Good proof to wear a mask, Pitchers

I posted this to "I Love Fastpitch Softball" on FB but wanted to share it with others on here because of how scary it was and let any parents or coaches have the link in case they wanted to share it with other coaches/parents/players.

This happened to an opposing pitcher that my daughter's 10U tournament team played this past weekend. Another reason why every pitcher (or corners), 10U or 18U, should think about wearing a face mask. One of our coaches said that the Rip-It mask she had on was dented in so far that the softball still had to have hit her eye. No telling WHAT would have happened without the mask. Sure it will always be a choice and not mandatory . . . . but when they say "it will never happen to me", it probably will.

[video]https://youtu.be/F5hN0YdlRMc[/video]

Turl said:

I posted this to "I Love Fastpitch Softball" on FB but wanted to share it with others on here because of how scary it was and let any parents or coaches have the link in case they wanted to share it with other coaches/parents/players.

This happened to an opposing pitcher that my daughter's 10U tournament team played this past weekend. Another reason why every pitcher (or corners), 10U or 18U, should think about wearing a face mask. One of our coaches said that the Rip-It mask she had on was dented in so far that the softball still had to have hit her eye. No telling WHAT would have happened without the mask. Sure it will always be a choice and not mandatory . . . . but when they say "it will never happen to me", it probably will.

[video]https://youtu.be/F5hN0YdlRMc[/video]

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Not quite throwing the BS flag on this, but find that very hard to believe. If it fails at the anemic speeds of 10U the product would be woefully inadequate at the 16U/18U level and catastrophic failures would be common. Never heard of a Rip-It or any other mask failing.

riseball said:

Not quite throwing the BS flag on this, but find that very hard to believe. If it fails at the anemic speeds of 10U the product would be woefully inadequate at the 16U/18U level and catastrophic failures would be common. Never heard of a Rip-It or any other mask failing.

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Put on your trolling argue hat all you want. I'm stating that what he saw is what he saw. No reason he'd lie at that moment to any of us.

The post is for coaches/parents/players to see how masks really DO protect players. Masks are like an airbag in a car . . . once it's used for it's purpose (which it did and it did not fail), it needs to be replaced. It's the fourth Rip-It that I have seen get bent, cracked, or busted from a line drive when in hindsight it did what it was suppose to do and protect the player from a dire injury.

Turl said:

Put on your trolling argue hat all you want. I'm stating that what he saw is what he saw. No reason he'd lie at that moment to any of us.

The post is for coaches/parents/players to see how masks really DO protect players. Masks are like an airbag in a car . . . once it's used for it's purpose (which it did and it did not fail), it needs to be replaced. It's the fourth Rip-It that I have seen get bent, cracked, or busted from a line drive when in hindsight it did what it was suppose to do and protect the player from a dire injury.

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Had no idea masks were designed to be single use products. Good to know.

I like masks. They serve a purpose and help to minimize injuries, especially the freak accident ones. My own daughter used one as she moved to higher levels of play and I see more community leagues strongly recommending or flat out requiring them at the younger levels.

However - if the mask was really as damaged as the youtube poster says, I'd think a photo would have been edited into the video. We'd also see it on Rip-It's site as a testimonial of how effective the masks are at preventing injuries.

All I see is a line drive back to the pitcher and everyone making a bunch of noise.

You may now resume your regular mask/no mask argument festivities.

I don't care what other parents do but we always have our daughter wear one. She took a ball in the chin at her first tournament. It was an 8U all stars tournament and she was playing pitcher (in 8U, coach pitch fashion). She did not have one on then. Up until that time we'd had a hard time getting her to wear one and we'd always played rec so I never pushed it.

Ever since, we don't even have to remind her. She wears one 100% of the time she's in the field. I'm glad we formed the habit over the past year because now she's going into 10U and will be pitching.

IDK, it looks, and sounds, like she gets hit pretty hard in the face to me.

I was wondering what to do with a 3 day weekend, face mask argument was #2 on my list.

eddieq said:

I like masks. They serve a purpose and help to minimize injuries, especially the freak accident ones. My own daughter used one as she moved to higher levels of play and I see more community leagues strongly recommending or flat out requiring them at the younger levels.

However - if the mask was really as damaged as the youtube poster says, I'd think a photo would have been edited into the video. We'd also see it on Rip-It's site as a testimonial of how effective the masks are at preventing injuries.

All I see is a line drive back to the pitcher and everyone making a bunch of noise.

You may now resume your regular mask/no mask argument festivities.

Click to expand...

We were all shocked and worried for the pitcher that nobody would think, "hey, let's get a photo of her mask".

And as far as Rip-It giving testimony of how effective their masks are, here you go. They posted the video on their FB and Twitter:

https://twitter.com/RIPITSports

https://www.facebook.com/RIPITSports?fref=ts

What about chest guards . . . do pitchers wear them at higher levels? Was at an 8U tournament recently and even at that level the ball can come off the bat very fast, plus the field is smaller . . .

Chest guards might have the same debate, a few players have died from hits to the chest.

I think they are becoming more and more popular but are not as visible as face masks. IMO, the heart guard is what you need more than the chest protector. They also help when hitting and we all know the batters need to armor up because they are wimps.