Injury-Proof Catchers    I got a question from my good friend Stacie Mahoe from[http://www.allaboutfastpitch.com|http://www.allaboutfastpitch.com/] asking me aboutpreventing knee injuries for catchers. I thought this is information you would like to get. Yes, catchers have a greater risk of developing kneeissues just because catching puts more stress on the kneesthan any other position. What can you do to prevent this? 1) Use the Knee Savers. These are support padding thatyou attach to your shin pads and that gives you goodsupport when squatting down. It takes away close to 85%of the stress when resting before you get into your catching position. Some people think it makes your catcher lazy. To me,you can't play with knee safety. However, I don't buythe laziness thing. A good coach will know how to properly train their catcher and if the catcheris hard-working, this is a non-issue. Now, it is not mandatory to wear them but it can reallyhelp to prevent a lot of the stress placed on the knees. 2) Do Hindu Squats - old, silly-looking, martial artexercise that many personal trainers would tell you"It's bad for the knees" exercise because the heelsare coming off the ground but guess what.. everycatcher has their heels coming off the ground. It is actually a great muscular endurance exercise forcatchers. I would do 50-100/day several days a week. After that, your catcher will have the best conditioned legs of any catcher in your league. Check this exercise:[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPSVpo4mzNI] 3) I would also get them to do single-leg squats for strength and stability. They are killers but boy do they work. Check it out: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hu-6ywxbu1A] 4) Make sure you teach proper catching techniques; especiallythe basic catching position. You want to make sure thattheir weight is well-distributed. Teach them good fundamentalsand you will take a lot of the stress away. From experience, most softball players with knee problems arenot catchers but former/current gymnasts, basketball or soccerplayers. Make your catchers injury-proof.  Marc"Your Personal Softball Peak Performance Coach" For more tips, go to my website: [http://www.softballperformance.com|http://www.softballperformance.com/]