# Your inability to catch is baffling.... **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 19, 2015, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-inability-to-catch-is-baffling/710325 "2015-01-19T23:41:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![GrumpyBunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bc8723/32.png) [@GrumpyBunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrumpyBunny)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2015, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-inability-to-catch-is-baffling/710325/21 "2015-01-20T12:38:12Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > Catching is a motor skill that has to be trained and practiced early and often. Yup. I can’t catch. I had astigmatism and one nearsighted eye for decades. > [@](#): > > Meanwhile the more efficient cluster that controls reflexes is urgently commanding to deflect and dodge, not to catch (even more so if the trajectory will otherwise intersect the face or trunk). See, I deflect and dodge because I wore glasses as a kid, and was threatened with death if they were broken. Games in PE were awful. Anything flying at my head was met with me ducking and moving away – not what the teachers wanted. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2015, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-inability-to-catch-is-baffling/710325/22 "2015-01-20T12:42:22Z")
> [@Stuffy](#): > > The older son muffed a set of car keys like I was Colin Kaepernick throwing a pass to Michael Crabtree. What’s his allowance? Are you paying him $5,333,000 a year to catch car keys? If that seems like too much consider slapping the franchise tag on him. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2015, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-inability-to-catch-is-baffling/710325/23 "2015-01-20T13:08:01Z")
Seems pretty clear the common denominator in these incidents is YOU! Which tells us that you are not doing it right! You’re clearly not making eye contact, correctly judging their preparedness, and/or providing lead time, etc. Also I’m going to have to say, almost always when people think, ‘Gee, no one can catch anymore!’, turns out, they are shitty throwers! And who throws a cellphone at someone without giving them the heads up? Stop throwing things at people, you’re not very good at it, quite clearly. Especially stop throwing things as valuable and important to people as cell phones! Sheesh! ---
**Author:** ![JcWoman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jcwoman/32/2889_2.png) [@JcWoman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JcWoman)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2015, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-inability-to-catch-is-baffling/710325/24 "2015-01-20T14:33:57Z")
> [@flatlined](#): > > I often bean our cats on the head while tossing fuzzy mice for them to play with. One would think that cats would be better at that than humans because they are hardwired to catch insects and mice that might jump at their faces, but I probably hit once of them once a week. When we got our first greyhound, I playfully lobbed a treat at her head once and was please that she snapped at it. So I did it again. She quickly became a pro at snapping treats out of the air, but sometimes it seems to go right down her throat so quickly that she thinks she missed it so she looks around for it on the floor. After a few months of this fun game, I decided to be tricksy and tossed a small toy squirrel at her. She caught it and immediately spit it out with a look on her face like “ew, that’s not food”. Then a year later we got another grey and I tried to teach him the Catch game. No joy. I’ve beaned him in the face about a thousand times with dog treats and he just will not catch them. Just gets a disgruntled look on his face and then picks it up off the floor. So I’ve mostly stopped tormenting the poor boy but still play Catch with the female. When I make the about-to-toss hand movement, she gets an intense look on her face and bunches her muscles up ready to catch… so adorable. Fun times. ---
**Author:** ![leahcim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b4bc9f/32.png) [@leahcim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leahcim)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2015, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-inability-to-catch-is-baffling/710325/25 "2015-01-20T15:04:42Z")
> [@Llama\_Llogophile](#): > > I once made my living as a professional juggler. Yet, I was just as likely to miss the car keys as anyone else. It depends on who is throwing, how much of a surprise it is, quality of the throw, etc. The trick of juggling is making perfectly predictable and reproducible throws. The catching part is just “putting your hand where you know the ball/club/flaming chainsaw is going to be because you threw it so well”. So it doesn’t surprise me that juggling is not good practice for making good catches of arbitrarily thrown objects. ---
**Author:** ![romansperson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/romansperson/32/17100_2.png) [@romansperson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/romansperson)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2015, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-inability-to-catch-is-baffling/710325/26 "2015-01-20T15:04:51Z")
> [@JcWoman](#): > > When we got our first greyhound, I playfully lobbed a treat at her head once and was please that she snapped at it. So I did it again. She quickly became a pro at snapping treats out of the air, but sometimes it seems to go right down her throat so quickly that she thinks she missed it so she looks around for it on the floor. After a few months of this fun game, I decided to be tricksy and tossed a small toy squirrel at her. She caught it and immediately spit it out with a look on her face like “ew, that’s not food”. > > Then a year later we got another grey and I tried to teach him the Catch game. No joy. I’ve beaned him in the face about a thousand times with dog treats and he just will not catch them. Just gets a disgruntled look on his face and then picks it up off the floor. So I’ve mostly stopped tormenting the poor boy but still play Catch with the female. When I make the about-to-toss hand movement, she gets an intense look on her face and bunches her muscles up ready to catch… so adorable. > > Fun times. Same here. We used to have a greyhound with excellent eye-to-mouth coordination. He could snatch a flying treat right out of the air 19 times out of 20. Our current hound? Not once. ---
**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2015, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-inability-to-catch-is-baffling/710325/27 "2015-01-20T15:18:05Z")
I played both baseball and football for the first quarter of my life. Anything thrown in my general vicinity is intercepted and thrown back with deadly force, generally at your head. I never miss. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2015, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-inability-to-catch-is-baffling/710325/28 "2015-01-20T16:04:15Z")
> [@Lorene89095](#): > > Throw harder. Also, tape a knife or throwing star to the item. The idea is to engage peoples’ defensive reflexes, and they will respond much more quickly. ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2015, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-inability-to-catch-is-baffling/710325/29 "2015-01-20T16:56:08Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > A nerf ball won’t hurt anybody. Unless you throw one at me when I’m not expecting one. It’ll hurt you pretty bad when I punch you in the face. :mad: 😃 ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2015, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-inability-to-catch-is-baffling/710325/30 "2015-01-20T17:19:11Z")
if you throw something to a person towards their head, they naturally want to not get hit, this disrupts the catching. you want to throw it fast and hard right into the breadbasket. this provides three points of contact for valuable and delicate items like cell phones. or you could each take a few steps and consider it exercise. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2015, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-inability-to-catch-is-baffling/710325/31 "2015-01-20T22:04:02Z")
> [@even\_sven](#): > > I have poor vision in one eye and poor depth perception, so I’m probably not going to catch it, and I’m probably going to flinch, as I have a tough time telling what is or is not about to hit me smack in the face. > > Please don’t throw stuff at me. It’s embarrassing to me that I can’t catch, and I’m constantly having to go around looking for things I’ve failed to catch. Just hand me whatever you are going to hand me. Sorry, not an excuse! For several years we had a one-eyed right fielder on our adult softball team. He could catch. Looked damned silly doing it, running around wildly trying to guess where the ball would come down, but he rarely missed! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![flatlined](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eb9ed0/32.png) [@flatlined](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flatlined)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2015, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-inability-to-catch-is-baffling/710325/32 "2015-01-21T05:06:02Z")
> [@JcWoman](#): > > When we got our first greyhound, I playfully lobbed a treat at her head once and was please that she snapped at it. So I did it again. She quickly became a pro at snapping treats out of the air, but sometimes it seems to go right down her throat so quickly that she thinks she missed it so she looks around for it on the floor. After a few months of this fun game, **I decided to be tricksy and tossed a small toy squirrel at her**. She caught it and immediately spit it out with a look on her face like “ew, that’s not food”. > > Then a year later we got another grey and I tried to teach him the Catch game. No joy. I’ve beaned him in the face about a thousand times with dog treats and he just will not catch them. Just gets a disgruntled look on his face and then picks it up off the floor. So I’ve mostly stopped tormenting the poor boy but still play Catch with the female. When I make the about-to-toss hand movement, she gets an intense look on her face and bunches her muscles up ready to catch… so adorable. > > Fun times. What a mean mommy you are 🙂 I honestly am laughing at your whole post. We have a couple of greyhounds and one of them is slightly smarter than a box of rocks, the other could probably do calculus if only she had opposable thumbs so she could hold a pencil. That hound is scary smart. The scary smart one can’t catch things tossed at her at all. Maybe that’s because she knows it will just land next to her and she doesn’t have to waste the effort. Today I was playing with one of our cats. “Missy, are you ready for the mousie?” My hand swinging in the throwing motion, her body tense and ready for the toss, eyes on my hand. Beaned her on the head because she started running forward as soon as she saw the mousie in the air. So, I guess what I’m trying to say here is that if catching things tossed at their faces isn’t something that dogs or cats do without being taught…why would anyone expect an untrained human to be able to do it. Please don’t throw things at me over this post, I’ll just duck and hide. ---
**Author:** ![rjk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ed655f/32.png) [@rjk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjk)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2015, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-inability-to-catch-is-baffling/710325/33 "2015-01-21T05:08:03Z")
**even sven** , don’t be embarrassed. Just work on stepping gracefully out of the way, and wait for the tosser to pick up the item and hand it to you. They may need to be prompted, but with patience even the most persistent tosser can be trained. Any mess or damage is, of course, their responsibility. ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2015, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-inability-to-catch-is-baffling/710325/34 "2015-01-21T18:26:07Z")
> [@Stuffy](#): > > That or I need to stop throwing things at people. No. Then the weak ones win and they will go on to reproduce more weak humans. Your job is to throw more and harder making them stronger, faster, and better humans. ---
**Author:** ![Grestarian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grestarian/32/3227_2.png) [@Grestarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grestarian)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2015, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-inability-to-catch-is-baffling/710325/35 "2015-01-22T01:15:54Z")
> [@UncleRojelio](#): > > I played both baseball and football for the first quarter of my life. Anything thrown in my general vicinity is intercepted and thrown back with deadly force, generally at your head. I never miss. Wow! Nice trick! You must have learned that from my old friend Jack Burton.😃 –G! “Yep. It’s all in the reflexes.” …–Jack Burton (Kurt Russell) …Big Trouble in Little China ---
**Author:** ![stui\_magpie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stui_magpie/32/11010_2.png) [@stui\_magpie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stui_magpie)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2015, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-inability-to-catch-is-baffling/710325/36 "2015-01-22T04:05:44Z")
Hah, I’m not quite Jack Burton but I grew up playing ball sports that required you to catch in your hands, not with vast sized gloves that make it almost impossible to drop things, and as such I’m pretty good. Just tested throwing a stress ball from hand to hand while looking at the monitor and only using my peripheral vision, got up to 20 before I fumbled. Before Xmas over at my sons place, him and a couple of others were mucking round outside shaping to throw raw eggs at each other (don’t ask). He yells to me, “Soft hands” and throws the egg to me in a lob from about 6 metres away, caught it without breaking. For the OP, I think it’s his duty to teach his sons the basic skill of being able to catch things by continually pegging things at them. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Joker\_and\_the\_Thief](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e79b87/32.png) [@The\_Joker\_and\_the\_Thief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Joker_and_the_Thief)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2015, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-inability-to-catch-is-baffling/710325/37 "2015-01-22T13:00:20Z")
> [@flatlined](#): > > … > So, I guess what I’m trying to say here is that if catching things tossed at their faces isn’t something that dogs or cats do without being taught…why would anyone expect an untrained human to be able to do it. > > Please don’t throw things at me over this post, I’ll just duck and hide. On a serious note, there’s [good evidence](http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20140225-human-vs-animal-who-throws-best) that humans are vastly, vastly better at throwing things than are every other species. I haven’t seen any research on it, but it wouldn’t surprise me if humans were best (or near the top of the pack) at catching things too. ---
**Author:** ![SmellMyWort](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@SmellMyWort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmellMyWort)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2015, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-inability-to-catch-is-baffling/710325/38 "2015-01-22T16:11:18Z")
I thought this was going to be about the Packers/Seahawks game (ouch). ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2015, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-inability-to-catch-is-baffling/710325/39 "2015-01-22T16:18:50Z")
> [@straight\_doped](#): > > wrenches. > > yell “FREE WRENCH” and throw it at them. > > come back with details please. Remove a couple of "r"s and you get something that could be a Monty Python skit or an Oglaf miniarc. “Free wenches! Free wenches!” :tosses wench: ---
**Author:** ![doorhinge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a5b964/32.png) [@doorhinge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doorhinge)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2015, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-inability-to-catch-is-baffling/710325/40 "2015-01-22T18:10:58Z")
Kids spend way too much time playing video games. Or worse, soccer. Get them out of the house to play baseball, football, or tennis. Learn to hit something with a stick. A softball, hockey puck, hurling ball. Learn hand-eye coordination before it’s too late. I envision the future human being as a large head perched on a thin, stick figure-like body, with T-rex arms, and a huge ass, puffing inputs to the computer attached to their wheel chairs. 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-inability-to-catch-is-baffling/710325.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-inability-to-catch-is-baffling/710325.md?page=3)