catching your kid

[artomatic]

The pitching post got me thinking:
I have always caught alot of my kid's pitching sessions, since she was 6 yrs old.
Up until recently, it was pretty safe and easy..
But these days, it takes alot more concentration, and I don't feel as safe as before.
Especially drop balls...and my left thumb hasn't been right for about the last 2 months.
anyways, alot of it is her growing (she's 13 now), but also, me getting fatter, older, and less reactive.
I am always happy when there is a catcher at her lessons these days.
So, anyone else going through this, or have gone through this?
Any bad-hop horror stories?

Here's a good one:
About 3 years ago, back in rec, whenever I was catching her, I would always trick passerbyers into catching for me.
I would say, "hey check out this new pitch". they would start catching, and I would keep them talking, until they finally realized they were doing my dirty work.
It became a game for me...
So one day, just after my kid had learned the peel drop, I convinced another coach walking by to check out the new pitch.
He gladly did, and she threw a doozy. It went under his glove and caught him square on the shin.
Within 2 minutes it looked like a 2nd kneecap and was turning a beautiful shade of midnight blue....
I think he still has a mark on his shin 3 years later...

[SoCalFP]

Time to invest in a face mask and shin guards. That's what I had to do.

[Killer Rabbit]

Sometimes I forget to bring my catcher's gear. Stupid. DD threw a drop that hit me in the ankle. Made a grotesque "THWACK!" sound. Other coach looked up and saw the tears in my eyes. Now he won't catch her either.

[SSdad]

Sometimes I forget to bring my catcher's gear. Stupid. DD threw a drop that hit me in the ankle. Made a grotesque "THWACK!" sound. Other coach looked up and saw the tears in my eyes. Now he won't catch her either.

I have seen your kid throw.......OUCH

[Sftbll4ever]

DH still catches dd everynow and than. Lucky for us, she is a freshman this year. They practice 3 days a week, and they like the pitchers to get some work in at that time. She now has a catcher for her 3 days a week. This means no more DH having to catch her!!!!

[Clean_up]

My left thumb was damaged at the bottom almost at my wrist somehow from almost three years ago catching DD in 10U all stars, still hurts. Someone said it was a bone bruise, who knows I never had it looked at -- but I can't catch her anymore. Art, ask my hubby to see his dented and permanently bruised shin next time you see him - He thinks he might have broke it on Saturday warming up the girls before the games, but this time on a change-up so he's really feeling old!

We've been taking our 16U kid to catch her in lessons or paying someone at the facility $5 to do it; there almost always are some kids looking for extra catching practice. But for those days you are working her out, I suggest maybe getting one of those shin/ankle guards the baseball players wear up to bat on the one leg that always gets it....That way you won't look like a total sissy.

When we were taking lessons from Doug Finch a couple years ago, we had the treat of Jenny coming in before the Olympic tryouts... Doug caught her, no protection at all and she was throwing 64 that day, we were clocking her for him...Pretty impressive IMO..

[Tucson]

Doug was able to catch her because Jenny doesn't make mistakes.

I caught my DD until she was 15 w/o any equipment. I was about 47. I guess.

But since I have started teaching lessons and i have found out that sometimes the ball will hit the plate and do all kinds of nasty things from there, I wear a game face and shin guards. Of course, I am much older, too.

It is always exciting when I get my mask knocked sideways or I put my shin guard down in front of something wild.

Don't expect me to walk up and catch for your DD, though. I'm not as dumb as I look.

[artomatic]

i have perfected kicking both my legs up side-saddle balancing my butt on the bucket for the low bouncing ones!
not a pretty picture...

[TexasYellowBall]

DD is a catcher and pitchers parents have been asking for at least 5 years if she could come a catch their DD during a lesson. My DD would always say yes, then about 2 years ago, she came to me and said that she did not want to catch for people during pitching lessons.

I suggested that she start charging people $10 for a lesson. The parents were more then happy to pay the $10 so they did not have to catch. DD now catch's approx. 3 girls a week and gets a little itunes money.

[TShark]

I catch both daughters (one is 15 the other is 10) I've only had one that has gotten away from me, it was a drop. Someone forgot to mention to me (15 yr old), what pitch she was throwing, needless to say I was on the ground for about 20 mins. gasping in severe pain. The rest of that throwing session was near perfect. She knew she had done bad, so she concentrated more and she also let me know what pitches she was going to throw. Mind you she throws around 60 so it really hurt. Since then, she always lets me kmow whats coming. And yes I still trust my skills, but I do not ever turn away a catcher that is handy. By the way the swelling went down after a couple days.