This is great. As a HS coach, I have a head coach that isnt a fan of 1kd setups with runners on due to a perceived inability to throw from that setup. This is just one more tool for the box to get my receivers in the best possible position to keep strikes, but also give the boss that warm and fuzzy that we can still control the run game.
I have not seen any statistics on this as it would be almost impossible to track league wide. But, I agree, these guys are doing it because they know it gives them an advantage.
I’ve been working this with my guys for about 6 months now. They love the athletic freedom and it allows them to make late/quick/accurate decisions. We do talk about when this is appropriate in terms of the pitchers they’re working with. Lower levels need to trust the pitcher won’t pull something in the dirt armside. But the same as moving from a standard 1KD to a kickstand position during delivery to get better access to the bottom of the zone, “hybrid”ing into the traditional stance when the runner goes seems to let the catcher be more dynamic in their setup and effective in their movements.
You're right, there are a lot of things to consider. I don't have any stats to back this up, but it seems like it happens more on FBs than on breaking balls. When the C knows a FB is coming he has a little more freedom to shift around.
That would make sense. Yeah I’m sure there’s not much collective data on this. Catching data still seems highly correlated to the result not the process. It’s the behind-the-scenes. In what you’ve seen then on breaking balls do the catchers just work through their KD transfers and throws?
I don't want to make any claims because I haven't seen any data to back that, but I think on breaking balls the shifts would need to happen much later. There are plenty of guys that throw out of 1KD stances so that may give me a new project, ha!
They seem to have an even easier time throwing by transitioning from a 1 knee to the traditional stance than they would if they had just started in the the traditional stance. When starting in the traditional stance you can't fully sell out on the runner going and mus stay more square in order to block, here though, they are only transitioning BECUASE the runner is going so they are basically selling out and getting staggered into an almost pitch-out position and getting their throw off even faster. Interesting!
