Receiving the ball in the palm

bkekcs,
Good question. I’m sure the exact impact point will vary from player to player but in my son’s case the center of the palm is NOT where he catches the ball. Since catcher’s mitts are of different designs, let’s use the bare hand as our reference. He catches the ball with about ½ inch of the ball contacting the base of the thumb, the callouse area of the palm, and the third pad down on the index (pointing) finger. With most mitts this would put the center of the ball just about where the webbing contacts the pocket. I have re-laced many mitts and have noticed the wear patterns of these mitts and most balls seem to impact the glove just about where the pocket and the webbing meet. Understand too that how the catcher places his hand in the glove will also change the impact point in the glove. I recommend the mitt with the external protective cover over the index finger and to place the fingers in their designated slots and to use the “finger cradles” inside the mitt. If a catcher catches the ball too far down in the pocket, the hand will become bruised. If they catch the ball too far out in the webbing, ball control and transfers become difficult. I might add that the mitt needs to be firm but loose. Firm meaning the player has full control of the mitt with no “flop” and loose meaning the glove is just loose fitting enough to absorb some of the impact without transferring the full impact to the hand. Size is a personal preference but the smaller, lighter glove is easier to handle and transfer but has less margin for error. If you are not aware of the product called “hard thumb” you need to research it. This is a thermal molded plastic splinting material used to protect the thumb from injury. Many college and pro players use this product.
Hope this helps.
Fungo

Fungo:

I did a quick google on hard thumb and came up empty. Do you know where I can find it?

Fungo,
I did the same as Rob and had the same result. Can you tell me, also, where to read up on it?

-Kevin

The "hard thumb" is made from a moldable thermoplastic splinting material (for broken bones)commonly found in a medical supply store. This splinting material comes in sheets about 12"X12" and you cut out enough to make a "sleeve" to go around the thumb. The material is placed in hot water until it becomes plyable, wrap it around the thumb and hold in place until it cools, trim the edges and you have a hard thumb. This is left in the thumb hole of the catcher's mitt. While my son was in high school I contacted the local AA minor league team trainer and he gave me enough to make two hard thumbs. My son used this all through high school and college. I don't know if he continues to use it in pro ball. This link might provide you a picture of the splinting material. http://www.rehabmart.com/product/10000.htm

Mizuno has a "thumb guard", however my son got it from a coach who got in Japan Haven't seen it in a sporting goods store. My son teamate's doctor made one. You might be able to talk your doctor into supplying the material next time you visit.

I might have to look into the hard thumb.Right now,all I do is tape my finger tips to prevent a bruised finger tip.

First, the catcher's goal is to catch the ball in the "pocket", meaning that area between the palm and the webbing (as Fungo mentioned) --- which would be somewhere between the thumb and index finger.

Second, before you get a glove and a thumb guard, check out Akadema's "Praying Mantis" catcher's glove. It has a second hinge built in near the top of the thumb, which allows the glove to "give" on balls tipped off or caught in the thumb area.

I've been catching for 25+ years, used Mizuno, Wilson, Spalding, Rawlings, you name it ... and the Akadema is the best-engineered, most comfortable glove I've ever used.

TPX PRO is a great glove. It has a detachable pad placed in the thumb that prevents the glove from rotating on those pitches that hit the thumb. Got one for my son last summer and he loves it. The only problem with the glove is, it is the hardest glove he has ever had to break in, Took twice as long as the Rawlings Heart of the Hide glove.

as far as catchign the ball in the palm of the glove, there is only one instance in which I have heard this technique reccomended. Many people recieve the outside pitch with the thumb pointing down which enable them to catch the bakll in the webbing, however there is a school of thought which suggests recievign the outside pitch by keeping your thumb parrallel to the ground while rotating the palm to face the plate. The idea is to beat the pitch to the spot and catch it deep in the glove (the palm). I have recently started to use this method and I find that although it feels unnatural at first, it gives the umo a more "true" look of teh ball, since other ways such as pointing the thumb down look like excess movement which leads the umpire to assume it was a bad pitch. Hope I could help and this is just one of many ways of recieving the outside pitch.

hope everyone had a nice holiday... catchers receive the ball with their fingers. the area between your thumb and forefinger is where they should practice letting the ball go to. also, dont jam your whole hand into the glove -- the further up it goes, the less control

Receiving the baseball in the palm of your hand will lead to injuries. Catchers should be catching the ball in the web of the glove. Hand-eye coordination training and receiving drills will help a catcher receive "cleaner". If you can, receive off a pitching machine at close range. Using soft baseballs with a bare hand will lead to "softer hands".

www.poweralleybaseball.com

A very good drill for practicing recieveing the ball in the webbing is to, without a glove on, hold one ball with your pinky and ring finger while having a friend lightly toss anotehr ball(Tennis balls are good for this drill) at you to recieve. This emphasizes the parts of your hand you want to be recieveing the ball with in a real situation

of course you can also use the only catchers training glove on the market, by All-Star, CM100TM... its a little bigger than your hand and it will force you to develop soft hands... sturdy enough to hold up to 90mph fastballs also.... plus, i designed it while they sponsered me through my career

Catching the ball in the palm leaves that sting you dont ever want to feel.I think most catchers,including me,will try to catch the ball in the webbing of the glove.

Why would anyone want to catch the ball in the palm?

"Why would anyone want to catch the ball in the palm?"
That's an easy question for me Kenny. So a dummy like me won't get the tip of his middle finger fractured anymore.

Quenton there comes a time when our kids out grow our ability. I believe our time has come! Hope your finger is OK.

True dat! And thanks, it's doing much better.

In reference to receiving. I have noticed a few high school catchers with an unorthodox mitt movement before the pitch is released. Catcher is set up to receive the pitch with the mitt in a target position. At this point the pitcher is in his motion and his arm is at full back extension, right before coming forward with the delivery. At this point the catcher will rotate hand/mitt clockwise, in essence closing it and reopen as pitch is being delivered. Every pitch.

Have never seen this movement before, and have noticed several high school catchers incorporating this movement into their receiving habits.

Has anybody seen this or have any thoughts on the mitt movement?

quote:

Originally posted by heatdad:
In reference to receiving. I have noticed a few high school catchers with an unorthodox mitt movement before the pitch is released. Catcher is set up to receive the pitch with the mitt in a target position. At this point the pitcher is in his motion and his arm is at full back extension, right before coming forward with the delivery. At this point the catcher will rotate hand/mitt clockwise, in essence closing it and reopen as pitch is being delivered. Every pitch.

Have never seen this movement before, and have noticed several high school catchers incorporating this movement into their receiving habits.

Has anybody seen this or have any thoughts on the mitt movement?

This is done to relax the hand in order to create soft hands for receiving the ball. There are a couple of different ways to do it. I teach the quarter turn, but others may teach a little differently.

Another thing, and in my mind more important, that you accomplish when you relax your glove hand is that you become quicker to move. The concept is known in some circles as "msucles in motion" and simply means that muscles that are already moving react and move quicker than those that are being held static.

I would encourage any catcher to learn this simple and important technique. It will help you to beat the ball to the spot and you'll receive the ball more cleanly as you will have a more relaxed hand. You'll appear quieter to the umpire and will be able to earn more strikes for your pitcher with this technique.

I have an old catcher's glove of my grandfathers that is designed to have the ball caught in the palm.... but baseball gloves are built very, very differently now. My little brother is a High School catcher. One thing I have noticed that he does is leaving the index finger of the glove empty. He hasn't had any terrible thumb injuries and he does not use anything on his thumb for padding, but he has had some injuries to the index finger so he slides the index over into the middle finger hole. I asked why he didn't just stick the finger out the back like so many others do and he gave two reasons. First, it doesn't protect the finger that much from the sting and secondly, he doesn't like having his finger exposed where it might get injured while putting on a tag.