Differences in Fast and Slow Exchange Durations in Youth Baseball Catchers

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.