DD pitching out growing Dads catching abiliities

[Chris O'Leary]

Great thread. I always hate dropball practice, glad to see I'm not alone.

What types of mitts are dads using? I've not had much luck finding a sofball specific catchers mitt made for men, even though I know mens fastpitch exists. I either end up using a regular softball glove or squeezing 3 fingers into a womans fastpitch catchers mitt. Any suggestions?

-W

I use a knuckleball catcher's mitt. It's a Rawlings and is 37" or so.

 

[jacketsfan]

I get hit when I'm on a bucket. I don't when I squat. I just can't seem to move quickly enought to react to a missed pitch when I'm on a nucket, but I can when I squat. My DD hates pitching to bucket-sitters not - maybe that's why.

I don't wear shin guards, and probably should. Learning curve balls beat me to death, because when she'd miss, she threw a hard dtop that I was not ready for.

I have found, though, I am a lot easier now on players that try hard to get out of the way of a pitch. Those dadgum lumps on your shins take weeks to go away.

 

[Sparky Guy]

Amen Sparky Guy - for the best results make it as real as practical. Few years ago I overheard some coaches comment that I was really confusing a young pitcher by squatting and changing my position and glove location on each pitch........

During all the years of catching for my daughter I only had one real scare. She was 16 at the time. We were out working at the local park. I call for a low change inside. She nods OK. She throws a rise right down the middle heading directly for my forehead. Needless to say I jumped and almost fell over.

She was standing there laughing hysterically because she made me jump and "I looked funny." A string of explicatives directed at her stopped the laughing immediately. After which I explained in a not-so-fatherly-manner that she throws too hard, 60+ at the time, to do that. I'm the one who'll get hurt if I don't know what's coming. Once she realized just how stupid a move it was she apologized and never did it again, always making sure that anyone who was catching her knew exactly what she was throwing.

 

[changeupskill]

BTW....is there anything in the world more poorly named than a "soft"ball?

Jumbo shrimp... Haha. As many parents said, I played baseball all my life and was catcher since I could walk almost. I am a bucket dad because I just can't do it for that long anymore. However, I do use a very short bucket, so it looks like I'm in the catchers position. Little league and 12s were ok. At the turn from 12s to 14s, she must have been shooting roids or something, but in about a 4 month stretch, she went from low 40s to low 50s and the movements started really showing up. One month of lessons - In one pitching lesson I was jumping off the bucket and flailing like I was being attacked by killer bees. Then next two times I left in tears almost and limping and bruised. The fourth lesson of the month I walked in there with full gear and a smile until the last pitch of the night where I was half getting up ready to go home, and she skipped a drop ball off of the ground/home plate and hit me right in the onions. Thats the only time I've ever been hit there by a ball in my life. When I started seeing and breathing again, I looked UP and saw the floor. I didn't know which way was up. I calmed my daughter down and said, well... you didn't hit me in the ankles again. That made it all better. Now I don't get ready to leave until AFTER the last pitch is thrown. I don't wear a cup because I pay attention better, but I still wear the other gear. I'd stuff pillows everywhere I could if it wouldn't kill everyone in the training center with laughing. One year later she is now throwing 58/59s average and everything to the wall high speed 63, it feels better on the bruises with shin pads. I get her catchers there whenever possible because I know she is out pitching me more and more. She is 14 now and playing 18A. I just aint gonna make it as she gets older and stronger. All you bucket moms and dads, I feel your pain. Growing pains I guess. They are growing, and we have the pains. Good luck.

 

[chinamigarden]

My girl is learning a drop curve. She isn't consistent with it at all, not yet anyway. Sometimes it bites and breaks down and in, other times it just breaks, other times it just drops, and sometimes it does nothing but go straight. One of them the other day looked like it was going to break in and down and it only broke down. I had a lump on my shin that looked like a door knob was forming under the skin. I went out the next day and bought shin guards and a chest protector from Play it again sports.

 

[Jojo]

I caught mine all the way up till she was a sophomore in college.
I progressed to a first baseman's mitt around 11yrs old, then a full catchers mitt at 12,
Shin guards came around 13.
I only wore a mask for a short time after a black eye from fluttering knuckle ball.(----figures I'd get hit by the slowest pitch.

The worse injury she ever gave me was when she was just 11--ball tore right through the inside of my calf and broke every blood vessel---I had a big sack of blood just hanging there--hurt to all heaven!
The bruise lasted almost a year.

I would have caught her longer because I really enjoyed it, but she said it wasn't safe anymore, and luckily had some catchers in nearby towns that she went and worked out with over the summer months.