Originally Posted by Midlo Dad:
In high level travel ball, you're talking about March-June on school teams, June-July and Sept-Oct in travel. That's 7 months out of the year, and many programs allow players to play, e.g., football in the fall. Many fall programs are decidedly low key. Let's stop arguing against something that isn't really happening anyway.
Well...
- HS off-season practices (organized or not) begin in mid-January in preparation for mid-February tryouts. Can't go into that stone cold, as that is risky for the arm.
- August is a quasi-down month, but practicing is needed to stay sharp for September and October ball.
- November and December? No throwing, but those kids love to hit, so they're always on the prowl for an indoor facility that's available (they play, I pay). Above 40 degrees? They're outside in the cages.
- And the lifting, conditioning, speed work is ongoing using interval training.
- So it nets down to 2.5 months of no throwing.
FWIW...for those kids I know (and know of) who played HS football and/or basketball but whose first love was baseball, in retrospect they probably would've done things differently in high school. Not an opinion, just feedback from a small sample.