"Careful... he's really good at catching!"

When it comes to dodgeball, I would list my strengths in this order: dodging, then strategy and tactics, then throwing, then showing up, eating wings, tying my own shoes, finding the gym, and just about everything else involved in the process of playing in a game of dodgeball before catching.

Dodging? I have often arrogantly proclaimed myself the best dodger in all of Toronto.

Strategy and tactics? I'm often tempted to bring a wipe board to games to draw Xs and Os for my teammates.

Throwing? I'm like a young Tom Glavine out there on the court. Relying on off-speed pitches and locations to snipe my opponents.

My ability to show up? Jimmers is blown away by it.

However, I am epicly bad at catching.

There have been entire seasons where I have not gotten a catch. Other seasons, my catches have come by accident, like the time I caught a ball in my armpit with the follow through from my arm. Basically, for me to catch a ball, my opponent has to stroll up and hand me the ball.

I suck at catching.

However, playing in the rec leagues has really improved my catching. So much so that in last night's 10-7 loss to Dodge This, the other team was avoiding throwing at me and saying things like "It's too late now, he's setup." "Don't throw at that guy, he's a catcher!"

Playing with the Moth Balls in the rec league has done a great job of preparing me for my intermediate/competitive games with the Evil Empire. I don't catch as much when I'm wearing the Empire's black and white, but I make much better decisions with my catches, and can now be relied upon to get one or two per game.

This is definitely a recent development in my game, and something I need to keep working on. Watch this space and I'll start posting tips as I figure this whole thing out. Until then, it's kind of a mystery to me!