I just read a very interesting blog post about putting emphasis on basic throwing and catching in your practices.  Now, I have to admit, while I have posts from this blog automatically e-mailed to me, I haven’t had much time to read them.  This one however, struck a chord with me.

I, too, am often baffled by how poor some players basic skills are even when they reach the high school age level.  These player have been in this game for 4-5 years (at least) and still make fundamental mistakes when it comes to throwing and catching.  Not only does this increase their chance for error, it’s often times slowing down their execution of a play (which means a lower chance of actually get the out even when no error is made).

As Ken Krause stated (the guy who wrote this blog post I read),  one of the BEST times to work on basic throwing and catching skills is during warm-up. Every team I know of includes throwing as part of their warm-up on a daily basis.  This actually makes emphasizing proper technique during this portion of practice critical!  Why?  Because it’s something your players are doing day in and day out.  Every single practice they spend time throwing and catching during their warm-up.  If EVERY single day they are practicing poor throwing/catching habits and mechanics during warm-up, obviously, that is going to affect their ability to execute it correctly when it really counts.  It’s almost crazy to allow your team to practice incorrectly every day at the start of practice then demand perfection later.

Some of the most common mistakes I see during throwing/catching warm-up usually include:

• basic footwork – toes of both feet always point toward target, lead foot not even stepping in the direction of target, no move to the ball when receiving a throw
• body alignment – lead shoulder and hip are not pointed in direction of throw
• glove position – making catches with fingers of the glove pointed to the right (or left if lefty) instead of up for balls received above the waist
• stuck feet – no step to the ball with glove foot including no movement of the feet to help catch a ball that is thrown of center/target
• dumping/tossing – players dumping or tossing the ball from their glove to their throwing hand in transition

All of these issues are bad habits that are only being re-emphasized when you allow it to happen day in and day out during warm-up. Start your throwing and catching practice right there at the beginning of every softball day. Get that cleaned up and it will:

• allow you to get solid fundamental practice in without having to add time to your practice sessions or take away time from another skill
• increase the likelihood that your players will do it right during practice and game time
• decrease your chance for error
• increase your odds of getting outs
• be easier to remind your team of the proper mechanics during other situations (in practice drills or in games)

Warm-up is an often overlooked time for working on basic skills.  Making this one change in your practice can benefit tremendously on the performance front.  If you’d also like to check out Ken’s blog post on emphasizing basic throwing and catching technique, click HERE.