Catching Hand Protection

[ironman]

As a catcher I am tired of the constant pounding on the thumb. I have seen things that catchers have that protect them from this. Does anybody have any input on this? Also, I was wondering i ther was anything besides the palmgard for the prevention and protetion from index finger swelling.

[Hardball]

Sounds to me like you are taking too many balls with your glove horizontal rather than vertical. This means that most balls thrown at the knees and lower will push your thumb down. You can begin by pointing your elbow towards the inside of your knee, (down), rather than towards the home team dugout and position your glove with the fingers more upright rather than sideways.

You also want to be sure you are receiving the ball softly and not trying to “pick” or “stab” it out of the air since excessive glove movement reduces your ability to handle the ball where you want to, (in the pocket, not the fingers). Ideally, the ball is hitting the web of your hand between your thumb and index finger since that is where a Catcher's mitt is designed to protect you the best.

Most of the hand protection devices are designed to protect the hand from impact at the palm rather than the thumb.

[ironman]

good comment, because I also wanted to talk about that. I have reduced the stress alot by working on this, by catching the ball gracefully ad it works really well. However I have heard of catchers and have seen minor league players using a thumb protection device before. One time a coach even showed me a piece of metal tubing that he had made, although it was crude and could probably cause harm to the thumb.

[Hardball]

I don't think that I would ever wear a brace or stay on my hand inside a glove or mitt since the impact of the ball is just driving that thing into your hand. :eek: Youch!

Work on your hand angle and receiving the ball gently; I'll bet the thumb pain goes away quickly.

BTW, I'm going to suggest that the moderator move this to the coaching forum as there might be some (like the catchingcoach guy) who could expound it this further.