Hand pain from catching

Worst case - damaged ligaments and need to get an MRI

Probably what it is - bruised area that's still tender from the ball he didn't catch cleanly. It won't get better until he's able to take a break from catching. It's just a nagging injury that's not really that bad but makes you want to cut your thumb off when you "thumb" a pitch cause it hurts.

My advice see what a doc says about getting an MRI just to rule out the worst case situation and probably reaffirm that it's just a bruise.

Agree with coach2709. Probably a deep bruise and has to be given a chance to heal. I recommend rice bucket exercises to strengthen the hands and wrist which will help prevent this from happening in the future.
Fungo

Wouldn't using something like the Evoshield thumbguards help with the constant reinjuring of the thumb? That might give the thumb a chance to heal while still catching.

Not sure Sugi - I'm old enough that wonderful things like that weren't around back when I caught. In my opinion things like that would help prevent an injury such as this. As for a current injury it could help alleviate some pain but I believe it will still hurt if he catches it wrong.

My sophomore year in college I was catching a guy throwing upper 80's with movement and his fastball tailed at the last second and I caught it wrong. It hurt a lot and I never really took time off to let it heal. I was always catching somebody at somepoint or another during offseason, spring and fall. It really took me about a year after I stopped playing to completely stop hurting.

I'm sure you've already thought of this, but have you checked his mitt to make sure it is holding up well?

Coach2709, good information, what you say makes sense. He catches fall, spring and summer with very little time to heal. He is getting some sort of hand therapy tomorrow. Fungo, not sure what the rice bucket exercises are, can you explain please.
Thank you all for the input.

No problem and if he didn't have this pain / injury then he wouldn't be a good catcher or he wouldn't be catching good pitchers. This is a very common thing for catchers but the new stuff / keeping mitt in shape really helps to prevent the injury.

As for the rice bucket take a bucket like the 3 gallon bucket you put baseballs in. Fill it about 3/4 full of rice. Sit in a chair with the bucket between feet / legs. Take his hand and use his fingers to work his hand down to the bottom of the bucket through the rice. Once you touch the bottom then pull hand out and then do the other hand - need to use both to keep both arms / hands equal - plus this helps with bat speed / power.

How it works is your using the muscles in the hands / forearms to work the fingers through rice. It really builds up the strength in the hands / forearms. This is helpful in catching because a strong hand is less likely to get hurt. Plus it helps with sticking pitches like the low / outside fastball that tends to jerk the catchers arm back.

Plus it helps with hitting in that there will be less recoil (not sure if that is a great word to describe that action) when the ball hits the bat.

On all catchers hands hurting...my son's hand hurt and he didn't tell us. By the time it was diagnosed (when he was getting an arm injury checked out), the doc said it was broken, now it is healed, play ball. This was a year ago. We bought him a better mitt and back out he went,

When I recently asked, he said his hand (beneath the thumb, I think), aches occassionally. I won't ask again for another year.

We will try the rice bucket - hadn't heard about that one. Sounds kinda fun.

Rice bucket works wonders. We're actually doing it right now with a s****r goalie.. she has sprained the UCL in her thumbs from years of catching s****r balls. Same general idea.. probably quick google will find you some good info..