Protecting the bare hand of catchers

If you are a catcher, sooner or later your bare hand is going to be hit with a foul ball.  When that happens, you will very quickly be reminded of how important it is to protect that bare hand when you are receiving pitches during a game.  In today’s video clip, I show a few ways catchers can protect their bare hand so as to avoid injury as much as possible.

After watching the clip, be sure to read the additional note under the video about a tip I forgot to mention when filming.

Note:  Another option for bare hand placement when there are runners on base is to place the bare hand in the proper fist and rest it up against the outside of the thigh.  This protects it fairly well but doesn’t require as much time to bring it up to the glove after catching since it is closer than if it was behind the ankle.