Softball Catching Drills

A worthwhile softball catching drill zeroes in on one fastpitch skill, piles on enough repeats to wire a habit, and closes on a rep that looks like a real pitch off the circle. The drills that earn the most time fall into four buckets: framing the spinning pitch (wall sit framing, belt-line glove turn), blocking on the move (drop, block, and rise), throwing to second (quick feet ladder, pop-time work), and reading pop-ups off the bat. Tilt the practice clock toward framing, since the catcher fields far more pitches than she ever blocks or throws.

Catching in fastpitch is its own coaching problem, not a baseball skill borrowed with a bigger ball. The pitch arrives from an underhand circle, so the spin and the plane are different: a riseball climbs out of the zone, a dropball falls off the table, and a changeup floats in slow enough to pull a catcher forward. A drill earns its place when it rehearses one of those reads and ends on contact the catcher will actually face in a game. Former UCLA player Jen Schroeder built the wall sit framing drill(opens in new tab) around exactly that idea: a stable lower half that lets the glove hold a borderline pitch instead of drifting with it.

The Four Skills a Catching Drill Plan Should Cover

• Receiving and framing. Soft hands and a still glove that pin a riseball or dropball on the black until the umpire commits. The skill she repeats most, so it claims the lion's share of reps.
• Blocking. Sinking to bury a ball in the dirt, sealing the chest back toward home, and keeping it underneath her. What stops a runner from stealing second on a pitch that gets away.
• Throwing to second. A clean glove-to-hand exchange and quick feet that get the ball to the bag before a runner covers the short 60-foot basepath. Transfer speed beats arm strength in fastpitch.
• Pop-ups. Reading the two pop-up types (a regular pop straight back and a bunt pop in front), ripping the mask, and tracking a ball that spins the opposite way it would off a baseball bat.

1. 1

   Step 1: Receiving and framing

   The highest-volume skill. A catcher frames far more pitches than she blocks or throws, and the windmill spin makes the riseball and dropball the hardest to hold. Earns the most reps.

2. 2

   Step 2: Blocking on the move

   Smothering a moving riseball or dropball in the dirt keeps runners from advancing. Drilled daily once framing is steady, with a recovery throw added later.

3. 3

   Step 3: Throwing to second

   A quick transfer and fast feet beat raw arm strength because the 60-foot basepath gets a runner to second in a hurry. Pop-time work leads the throwing block.

1. 1

   Step 1: Receiving and framing

   The highest-volume skill. A catcher frames far more pitches than she blocks or throws, and the windmill spin makes the riseball and dropball the hardest to hold. Earns the most reps.

2. 2

   Step 2: Blocking on the move

   Smothering a moving riseball or dropball in the dirt keeps runners from advancing. Drilled daily once framing is steady, with a recovery throw added later.

3. 3

   Step 3: Throwing to second

   A quick transfer and fast feet beat raw arm strength because the 60-foot basepath gets a runner to second in a hurry. Pop-time work leads the throwing block.

Match the Drill to What Broke Down

Pick the practice focus from what the catcher actually gave up over a whole game, not a single inning. Borderline low pitches getting rung up as balls? The glove is chasing the dropball under the zone, so framing leads Monday. A runner who swiped second off a pitch in the dirt points at blocking and recovery. A throw that landed late on a steal usually traces back to slow feet and a sloppy exchange, not a weak arm. Name the single biggest leak, drill it with intent, and skip the all-purpose rotation that grazes every skill while fixing nothing.

No catching skill comes up more often than receiving, and fastpitch loads it with spin that a baseball catcher simply never tracks. A riseball finishes up, a dropball dives late, and a changeup floats, so the glove has to meet three different planes and freeze each pitch long enough for the umpire to ring it. These drills layer a locked-in lower half first, then a glove that turns to the pitch height, then the read on the two pitches that move hardest. Begin gloveless so the palm teaches a soft catch before leather covers up a tense wrist.

Wall Sit Framing

Catcher sits against a wall in a receiving posture, thighs parallel to the ground, back flat on the wall, and receives soft tosses from a partner 15 feet away while the lower half stays locked in place. Reps: 20. Cue: "quiet legs, quiet glove," letting the stable base hold the catch still. Common error: drifting the body toward a borderline pitch, which pulls the glove off the corner in the umpire's eye. Fix: the wall removes the drift, so the catcher learns to win the pitch with the glove alone, then keeps that feeling once she comes off the wall into a live stance.

Belt-Line Glove Turn

A partner throws pitches above and below the belt; the catcher turns the glove to match the height of each one. Reps: 24, mixed high and low. Cue: drawn from the Gopher Sport receiving cue(opens in new tab), "below the belt, turn the glove down; above the belt, turn it up." Common error: meeting a low pitch with the fingers already pointed at the dirt, which sinks the catch under the zone. Fix: set the glove beneath the low target to begin, then roll the thumb down only at contact so the receive ends up on the strike side of the line.

Riseball and Dropball Receiving

A pitcher (or a partner throwing overhand to mimic the plane) delivers riseballs at the top of the zone and dropballs at the bottom; the catcher receives each one without chasing it out of the zone. Reps: 20, ten of each. Cue: "let the rise rise, beat the drop to the ground," staying patient on the climbing pitch and early on the sinking one. Common error: jabbing up at the riseball and dragging it higher, or reaching over the top of the dropball and pushing it down. Fix: read the spin off the release, let the riseball carry into a frozen glove, and attack the dropball from below it. This read is the whole reason fastpitch framing parts ways with baseball framing, which is why it belongs in the daily routine once a catcher reaches 12U.

Bare-Hand Soft Catch

Strip the glove off entirely. A partner lobs a training ball (incrediball or tennis ball) into the zone from 15 feet, and the catcher fields it palm-first with loose fingers, riding the ball in rather than meeting it hard. Reps: 20. Cue: "soft hands win strikes," staying relaxed right up to contact. Common error: punching out at the pitch with a rigid wrist, the flaw leather usually disguises. Fix: drop the toss speed and have the catcher breathe out ahead of each catch, so the soft-hand feel transfers cleanly once the glove goes back on.

A solid block is what denies a runner a free trip to second when a pitch skips, and fastpitch makes it harder because a riseball or dropball is often still breaking when it meets the dirt. Blocking on the move is therefore a frontline skill in softball, not a bonus rep. The sequence here mirrors how most softball staffs install it: a measured drop first so the catcher feels the angle, then sideways movement, and finally the recovery and the throw.

Drop, Block, and Rise

Line up six to ten softballs about a foot apart in front of the plate. The catcher faces the line and works each ball in sequence: drop into the blocking position, keep the glove low to fill the gap, then rise and move to the next ball. This is the US Sports Camps drop, block, and rise drill(opens in new tab). Reps: the full line, twice. Cue: "knees first, glove fills the hole," sinking the body ahead of any reach. Common error: tipping forward onto the ball, which sends a rebound skittering loose. Fix: pivot off the hips and hold the weight back so a stopped ball settles down at her feet rather than bouncing off the chest protector.

Lateral Block on the Move

The coach spreads dirt balls farther and farther to either side; the catcher drives off the far knee, slides her body in line with the ball, and rotates the chest back square to home. Reps: 16, eight per side. Cue: "knee leads, chest seals to the plate," so a deflection dies in fair ground. Common error: stabbing out sideways with the mitt while the torso lags behind, which lets the ball ricochet foul. Fix: drop a cone on the spot where a clean block should land and run reps until the ball settles inside it every time. Because a riseball breaks late and a dropball keeps sinking, these sideways blocks show up more in fastpitch than most staffs plan for.

Block and Recover to a Base

The catcher blocks a thrown dirt ball, springs back up, locates a phantom runner, and finishes by either bare-handing the ball or firing to a base. Reps: 12. Cue: "smother, locate, go," welding the block and the recovery into one fluid move. Common error: freezing to watch a good block while the runner keeps moving. Fix: call out the target base before every rep so the recovery has a destination. Sixty-foot basepaths let a runner cover ground in a hurry off any ball in the dirt, which is why this rep belongs in a catcher's daily work from 11U on.

Gunning down a base stealer is the catching highlight everyone watches, yet on softball's compressed basepath the throw is won by the hands and feet long before the arm. With only 60 feet between bases, a runner reaches second in a hurry, so a tidy, rapid transfer outruns a rocket arm that bobbles the ball. (The catcher's throw itself cuts the diagonal from home to second, longer than the basepath, which is exactly why a quick release matters more than raw distance.) These drills wire the footwork and the exchange first, saving the timed throw for last.

Quick Feet Ladder

Catcher works an agility ladder (or a taped grid) with the replace-step footwork she uses on a throw to second, driving the feet toward the target before any throw. Reps: three passes through the ladder. Cue: "momentum and body toward the target," keeping every step aimed at second. Common error: stepping wide or drifting toward third, which sends the throw off line. Fix: have her replace-step run straight up the ladder rungs so her shoulders finish square to second before the arm ever loads. That footwork-first sequence is what current ladder drill demonstrations for softball catchers(opens in new tab) emphasize, because the feet build the throw long before the hands join in.

Glove-to-Hand Transfer

No throw on this one: the catcher drills the exchange alone, snapping the ball out of the mitt and onto a four-seam grip as cleanly and quickly as she can before stringing the beats together into a single move. Reps: 25. Cue: "two hands, four-seam, go," seating the grip before the arm fires. Common error: carrying the mitt up to the chest, which lengthens the path and burns tenths off the exchange. Fix: have the throwing hand meet the mitt at the belt buckle so the ball covers the shortest possible distance to the grip.

Reach-Back Grab and Throw

A coach places a ball just out of reach in front of the catcher (a drill straight out of catcher forums for a reason). From the squat, the catcher grabs it, sets the feet, and throws to second. Reps: 12. Cue: "grab, plant, fire," tying the read to a full throw. Common error: standing all the way up before throwing, which wastes the short window the 60-foot basepath allows. Fix: the catcher throws from a low, athletic base so the release beats the runner instead of waiting for a tall, comfortable platform.

Pop-Time to Second

Geared up, the catcher takes a live pitch and throws through to second while a coach clicks a stopwatch from glove-pop to the tag at the bag (her pop-time). Reps: 10 throws against the clock. Cue: "catch it clean, drive it flat," favoring a low, true throw over a tall one. Benchmark: softball coach Cindy Bristow's catcher pop-time chart(opens in new tab) puts the average high schooler around 2.3 seconds and the average college catcher at 1.9 to 2.1, with 1.8 rated good and 1.6 or under excellent; younger catchers are better off chasing their own steady downward trend than a fixed number. Common error: a loopy, long arm swing that eats tenths even behind a live arm. Fix: chart the time every week and shorten that arm swing gradually, because tightening the exchange trims more off the clock than throwing harder ever will. Pop-time is the headline number scouts chart for a catcher, the same metric coaches record on our softball tryout evaluation form.

Pop-ups behind the plate are their own read, and a catcher who breaks the wrong way loses the ball fast. Coaches teach players to read the spin off the bat, because a popped-up softball tends to drift back toward the infield rather than hang straight overhead. The two pop-up types a catcher sees are a regular pop straight back and a bunt pop in front, and each one needs a different first move. The drills below build both reads with the mask coming off cleanly every time.

Regular Pop-Up Tracking

A coach lofts pop-ups behind and over the catcher; she rips the mask, finds the ball, throws the mask clear of the landing spot, and makes the catch with the back to the infield. Reps: 12. Cue: "mask off, find it, then toss the mask away," in that order so the mask never lands under her feet. Common error: drifting under the ball and catching it falling away, since a popped-up softball tends to carry back toward the infield. Fix: the catcher overruns the spot and lets the ball come back into her glove, turning her back to the infield to read the drift.

Bunt Pop-Up Read

A coach flips short pop-ups in front of the plate to mimic a popped-up bunt; the catcher reads it off the bat, comes out from behind the plate, and decides whether to catch it for an out or let it drop for a force. Reps: 10. Cue: "read it early, attack out front," getting around the ball rather than reaching back over the plate. Common error: catching a low bunt pop that would have set up an easy double play if it dropped with runners on. Fix: have the coach announce the runner situation ahead of every rep, so she makes the catch-or-drop call live, the kind of read covered in our softball evaluation categories.

Slapper Bunt Defense

A left-handed slapper starts moving toward the pitcher as she swings, which turns a soft bunt or a chopped slap into a foot race. The catcher reads slap versus bunt, comes out from behind the plate on anything she can reach, and either fields it or directs the corner who can. Reps: 10 live looks, mixing bunts, slaps, and full swings. Cue: "read the hands, call the play loud," since the catcher sees the whole field and has to assign the out. Common error: charging every slap herself and leaving the plate and the call unmanned, or freezing because she guessed swing. Fix: assign coverage up front for each look, so she learns to take the balls dying in front of the plate herself and loudly wave the third or first baseman onto the rest. A slapper who pressures the corners turns up by 12U, so this read earns live reps once a team faces left-side slap hitters.

A ten-year-old buckling into a chest protector for the first time lives in a different world than a 14U catcher already shaving tenths off her throw to second. At the youngest ages the win is comfort with the ball and the equipment, not holding a riseball on the corner. The plan below scales the same core drills across beginner through older youth by shifting distance, ball weight, and intensity. One constant runs through every level: the 60-foot basepath means a runner is on top of second fast, so the throw gets attention even in the youth game.

Catching Drills for Beginners and at Home

Step one for a brand-new catcher is shedding any nerves about the ball before mechanics enter the picture. Soft bare-hand catches with a training ball lobbed from ten feet build that comfort sting-free, while simply wearing the full kit (squatting, popping up, and shuffling around in the mask and pads) makes the equipment feel ordinary instead of intimidating. The at-home menu is short: wall sit framing asks only for a wall and a glove, and solo transfer reps sharpen the exchange with nobody else around. Hold the home sessions brief, stick to soft balls, and cheer the catch before you correct the form.

Softball Catching Drills for 10U

Most 10U catchers can manage a real 11-inch ball at a trimmed-down distance and begin the skill ladder. Cycle wall sit framing, the belt-line glove turn, drop-block-and-rise, and the transfer in five-to-eight-minute bursts so nobody bakes in the gear waiting a turn. Throws travel to a base from the shortened youth distance, and any pop-time clocking stays a game, not a cutoff to hit. This is the year to bake in the quiet-glove framing habit so it feels automatic once the riseball becomes a factor.

Softball Catching Drills for 12U

At 12U the windmill pitches get real, so framing the riseball and dropball moves to the front of practice alongside blocking on the move and a timed throw to second. Run the riseball and dropball receiving drill, the lateral block, block-and-recover, the quick feet ladder, and pop-time to second. Add the bunt pop-up read and slapper bunt defense, because a left-handed slapper who pressures the corners shows up at this age and the catcher has to field her side of the play. By the time she leaves 12U, a catcher should be cycling all four skills in a single session.

Every drill on this page lands in the table below, grouped by skill with its gear, player count, and difficulty spelled out. Pull it down as an image for the group chat, drop it into a spreadsheet to map the week, export a PDF from the print dialog, or run off a hard copy for the catching coach's binder.

Building a Weekly Catching Rotation

Slot one receiving drill, one blocking drill, and one throwing drill into every practice, fold in a pop-up read once or twice a week, and rotate which specific drills you use on a two-week cycle so the work stays fresh while the routine holds. Give receiving the biggest share of minutes since it owns the most game reps, then blocking, then throwing. Stack those reps across a season and the mechanics become reflex: a still glove riding the dropball, a chest that buries a moving ball out front, an exchange quick enough to beat a runner sprinting a 60-foot basepath. To see how motor-learning research shapes the order you teach those reps in, read our drill progression design guide.

Wire those drills into one planning system and the prep shrinks while every coach works off the same sheet. Striveon's drill library tags catching drills by skill, age, and equipment so the next bullpen block is a click away rather than a hunt through old notes. Tracking pop-time, framing reps, and clean-block rate week over week converts the drills into a paper trail, which is exactly where Striveon's athlete development tools track each catcher's progress all the way from a nervous first-timer to a varsity backstop calling the game from behind the dish.

How do you practice catching a softball?

Build the four fastpitch skills in the order they hit you in a game: receive, then block, then throw, then handle pop-ups. Lead every receiving rep with a bare palm or a soft training ball so you sense the catch before leather or a live ball masks a stiff wrist, then layer on the glove and game speed. Lean on wall sit framing for a steady base, the belt-line glove turn for pitch height, and stopwatch pop-time reps for the throw down to second. Stay loose in the hands and pick up the spin off the pitcher's release on every delivery.

What is the 3-2-1 drill in softball?

The 3-2-1 drill is a live competition where every hitter starts with a 3-2 count and a single strike to spare, then takes one pitch from a coach or pitcher: a walk advances to first, a hit plays out live, and an out brings up the next batter. For a catcher it is valuable game-pressure work because she receives a full-count pitch, frames it for the call, and reacts to the result with runners moving, exactly the situation that decides close innings. It also appears in our softball drills game-situation section.

What are some good catching drills?

Sort the fourteen drills on this page by what they train. Framing the spinning pitch: wall sit framing, belt-line glove turn, riseball and dropball receiving, bare-hand soft catch. Smothering the dirt ball: drop-block-and-rise, lateral block on the move, block and recover. Beating the runner to second: quick feet ladder, glove-to-hand transfer, reach-back grab and throw, pop-time to second. Handling the air: regular pop-up tracking and the bunt pop-up read, with slapper bunt defense rounding out the live-play work. Pick one per skill each session and let receiving carry the most reps.

What is the 20-second rule in softball?

In high school softball, the NFHS 20-second rule(opens in new tab) requires the pitcher to release the next pitch within 20 seconds of receiving the ball back, with a ball or a strike as the penalty for a delay depending on who caused it. The catcher sits at the center of that clock: she has to retrieve the ball, get the sign, and return it quickly, and a coach who is slow to relay the pitch call can put the team over the limit. Practicing a brisk, repeatable between-pitch routine keeps the catcher from costing her pitcher a ball on the count.

How long should a catcher's drill session be?

Match the length to the age and keep it tight. Ten-and-unders hold focus for maybe a quarter hour of soft-toss receiving and starter blocking. A 12U catcher can handle a little over half an hour spanning receiving, blocking, and a timed throw, and a high schooler stretches close to an hour once pitcher communication and pop-time work join in. Pull the plug the moment the hands tighten or the blocks turn lazy, because worn-out reps only teach bad habits behind the dish.