Bucket dads

[Jojo]

Off topic a little bit but if you are catching and there is a wall behind you, duck if you miss the ball. Do not turn around to try and find or catch the ball.

Yes, I found that out the hard way too.--Never LOOK!

 

[NVfishing]

Off topic a little bit but if you are catching and there is a wall behind you, duck if you miss the ball. Do not turn around to try and find or catch the ball.

Indoors I catch with a net at my back. Outside it's the backstop. I watched another pitchers dad walk on the other side of the netting while his DD was pitching. He wasn't paying attention and her FB tipped off the catchers glove and caught him in the temple. He got knocked down/lost his legs. Didn't go completely unconscious. Could have been a real bad scene.

 

[ddose]

12U, just a catcher's mitt. Only time I've gotten hit so far was when she was 9 or 10 and we constructed a batter with a basketball for a head - received a swollen cheek from that experiment.

The high school where DD practices has concrete in the catcher's area of the bullpen, nasty place to be when the kid is bouncing drop balls at you. That's the only place I felt like I needed protection so far. Another couple of years I'll probably start adding gear.

Her PC just uses a fielder's glove with pitchers of all shapes and sizes.

 

[Greenmonsters]

2 tips and 2 observations. Keep your chin down and never turn your head to the side if you are wearing a mask. Attack/move forward on short balls. The lip on the plate will bite you sooner or later. A pitcher will advance quicker if they don't have to worry about hurting the person catching them.

 

[JAD]

I have not broken down and started wearing gear, but I am getting older, fatter, slower, and blinder while my DD is getting bigger, stronger and faster, so something is going to have to change sooner rather than later. I have started encouraging the catcher from DD's TB or HS team to come to pitching lessons!

I will have to admit that I still chuckle to myself when I walk into the indoor training facility and see a dad wearing shin guards and a face mask to catch his 10 year old who could not break 40 MPH if her life depended on it! LOL

 

[RubberBiscuit]

Indoors nuttin
Outdoors on real ground - face mask n shin guards

 

[Sparky Guy]

Off topic a little bit but if you are catching and there is a wall behind you, duck if you miss the ball. Do not turn around to try and find or catch the ball.

I would just put my glove up over the back of my head so the rebound would not get me in the back of the head. Even did it with a chain link fence. I took a few off of the glove over the years.

I never wore anything other than my catchers glove. But I never used a bucket. I was always kneeling on a pad. I could not sit on a bucket. The worst thing I had happen was getting hit in the big toe and losing the nail. Never got one in the "jewels" after all the years of catching.

 

[GOINGDEEP]

Never got one in the "jewels" after all the years of catching.

That's funny, I never knew you had any.

 

[coach james]

Nothing but a mitt... however I have pushed the rubber back to 46'. She thinks its for her to zero in but its really there for me to get more reaction time!!! Lol

 

[sleepwalker]

I must be doing it wrong.

I sit on a mat placed on the ground, put my legs out and stick the bucket between my legs and then have my daughter work on hitting the inside and outside corners. I get hit in the foot once in a while, but I wear tennis shoe. I started doing this when my daughter was 12 or 13 and started leaving her pitches up in the strike zone. Then it occured to me that sitting on a bucket gave my daughter a higher target than what I wanted her to throw.

My bucket didn't come with instructions.