My dd started catching 12u 4 weeks ago. She played 1 year of 10u as an outfielder last year. First game she did great blocking what she could reach and not dropping but one 3rd strike and she got her out with a good throw. the problem comes with a big colision at the plate that bent her glove hand around and jammed her thumb badly. It has healed up pretty good but she cant/wont squeeze her mitt and is weak arming a catch thinking she is protecting the thumb when it actually is probably putting more pressure on it by letting her glove flop on contact. I understand it is still tender but i do not want her to develop bad habits any ideas?
Getting over fear
- Thread starter sigep1967
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Stop catching until it's not tender?
If she's still in pain she should not be catching. Having a ball hit the same spot over 100 times at a decent speed is going to make a jar into a chronic injury. I've watched too many good friends have to give up catching because they wouldn't rest an injury and they made it worse.
If she's still in pain she should not be catching. Having a ball hit the same spot over 100 times at a decent speed is going to make a jar into a chronic injury. I've watched too many good friends have to give up catching because they wouldn't rest an injury and they made it worse.
Absolutely, stop all catching till she is pain free.
- Jan 15, 2009
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My daughter sprained her thumb on her catching hand in late June. Told her to take a week off and see, after a week she said she wanted to try it again, and had it hurting before she could complete a game. Repeated that cycle a few times and finally told her she was done catching for the season. She ended up fine after letting it rest from August to November, and hasn't had any reoccurrence since. I'd really suggest giving her a minimum of a month off from catching before even attempting to try it again. Obviously if she has significant pain you should get her looked at by a doctor. I know of two kids last year that played with "chronic" pain that turned out to be fractures that were misdiagnosed. One was a pitcher with a broken bone in her foot for almost an entire season, and the other was a kid who played three weeks on a broken leg. Nothing will make you feel worse as a parent than telling a kid to suck it up on an injury that turns out to be more serious than you thought.
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I agree with the stop until its no longer tender crowd. I catch my daughter and it is amazing how often the ball hits my thumb. If my thumb was sore I would not catch her for a while
- Nov 8, 2010
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She needs to back off it for awhile. She has years of catching time ahead of her, there is no need to further an injury right now. Once she is completely healed up have her start taping her hand/thumb area for more support to make it a little less prone to that injury. Catchers thumb is very common and easily prevented with the taping or one of the guards. After a pretty nasty jam and 3 weeks off, DD tried the guard and it lasted all of about 5 minutes. She hated it. Started taping before every practice, lesson and game and she's much more comfortable with that.
ok she says it does not hurt catching a ball but only batting. What she is doing is weak arming to catch to try and protect it. we have backed off her actually catching and she only does hitting drills when it feels ok. we have almost a week off before next game so maybe she will be ok by then. I am leaving it up to her to decide.
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