14 takeaways from the best minds in catching (CatcherFest 2025)

 I'm currently eating breakfast and typing this out at the airport as I go from CatcherFest to CatcherCON. 

The people at CatcherFest were amazing, open, and collaborative. Over half the room were catching coaches with an MLB team. 

Here are 14 big takeaways (bucketed into 4 big categories):

1. Receiving & Glove Work

The big focus was on "Glove Speed" and the mindset of "Innocent until proven guilty" (everything is a strike until proven a ball).

• Glove Speed Metric: Elite glove speed is around 6 m/s (measured via bar-speed trackers). The highest speeds are consistently coming from the Right Knee Down Extended (RKDe) stance.

• Setup by Pitch Shape: We need to angle the hips to the movement of the pitch, not just the plate.

• High Pitch: Alex Burg teaches a "flip move" where the elbow leads and hips raise to help turn the glove over. (Why Patrick Bailey is the best at the high pitch)

• Extension at Catch: There's different thoughts here and I really want to run some more tests with my catchers. We're going to talk a lot about this in the Catcher's Circle call today. 

2. Stance & Lower Half

• Stance Posture Checklist: Head Up, Chest Forward, Butt Back.

• Pelvic Tilt: One funny but helpful cue mentioned was to "pee into the ground" to get your pelvis to tilt backwards.

• Single Knee vs Secondary: Prioritize the single knee for the future, but keep the secondary stance at younger ages. You need the secondary stance for wild youth pitchers and old-school coaches (they write your lineup, not me), but the single knee is the ticket to the next level.

3. Throwing & Arm Care (Garrett)

There was a heavy emphasis on prioritizing movement patterns over raw velocity.

• Ramp Up Rule: For every week off, you need 2 week of ramp-up. (Spring Training is the highest injury time for pro guys because they rush this).

• Pain Management: Daily check-ins on arm pain (0-10 scale). Goal is to stay at 3 or lower.

• Transfer Mechanics: Exchange height matters less than keeping the ball close to the body.

• Loading Drills: Hop and drop variations are awesome to load the back leg. Most other coaches also don't do transfer drills without some sort of throw.

4. The Mental Game & Communication (Josh Paul)

• The 20-Minute Rule: Wait 20 minutes before giving critical feedback (let the amygdala/emotion reset). Never critique immediately after a HR or bad inning. Critiquing is different than giving directions. Know the difference and give directions when you need to!

• Action Breathing: Most guys hold their breath under stress. We need to teach "Action Breathing" - Slow exhales in our "target" phase, let air flow in when we glove load, then "blow out the candle" when we receive or block.

• Body Language: We should record catchers and show them the video with the sound off. Ask them: "How would you feel if you were on the mound looking at this?" "What would you change if you were making the most confident catcher?"

So there you go! 14 big takeaways from CatcherFest. 

Let me know if you want to see any more in depth video content on any of these

Rooting for you! 

- Coach Bougie

P.S. if you're familiar with my teaching style, here are a few things I'm changing my mind on:

• Transferring deep is not always bad
• Where the right foot should go when throwing
• Receiving with an extended arm is not always bad

P.P.S. In politics, changing your mind is viewed as bad. In life, changing your mind when you get new information is smart :)