Baseball player playing Football

No problem at all and I highly encourage it. Of course I do have to say that I am also an asst. football coach as well but even if I wasn't I would still encourage it.

Pros -

1. Only one chance to be young and if they enjoy playing football, hanging with buddies in another sport or whatever then they need to do it.

2. It's good to be exposed to other styles of coaching.

3. While they are part of the baseball team they are part of another team and that is the school. For the school to be successful they need all the good kids to participate.

4. Football is a good sport in order to help reinforce team work, commitment and dedicaion.

5. Skill development in football can transfer over to baseball (footwork, eye hand cordination)

6. Creates an aggressive want to make things happen attitude

Now all that being said a good baseball coach can do all this above but working with football coach these points can be reinforced.

Cons -

1. Could get hurt but then again he could get hurt crossin the street.

2. Does take some time away from preparing for baseball

I say go for it and nothing wrong with it.

I agree with coach2709. I'm also a football coach and a baseball coach. I think any time a athlete has a chance to compete at a high level in other sports its a good thing. If the player takes care of his body, he will lower his risk of injury. That means eating right and good in season workout program are very important. Eating right is probably the most overlooked aspect of taking care of the body. Teens are always on the go, and often times don't eat enough. I would leave it up to the player. If a player wants to compete, let him!!

Encourage him to stick it out because the pros outweigh the cons. He can learn a lot of mental toughness just by going through preseason camp. Preseason football is one of the toughest things a high school kid can ever go through. If they can make it through that then they should be able to handle anything athletically.

Once the season starts football gets a little easier because you can't keep up that pace. In preseason you have to jack up the intensity to get their bodies used to the collisions. The brain is screaming "why in the world are you running full steam into another person" but you have to overcome that feeling.

Tell him to give it a shot one year and then evaluate it after that. If he doesn't enjoy the game then that's one thing but to quit or hope to get cut is a mentality that is not good to have. Going through a full season let's him see the whole picture of football and if he chooses it's not for him then it gives the coaches a chance to plan without him rather than have the coaches plan around him on the fly because he quit.

As for the injury concern it is there with every sport. We got a running back that his mom wouldn't let him play his freshman and sophomore years because she was scared he would get hurt and ruin his basketball career. His frosh and soph years he broke his feet in basketball and hardly played and didn't get to play baseball. He came out last year as a junior for football without telling his mom and no injury. Injuries happen with any sport at any time and sometimes there is nothing you can do to stop them. In football if he's going 100% the chance of getting hurt is significantly less than if he's not going 100%.

One thing to consider about football is if you're going to play fall baseball. My son quit football after middle school. He said it's too much to bang on Fridays and play baseball on the weekends, often Saturday morning. He was a rover on defense shadowing the opposition's QB or tailback. He was always in the play hitting. On offense he played slot. That opened him up to some big hits on counter plays when the defense wasn't fooled. He also returned punts. One weekend he couldn't grip the bat after getting a hand caught between two helmets. Another weekend he couldn't run due to a hip stinger. With the high school team going to a four wide receiver set this year the coaches have badgered him all summer to play. He said it's too important to be showcasing without getting banged up on Friday.

The irony is last year he was knocked unconscious getting kicked in the head, diving head first, taking a shot of a wide open shooter's foot in s****r. He played travel s****r since he was little until playing football in middle school. He returned to s****r freshman year.

I would love to encourage him to stick it out. He just plain out doesn't like it. He could play baseball all day long - and not complain, as long as he is playing. Not football.

Not sure if forcing him to stick it out is for my benefit or his.


Just wondering what the coaches will think of him if he decides to fold, or do they care?

Bottom line is, the player should make the decision. If you force him to play, he will resent you if he gets hurt. I'm dealing with the same situation. My son is going to be in 10th grade, and he decided not to play football this year. I'm ok with it becuase he is still going to stay busy with fall ball and baseball specific strength and conditioning. As far as what the coaches will think of him...If he approches the coaches and communicates his long term goals, one would hope the coaches would understand. As long as he is getting after it on the baseball end, and it shows with his performance in the spring, then he shouldn't have anything to worry about. If he goes and sits on his butt and doesn't show a lot of impovement, then the coaches might form a negative opinion. Have your son set some goals, and then help him make a plan based on the goals.

All the previous responses have great information in them, but I have another take regarding the "Not sure if forcing him to stick it out is for my benefit or his." comment....

One of the things I try to teach my son (and players on the teams I coach) regarding life lessons revolves around commitment. In no way do I want to force or make my son play a sport he doesn't really want to play. However, if HE chooses to play, our deal is that he is committed to a full season (whether that's 3 months, 1/2 a year, or a full year -- depending on the sport) and keeping our word and commitments is directly tied to our character and integrity. He's only 12, and has tried the youth football thing -- didn't really like it, but stuck with it through the end of the season.

When all is said and done, he may not pursue athletics in the future (I think he will, BTW), but I strongly believe he'll have respect of peers, coaches, teachers, etc... because of his character.

Just my $.02.

I gotta agree with Rooster on this one. Your son basically told those coaches when he came out "i'm here for the team this year" but if he decides it's not something he likes then he can choose not to play next year.

As a society it's getting easier and easier to just quit when it's something we don't like regardless of how it affects others.

If your son does quit at least make him go to the coaches and explain why. Speaking for myself as a football and baseball coach I really can't stand it when a kid just stops showing up. Let me know what's going on so I don't have to try and track you down to figure out what's going on, get your equipment back and all that.

Several years ago I had a senior try out for baseball because he wanted to be on the team with his buddies. He went through tryouts and wasn't that good but that year we had a talented team but wasn't very deep so there was a uniform available. I told him he probably wouldn't play that much but he had to continue to work just like everyone else. I wasn't worried about a bad attitude becuase he was a good kid and he said he was ok with all that.

He goes through the season and does everything I ask of him and I try to get him as much playing time as I could but it was very little. He was a great member of our team and was usually the comic relief. After the season was over he came up to me and told me that baseball was one of the most miserable experiences of his life. I asked him why he kept playing and he said because he made a commitment. He explained it wasn't me or my coaches or all the work with no playing time - he just hated baseball. He said he realized he made a mistake by coming out but since he made this commitment he wanted to make something good out of it and he decided he would be a great team mate. He was and we were successful that year.

Try to stress to him the importance of stick it out for a year and then he can decide at the end of the season if he wants to do it again or not.

If the roster has not been selected yet, I don't believe your son is committed. The coaches aren't committed to him yet. But, should he walk away he should tell the coaches and tell them why. It leaves the door open for the future. If there's any fear of getting injured the football field is not the place to be. A player has to think "hit" rather than "don't get hit." Fortunately I played high school sports when they were seasonal. Fall was for football, not fall baseball.

There are two issues I see with this. I am not advocating one way or the other, just pointing a couple of things out.

1) Although the sports are in different seasons, there is more and more overlap. We all know the baseball side - fall ball. But the football side, at least where we are is getting overlapped as well. There is spring training now. Right during baseball season. There are also workouts and training sessions all summer for the football team. This directly impacts summer baseball.

2) This point, I think relates more to pitchers than anything else. Football requires a whole different mindset and program for weight lifting. Baseball pitchers have to be very careful with their shoulders and what kind of lifting you do to strengthen. Football is all about bulking up, getting bigger and stronger and this is counter-intuitive for pitchers and their upper body workouts. We have had the strength and conditioning coach at our school supervise the baseball workouts and I have had to tell my son to not do some of the things they wanted him to do. We also have a pitcher on our team that is a big kid that the football coaches have been real big on. They want him to play offensive line. They wanted him to put on 30 lbs over the summer. Well, he was playing baseball during that time and just couldn't afford to bulk up that much as a pitcher. They demoted him to 2nd string and were not happy with the results. This kid also has a history of shoulder issues when he pitches after he has been on a weight lifting program for the football team. Maybe if you are a power hitting 1st basebman the lifting requirements won't be much of an issue, but as a pitcher, it could be bad.

Just my 2 cents.

quote:

Originally posted by dub-L-play:
I would love to encourage him to stick it out. He just plain out doesn't like it. He could play baseball all day long - and not complain, as long as he is playing. Not football.

Not sure if forcing him to stick it out is for my benefit or his.

As far as injuries, he has had quite a few -- some from baseball - 2 broken wrists, 2 broken hands, pulled hamstring, pulled achilles, and took a cleat to the hand and ended up with stitches. So his fear of injury is legit. I think he would like to go into a season healthy.

Just wondering what the coaches will think of him if he decides to fold, or do they care?

Playing football with the fear of injury in the back of the mind will more likely result in the player getting injured. If you can't block it out or don't like getting hit, football isn't for you.

If he's already an established baseball player, then who cares what the coaches think. You gave it a shot and if it isn't your bag, you go back to what you like doing. No crime in that. Just get out before you're fully committed to the game because you don't want to quit once the team is finalized and you start preparing for games.


While I'm a big proponent for playing multiple sports in HS, football isn't for everybody.

My son played football all through HS.

He loves the game and loved the coaching staff and the program, so it was a terrific experience for him.

It does, for sure, have its downside when combined with baseball. No fall ball, for one. Once football started in mid August, there was no baseball at all until early December. Team rule (but he would not have physically been able to do it anyway. Saturdays were recovery days.)

Injury risk is real. I never spent more anxious moments than his senior football season. At the end of every single play I watched to make sure he got up off the carpet. I definitely worried about him getting a knee injury that would screw up his college baseball. I never voiced it to him, though.

Playing football in the fall rather than baseball all the way through high school also will have an affect on baseball development. This isn't necessarily a huge downside, because football does develop other skills and athleticism that helps baseball. But arm strength will not be maximized to the extent it would if fall was spent throwing baseballs.

When he was being recruited for baseball, more than one college coach mentioned that they like two sport guys because they have more upside, not having played year round. So some coaches will "mentally adjust" for the fact that two sport kids don't have as much baseball training under their belts.

Football is a game you have to like to play. It isn't for everybody. You have to like the contact, and lots of kids don't.

Like anything, there are tradeoffs. My son didn't get injured in football in four years except for one moderate concussion as a sophomore (that we were extremely careful with, sat out four weeks.) Maybe my opinion would be different if he had been injured.

But for my son it was a great HS experience. Football has much more comraderie than baseball. At our school, football is a big deal, 5000+ at the games, played twice on national TV his senior year, that kind of thing. Would have hated to have him miss out on it.

Bottom line of us, he decided he would only be in high school once, and he couldn't allow what bad thing might happen to allow him to miss out.

quote:

But arm strength will not be maximized to the extent it would if fall was spent throwing baseballs.

Rob, I'm only gonna disagree with this comment and maybe only a little bit

Playing football in the fall allows one's arm to rest and may lead to a player being able to throw harder and farther when they do throw because there is less wear and tear.

If your statement is true, I can't even imagine how far I'd be able to throw a baseball had I thrown a baseball in the fall instead of playing football... I can still throw it almost 300 feet and haven't consistently played catch in 2.5 years....

Agree with a lot of the posts on here about commitment. Since most football teams don't cut, I would think that he's ON the team and should stick it out. He may be needed.

Also, as for the comment that "he just doesn't like football"....well during 90 degree 2-a-days, who DOES like football? The fun may come for him when he gets in a game and makes a big hit, or catches a pass or just plays well and his team wins.

I coach both sports and recently played both sports. I also LOVE both sports, but the teamwork and sense of accomplishment was much stronger for me in football. Baseball is more of an individualized and internalized sport in a team setting. Football really builds even more reliance on teammates and bonding than baseball, in my humble opinion.

Well if he was really that afraid then he probably made the right choice. I'm glad that he did go directly to the coach and told him. Sounds like he had to sit through a very uncomfortable talk with the coach but it won't kill him.

What made your son want to try and play football this year anyway - if you don't mind me asking?

Also, please hang around and keep posting and let us know how your son is doing.

quote:

The coach did not take it well, told him to move to Florida if he wants to play baseball.

The coach is a jerk. It's within the boundaries for the coach to use every reason possible to convince a kid to play. It's over the line to insult the kid.

This summer my son was hit from every direction about returning to football. There were never any derogatory remarks about remaining with s****r when the decision was made. He was wished good luck. And we know what football coaches think of s****r. Even I jokingly call my son a grass fairy from time to time.

i think playing football makes the baseball player......... mentaly tough. it gives them a fight that usually isn't found in kids that just play baseball.

the relationships that a football team foster's last forever. you'd think they played in a super bowl.

i know my son's played football, and they brought that bulldog mentality over to the baseball field. kind of fun to watch it.

in our neck of the woods fall ball consist's of about 10 games if the weather holds out, on sunday morning. your not going to become cy young or babe ruth in that time. not to mention the next 4 months are snow covered.

play as many sports as you can........you only get 4 yrs to play high school sports. but a life time to remember them.

quote:

Originally posted by 20dad:
i think playing football makes the baseball player......... mentaly tough. it gives them a fight that usually isn't found in kids that just play baseball.

play as many sports as you can........you only get 4 yrs to play high school sports. but a life time to remember them.

I agree. The one regret my son has is not going out for the football team. He was approached by the coach as a freshman but at the time had no interest. Over the years, he played pickup tackle games with many of his friends who played on football and realized he liked hitting and could play because he was a pretty good athlete and had the head to learn the playbook fast but by time he was a senior, he just figured it was too late to get in the game and focused on baseball. Had he got to do it over again, he would have played football.

However, my son developed his mental toughness from his winter sport which he made varsity as a freshman and the team was a potential conference and state champion every year so to maintain that high level, the players had to have a mental edge and some ability of course. By the time he made varsity as a junior, he had a lot of experience of the mental aspect of competing on the varsity level. This translated on the baseball field for him because even though his baseball teams weren't very strong, his senior year, he made the newspaper for all their wins by contributing in all of them, then they woke up from a long regular season and made a nice run thru the conference tournament where he played a key role in that run by getting four hits and 3 rbi's in the opening round of the conference tournament and the next game was on the front-end of a perfectly executed double-steal attempt that drew the throw down to 2B and allowed the runner on 3B to steal home for the winning run. In the next game, he made two defensive gems in the OF to hold a 1-1 tie against one of the top pitchers in the state. They eventually lost 2-1 in 10 innings in what was their best game defensively by far that season. Both teams put on a clinic in defense that game.