conditioning in 14U rec ball?

You don't have time to focus on conditioning. The players who care will show up in shape. At the first team meeting you might suggest ways for players to get in shape on their own time.

Thanks for the quick reply. Maybe I am selling these guys short too early.

At pre-high school (7th / 8th grade) and possibly freshman, I'm thinking that we should go over some typical "agility" drills, then suggest that those who want to be better baseball players work on these things at home.

Meanwhile, we'll spend quality practice time on fundamentals of the game.

I'm a newbie at this level, but absolutely love baseball.

I would say if it is a rec league, and most players are not going to be playing HS ball, make it more about fun and learning the game than conditioning. However your idea of showing them how to get in shape should they be interested in continuing in high school is a great idea. That way those who want to get serious about it have the opportunity on their own.

They are wasting good practice time.
For it to be true conditioning time there needs to be anaerobic and aerobic training over a long period of time. This is not possible in your set up.

We are talking young kids here; they don't need to be running sprints or distance- they need to be fielding, hitting, and throwing.

If they want to get in great shape maybe they have a conditioning class at school; or they can get great workouts on their own or at a local YMCA...

In the meantime; let them get a whole bunch of cuts and field a whole bunch of balls.

That's my 2 cents anyway.

I've always asked kids to show up 10 minutes before the time when we have the field, to allow at least some time to warm up. (Maybe it should be more, but it's hard enough to get rec league players to come 10 minutes early without asking for more.)

I don't think general conditioning is going to work in that context. Luckily one thing about being 14 is, most of them can still move around. Those who cannot are not likely to turn that around in the few weeks you have to work with them. These kids come just to play baseball, and the further away you get from skill building and team building, the more you are likely to lose them completely.

I do think that if you have kids there who show talent, you might pull them aside (or perhaps approach their parents), tell them you think they have talent that could be developed, and ask if they would be interested in your suggestions for getting the most of out what they have. It's risky to give unsolicited opinions ("Ma'am, your son might be a player if he only lost 25 lbs."), but if you offer and they say yes, the door is open. Just remember that this is not a competitive travel program and so, even when they invite your comments, many of those you'll be speaking to have very thin skins. Tread carefully.

Some very good advice here!
Remember, one of the essential basic skills of baseball is baserunning. So, you can get some conditioning in while running bases. They won't even know its conditioning.
I would suggest during BP making one of your stations baserunning (ie, 3 min @ 1st, 3 min @ 2nd, & 3 min @ 3rd), or better yet, spending the last 15-20 min. of practice running bases.
We frequently use this routine:
1. Home to first, look over right shoulder for bad throw (return to home).
2. Home to first with narrow turn, back to 1st (return home).
3. Home to second with wide turn.
*Narrow turn=visualize running out a ground ball that makes it through the infield for a hit. The turn is later than wide turn and shaped like a question mark. Wide turn=visualize a double laced in the gap-shaped like a banana.
4. First to second-steal with batter taking/manager acts as pitcher (return to first).
5. First to second-steal w/o take (return to first).
*Coach near plate simulates fly ball/pop up by pointing up, line drive by pointing level, and ground ball by pointing down. Hitters look in to "read" the batted ball.
6. First to third using third base coach.
7. Second to third stealing on one-looker (return to second).
8. Second and round third with third base coach holding runner up (return to 2nd).
9. Second to home.
10. Third to home-squeeze (safety or suicide)return to third.
11. Third to home-tagging up/manager in outfield simulating OF making catch by slapping bare hand in glove.
12. Reading down angle and scoring on wild pitch/passed ball.

Whenever possible in this drill we use two throw-down bases and have three runners going at once (#'s 4,5,7,10,11,&12).