My son is 15 yrs old and a sophomore. He plays both varisty and JV.

His strengths, as accessed by his coach, are:
Strong catcher's mentality
Superior catching/blocking ability
Very quick feet
physically strong

weakness:
lacks arm strength-pop time is avg 2.3-2.4

He is 6'1" and 155 lbs (tall and thin, but muscular)
I believe he will grow to about 6'3" to 6'4".

My question is this: Is there a method/exercise we can work on to increase his arm strength? I've been told that tall, lanky kids develop their arm strength later but I don't want to wait on him to simply mature if there is some way to increase his throwing speed now.

I would appreciate your help!

Thanks

I'm not an expert or even close when it comes to catching but I do know that although arm strength helps there isn't a one-to-one correlation between arm strength and pop time. My guess, given his build is that he may have a long throwing motion for a catcher and may need to shorten his motion and quicken his release. If the HS coach isn't already working with him on his technique, I'd suggest finding a catching instructor to work with him. That is what could yield relatively quick results.

Arm strength does of course help, but it takes an increase in velocity of about 20 mph to bring the pop time down by .3 seconds and there's little or no chance of doing that quickly. So focus on technique in the short term and arm strength over the long term.

As far as arm strength long toss is always good, and although there may be some risk involved, overload/underload training (weighted balls) might help. That's something you'll want to research and assess the risks before deciding to do it. If you do have him start up a long toss program, you'll have to be careful about having him maintain a catcher's arm action. Other than that, lower body weight work, core work and plyometrics can help.

Make sure to check his footwork. A lot of times coaches will clock the pop time and if is not as good as it should be, they automatically blame it on arm strength. Focus on proper footwork and receiving/ball transition first.

Keep in mind that, while a 2.3-2.4 pop times isn't what is needed from a starting varsity catcher, that is every bit as good as many high school catchers. I don't consider a 2.-2.4 to be bad for a sophomore, especially a 15 year old. As he grows and develops his technique, he can shave tenths off his time.

Footwork will help as much or more than anything, and as he matures and gets stronger the arm strength will come. Long toss is one of the best things he can do to build arm strength. Does he even shave yet? If not, I wouldn't worry about his pop times today, they'll likely improve a bunch in the next couple years.

I'm not saying it is ok at this level, but I've seen one or two jr. college catchers with 2.3-2.4 pop times this spring, and they are playing in one of the top juco conferences in the country.

sometimes a little growing is what it takes.Last year,my sophomore year,my pop was around 2.3seconds.After a summer on a very good weight training program,and running on my own,my pop is now consistently in the 2.0-2.1 range

I also grew an inch since last season.Tell hi mto keep working hard,but also let nature take its course

bigChap,

My freshman son is very similar in size to yours. About 6' 1" and 150 lbs. Not until his high school long toss program kicked in this winter did he ever have a strong throw. No rainbows anymore, all throws on a straight line. Pop times consistently under 2.1. But he has good footwork also.

Check his release time by videotaping it and playing it back in frame-by-frame. At his age, he should get below .8 seconds on a pitch down the middle. His longer term goal should be below .7.

As for arm strength/velocity - it is important, but it is easier to shave tenths off of release time than on velocity, as CADad said.

With a .9 release, if he throws 70 MPH initial velocity, that would be a 2.26 pop time. Increasing velocity to 75 MPH will shave exactly 1/10th of a second.

Obviously it is easier to improve release time from .9 to .8 than to increase velocity by 5 MPH!

I did the math once and made up a spreadsheet. Going from 70-75 MPH shaves .1 seconds. Going from 75 to 80MPH shaves .08 seconds. Going from 80 to 85 MPH (very few HS catchers throw this hard) shaves .7 seconds, and going to 90 MPH (dream on!) shaves .6 seconds.

So, the "returns" to arm strength are diminishing.

A strong arm is very mportant in a catcher, but if he is popping a 2.4, the real issue isn't arm strength, it is release time.

Get it on video to see exactly where he is, and if it is above .75, which I would virtually guarantee it is, work on that first.

quote:

A strong arm is very mportant in a catcher, but if he is popping a 2.4, the real issue isn't arm strength, it is release time.

Rob I fail to see the reasoning here. Lets assume his son has perfect transfer and perfect footwork and he's throwing 2.4. If that be the case (and could very well be) arm strength DOES become the real issue. There are a number of things that can hurt/help pop time. Most have been discussed here but to say one is more important is difficult because ALL factor into the pop time. An inflated poptime can be the result of a slow transfer, poor footwork, or weak arm strength.. Of all the ingredients that factor into a great pop time; arm strength will always be the most important (or sought after) because it cannot be taught.
Fungo

quote:

Lets assume his son has perfect transfer and perfect footwork and he's throwing 2.4. If that be the case (and could very well be)

Actually, Fungo, this is very unlikely. To have very good release mechanics (say, a .7 release) and a 2.4 pop time would mean that the initial velocity is around 56 miles per hour.

I seriously doubt there are many high school sophomore catchers throwing that slowly.

I don't dispute at all that arm strength is one of the most important attributes of a catcher. But that wasn't the point. The point was that a 2.4 pop time is almost certainly evidence of slow release mechanics more than it is a weak arm.

Usually it is both, but as Rob said one can shave the time off the release easier than one can build arm strength. The obvious answer is to work on both. Working on the release will help now and when he's competing with other catchers who have quick releases he'll have to build up his arm strength to stay with them.

quote:

I did the math once and made up a spreadsheet. Going from 70-75 MPH shaves .1 seconds. Going from 75 to 80MPH shaves .08 seconds. Going from 80 to 85 MPH (very few HS catchers throw this hard) shaves .7 seconds, and going to 90 MPH (dream on!) shaves .6 seconds.

Rob, don't mean to get picky here, but you may want to double check your spreadsheet figures.

70-75: shaves .08 sec.
75-80: shaves .07
80-85: shaves .06
85-90: shaves .06

The easiest way to determine if arm strength is at fault is to pull out the radar gun. Many "pops" (parents of pitchers) claim velocity is unimportant. Could we be guilty of doing the same thing for catchers?
Fungo

Let's not try to take the "pop" out of poptime.

RPD: I'm basing it off of the assumption that the ball slows down 1 MPH for each 10 feet it travels, and it travels 127 feet to second base.

A 70 MPH inital velocity then has an average velocity of 63.65 MPH, which takes 1.36 seconds to get to second base.

A 75 MPH initial velocity has average velocity of 68.65 MPH, which takes 1.26 seconds to travel to second.

I think you are failing to take into account deceleration of the ball in flight.

Fungo: I agree that a radar gun would tell us if there was an arm strength issue, but I'll betcha I could tell right away without a gun if the kid was throwing down at 56 MPH. The ball would either bounce three times or would have to be a rainbow.

I don't think anyone is trying to take arm strength out of the equation here. That particular item is very important to my son, and totally agree with you that mechanics are far easier to teach than arm strength, meaning that for play at the next level, arm strength is arguably more important.

But that wasn't the question as I understood it. If the question is how to most quickly reduce a given catcher's pop time from 2.4, it is pretty obvious to me that the answer lies in release time.

That is, unless I see that rainbow!

Here is a link to a similiar topic which also has a link to a discussion calculating the "impact" of increased arm strength on pop times.

http://hsbaseballweb.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/8591034941/m/7461049812