Baseball workouts during winter sports?

My 2017 did fall baseball, basketball, and spring baseball from 6th grade straight through HS, and yeah, it's tough to balance.

The good news is that if you shut baseball down for at least a couple of months, you're doing his arm and his baseball future a big favor. 

The bad news is that basketball, especially once you get to HS eats up an incredible amount of calories, so if your son is trying to get bigger and stronger,  he'll probably make no progress at all during basketball season.

Except in middle school my son did very little baseball during the basketball season, though he did always get to the cage once or twice a week to keep his swing sharp.  That was hard for him at times, and I had to do a lot of nudging, but it paid off in the end.

From what I saw it is possible for some high level players to shut it down completely during basketball -- the kid who lead my son's HS in scoring during his Jr & Sr years never picked up a baseball during basketball season, and that didn't stop him from being drafted out JC and ending up at D1 school for baseball.

Do not sweat it, he's in 8th grade right? You have to find time/a day of the week where your kid does nothing sports related. Let him chill and if nothing else "recover". Don't fall victim to the fear of him falling behind in baseball because he's playing basketball. Depending on your son's interests, this may be the last time he ever plays school basketball, enjoy it and let him enjoy it. The conditioning, coordination, competition, etc. translate to baseball, so he's OK. You can hit/throw as you find time, but do not do too much this year. Also, do not lose any focus on grades. There has to be time for homework and studying, basketball/baseball have to come after that. We all worry way too much about the baseball kids being able to focus on baseball while you're son is playing another sport. Something has to give, maybe he needs a couple of extra games to "catch up"/"get his timing back", but maybe he learned to compete harder through basketball, doesn't have to always be a negative. Do what you have to do in terms of the baseball workouts, but remember that he's a kid and not a professional. I'm sure other, more valuable opinions will come. Good luck and enjoy watching 8th grade stuff, it can be very entertaining.

My 2020 played freshman basketball and definitely lost time to do baseball winter workouts.  He was in great condition bc of basketball but ended up breaking his finger in the last game of the basketball season, which put him out for the entire month of Feb and right up to the start of hs baseball. Fortunately he still made varsity and the first week of games got rained out, but it took awhile to get back into it after the injury.  He ended up not playing basketball this year bc he doesn’t want to risk the injury and focus on baseball instead.  It was difficult to balance both schedules and many times the hs coach will require basketball to be the priority so in conflicts baseball loses out. Bottom line is sometimes kids really like doing both sports but need to make a decision in hs to pick one sport. Hopefully for those multi sport athletes it works out but it takes a very supportive coaching staff and a little luck to avoid injury that affects the other sport.  My advice is do both while you can make it work but don’t sweat it if it doesn’t work out.

Yep, it does take luck for basketball injuries not to impact baseball. Same is true for football, even with the break.

There is another current thread running (Happy Holidays !!) where we are talking about family being home for Thanksgiving.  I didn't mention the interesting dynamic last night at the house.  Youngest son had several friends over playing cards (he just finished his college playing days last year).  His closest group of friends happen to be the starting five and a role player from his HS varsity basketball team when they were all juniors/seniors.  Five of those six were sitting at the table last night.  Of those six...  

One played basketball, football and baseball thru HS, had a very successful 4 year college career as a P.

One played basketball, baseball and club hockey thru HS, had a very successful 4 yr college career as an OF.

One played basketball, football all thru HS and baseball thru 10th grade, very nice college football career as backup punter at a Power 5.

One played basketball, football all thru HS and baseball thru 9th grade, successful 4 yr college career as a D1 lineman.

One played basketball and football thru HS, tried out for baseball one day as a HS senior (), didn't play in college but was recruited for both basketball and football... didn't play because he is a knucklehead.

One played football, basketball and baseball all thru HS, entering his fourth year of college as a successful 2-way in baseball.  Everyone in the community thought for sure he would play football or basketball in college.

There are other years at our HS where most of the baseball players are 1-sport guys.  It goes in cycles.  One constant - if the player is good enough, he can play other sports well into and often thru HS.  There are many great threads that you can search on this site that discuss the pros and cons.  If basketball is something your son likes to do, I sure wouldn't be inclined to take that away from him now.  Realistically, if there is concern about him making the 14u team, either those concerns are largely unwarranted or he probably isn't going to go much further in the game anyway.  So, let him play!

Oh, and BTW, the group talked my daughter's new boyfriend into going to the gym and playing basketball with them.  He's a kite boarder.  Oops 

The question to ask those baseball coaches who expect fall and winter workouts while your son plays another sport: Is it ok for him to play football/soccer/basketball during baseball season to "stay sharp" for them as well? 

Our baseball coach is also an assistant wrestling coach. His expectation is that you either play another sport or do the baseball workouts. He's fine with either one. The tricky part is when kids do track or something for spring and then come out for HS baseball in the summer, but don't show up for practice until a few days before the season starts and are cranky because they aren't starting.

My 2022 (8th grader) played baseball until halloween and has not done any ballistic throwing since. He started last week with hitting and plans on doing 3x week OL/UL swing training. He played flag football from Sept. Through Oct. As well as basketball (school team and travel program) each has 1x week practices 1 x week games, now 2x week practices and games until March. His baseball winter workouts starts with  2 one day mini camps in mid Dec and weekly workouts starting in Jan.  So far he has been able to make it work and not affect his school work/grades. His social life took a bit of hit, I advised him of dropping travel basketball or flag, but he was fine with the less social time.

When my son was in middle school during the winter he played middle school basketball, travel basketball and rec basketball. Basketball was seven days per week. Being his travel and rec ball coach I had access to the gyms. Two weeks before middle school baseball he started bringing his glove to basketball practice. We stayed for a half hour after practice to throw three days per week. He didn’t hit the batting cages until a week before baseball started. Travel baseball (I coached) had practices Sunday’s nights during the school baseball season. We didn’t play tournaments until school ball was over. 

Freshman year of high school he played on the freshman basketball team. His travel baseball team had practice every Sunday night. He went to school baseball off season workouts at 5:45am three mornings per week. 

Soph year of high school he was cut from basketball after being the starting point guard on the freshman team. He was already starting on varsity for soccer. It was a given he would start for varsity on the baseball team. Parents were speculating if he would make varsity basketball and be in the rotation soph year of basketball. The basketball coach was not a fan of multi sport athletes. Add in he never went to off season basketball workouts due to playing school soccer and fall ball in the fall and travel ball and goalie camp in the summer.

From not playing basketball (other than rec league) he stopped running off weight in the winter. He started filling out and getting strong. After soph year he spent the winter with an instructor changing his swing. The time he had for baseball in the winter amped his game up several notches.

You do what you can for as long as you can. Then you may have to make decisions. The basketball coach made the decision for my son. College baseball was the goal. He loved basketball. But he knew he was only going to grow to about 6’2”. Soccer was his best sport. 

My experience has been that coaches say you should play multiple sports, until it interferes with theirs.

My experience has also been the better you are the more leeway you receive. My kid was a very good baseball player so the coach wasn't about to cut him for missing winter workouts due to basketball. With some of the lesser players that wasn't the case. 

SomeBaseballDad posted:

My experience has been that coaches say you should play multiple sports, until it interferes with theirs.

My experience has also been the better you are the more leeway you receive. My kid was a very good baseball player so the coach wasn't about to cut him for missing winter workouts due to basketball. With some of the lesser players that wasn't the case. 

This has been difficult on our son - he plays basketball, which prevents him from doing winter workouts with the team.  But because he is talented, he hasn't been cut at least so far!  That doesn't stop the coach from ranting that he is "behind" (even though he does workouts on his own as time permits during offseason, just not with the team) and keeping him on the bench.  It is a difficult situation.  His teammates know what is going on - they are not dumb and know who should be on the field and privately tell him so.  But alas, no one does or says anything to the coach as he is entrenched.  I just tell our son to keep his head down and do his best and hopefully he will get some playing time.  Maybe it is a good life lesson.  I am torn and would like to have a conversation with the coach to ask what he can do to earn more time, but to date have not.  I have never had a conversation with any of his coaches so i'm not "that guy".  But I wonder if sometimes you have to be.  If it doesn't change this year (Jr.) I might as well his Senior year!

Thankfully, for recruiting purposes HS does not mean much. 

Thankfully, for recruiting purposes HS does not mean much.

Less than travel but more than you think. A travel coach can’t explain how well a player balances baseball and academics. There are high school coaches that are well connected to the colleges. Many high school coaches aren’t the drooling morons a lot of people make them out to be. Don’t think for a second high school baseball doesn’t matter a lot to the kids. There’s something special about high school baseball that doesn’t exist with travel. 

My '18 sons HS coach stated to me, he had never been contacted by a college coach in his 22 years of coaching HS baseball. 

 A drooling moron?? No. 

Does it prove the insignificance of HS baseball? Not at all..... The fact, the HS coach was contacted even once and was part of the recruiting process to vet the players  character, proves that it can be very important.  Just as important as players are told, "You never know who is watching".  

You never know who will be contacted to vet your sons character. All things even in baseball ability.........the way they interact and treat others could be the deciding factor in being recruited.

A player can be recruited for chasing foul balls, being good teamates or any other distinguishing character trait to separate themselves from another.  

I don't think you can or should over look anyone, as it was revealed my son was recruited as a referral from a pro scout. The RC has a long relationship with him and has used him many times to find potential recruits.  

FYI, of 8 recruits in '18's signing class, 5 were scout referrals and 3 were recruited out of PG/LP events by the coaching staff. 

Back when I was in high school (played with Fred Flintstone) we didn’t have Perfect Game and their competitors. I found out a high school/Legion umpire was passing on my name to college coaches. He was also an NCAA umpire who once did the CWS. Turned out he was also an MLB associate scout. He knew college coaches from all over the region for two, three hundred miles. You never know who’s watching and what they’re saying about you.

"My '18 sons HS coach stated to me, he had never been contacted by a college coach in his 22 years of coaching HS baseball. "

I'll bet he talked to the scouts about his players who in turn talk to their college coach buddies.  It might not be direct, but he was indirectly asked via the scouts.

At the JR high level I wouldn't worry about baseball workouts unless the kid asks to.  At some point if he is a serious position player he will need to add bp to his offseason schedule.  My son used to get the key to the batting cage and hit before varsity basketball games.  I don't think he did that until his Sophomore year.  The basketball coach gave the batting cage key.  Playing Sunday scout games during football didn't seem to work that well, but he would hit in the cages during lunch all week long.

The further along your son advances as a position player prospect, the more he will need to up the offseason workouts. 

btw if you have to make him do it you are wasting your time as he is already "done", unless he throws 90.

Backpick25 posted:

My '18 sons HS coach stated to me, he had never been contacted by a college coach in his 22 years of coaching HS baseball. 

 A drooling moron?? No. 

Does it prove the insignificance of HS baseball? Not at all..... The fact, the HS coach was contacted even once and was part of the recruiting process to vet the players  character, proves that it can be very important.  Just as important as players are told, "You never know who is watching".  

You never know who will be contacted to vet your sons character. All things even in baseball ability.........the way they interact and treat others could be the deciding factor in being recruited.

A player can be recruited for chasing foul balls, being good teamates or any other distinguishing character trait to separate themselves from another.  

I don't think you can or should over look anyone, as it was revealed my son was recruited as a referral from a pro scout. The RC has a long relationship with him and has used him many times to find potential recruits.  

FYI, of 8 recruits in '18's signing class, 5 were scout referrals and 3 were recruited out of PG/LP events by the coaching staff. 

During his recruiting process, my 2018 got a text from his HS basketball coach saying a program had reached out to him to learn more about son. It was an interesting choice because in baseball, he'll go from playing every inning to being a PO.

His basketball coach on the other hand, once said to him "I'm sorry I don't play you more. You work harder than anyone on the team in practice, but you're not very good at basketball."

Guessing he told that college coach the same thing.

You can't pay people to give that kind of a recommendation. 

CollegeParentNoMore posted:

"My '18 sons HS coach stated to me, he had never been contacted by a college coach in his 22 years of coaching HS baseball."

I'll bet he talked to the scouts about his players who in turn talk to their college coach buddies.  It might not be direct, but he was indirectly asked via the scouts.

At the JR high level I wouldn't worry about baseball workouts unless the kid asks to.  At some point if he is a serious position player he will need to add bp to his offseason schedule.  My son used to get the key to the batting cage and hit before varsity basketball games.  I don't think he did that until his Sophomore year.  The basketball coach gave the batting cage key.  Playing Sunday scout games during football didn't seem to work that well, but he would hit in the cages during lunch all week long.

The further along your son advances as a position player prospect, the more he will need to up the offseason workouts. 

btw if you have to make him do it you are wasting your time as he is already "done", unless he throws 90.

"I'll bet he talked to the scouts about his players who in turn talk to their college coach buddies.  It might not be direct, but he was indirectly asked via the scouts." - First you gotta create something worth talking about!!!

In this situation.....you would be losing that bet. I know the HS baseball coach well........he has never been contacted, ever, not by a scout, not by a college coach prior to my son. The HS program has been at the bottom for his entire 22 year tenure. There is no baseball culture at the HS level or community for that matter. His program was fed by Legion ball ........that team, merged, morphed and folded over the course of many years and is long gone.

If you want to play baseball, you play club in the summer. If you want to train, you do so on your own. Baseball players are not allowed in the HS football gym.......unless you also play football. There are currently a couple underclassmen that will be forced into specialization by the HS coaches, I have seen this play out many times.

The batting cage...nobody's getting a key........I assembled the baseball players that hung around with my son to mend all of the holes in the ONLY batting cage the HS has. We were met with resistance. The HS coach told us it was none of our business and it was the AD's job to have the net replaced. Two years later.........they still have nowhere to hit. The ball field has knee high grass and weeds in the base path currently as the coach will let nobody use the field. The field gets used from late February to the first of May, when it returns to its state of unused, disrepair.

Tryouts start the first week of February. Nobody gets cut. Every single Junior will "get" a Varsity letter by simply dressing and being on the bench, so they can wear their Letterman's jacket, Senior year (my son never bothered to get one).  Most of the players don't attempt to play ball outside of HS.......meaning they don't touch a ball for 8 months. On average a couple play club per year. A good class (2013) may have 4 or 5 that played together for a dad in local tournaments. 

I really dislike coming off negative, but it's a program that could stand a lot of improvement and it's certainly not going to start with the high school coach that has shown little interest beyond what is required to receive a check.

At age 10, I took my son where I coached at a local academy an hour away. He never played with any of his school classmates beyond U9. My son is blessed with talent and was rewarded with a baseball scholarship to a very good D1 school, in which he will get to pitch and hit. A culmination of all of his hard work to date and much more to come. 

 I look back and wonder, maybe I should have stayed and developed those kids my son was to play with in HS. He might have been just fine had I not moved him at 10. I'll never know  as it was a choice I made, but my son is fine the way it is, as he only gets one chance.

However, I get a second chance. I took it upon myself to coach a team of all local players. Maybe, just maybe, this group will have a decent group to play with when they get to HS.

Iowamom23 posted:

Backpick25 posted:

My '18 sons HS coach stated to me, he had never been contacted by a college coach in his 22 years of coaching HS baseball. 

 A drooling moron?? No. 

Does it prove the insignificance of HS baseball? Not at all..... The fact, the HS coach was contacted even once and was part of the recruiting process to vet the players  character, proves that it can be very important.  Just as important as players are told, "You never know who is watching".  

You never know who will be contacted to vet your sons character. All things even in baseball ability.........the way they interact and treat others could be the deciding factor in being recruited.

A player can be recruited for chasing foul balls, being good teamates or any other distinguishing character trait to separate themselves from another.  

I don't think you can or should over look anyone, as it was revealed my son was recruited as a referral from a pro scout. The RC has a long relationship with him and has used him many times to find potential recruits.  

FYI, of 8 recruits in '18's signing class, 5 were scout referrals and 3 were recruited out of PG/LP events by the coaching staff. 

During his recruiting process, my 2018 got a text from his HS basketball coach saying a program had reached out to him to learn more about son. It was an interesting choice because in baseball, he'll go from playing every inning to being a PO.

His basketball coach on the other hand, once said to him "I'm sorry I don't play you more. You work harder than anyone on the team in practice, but you're not very good at basketball."

 

Guessing he told that college coach the same thing.

You can't pay people to give that kind of a recommendation. 

You are spot on! My son is very fortunate to be wanted at the next level as well and you never know who they will pick to gather information from.

I watched a TED Talks video on communication today. I didn’t learn anything I didn’t know. But I couldn’t make that decision until I watched it. One point of the talk was never assume your experience is anyone else’s experience. 

If you assume someone may be watching or making contact, make all the right moves and there no contact you’re no worse off than the personal effort you’re already making.

If you assume no one is watching or making contact, make a wrong move and there is contact you have a problem.  It’s always best to assume someone could be watching. Because there’s no way to really know. 

Baseball is a small world. There’s a lot of word of mouth. A somebody could be at a game watching a player and it’s against your team no one ever makes contact with.

Qhead posted:

SomeBaseballDad posted:

My experience has been that coaches say you should play multiple sports, until it interferes with theirs.

My experience has also been the better you are the more leeway you receive. My kid was a very good baseball player so the coach wasn't about to cut him for missing winter workouts due to basketball. With some of the lesser players that wasn't the case. 

This has been difficult on our son - he plays basketball, which prevents him from doing winter workouts with the team.  But because he is talented, he hasn't been cut at least so far!  That doesn't stop the coach from ranting that he is "behind" (even though he does workouts on his own as time permits during offseason, just not with the team) and keeping him on the bench.  It is a difficult situation.  His teammates know what is going on - they are not dumb and know who should be on the field and privately tell him so.  But alas, no one does or says anything to the coach as he is entrenched.  I just tell our son to keep his head down and do his best and hopefully he will get some playing time.  Maybe it is a good life lesson.  I am torn and would like to have a conversation with the coach to ask what he can do to earn more time, but to date have not.  I have never had a conversation with any of his coaches so i'm not "that guy".  But I wonder if sometimes you have to be.  If it doesn't change this year (Jr.) I might as well his Senior year!

Thankfully, for recruiting purposes HS does not mean much. 

Your son should do the talking with the coach.

Late to the thread but I wanted to throw my two cents in as the parent of a 2020:

1. Those 8th grade 14u practices are designed to get the rest of the team off their couches, not get your kid up and moving.

2. Some kids shut down completely, some shut down just throwing, some don't shut down any part of baseball over winter.  It's up to each family to make the choice they feel is best for their kid.  I was told early on, like 9u, to just shut him down completely. It's worked well for him and has let him explore his own interests in the "off" season.  The only exception was winter of 12u where the coach wanted to drastically change his swing.  He still didn't pick up a ball but he did hit that winter, and only that winter. The key is ramping up properly.  He won't be showing up for HS tryouts having not swung a bat or thrown a ball in 3 months.

3. Concur with the eating plan.  Eric Cressey tweets all the time about those pitchers that are sick and tired of throwing mid 70's need to EAT!  I highly suggest you weigh your kid 2-3 times per week, YOU do it, don't trust him to do it.  If you see him loosing more than a pound a week, or more than 3 pounds in a month, you need to step in unless his frame can support being 20 pounds lighter.

4. The advice above regarding High School sports doesn't apply to you.  When you get into High School the seasons do NOT overlap, and each sport has to wait their turn.  Travel ball also steps aside, they get back in touch once HS ball is over. The 15u season will start late May in GA and go until August, the days of starting towards the end of February are over because that is when HS ball is going strong.  At my sons HS the baseball coach made it clear there would be ONE voice coaching the players.  No seeing travel ball coaches, no travel ball practices, none of that is allowed IN season.

5. Don't really have a 5 but only having 4 seemed silly :- )

Thanks to all who responded. So much great stuff from everyone. All the guidance and wisdom passed along is greatly appreciated. 

Like the OP, I have a 2022 also. My son is also a multi-sport player, as he is also a soccer player. In 6th and 7th he played goalie and defender, this season his coach moved up to a forward. His speed has visibly increased. I'm looking forward to when we do speed testing as a travel team in a couple months. 

He also played summer/fall JV baseball a year early and his coach was glad to have a soccer player instead of another football player. The seasons don't interfere as bad and the running is paying off. 

what about football workouts during baseball season?  My son has first hour football (weightlifting) all year.  The coaches make them lift (even heavy lifting) on baseball game days...apparently there was some tension last year between the two coaches about it...