Best in Virginia Camp/Showcase Week 1!

Yes it was a great camp (no rain this year). My son was able to meet kids from all over the country, even as far away as Hawaii, made new feinds and met alot of college coaches. Yes, Gatoraide, my son took a large cooler filled with a case of gatorade to keep in his room, he and his roommates(3) went thru that plus more. One of his roomate's parent delivered more each day.
In my opinion, the show case games should have been paired down to one full game 7-10 innings all on one field instead of 2 shortend games (one 4 inning, one 3 innings) with 2 going on at same time. I noticed the scouts frantically dividing their time from one field to the other, walking back a forth in that heat.
My son fully enjoyed the experience. His squad coaches were great and made it fun along with the hard/hot workouts.

My son's going to week two. Greatly looking forward to it! Any helpful hints?

Like we said, if you can, bring a cooler for the room, my son had a five day cooler. Fill it with gatorade. If you are going to be in area, bring ice/gatorade daily. There is a store at corner of road where you turn off of HWY 15 to
get to the school (less that 2 miles from dorm), but players are not allowed to leave school grounds. Bring lawn chair for watching games/work outs. Sit under the trees or umbrella. Tell you son to find shade when he is between work outs or games whenever he can, mine sat out in the hot sun before his last showcase game.
My son's dorm had laundry on bottom floor, it would have been nice if he washed out his camp tee shirt once in a while. No need to bring an excess number of tee shirts/jerseys, they have to wear the same camp ones every day.
He and his roommates shared pizza every night before lights out, sold at the college store they set up after last work outs. $10.00 each. So each would take a turn.
They do train on weight lifting one day and run an obsticle course (named Paris Island, instructed by a navy seal, hardest part).
Introduce himself and talk to as many coaches as he can while he is there. Relax, have fun and work hard. Pay attention to what the coaches are saying.
It was well organized and set up so the boys know excactly where to go and when. Check in took about 2 minutes, moved his stuff in dorm room, left, I was done and headed back home in 30 minutes. They start there talks and workouts at 3:00 PM first day. They will have all scheduales listed at check in and in the dorms, so don't panic if you missed it at check in or didn't write it down. Its posted in hall of dorm on every floor for the boys to keep track in case they forget.
They will give him a key, key laynard, tee shirt, drink bottle and send you on your way to the dorm. Than its baseball, baseball, baseball for 5 days.

Good luck!

I plan to stay Saturday and most of Sunday. Can parents attend the lecture on Saturday?

Do they play any ball on Saturday?

I believe parents are welcomed at any lecture or workout. Intro lecture was at the football staduim stands. Most everything was outside and anyone is free to move about/watch/listen.

Book lodging reservations. I showed up and was surpised to learn that every room in a college town was booked. I had to drive to the next town to get a place to stay.

Duffman:
A roll of quarters for laundry.
3-4 pairs of batting gloves
3-4 hats
4-5 pairs of pants
If you are going to be nearby and can make it--a quart of gatorade in the AM and the PM.
A comfortable lawn chair (for yourself)

Best thing to bring is a great attitude of hard work. The games allow very limited AB's so my impression is that work ethic, coachability, how they carry themselves (on and off the field), etc are what the coaches look at.

So what's the schedule of an ordinary day?

Every day is a little different. The boys are split up into squads (teams) and they rotate to the different events. Running, batting, infield/outfield drills. They video your batting and pitching and evaluate it and discuss it with you. One day has weightlifting and running the course. They played mini games between squads on the 2nd/3rd day. Latter part of 4th day is BP showcase and fielding in front of scouts. Last day is 2 showcase games with IF/OF/Catcher throwing evaluation before the 1st game, one game 75 minutes and one game 60 minutes time limit. You may get 1 at bat during showcase game. Typical day, breakfast, baseball, lunch, baseball, dinner, baseball, free time 9-11, lights out.

Good luck and good health to the Week 2 campers (and parents and coaches). Heat is supposed to be ROUGH:
http://www.erh.noaa.gov/ifps/MapClick.php?site=rnk&CiTe...&map.x=331&map.y=132

JT, Dropped my son off Saturday for the 2nd session. Appreciate all the tips you offered. He has a large cooler in room stuffed with gatorade and water. He had made friends in the parking lot before getting into the dorm Talked to him last night, they are really enjoying it but they are tired at the end of the day. He also has the laundry in his dorm. Called to ask whether to use hot or cold water to make shirt shrink. Never mind that it smells , let's get it to fit better. Thanks again to all the above posters as your input made a big difference I'm sure.

Good luck to him. TODAY is the day that really wears them out. Things wind down a little on Tues with the showcase BP.

Took son to session 2. My first experience -- It is very efficiently run. Not sure if/when any coaches other than instructors come to watch.

Most importantly boys seem to be having fun. very surprised how many out of state kids were there. My son's team has more kids from texas than Virginia???

They said 22 states represented at this session.

My son said he feared today, I think it's called Paris Island -- 6 kids suffered heat exhaustion last session most during this part. Not sure what it is they exactly do?

Anyone know?

They RUN, do conditioning drills, agility stuff. Similar to what colleges do in their off-season training. VERY intense. Fortunately, my son had been through that sort of training so he handled it OK. Good luck to your son.

Worst is over, but today and tommorow the heat will be almost unbearable. Heat index will be well above 100 maybe up to 115-120. Remind your kids to seek shade whenever they can, take the time to take a quick shower between showcase games on Wed if they can. Sit in the AC dorm rooms, stay cool, etc. Carry a wet towel. Bring cold water or gatorade, the fountains they have sat out pumps out warm water. Luckily the showcase games are short.

Thanks baseball96

I guess if they're not playing in the showcase games they are off?

I know hydration has been a recurring theme. The one thing they can't get, best I can tell, on their own is Ice for their coolers.

My son is at BIV now. He is one of the boys carted off to the hospital for dehydration after yesterday's "Paris Island". It was 112 degrees on the field. He drank 11 gatorades, and it wasn't enough. We got a call from the camp trainer that they were unable to get enough fluids in him and he needed to go to the hospital. The initial report was that he was unable to speak, but was relatively alert. It was only on a later phone call that we found out that he couldn't speak due to the severe cramping and pain, rather than losing motor function. It was quite a scary evening as we waited to hear from the hospital. Thank god that we found out that he was going to be ok, and after he received 3 bags of IV fluids, he was released from the hospital. Unfortunately, he's unable to participate today, but should be ok for the showcase games tomorrow. The EMT's told my son that there are 4-5 kids each year that have to go to the hospital for dehydration.

My son runs track in the off-season, and is in very good shape, although he has very little body fat (4%) and tends to dehydrate easily. It seems to me that the camp should not have this drill when it's 112 degrees, especially when there's a history of sending kids to the hospital. The kids are there to try to impress the college coaches, and aren't about to let up even if they aren't feeling well.

We chose this camp because of all the great things said about it on this website. And, while I agree that is a great camp, I felt that I should write about my son's experience so that others may not have to go through it. If I had to do it all over again, I would have still let him attend the camp, but I also would have suggested to him that, if it's really hot, it's ok to go at 75-80% for this drill (which is 75 minutes of hard running), rather than end up in the hospital with heat stroke. And, I would have him hydrate like crazy the night before (Monday). Starting Tuesday was too late.

Sorry for the long post, but I just wanted to let people know in advance that their sons need to be prepared for a difficult day.

My son is there now too. I stayed for Saturday and Sunday and I agree with with heat warnings like they had the Paris island thing seems of questionable benefit. I can say I personally heard the hydration speech given to the boys repeatedly to include pre-hydrating at night.

I'm no doctor but I have heard and seen that gatorade, while good in many ways is no substitute for water and should not be taken in volume (11 bottles) rather water as a supplement.

Glad your son is OK, heat prostration is no laughing matter.

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BIV has never before had exhaustion cases--simply and humbly fact.

BIV is also the nation's only instructional showcase--in this respect your format is dramatically difficult and equally powerful.

Each day, among many other components, features a 75 team concepts segment (note: all rotations are 75 minutes followed by 30 minutes of rest and water). Those segments are as follows:
Sunday: Video analysis of all primary and secondary pitchers and video analysis of all hitters in camp.
Monday: Acceleration and baserunning. Campers through the years call this Paris Island. It's a powerful segment typically featuring 9 instructors guiding each player through speed development.
Tuesday: Strength training teaching segment (in A/C), featuring 5 instructors (this is a teaching segment, not a workout segment).

The heat index for both BIV sessions in 2005 has been higher than normal. BIV is celebrating its 20th year, and this specific format has been a part of the itinerary for over a decade.

In some of this year's cases of dehydration (a handful each session): several campers also, by self-admission, shared their usage of various supplements to assist their strength development. Sometimes these things (as well as the use of gatorade in exchange for water) can accelerate heat difficulties

Cougar, Glad to hear your son is ok. I will be leaving within the hour to drive down, watch the games and pick up one tired player. Talked to him last night, has really enjoyed the week but I think he will enjoy sitting in the AC all day tomorrow. Everyone have a safe drive today!

T minus 2 hours and we head down to retrieve our young 'un, as CV would say. Ours has reported the same heat as everyone else, but says they've constantly hydrated and things have gone well. He said a lot of coaches rolled in yesterday for the showcase hitting/fielding.

I think we've established that MrMom's younger son's team will play my guy's team today. I look forward to seeing him as at tryouts for the Mid-Atlantic Red Sox, "little MrMom" blistered a 60 yard dash that would put him on a path for a college track scholarship, and he'll only be a junior this fall. Undoubtedly courtesy of the momma's end of the gene pool.

Too much heat is an unfortunate event, as is too much rain. As with any showcase/camp, either is not desired. You cannot control either, you just have to deal with it the best you can. Sorry to hear about some kids getting de-hydrated, happy to hear they are back on their feet. I am sure this happens at least once at any camp/showcase around the country that temps reach 90's/100's. You can only hope to minimize it at much as possible by stressing to the kids to drink lots of fluids and seek shade or cool areas as much as they can. (earlier I stated my son sat out in hot sun before a showcase game, not smart, no telling how many times he did that during the camp when he could have relaxed in the shade).
Thumbs up to BIV, great camp. I would send my son back for a return visit, but he is not eligble next year. Thanks BIV

After withstanding the more grueling days my kid went the "heat" rout in his first showcase game. Recovered for the second game but they held him out until the last 2 innings.

I had the best time talking to his teammates in the laundry. They all kept throwing their jerseys in whatever dryer was running and hoping whoever owned the stuff wouldn't notice. One from Texas another Pennsylvania a couple Va. Beach kids. Really nice kids. But, they were ready for it to be over.

Your son did laundry? I am very impressed. Based upon the smell of my guy's laundry bag, my wife may need to resort to nuclear weapons to get the dirt out....

Very nice event, as always. Good exposure, good instruction. Heat was a bear, and by the last game, on the last day, which we unluckily had, all the scouts were on the road out of town-can't blame them a bit and by then, surely they had seen what they wanted to see. Dang it was hot!

Did my son do laundry -- Huh no way. I had to have a cool place to sit between 1 and 4 and that gave me an excuse. don't call me MRMOM for nothing. Besides didn't want to "air out" the trunk for a month.

We need a nose holding" (stinky) ICON.

Wow, I felt for those boys (and parents/coaches/scouts) yesterday, hottest (heat index) in VA in a long time. We live towards the coast and it was 100 (index 110-120) and I saw the farther inland you went (towards Farmville) the hotter it was. Hope everyone took care of themselves. Eager to hear of what the 2nd group thought of the camp. Hope everyone had as good experience as my son.

Just wondering what colleges were in attendance?

Not sure about week two, but week one was well-attended. My son must have done his job because he's gotten several letters from schools that saw him that week. Here are some we saw there, NOT counting the schools that were represented during the week as skills coaches:
JMU, George Mason, Columbia, Longwood, Averett, VA Weslyan, Christopher Newport, and some others (it's been almost 3 weeks and the memory is weak). The link gives the schools that were there as intstructors:
BIV Instructional Staff

Add Radford, UNC Ashville, Naval Acadamy, JMU, to name a few. I think my son said there were about 30 + scouts watching during the BP showcase.
My son must have done well also, got a couple of letters. However, don't anyone panic if you hadn't got anything or just couple yet. My nephew went 3 years ago (1st sesson) and he didn't get any until approx 3 weeks after the 2nd session was over, and he got many letters. He in is second year playing college ball now.