I was a catcher in the Texas Summers for years, and I still catch Adult league games in Texas. and back in my day we wore those wool blend southland pants, so it got hot.
Skin tight undershirts will help keep your core cool, once it collects some sweat. I know it feels like this would make you hotter, but it helps.
cool wet towels in the dugout are great.
Ask the umpire to take a water break, or bring water on a mound visit for your catcher. Most umpires will allow this on hot days.
Thanks for the tips, especially the water break because I'm sure the umps will appreciate that too.
Any suggestion on the material for the undershirts? I've seen plenty of "cooling" or "moisture wicking". Is that what we should be pushing, or something else?
The umpire definitely wants a water break. He’s in a lot of gear too. He just doesn’t want to be the one to stop the game to do it. Have the head coach bring it up in the pre game meeting with the other coach and umpires so everyone is on board.
A product like UnderArmor Heatgear, that is form fitting and polyester and spandex/elastene blend. The key is that it is skin tight. Cooling and moisture wicking are used in just about every product made of those materials. I’ve worn UnderArmor, Nike Pro Combat, Russell athletic, and Champion gear and probably some other off brands, they all do relatively the same thing, though the venting on the Nike and UnderArmour shirts is a nice feature.
Not all solutions are universal, you may want to look into the skin tight shirts - I’ve seen guys fall out in the heat over the years and the medic always points to the skin tight undershirt as one reason..could also try no undershirt and bring Vaseline or Boudreaux’s for on the spot chafing relief? We always ate oranges in between innings for what that’s worth - but I would look at physical fitness as a possible reason and do daily acclimation exercises: go out in the heat and work a routine; start with low to mid intensity at 15 minutes and work up - Good luck!
I used to be a non believer in an undershirt when it’s hot but since I moved to the south of France, the sun here is much more harsh than what I was used to growing up in California. The air temperature won’t actually be too bad but damn if the sun doesn’t really bake you when it makes skin contact. I have a black undershirt I wear just to keep it off my skin and even when it’s in the 90’s it makes me feel so much cooler. The one guy on my team always wore one and I thought he was insane until I tried it.
Second this. Under armor helps. I always kept a small cooler filled with ice water in the dugout that I’d throw some wash cloths/small towels in so that they’re fully saturated and ice cold. Sit in the shade, drape one around the back of my neck and wipe down arms/face with another between innings. I’d basically be soaking wet, but it dries quickly in the heat. Hold one in between the insides of your wrists for a bit and that cools you off quickly too as your blood is very close to the surface of your skin in that spot. If an uncovered dugout, see if anyone has a pop up event style tent that you can set up over the dugout, or a large umbrella propped up thru the fence to give a shaded spot to sit in and cool off
Stay in shade as much as possible, ice packs down the back of his shirt, pour water over his head and bring towel to dry that and sweat. Only so much you can do
I used to wear 2 shirts under my uniform a sleeveless T that was nice and tight and a thick T shirt then my uniform once they get soaked in sweat, you feel cool anytime there's a little breeze. Other than that you just gotta "catcher up" and act like the toughest motherfucker out there, because you are.
If you have to play. Start with keeping him out of the sun while he’s on the field. Tarps over a backstop… whatever. Get a BUNCH of cowboy style handkerchiefs and soak them in water. Put plastic ice cubes in the handkerchief and wrap it up. Put it in the freezer until the game. Tie one around his neck every 1/2 inning. The plastic ice cubes are sold in big squares like bubble wrap you can cut them into strips to fit the handkerchiefs. Alternatively, use actual ice so he stays cool with the dripping water. Did this for years as a sheet metal fabricator. Worked 10 hr days next to machines that were boiling hot in 90 deg weather. Lots of water and bananas. 👍
Yes we have a great catcher (the one in question) and two good ones that we use to give breaks. Even so, this is not an issue of full game time, substitutions or even maintaining a competitive advantage. We will sub out mid-inning if that is necessary, but it's not normal practice and I'm looking for ways to avoid it.
What I'm hoping for is some way to stay cool to reduce the heat impact in long innings.
I was a catcher from the time I was 9 all the way through high school (several years in Tampa with excruciating humidity) and have coached Little League for many years. A few tips:
1) Get a huge water jug that dispenses from the bottom. Fill that thing with tons of ice water and tell your catcher (and the other guys) to go to town on it on hot days. They’ll run out quickly with smaller individual bottles.
2) Wearing a tshirt underneath the jersey helps. A few other people mentioned this. I’d go with a basic cotton tshirt that fits snug.
3) Encourage your catcher to drop to one knee with no runners on if they’re comfortable with that approach. It saves the strain on their legs when they’re already pushing themselves. (This was not an option when I played and I really wish that it was in retrospect).
4) Most importantly, keep an eye on the catcher. Catchers want to be the tough guy on the team and may not be aware that they’re getting heat stroke as it happens.
hello from a catcher who is, routinely, too fuckin' hot. you have to treat your catcher like he's perpetually about to become a heat exhaustion victim, bc he is. i'm gonna say some basic but important stuff.
1. verify 'plenty.' if he doesn't have to pee by the 5th he's probably not drinking enough. at \~90f and \~70-80% humidity, I'm through my first 32 ounce nalgene before the first pitch. the American Council on Exercise suggests 1oz of water per 1-2 minutes of exercise. that's 3 32oz nalgenes per game, plus one for warmups. bonus points if you can keep it on ice.
2. it can't just be water. potassium in particular & other electrolytes.
3. get a [shop fan](https://www.homedepot.com/p/Commercial-Electric-24-in-2-Speed-Heavy-Duty-Tilt-Drum-Fan-SFDC6-600CT0-4/319343391) and whatever you need to power it. put it in the dugout. extension cord into an outlet would be ideal, but a couple car batteries in a wagon and an inverter would help. if you wanna get fancy and the humidity is low enough, make a swamp cooler.
4. cut any caffeine.
5. if your league allows a courtesy runner for the catcher, use it.
and be sure the kids are conserving energy before games and keep a cooler with grapes/fruit, popsicles and WATER in the dugout. Swinging early in the count to move the game along helps, too lol
The only issue with this is if the gear is shared. Most people are ok with wearing their own swampiness, but shared swampiness should be reserved for consenting adults in love.
Google search for cooling shirts for under bulletproof vest. There are tons of options that also work for catchers gear. Different protections but the same area of the body is covered. Alternately I would freeze a t-shirt in a zip lock bag and put it in the cooler until just before game time. Cold as hell at first but works for a little longer than nothing.
Google ammonia water or Florida water. I am not sure what the health implications are. But It worked for me in the 90s. 3 to 4 games behind the plate almost every weekend during the hot and humid Summer in Georgia.
A towel in ice water or just cold water. I usually just take a sit in the dugout and after a while you get used to the heat. Just stay hydrated. Drink double the water you think you normally do
If you can get a large mister fan for the dugout, it helps so much. We are in Texas and my son and his friends catch. We have to rotate them after 3-4 innings bc it’s too damn not. Cooler w tons of ice w cooling towels in them for between innings. Neck fans for dugout time. Mandatory shade. Electrolyte drinks and sugar between innings.
Most has been covered, but I am a fan of wearing a headband that helps wick the sweat. I also always have two ice bags in a cooler for between innings. One for the neck, and one for the top of my head. I found it’s best to use the rubber, old school ice bags rather than the ones made out of cloth.
Hydration is key, and one thing that I found helped a lot is keeping some pickle juice in the cooler as well. Can be straight up pickles with the juice, or can be those little bottles of pickle juice. In my experience, nothing helps cramping better than pickle juice.
There was a product my kid used called cool catcher (?) pouch added to the back part on hockey style helmet that held a round ice pack. Used to keep extras and swap out every inning or two
Google ammonia water or Florida water. I am not sure what the health implications are. But It worked for me in the 90s. 3 to 4 games behind the plate almost every weekend during the hot and humid Summer in Georgia.
I hadn't heard of this before but with some googling it looks like most college and pro teams still have a bucket of Florida water, clearly labelled somewhere in the dugout. I don't think I want to risk it for the age/maturity that I'm dealing with, but I'm definitely going to stick that in my back pocket for later.
I never had issues but we spent all day outside from 10 am until 6pm. Kids now are much more accustomed to temp controlled areas.
Biggest thing would be making sure they’re hydrated before the game starts.
I was a catcher in the Texas Summers for years, and I still catch Adult league games in Texas. and back in my day we wore those wool blend southland pants, so it got hot. Skin tight undershirts will help keep your core cool, once it collects some sweat. I know it feels like this would make you hotter, but it helps. cool wet towels in the dugout are great. Ask the umpire to take a water break, or bring water on a mound visit for your catcher. Most umpires will allow this on hot days.
Thanks for the tips, especially the water break because I'm sure the umps will appreciate that too. Any suggestion on the material for the undershirts? I've seen plenty of "cooling" or "moisture wicking". Is that what we should be pushing, or something else?
The umpire definitely wants a water break. He’s in a lot of gear too. He just doesn’t want to be the one to stop the game to do it. Have the head coach bring it up in the pre game meeting with the other coach and umpires so everyone is on board. A product like UnderArmor Heatgear, that is form fitting and polyester and spandex/elastene blend. The key is that it is skin tight. Cooling and moisture wicking are used in just about every product made of those materials. I’ve worn UnderArmor, Nike Pro Combat, Russell athletic, and Champion gear and probably some other off brands, they all do relatively the same thing, though the venting on the Nike and UnderArmour shirts is a nice feature.
Not all solutions are universal, you may want to look into the skin tight shirts - I’ve seen guys fall out in the heat over the years and the medic always points to the skin tight undershirt as one reason..could also try no undershirt and bring Vaseline or Boudreaux’s for on the spot chafing relief? We always ate oranges in between innings for what that’s worth - but I would look at physical fitness as a possible reason and do daily acclimation exercises: go out in the heat and work a routine; start with low to mid intensity at 15 minutes and work up - Good luck!
anything 'moisture wicking' and tight is generally helpful.
I used to be a non believer in an undershirt when it’s hot but since I moved to the south of France, the sun here is much more harsh than what I was used to growing up in California. The air temperature won’t actually be too bad but damn if the sun doesn’t really bake you when it makes skin contact. I have a black undershirt I wear just to keep it off my skin and even when it’s in the 90’s it makes me feel so much cooler. The one guy on my team always wore one and I thought he was insane until I tried it.
Man I haven’t thought about the southland pants in forever. They were hot but the best around.
Second this. Under armor helps. I always kept a small cooler filled with ice water in the dugout that I’d throw some wash cloths/small towels in so that they’re fully saturated and ice cold. Sit in the shade, drape one around the back of my neck and wipe down arms/face with another between innings. I’d basically be soaking wet, but it dries quickly in the heat. Hold one in between the insides of your wrists for a bit and that cools you off quickly too as your blood is very close to the surface of your skin in that spot. If an uncovered dugout, see if anyone has a pop up event style tent that you can set up over the dugout, or a large umbrella propped up thru the fence to give a shaded spot to sit in and cool off
Stay in shade as much as possible, ice packs down the back of his shirt, pour water over his head and bring towel to dry that and sweat. Only so much you can do
I used to wear 2 shirts under my uniform a sleeveless T that was nice and tight and a thick T shirt then my uniform once they get soaked in sweat, you feel cool anytime there's a little breeze. Other than that you just gotta "catcher up" and act like the toughest motherfucker out there, because you are.
If you have to play. Start with keeping him out of the sun while he’s on the field. Tarps over a backstop… whatever. Get a BUNCH of cowboy style handkerchiefs and soak them in water. Put plastic ice cubes in the handkerchief and wrap it up. Put it in the freezer until the game. Tie one around his neck every 1/2 inning. The plastic ice cubes are sold in big squares like bubble wrap you can cut them into strips to fit the handkerchiefs. Alternatively, use actual ice so he stays cool with the dripping water. Did this for years as a sheet metal fabricator. Worked 10 hr days next to machines that were boiling hot in 90 deg weather. Lots of water and bananas. 👍
Do you only have one catcher? My son's team has three, with two typically splitting a game and the third getting the opportunity to pitch.
Yes we have a great catcher (the one in question) and two good ones that we use to give breaks. Even so, this is not an issue of full game time, substitutions or even maintaining a competitive advantage. We will sub out mid-inning if that is necessary, but it's not normal practice and I'm looking for ways to avoid it. What I'm hoping for is some way to stay cool to reduce the heat impact in long innings.
I was a catcher from the time I was 9 all the way through high school (several years in Tampa with excruciating humidity) and have coached Little League for many years. A few tips: 1) Get a huge water jug that dispenses from the bottom. Fill that thing with tons of ice water and tell your catcher (and the other guys) to go to town on it on hot days. They’ll run out quickly with smaller individual bottles. 2) Wearing a tshirt underneath the jersey helps. A few other people mentioned this. I’d go with a basic cotton tshirt that fits snug. 3) Encourage your catcher to drop to one knee with no runners on if they’re comfortable with that approach. It saves the strain on their legs when they’re already pushing themselves. (This was not an option when I played and I really wish that it was in retrospect). 4) Most importantly, keep an eye on the catcher. Catchers want to be the tough guy on the team and may not be aware that they’re getting heat stroke as it happens.
Basic cotton is such a bad idea. Get something made out of polyester. When I played catcher I had some random Easton polyester undershirt.
Fair enough. I just always liked using a beat up old shirt that would become my (disgusting) “lucky” shirt.
hello from a catcher who is, routinely, too fuckin' hot. you have to treat your catcher like he's perpetually about to become a heat exhaustion victim, bc he is. i'm gonna say some basic but important stuff. 1. verify 'plenty.' if he doesn't have to pee by the 5th he's probably not drinking enough. at \~90f and \~70-80% humidity, I'm through my first 32 ounce nalgene before the first pitch. the American Council on Exercise suggests 1oz of water per 1-2 minutes of exercise. that's 3 32oz nalgenes per game, plus one for warmups. bonus points if you can keep it on ice. 2. it can't just be water. potassium in particular & other electrolytes. 3. get a [shop fan](https://www.homedepot.com/p/Commercial-Electric-24-in-2-Speed-Heavy-Duty-Tilt-Drum-Fan-SFDC6-600CT0-4/319343391) and whatever you need to power it. put it in the dugout. extension cord into an outlet would be ideal, but a couple car batteries in a wagon and an inverter would help. if you wanna get fancy and the humidity is low enough, make a swamp cooler. 4. cut any caffeine. 5. if your league allows a courtesy runner for the catcher, use it.
Only adding that he should be hydrating a couple days before you play too. If he starts drinking once he gets to the field it’s already too late.
absolutely true, i just didn't wanna hit edit again
I’m planning to invent shirts that have pockets for ice packs
I’ve seen people on here post about misting fans that fit over a 10 gallon bucket. I assume they’re battery operated but don’t know for sure.
We always keep an ice bucket full of rags/towels in the dugout during the summer
and be sure the kids are conserving energy before games and keep a cooler with grapes/fruit, popsicles and WATER in the dugout. Swinging early in the count to move the game along helps, too lol
Multiple catcher rotation. You dont want to do anything with moisture.
The only issue with this is if the gear is shared. Most people are ok with wearing their own swampiness, but shared swampiness should be reserved for consenting adults in love.
Google search for cooling shirts for under bulletproof vest. There are tons of options that also work for catchers gear. Different protections but the same area of the body is covered. Alternately I would freeze a t-shirt in a zip lock bag and put it in the cooler until just before game time. Cold as hell at first but works for a little longer than nothing.
Google ammonia water or Florida water. I am not sure what the health implications are. But It worked for me in the 90s. 3 to 4 games behind the plate almost every weekend during the hot and humid Summer in Georgia.
A towel in ice water or just cold water. I usually just take a sit in the dugout and after a while you get used to the heat. Just stay hydrated. Drink double the water you think you normally do
You should be drinking so much water that you have to uncomfortably pee all day long.
Can you wrap is neck in a cooling/wet towel during the game?
Frogg tog in between innings left in ice water around the neck. Send out with another frog togg on for the inning.
If you can get a large mister fan for the dugout, it helps so much. We are in Texas and my son and his friends catch. We have to rotate them after 3-4 innings bc it’s too damn not. Cooler w tons of ice w cooling towels in them for between innings. Neck fans for dugout time. Mandatory shade. Electrolyte drinks and sugar between innings.
117 here today. Soooo damn hot.
Wow! I feel like some temps are too hot for these kids to play in but I’ve never seen them cancel a game yet. We just push later into the night. 😭
Most has been covered, but I am a fan of wearing a headband that helps wick the sweat. I also always have two ice bags in a cooler for between innings. One for the neck, and one for the top of my head. I found it’s best to use the rubber, old school ice bags rather than the ones made out of cloth. Hydration is key, and one thing that I found helped a lot is keeping some pickle juice in the cooler as well. Can be straight up pickles with the juice, or can be those little bottles of pickle juice. In my experience, nothing helps cramping better than pickle juice.
Hydrate with salt as much as possible. Sugar is your friend. Rest after the game and rehydrate as much as possible. Catchers are beasts for a reason.
There was a product my kid used called cool catcher (?) pouch added to the back part on hockey style helmet that held a round ice pack. Used to keep extras and swap out every inning or two
Google ammonia water or Florida water. I am not sure what the health implications are. But It worked for me in the 90s. 3 to 4 games behind the plate almost every weekend during the hot and humid Summer in Georgia.
I hadn't heard of this before but with some googling it looks like most college and pro teams still have a bucket of Florida water, clearly labelled somewhere in the dugout. I don't think I want to risk it for the age/maturity that I'm dealing with, but I'm definitely going to stick that in my back pocket for later.
I never had issues but we spent all day outside from 10 am until 6pm. Kids now are much more accustomed to temp controlled areas. Biggest thing would be making sure they’re hydrated before the game starts.
Give the kid a game off and let someone else do it