When a player makes a leaping catch, hit or shot in various sports it is usually considered a unique skill, often acquired when playing some other sport in the early years. In other words, the ability to leap high is a talent that was learned or developed in another sport, not the sport in which the athlete is involved.
The same applies to other skills such as the ability to make quick changes in direction (agility) while running or when executing different actions with the arms, as for example stealing a ball or executing a quick punch or hit. Instead of considering these skills as skills that require other sports for learning, understand that all athletes can develop these abilities in their training regardless of their sport.
It requires universality of training or all-round training. This means that the athlete develops all of the basic skills such as running, jumping, throwing, kicking, hitting and cutting. He does not specialize in only one sport or acquire only the skills unique to that sport. The more varied the training is the early years, the more easily the athlete will be able to master any and all skills that may come up in his major sport at present oriin in the future.
This universal or all-round training (sometimes known as athleticism) should be the foundation for all athletes regardless of the sport in which they are going to specialize. To do this however, it is necessary to make a strong commitment to buck the present trend of specialization in the earliest years. It will take a great deal of education especially to parents and coaches of young athletes. It may also require a change in our present system (if it can be called that) of training athletes.
It will be necessary to accept the fact that most important in the early years is learning the skills of the game and developing the physical and technical abilities to be able to play the game on a high level in the late teenage years and beyond. This latter point cannot be over emphasized! Winning games in the early years should not be foremost! When games are played they should be specific to development of a particular skill.
For more information on this topic, read Build a Better Athlete and The Revolutionary 1 x 20 RM Strength Training Program.