What are some tips for a catcher on how to block home plate from base runners in baseball?

What are some tips for a catcher on how to block home plate from base runners in baseball?

If you're a catcher and you're going to block the plate, the first thing you want to make sure you do is to not set yourself up to get hit without looking at the runner. Therefore, you don't want to commit yourself to blocking the plate until you know that you're going to receive the ball in time to brace yourself. So that's the first thing for safety reasons. Secondly, if you know that you're getting the ball in time, what a catcher will do is he'll put his foot in front of the plate in such a way where the knee is bent and there's some give. If you put your foot in front of the plate where there's no give, then you can have a very severe leg injury. So just be sure to put yourself in position where you're not going to get hit blindly and if you do have position of the ball, make sure there's give in your legs. You want to always have both hands on the glove, you want to have a hand where the ball is in the glove when you're tagging so the ball doesn't get jarred loose and be able to brace yourself.