Practice time in college?

.....and do those rules apply for practices with the coaches?  or does it also include "captains" practices (w/o coaches)?

In addition to practice making up the NCAA maximum hours there are also "optional" workouts for conditioning. Try missing them and see how long you last on the team. Also travel is not included in the NCAA hours.

 

The NCAA says student-athletes will have no more than a 20 athletic week. It's more like 35-40 hours per week. Consider a road series eight hours from campus. There's almost 30 hours right there with travel, three pre games and games. And it doesn't include Mon-Wed's schedule.

 

Also consider on this trip you arrive at each end of the trip in the middle of the night. One end is Sunday night, or Monday morning if you will. Then there's classes at 8 or 9am. Chances are the player had to do homework on the bus.

 

Not sure about D3, but the same rules apply to D2.  Those rules regarding practice hours are the coach led practices.  Captain's practices/workouts led by players don't fall under this rule as I understand it.

 

NJCAA is a different animal - there basically aren't many practice restrictions (if any).  When my son played JuCo, they worked out at 6 am and practiced everyday from 3 pm to 6 pm in the fall. Then they played 10-20 games in the fall in addition to the 56 games scheduled in the spring.

 

And yes, the travel time to/from games are not included.  Being a student-athlete at the college level is like two full time jobs.  Student and then athlete.  Even with home games, an athlete will spend almost all weekend at the field.  My son would have to be at the field at 9 am for a 12 noon game (doubleheader) on Saturday.  They would have to prep the field in addition to stretching, warming up, batting practice for the game.  Then another hour  to clean up after the game. Repeat on Sunday.  I could see why my son sometimes preferred away games.  Arrive at the field about 2 hours before game time, warm up and play.  Didn't have to spend time prepping and then cleaning up.

Also, don't forget to add in weight room time. Normally that is outside of any organized team activItY.  As well as school/ NCAA mandated meetings or seminars. They are not every week and not all schools have them but if they do you will be required to give up a few hours at a time for things like drug talks or eligibility talks. 

It is more of a guideline than a rule. 

 

Fenway hit the nail on the head.  At son's school it was more like 40-50 hours per week for pitchers, slightly less for position players.  But, as pointed out above, that's practice time, team meetings, pitching staff meetings, conditioning, etc.  When they had away series it was really a LOT more than that because they ALWAYS missed class on Friday, and frequently on Thursday as well. 

My son is a soph at a juco.  Here is his MWF schedule:

6am weights

8am class

9am cages

10am class

1pm class

2pm class

4pm practice

8pm mandatory study hall

He does love Tue and Thur b/c no 8am class, so 9am cages is first thing.

He is taking 17 hours this fall. They have doubleheader nearly every Saturday through end of Oct, plus recruiting for 4 year school.

My son's D1.....classes started yesterday.  Meeting tomorrow to get gear....nothing else this week.

 

Starting next monday....2 weeks of "individuals"...meaning full team can't be together.  Not real clear on how many kids or how .long each day.

 

Following 4 weeks....practice daily 2-5

 

Last week....intrasquad World Series...seniors draft teams...play best of 5.  Winners get big dinner....losers get hot dogs...lol. ....finishing up Oct 23??

 

6 hours of mandatory "study table" with atletic advisor/counselor per week

 

 

I may be off a bit, as I haven't seen his actual schedule....but I'm close

FoxDad said:

"NJCAA is a different animal - there basically aren't many practice restrictions (if any).  When my son played JuCo, they worked out at 6 am and practiced everyday from 3 pm to 6 pm in the fall. Then they played 10-20 games in the fall in addition to the 56 games scheduled in the spring."

 

That is the exact schedule my son is on now.  Plus mandatory study hall Sunday night and another study hall during the week.  

He is not in love with their throwing program so he does his own arm care stuff on his own in addition.  

 

It's the NCAA, so it's complicated, but I've listed the main DI rules around time limits below (emphasis mine). DIII is more restrictive, and listed in the same sections of the DIII Manual.

 

All of the 2015-16 NCAA Manuals are available for free download on www.ncaa.org.

 

17.1.7 Time Limits for Athletically Related Activities. In all sports, the following time limitations shall apply:
17.1.7.1 Daily and Weekly Hour Limitations—Playing Season. A student-athlete’s participation in countable athletically related activities (see Bylaw 17.02.1) shall be limited to a maximum of four hours per day and 20 hours per week.
17.1.7.2 Weekly Hour Limitations—Outside the Playing Season.
(a) Sports Other Than Football. Outside the playing season, from the institution’s first day of classes of the academic year or September 15, whichever occurs earlier, to one week prior to the beginning of the institution’s final examination period at the conclusion of the academic year, only a student-athlete’s participation in required weight training, conditioning and skill-related instruction shall be permitted. A student-athlete’s participation in such activities per Bylaw 17.02.1 shall be limited to a maximum of eight hours per week with not more than two hours per week spent on skill-related workouts. All countable related activities outside the playing season are prohibited one week prior to the beginning of the final examination period for the applicable academic term through the conclusion of each student-athlete’s final exams.

 

17.2 Baseball.
17.2.1 Length of Playing Season. The length of an institution’s playing season in baseball shall be limited to a 132-day season, which may consist of two segments.
17.2.1.2 Nonchampionship Segment. An institution’s nonchampionship segment shall be conducted within a period of 45 consecutive calendar days during the months of September, October and November under the following conditions:
(a) Days used for practice or competition must be counted toward the 132-day season, but are not required to be consecutive;
(b) Days during which countable athletically related activities are limited solely to required conditioning activities and/or in skill-related instruction are not required to count toward the 132-day season;
(c) During any week in which practice or competition occurs, a student-athlete’s involvement in countable athletically related activities shall be limited to a maximum of four hours per day and 20 hours per week and all countable athletically related activities are prohibited during one calendar day per week; and
(d) Any week in which practice or competition does not occur shall be considered outside the playing season (see Bylaw 17.1.7.2).

 

The rules apply to the scheduled practices with coaches.  A player practicing on their own is not included in the rules.

 

When my son was at a D-1 school, the coach got in serious trouble over this issue were he had the players practicing more than the NCAA rules allow. And if I recall correctly, part of the issue was that he was also trying to get around the rules by expecting the players to practice more than the scheduled hours and getting after them in some way if they didn't do more practice on their own.

typical for my son as a freshman pitcher last year was 6am weight room m-w-f, yoga/ conditioning t-th

 

Class 8am-noon

 

Practice 1-6pm (in that he also did his study table of 10 hours a week)

 

He had one class in one evening 6-9pm. weekends in fall- workout Saturday morning until about 1pm- then had rest of day and Sunday off

 

Spring- same routine except games on one day during the week (no 1-6pm practice on weekday game day (usually Tuesday or Wednesday). If away trip, left sometime on Thursday.  They did set it up he had no Friday classes, but occasionally missed Thursday class as well. In spring he took 2 online  and a Monday night classes as part of his 6 classes. so he only had 2 classes m-w, 1 class  t-th at 8am.

 

did a lot of homework on bus when traveling.

 

except the 1-6pm practice times and games all were "optional"

Thanks for clarification. Just wondering because sons team seems to be restricted in Fall w how much their coach can be involved and his Juco friend is practicing way more. They also get to play other Juco teams in Fall, but sons team can scrimmage each other, or school not in their conference. If they play school in conference in Fall it counts against game numbers for Spring. Is that right?  

restrictions on coaches w players also counts for assistants too, right? Hitting coach can only work w them so much, then they r on their own? just seems like Juco get advantage w having less rules. With all the playing/practicing going on they can't help but get better in 2 yrs. can see now why some schools go after Juco guys, they have a good work ethic.

Believe me, they get their time in.  My son's D2 has started practices already.  I think the coach can only work with smaller groups, but not the whole team.  So, his group gets together and do their throwing routines (he's a pitcher) and do some running, but with a limited number of players.  I'm sure they'll be doing some bullpens at some point as well.  Then, when the time comes, they get together as a team and start doing a LOT of inter squads.  By the end of the fall, they are so tired of playing each other, they are chomping at the bit to play another team.  NCAA limits them to 3 games, I believe.  They do them towards the end of the fall, then have a World Series between the inter squad teams.  They also have weight workouts in the mornings.  These are "voluntary" with no coaches involved, so they don't count towards the restrictions.

 

Don't think that just because there are restrictions, the NCAA teams don't get work in.  The coaches get very creative with how to work with/around those restrictions...

yeah, same with my son's team. they work in small groups. coaches are coaching from basically 1-6pm Monday thru Friday and mornings on weekends. I actually like how are pitching coach structures his practice with pitchers. They come in staggered times, 2 at a time, in 15 minutes increments. that way when it comes time to get on the mound, only 2 on there for instruction at a time and no one is standing around. Same with hitting groups though I don't know how many come in at a time. At some point they are all together as pitchers and position players (separately) Other days all of them are together. Not unusual that my son might get there at 12:45, stretch do whatever is required of the day including being on the mound with his pitching coach, be allowed to leave at 2:45. (usually just hanging in the locker room). Then back at 4 - 6pm for whole team practice

Just like BBallman said. Lots of intrasquad scrimmages Asked the coach about that last year when we were just shooting the breeze at a fund raiser and he said he likes intrasquad versus playing others because he can see twice a many players at once and he controls the whole thing. MADE SENSE TO ME

Yes, that is my understanding.  The D-2 my son was at did not have any "official" games in the fall that would count against their spring schedule.  They "scrimmaged" against the local JuCo's, had inter-squad games and an alumni game where the current team would play former members - a big fund raiser.

When you actually read and absorb these schedules...   wow, it may not be the best 35 who make the roster but the best 35 willing to put in the time.  Had a high academic kid at our school who was a senior this year.  Great kid great athlete but undersized.  Topped at about 85.  Could have played somewhere at some level but just didn't want to take that time away from his academics.  Guess its the old be careful what you wish for!

What many I have coached have said is that the weight room is an every weekly day event very early in the morning and it doesn't count.  The work in there is very structured with a baseline generated on various lifts and agility.  Goals are then set and players are expected to meet those expectations.  Do not expect to ever see the coach or assistant coach as a strength coach runs this.  Then, every day has some structured practice as a team.  Individual work can be Captain's work in groups and players are expected to be there as well.  On Fridays in the fall, most of my former players made the point that they rarely had classes on Friday and so, practice was moved up for players to get their work in and go home if they want.  Monday morning weight room was considered pure hell as it was an attempt to weed players out who had partied on the weekend.  In almost every case, players doubted that their schools actually stayed within the NCAA Guidelines but were always "close." 

This does not include individual hitting or defensive work for position players, which would add 4-6 hours per week.  

My son D3 starts player led "voluntary" strength and conditioning this week.   Of course, if you don't do the "voluntary" stuff, you have no chance of making it, I would presume. Until guys have been working out on their own and also getting baseball related activities in on their own.  But players have had a lot of "informal"  contact with coaches.  64 guys on the fall roster.  If I understood correctly, mandatory coach led practices begin in October.

My son's D3 has had  "captains's practices" for 2 weeks now  MT ThF which include skills and scrimmages. wts /conditioning etc, mandatory attendance at a prospect camp and more wts/conditioning on weekends.  And that is just what he tells me. 

Did you expect anything less?

 

It is a business and your son now realizes.

Remember the one of three ratio.

When I coached College hitters  I would work with only 7 hitters.

 

Bob

I do believe all incoming NCAA D1 atheletes are required to take a class held once a week for the entire semester.

You will look back at this at the end of the semester and chuckle.

Full practice and instruction to begin this week!

I dont think anyone realizes just how difficult this really is.  And its not for everyone.  Sooner or later many realize that they want to do something else besides play baseball.  About 90% think they will have an opportunity to go pro. Very quickly they realize its not going to happen.  Now its time to settle in and soend more time on their major, maybe get a job, maybe spend more time with the girlfriend.

 

So many people here spend too much time going over rosters trying to figure out why there are fewer juniors and seniors than freshman or sophmores. Truth is, there is a huge number of players that leave on their own. They just realize they have other interests. Thats one of the reasons we think too many show up in the fall. Not because the coach plans to cut tv current players, but some just decide its not for them or they bit off more than they can chew.

 

Burnout is common.l I know you and some others dont get this, but thats why many of us who have players that have played college ball really understand why youth baseball 24/7 year round can really burn out a player. Yup, my son loved baseball more than anything when he was young, and I am glad that we limited year round playing.  Son was absolutely toasted his first year out of college and wanted nothing to do with baseball. He needed time off to do nothing.

 

Thats why I do agree with your statement to "be careful what you wish for"!