Preventing opponents from stealing bases is crucial to the game's outcome and to determining a catcher's effectiveness. This study aimed to compare the durations of the throwing phases between the fastest and slowest exchange durations in youth catchers. Kinematic data of 21 youth catchers (12+3 yrs, 52.7+14.8 kg, 1.57+0.15 m) were collected. Exchange duration consisted of three phases (initiation, arm-cocking, and acceleration). Total phase time and percentage of exchange duration were analyzed. Two repeated-measures Multivariate Analyses of Variance compared participants' fastest and slowest trials (α=0.05). Significant within-subject differences were observed between fast and slow trials in total time (p < 0.001) and percentage time analyses (p < 0.001). Univariate analysis revealed significantly shorter in total time of start phase (Fast: 0.74±0.22s, Slow: 1.15±0.46s, p < 0.001) and percentage time (Fast: 75.6±7.7%, Slow: 82.1±6.6%, p < 0.001) in fast compared to slow trials, whereas the arm-cocking (Fast: 18.9±6.5%, Slow: 13.9±5.2%, p < 0.001) and acceleration phases (Fast: 5.5±2.2%, Slow: 4.0±2.0%, p < 0.001) took up larger percentages of the overall time, while having no difference in total time (p > 0.705). Length of the initiation phase had the greatest effect on exchange duration, suggesting that youth catchers can train to reduce the time of this phase to increase performance.
Thieme. All rights reserved.