"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!

Close, but no cigar

This was the Moth Balls third week, and we have now, clearly, settled down. We're not longer overwhelmed by the speed of the game, and our players have a very definite understanding of the speed and pace of the game and what should be expected during a match.

One thing our team has really improved on is catching. The first week catches were almost accidental. The ball would just kind of find its way into our hands. But as you can see in the photo of Lefty to the... left... we're able to make more clutch catches at key times.

Unfortunately, we're also getting caught out a lot more. I for one was caught out an embarrassingly high amount. At least three times. I think this comes with increased accuracy, but accuracy that is coming at the sacrifice of power. I know that my arm, and some of my teammates' arms are starting to get real joint pain.

Although we're playing much better, and are really getting a grasp of teamwork, we lost to Can't Touch Disk 10-9 at Eastern Commerce. I wholly expect that the next time we play them we'll play much better and get the win.