My last post on this:
—Most of you are talking about the habits of the 1% of baseball players and generalizing from that. Most HS players will not play college ball. High standards are great, but most kids on a HS team are not the players people are talking about here
—Chico Jr’s goal is an HA school. He will pick a school for its academics first, because he ain’t going to earn his living in MLB and he knows it. To attend a 5 am workout at the expense of his Physics grade would be foolish. Maybe he could do pre-dawn workouts and still get the grades he wants, but if a conflict were to emerge, his parents are going to frog march him to the library, not the weight room.
—My son has offseason workouts 5 days/week, including 8 am on Saturday. Weekday sessions are after school plus one day at 8 pm. Based on the logic of some posters, he would be better off if instead he worked out at 5 am, because that would be harder and therefore make him more disciplined. Heck, why stop there?—he could wake up at 3:00 a.m. to work out and then grab another hour of sleep at 6:00. That would be harder, so therefore better, right? My position is that HS kids are better off if they don’t have to be in the gym at 5 in the morning on school days. That is not a bold claim, guys. Telling me your kid did it and was ok doesn’t mean it’s a good idea for an entire HS program if there is an alternative. Biology is what it is—most teens don’t function optimally on that early a schedule
—My son is responsible for his own calendar. As a junior, he is better at this than he was as a sophomore. When he goes to college in ~2 years, I expect him to be more mature and responsible than he is now. If his college coach schedules 5:00 am workouts, then my son will have to deal with that. This doesn’t change my position that most 16- and 17- year olds are likely to perform better in high school if they don’t begin their day puking in the gym before dawn.