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To play your best, you need to have confidence in your equipment. Protective gear must guard against foul-tips, balls in the dirt and wild pitches, yet be light enough that you can still be mobile around the plate.
To be a catcher, you need confidence, guts and a no-fear attitude. To play your best, you need to have confidence in your equipment. Protective gear must guard against foul-tips, balls in the dirt and wild pitches, yet be light enough that you can still be mobile around the plate.
Here are the protective pieces needed for the position of catcher:
Catcher’s Helmet
The head is the most important body part to have fully protected. Generally, there are two styles of catcher helmets to choose from: Goalie Mask Design or Traditional Design.
Goalie Mask Design
Traditional Design
Resembles a hockey goalie mask
Gives additional front, side, and top protection
More comfortable than the traditional style
Added strap adjustments for chin pad
Comes in youth and adult sizing, based on hat size
Includes a backward earless helmet
Typically preferred by high-level players
Easier to toss off
Increased field of vision
Includes a top and 2 side adjustable straps
NOTE: Additional throat protective pieces can be bought and attached to the helmet.
Chest Protector
A chest protector is designed to protect against foul tips, and missed catches that could hit ribs, heart, collarbone, and stomach. A good protector will have enough padding to guard all these parts while still being light enough to move around in. Measure the length from the bottom of the throat to the naval (bottom pad of the protector) to determine size.
Shin Guards
Shin guard equipment is crucial in protecting against batted balls and other players’ cleats. Proper sizing is crucial, as improper fit will impede your performance and comfort when kneeling for most of the game. Some of the best features are moisture-wicking linings in pads to keep legs and knees dry; extra knee coverage with double or triple knee caps; toe cups, to protect against low driven foul tips to the foot and ankle; knee savers to decrease the amount of stress a catcher puts on their knees throughout a game.
Catcher’s Mitt
A catcher’s mitt has been designed to protect the catcher’s hand from hard pitches as well as focus the pitcher with a nice large target. A large hand pocket replaces separate finger holes that can be found on other baseball mitts. This system gives the catcher more padding to be able to take hard fastballs from a pitcher. Catchers will also need the ability to take the ball out faster to throw to base.
Being a catcher is one of the most physically demanding positions on the diamond. We break down the equipment, sizes, and benefits for each piece of gear.
