Be Physically Ready for Showcases/Camps

hokieone

Great point

We see it all too often--a kid has a poor event and then Daddy says "well you know he is hurt" or "well you know he pitched 9 innings last night".

DUH !!!!!!!!!!

Much rather have a kid tell me "Coach my hammie is tight, do you mind if I dont run the 60?" then have him fake it and do poorly and possibly damage it more. We can always explain to the scouts and recruiters why the boy did not run

Interesting post. My son is Junior and is headed to 2 camps/showcases next week. His HS season wore him out more than we thought it would. The HS team had some gritty post-season play and we lost the back-up catcher mid-season. He also had quite a heavy academic load at a new school. He took a few days off for finals study and rest, but then pulled his back badly last week when he started working out again. Yesterday was his first day back throwing/swinging, but he is still stiff/sore. Today, he looked pretty good, but we're not sure the endurance is there full-speed, all-day workouts/games.

I hate to write off the money we spent for these camps/showcases, but I don't want my son to get hurt worse (he won't back off when he's playing) or set him up for a bad performance.

There are plenty of good showcases the rest of the summer. We picked these opportunities early, thinking he'd be in good playing shape coming off the HS season... not thinking he'd be in recovery mode.

For now, we're thinking of taking it one step at a time: Workout each day and re-assess... right up until travel day (Monday). If all is OK at that point, we'll go to the first camp and then re-assess again before the next camp. At least that's our thinking right now.

Yes, scheduling is critical and especially for pitchers. It does you no good to go to a showcase or camp without your best stuff as you are there to audition and those watching will evaluated based on what they see, not on reputation. If you do decide to not attend a scheduled showcase or camp be sure to contact the coaches or organizers in advance! A "no show" can hurt your chances as a future prospect!