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"catching it at its highest point"

Row80

Sophomore
Dec 11, 2008
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I see/hear this a lot and wonder am I misunderstanding or is the phrase incorrect. An article on the front page includes the sentence "He does a great job of tracking the ball in the air and catching it at its highest point."

So, the part of the sentence about the player "catching it at its highest point" says to me that the player is catching the ball when it (the ball) is at it's highest point in the travel from the QB to the receiver.

That's very seldom that case, that a player is catching that ball at the high point of it's arc. I assume that what is meant by this phrase is that the player catches the ball when the player is at the highest point of his jump.

Or am I misunderstanding.
 
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I see/hear this a lot and wonder am I misunderstanding or is the phrase incorrect. An article on the front page includes the sentence "He does a great job of tracking the ball in the air and catching it at its highest point."

So, the part of the sentence about the player "catching it at its highest point" says to me that the player is catching the ball when it (the ball) is at it's highest point in the travel from the QB to the receiver.

That's very seldom that case, that a player is catching that ball at the high point of it's arc. I assume that what is meant by this phrase is that the player catches the ball when the player is at the highest point of his jump.

Or am I misunderstanding.
I think your understanding is correct.

Rather than the player standing flat-footed waiting for the ball to fall in his hands, he catches it at the highest point he possibly can, making it harder for the defense to make a play on the ball.
 
Getting it at the highest point that he can is what it means. It's more of a DB thing than a WR thing though to be honest.
 
Getting it at the highest point that he can is what it means. It's more of a DB thing than a WR thing though to be honest.
Never knew it was a DB thing… Good information to know. I’ve heard it used for wide receivers quite often as well, but they naturally do it, I assume? DBs need to be reminded to high point it, huh?
 
I'm basically being a grammar nazi:

In "catching it at it's highest point", the first "it" refers to the ball and the second "it" refers to the player. In a normal reading of that phrase, I believe both "its" seem to refer to the ball. That makes the phrase mean "catch the ball when the ball is at it's highest point".

My grammar nazi complaint is there is nothing in the phrase to indicate that the two "its" refer to different things. I guess it's just one of those odd phrases where everyone understands it to mean a certain thing, regardless of the grammer.
 
I'm basically being a grammar nazi:

In "catching it at it's highest point", the first "it" refers to the ball and the second "it" refers to the player. In a normal reading of that phrase, I believe both "its" seem to refer to the ball. That makes the phrase mean "catch the ball when the ball is at it's highest point".

My grammar nazi complaint is there is nothing in the phrase to indicate that the two "its" refer to different things. I guess it's just one of those odd phrases where everyone understands it to mean a certain thing, regardless of the grammer.

You are correct on both your assumption of the meaning and the antecedents. It doesn’t matter who is catching or batting the ball, you try to teach players to time their jump to maximize their height and jumping ability. That is why you can see a 5’ 9” DB out jump a 6’3” receiver. The hard part is to be moving and running and time the jump on a ball thrown 30 or more yards.

Now ask why we are recruiting tall DB’S but shorter WR’s.
 
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