Baseball Chest Protector for Girl's softball?

[Josh Greer]

My daughter is in the market for a new chest protector (U14 catcher). I recently got my son the Rawlings CP950X and think it is by far the best chest protector I have ever seen; but that is for baseball. I would really like her to have the same protection but am unsure of the differences between the baseball and softball gear. Can anyone shed any light?

Thanks,

Josh Greer
LynkSpyder - Chain Link Fence Camera Mount
www.LynkSpyder.com
www.facebook.com/lynkspyder

 

[Eric F]

If it fits her properly, I don't see and issue with using it.

 

[chazbz1]

We just came off our catching clinic with NECC this past weekend and I got a chance to see a lot of gear. (Go to one of NECC's camps if you can) I am processing pics from the camp and hope to have them up in a day or two. We saw a lot of Rawlings on the guys, we got to check out Easton's latest offerings, TPX and MacGregor too. All Star and Under Armour are popular as well. Wilson on works well for smaller frames/torsos. One note of interest is that the Easton and All Star have the padding angle-cut to help drive the ball down on blocks... I can post a link when I get the pics down.

 

[Eric F]

We just came off our catching clinic with NECC this past weekend and I got a chance to see a lot of gear. (Go to one of NECC's camps if you can) I am processing pics from the camp and hope to have them up in a day or two. We saw a lot of Rawlings on the guys, we got to check out Easton's latest offerings, TPX and MacGregor too. All Star and Under Armour are popular as well. Wilson on works well for smaller frames/torsos. One note of interest is that the Easton and All Star have the padding angle-cut to help drive the ball down on blocks... I can post a link when I get the pics down.

I noticed on one of my DD's friends that her new UA chest protector has a seam in the middle that creates a v-shaped surface. This proved not very good for effective blocking and keeping the ball in front of you. Everything tended to ricochet left or right out of reach.

 

[chazbz1]

I noticed on one of my DD's friends that her new UA chest protector has a seam in the middle that creates a v-shaped surface. This proved not very good for effective blocking and keeping the ball in front of you. Everything tended to ricochet left or right out of reach.

We saw this issue with 2012 UA chest protectors as seen here.



The 2013's were updated to have a flat abdomen as seen here



I haven't seen any '14's yet.

 

[Josh Greer]

Thanks all for the comments. I haven't talked myself out of it yet and am probably going to pull the trigger. This is what it looks like, for those interested:

 

[Eric F]

We saw this issue with 2012 UA chest protectors as seen here.

View attachment 5093

This is the one my DD's friend has - she got it new for Christmas. It also seems to be the one for sale by a lot of the online retailers.

I guess the message is to pay attention to the pattern of the pads when picking out your gear.

 

[Eric F]

Thanks all for the comments. I haven't talked myself out of it yet and am probably going to pull the trigger. This is what it looks like, for those interested:

View attachment 5099

I like the look of that one a lot. Let us know how it works for your DD.

 

[chazbz1]

If you are lucky enough to get your hands on the C/P before you buy... Put it on, cinch it up and get down in your no runner on stance, runner on stance and block position. Make sure it doesn't push up into your throat and check the deflection area of the abs to see how a blocked pitch will deflect.

Here's a picture of Torian from last week's NECC/ACC camp in full Rawlings gear. I really like the shin guards! The patella padding isn't anything too high tech but is one of the best cushioning knee pads on the market. I am tempted to order a set of the knee pads to put in our Schutts. (The gel knee moves around)



We will have more pictures of Torian and her gear on ACC's Facebook page in the next couple of days. You can glean a few pics of her in action during the camp at 2014 NECC/ACC Catcher's Camp plus lots of other great brands!
-Chaz

 

[Josh Greer]

FYI, I went with the CP950X. She loves it. As I had to do with my son's, I had to rethread all of the support straps (I can't imagine the size of the kid that would max this thing out!). She can now handle blocking drills without the tears (which I am ashamed that I didn't fix this any sooner).