I thought this was a pretty accurate description of most D1 (with minor modifications) programs.
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Good stuff!
The lifelong friendships that develop as a result of spending all those hours together for a common purposes is priceless!
Nice article goosegg. Although I think many on the forum here understand how this works, I don't think many that don't have kids in college have any real scope or appreciation for how hard it is.
This is very accurate. There are a lot of positives in the article. These kids are being monitored to make sure the homework is getting done. That is a blessing because many parents have no idea if their kids are doing what they ought to be doing until it is too late.
Regarding the 425 stuff, you better believe most programs have it as their goal to play in Omaha and willing to do what is necessary to get there. If a player has a passion for what they are doing, these long hours are what they signed up for. They want to be the best.
Without the requisite passion, say you are doing it to please your parents or some other whimsical reason, then this type of grind is likely not worth it and the program will weed you out.
9and7dad posted:Nice article goosegg. Although I think many on the forum here understand how this works, I don't think many that don't have kids in college have any real scope or appreciation for how hard it is.
Agreed. Great article. I think what is difficult is to understand this isn't for a week or a month which most could handle...this is for 4 years. Oh, and by the way this is the home practice schedule. The game day schedule, travel schedule, etc are different. Ever take a physics exam (proctored by a coach) on a bus, or write a paper with a tight deadline on a bus? Those are the fun days.
The weekday game travel schedule is what my son has mentioned the most. Meet at 9am to load up and leave by 9:45 to drive 2.5-3 hours to get to a field by 1pm for a 3:00 or 4:00 game. Play for 3 hours...then load up, grab food and get home at 10, 11 or worse depending on traffic. Throw in missing class that day and having to figure out a way to make it up is a huge hassle. He really hasn't complained at all about weekend travel...only the weekday headaches
I heard a comment a few days ago by Richard Linklater on his movie "Everybody Wants Some" while listening to an interview by Howard Stern. (Paraphrasing) he said, while college affords most kids with a freedom they've never experienced in their life, it also categorizes them into small groups such as athletic teams, frats, sororities etc that tends to define you and cause a certain amount of isolation contrasted with HS and how lots of kids have lots of friends across several groups/neighbors. I found that interesting and talked to my son last night about that very thing as we talked about his pitching and bullpen. If you consider the workload, academically and athletically including travel, its no wonder that some kids just dont make it and stick with the sport they grew up playing.
Sounds about like my son's day at a D3, and not even a high academic D3. Probably not much different at D2 either.
accurate for 2013 mid-major
Buckeye 2015 posted:The weekday game travel schedule is what my son has mentioned the most. Meet at 9am to load up and leave by 9:45 to drive 2.5-3 hours to get to a field by 1pm for a 3:00 or 4:00 game. Play for 3 hours...then load up, grab food and get home at 10, 11 or worse depending on traffic. Throw in missing class that day and having to figure out a way to make it up is a huge hassle. He really hasn't complained at all about weekend travel...only the weekday headaches
Adjust this for a 6pm road game 2.5 to 3 hours away. Arrive back on campus at 1-2am. Have your coach require a signature to prove attendance from the 8am class professor.
Or when Satuday is rained out, after a Sunday doubleheader finishes at 6pm, an incredible (sarcasm) dinner at Burger King followed by an 8-10 hour bus ride back to campus. Then being required to get the signature from the 8am professor.
RJM....it gets worse. 3-game series at Seattle....Fri-Sun. Sunday game is at noon our time. Rain delay for a couple hours...but not an issue since flight didn't leave Seattle until 2:00 our time!!! Get to the airport at 5:30 am only to find the bus isn't there. Got back to campus at 9:00am
MidAtlanticDad posted:Sounds about like my son's day at a D3, and not even a high academic D3. Probably not much different at D2 either.
Yep. Son's day at a D2 was long every day. Even when at a JuCo, he was up from 5 am and usually turned in around 9 pm (on a good day).
It's equivalent to a two fill time jobs. One as a student and one as an athlete.
I've posted this many times before. Most folks do not understand that playing college sports (on just about any level) is like having 2 full time jobs. 15 hours a week of class, and about 20 hours a week of homework. Now add in the sports which take up another 30 or so hours and your at a minimum of 60 hours of commitment. This does not include any travel time.
I ran track at a very good D2 school back in the late 80s. Here is my typical schedule:
7am M,W,Th - Jump practice (I was a high/long/triple jumper and decathlete)
8am - 2:30 pm Classes
2:45pm - Training room to get taped up and ready for practice. This was on your own time. Better get to the trainer as soon as you can because its pretty busy at this time as all teams seem to practice around the same time. Really bad during football season. Also, don't be late to practice, "the training room was jammed" is not an excuse the coach likes to hear.
3:00pm until done (usually 2 hours) - Team practice
After 5:00pm - Weight room usually about an hour
6:00pm back to class (if taking a night class)
We have yet to get to a meet at this point. So here it is:
-If an out of town meet. Be on the bus around 12pm on Friday to drive to our destination. Hopefully its only 4 hours and not 12.
-If its a local 2 day meet. Be on the bus at 12pm on Friday to get to the meet before it starts around 4pm. Compete until about 10pm. Bus back to school. Get up and be on the bus by 6am for the Saturday portion of the meet. Compete all day, back on the bus around 10pm to head home. Grab food on the way, and get back to school somewhere around midnight.
-If its a local one day meet, be on the bus at 6am on Saturday. Compete all day until about 10pm or later. Back on the bus, grab dinner on the way. Be back at school around midnight - 1am.
In addition to all of the above, if you GPA was below a 2.75 you had 4 hours of study table a week. In addition you were required to have the profs fill out a progress report 4 times a semester.
And finally we had mandated team and/or athletic program meetings/classes about once a month. Sometimes it would be a speech about performance enhancing drug use, other times it might be a guest speaker (hey, its how I got my picture with Dr. Ruth). These usually lasted between 1.5 and 3 hours.
Like Joe 87, I also went to a D2 (it is now a D1). It was a significantly different experience than Joe87's track experience. I played college tennis in the early 1980s. Please no wood racquet or tight short jokes.
The most we ever did was a light early AM run outside (often on a snow plowed road) followed by sprints inside the gym, shower, then go to class. The coach made practices 100% optional, but my coach was a wily ol' guy....he knew the guys that really cared would show up every time. Strangely enough the guys that always showed three times a week were also our 1-5 singles players, and the guys trying to take their spots. When we got out of class at 3pm, we were playing singles, doubles matches and doing drills on practice days....year round inside and outside (I was very fortunate) which was something other programs did not have. I loved practicing and doing drills. That was it. Afterwards, I'd go to dinner, do some studying or go back to the dorm for a refreshing cold beverage. Too often I'd skip the former and head directly to the latter.
There were three of us on the team who pushed each other and took it very seriously. We did try our hand at weight conditioning (later called cross training). It was a new concept back in those days. Ivan Lendl and Martina Navratilova revolutioned the fitness aspect to the sport back in those days which is almost required by todays standards for tennis players with a focus on core, explosiveness and flexibility.
We travelled (in our own cars) no more than 2.5 hours for college matches and beat many D1 schools over our 4 years. We got reimbursed for car mileage...no bus, no plane, no train. Although very primitive by today's standards, it was great experience for me
I have a lot of respect for the young men and women that can be true students and true athletes today. It is extremely difficult at any level. If anything, I think it is too much on todays students who also want to be athletes, but I think that horse has left the barn.
If I had to bet, I'd put my money on the aluminum Wilson T2000 as the racquet you were swinging.
Very accurate, thanks for the article. Every prospective college baseball player and their parents should read this.
FWIW, this is why many players get the scholarsip over others. The coach has to determine if the player can handle the program. Many can't. Colleges coaches get incentives for team GPA.
Would your player be able to handle this schedule?
Tuesday night, Clemson played Western Carolina at home. Between a rain delay and a blackout, with score tied at one point I think the game ended around 12:30 am. I gave up snd fell asleep.
TPM posted:Very accurate, thanks for the article. Every prospective college baseball player and their parents should read this.
FWIW, this is why many players get the scholarsip over others. The coach has to determine if the player can handle the program. Many can't. Colleges coaches get incentives for team GPA.
Would your player be able to handle this schedule?
Tuesday night, Clemson played Western Carolina at home. Between a rain delay and a blackout, with score tied at one point I think the game ended around 12:30 am. I gave up snd fell asleep.
...and Beer hit his 14th. :-) That kid is amazing!
Come up for FSU series.
I think we'll try to catch the Saturday game versus Tech on 4/23.
I teach in a STEM field at UNC-CH. Most of my colleagues are completely clueless about what it takes to be a student athlete at the level that our teams compete at. They love to watch and cheer for them though, after all we've been here for decades and not just for four years. My perspective is skewed because this is what my son wants to do, and so being clueless, I've done a lot of research.
When I get a student athlete in one of my classes I find them to be amongst the most focused and independent of students. They are super organized with time management skills that have been honed by years of demanding schedules.
My only regret is that my field makes it very hard for any but the most masochistic student-athletes to major in. The labs are killers and interfere with everything year long. Logistically, they are hard to make up as the prep work (done by the lab staff) is specific to each week's lab.
Clue ... You're getting the top end of the student-athletes. You probably get few aspiring professional athletes.
so I see all the time spent lifting, medicine ball throwing etc. I your experience that most of these kids gain velocity while in college?
gunner34 posted:so I see all the time spent lifting, medicine ball throwing etc. I your experience that most of these kids gain velocity while in college?
Very good question. Results vary widely.
Summer after freshman year, this subject got gnawed over pretty well in the bullpen by my son and his collegiate summer league teammates. A significant chunk thought they had lost velocity or stayed the same. Their theories included: 1) in high school, they were all aces, so their coaches let them pursue whatever routine felt right for them, but in college they had to fit with the coach's program even if it wasn't right for them; 2) they peaked early and arrived at college without much upside left; 3) they had become better, more consistent pitchers who now threw with less effort; and 4) maybe they remembered their peak high school velocity rounded up, and their comparisons relied on inflated baselines.
They did agree they had become better pitchers. The coach of a local high school team asked my son to pitch to his team live in practice the day before a late round playoff game against a pitcher with a profile similar to my son's. Although my son had not enjoyed any particular success at getting college hitters out as a freshman, he mowed through the high school lineup, striking out all nine batters he faced-- a feat he never achieved in high school. That high school team then hit well in their next playoff game, supporting the hypothesis that even bad college pitchers are better than very good high school pitchers.
Conditioning in the gym to become a better athlete is so that injury doesn't occur, the same goes for conditioning in milb. Through the continuing growth process and improving mechanics the velocity may or may not occur. A lot depends on the biological age or body of the pitcher.
It's not necessarily the pitching coaches job to increase velocity but rather as stated above to help him to become a better pitcher to compete and help the team to win. And some coaches are better at developing pitchers velocity than others.