexperienced catcher overcome the natural reaction of blinking or flinching when a batter swings at a ball.

Equipment:
Catcher in full gear; baseballs; bat and batters helmet

Setup:
Part 1: Catcher in full gear, coach with a number of baseballs about 5 feet from the catcher.

Part 2: Catcher in full gear, coach with a number of baseballs about 15 feet from catcher, coach with a bat in the batters box.

Execution:
Part 1: Catcher will place both arms behind back. coach will underhand balls to the catcher aiming for the mask.

Part 2: Catcher will catch a thrown pitch from the coach. coach should aim for the catchers mask. The other coach will swing the bat missing the pitched ball.

In both parts of this drill the catcher should concentrate on not blinking or flinching.