I was happy to see this site since I am looking for more info about the IMG summer wood bat league for my 15 year old,, freshman son. Any other feedback would be appreciated. Is he too young? Is he good enough? will he enjoy being in the hot sun for 6 weeks? We live in New Jersey. It is hard to say how good my son is at this point. He has always been the strongest player on various club and school teams. He bats righty and is a lefty pitcher. He is big and strong for his age at 5 ft 10, 170, but not sure how much more he is going to grow. He loves baseball and trains all year round.
ANY FEEDBACK WILL BE HELPFUL FOR ME. HE FOUND THIS PROGRAM ON HIS OWN AND WANTS TO GO.
As another poster pointed out, the academy is run on the basis of grooming top prospects on scholarship, and making their money with all the others who have dreams of becoming the next MLB guy. This was the case with top tennis phenoms which is how the IMG camp got it's great reputation when Nick Bollettieri ran it before he was bought out by them.
I know one father who regrets having sent his son there over a summer. While his son packed on muscle with their intense weight lifting program, his pitching coach said "they put too much muscle on him in the wrong areas, to where he lost some of his flexibility/mobility". So the pitching coach spent over a month working with him to get his ROM and loose arm back.
Just because something costs an arm and a leg does not mean it is the best place to invest your money. For that type of coin, you could hire a top instructor to work with your son with private lessons, and a personal trainer with knowledge of what areas of the body to improve related specifically to his position in baseball. Toward the end of the summer, you would still have money left over for a family vacation.