Coach Duke Baxter and Steve Nikorak explain how competition is the best way to get your youth baseball players to efficiently practice. Using stop watches, accuracy games, and simulating real life game scenarios with your players can help your catchers to perform better during a throw throwdown.  

Coach Steve uses competition during drills in practice. Using a stopwatch to time the catcher throwing to first, second, or third base works on speed and ball handling. Another drill would be a ball sitting on a tee in front of a net and having the players trying to hit the ball off the tee by throwing. If the players get the ball in the net they get one point, and if they hit the ball off the tee they get 3. This creates friendly competition that improves focus and energy.   

Coach Duke recommends running game-like scenarios with runners on base. Placing runners on 2nd base while the coach simulates pitches to the catcher. The runners get practice by reading the balls the coach is throwing. The coach should throw some regular strikes and others in the dirt. During the strikes, the catcher has the opportunity to pick the runner off of second if they have too much of a lead, and if the ball is in the dirt, the catcher can practice blocking and throwing to third.  

With this drill, the runners and catchers get to see multiple different scenarios and have the opportunities to make mistakes and get experience. The runners can learn to read the balls and the catchers can tap into game mode.

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