Chest Protectors of little help

Seems to be pretty a very rare thing,but scary nonetheless. Anything to prevent it?

quote:

Originally posted by Catch43:
Anything to prevent it?

Play first base.

One problem I see with kids at the lower levels is they wear the chest protector tight to the body. They need the chest protector to hang loosely so the ball will not bounce away hard.

While you are doing that to help you with strategy it only makes sense that this would also help protect younger catchers.

I've never been hit in the chest by a ball that has not hit the ground first while catching. balls that bounce first have no energy. been hit in the cage by a line shot to ribs, bruised my insides and got to catch the next day but not hit. im not buying this for baseball.

OK, first off there's no way to know how many kids got hit while wearing the guards and walked away unhurt but would have suffered severe injury or worse had they not worn the protectors.

Second, the understanding of these injuries and how to prevent them is a fairly young science, so the designers of the guards no doubt will continue to improve them.

It is, however, interesting (and scary as the dad of a catcher) to see that three of the deaths cited in the study were of catchers. I've got to wonder what type of chest protector they were wearing, as the new catchers gear seems vastly superior to older stuff.

quote:

by stmm: It is, however, interesting (and scary as the dad of a catcher) to see that three of the deaths cited in the study were of catchers.

it is curious that the study implies they were recent events, and as such would seem to be big news on a site like this with nationwide input ... yet I'm in the dark too

3 catchers fatally injured in the last 10-12 yrs & it was never discussed here

Hmmmm... Wonder if it's the type of gear.

When my son first started catching, I wasn't sure it would stick so he had over-the-counter gear sold at "Big Warehouse Sports Store". We upped it to better stuff last year ordered online, and the chest protector certainly does seem much better. It fits somewhat close to the body, but it's got way better padding over the sternum & chest--much thicker/denser foam with another layer of gel on top of that.

Not sure what would happen if he took a fast ball to mid-chest and I don't want to know, but I'd feel more confident with this protector than his last.

A colleague of mine's daughter died while playing tennis. The ball hit her in the chest at precisely the wrong time in the cardiac cycle, she arrested, and couldn't be revived.

The number of deaths listed is extremely small when compared to the millions of people of all ages that enjoy those sports. It's tragic for anyone to die from this type of situation, but how do you make any sport 100% risk-free?