After a long summer of Dixie baseball we took about a month break. We were all ready for it. We finished Runner-Up in the Dixie WS which was quite an accomplishment and the boys (and parents) were ready for some time off.
It didn't take long however for the boys to start calling me about a fall travel team. During Dixie we played on 50/70 fields which is the same for 12U Travel and the boys were anxious to play on the bigger fields (54/80) at 13U.
But we had a different idea. I assembled our fall travel team with the majority of All Stars from the WS team (minus a couple of parents, which could be another thread) and proposed the idea of moving to 14U and full sized fields.
Our area is growing so fast that we literally have four 4A high schools within 8 miles of one another. We also offer school choice. What this does is dilute some of our best talent among the four schools. Consequently, the high schools will bring 7th graders into their JV programs in order to develop and hopefully retain as much talent as possible.
That has a significant bearing on all of my boys. This coming January many of my boys will actually make the JV teams as 7th and 8th graders.
To better prepare these boys I contacted the area HS coaches to find out what they wanted us to focus on this fall to help the boys make the transition next spring.
Without exception all of the coaches were delighted at our plans and provided what they wanted us to work on. They all said that arm strength on the bigger fields and swinging -3 bats are where most of the boys suffer.
We played our first tournament last week and went 0-4. That is about what we expected. For our first tournament we actually played better than we (coaches) had hoped. Most of the boys struggled with the heavier bats but they fielded well. The bat speed will come as we move forward and as long as we improve I think the boys, who are used to winning, will be ok. They know why they are playing up and have embraced the idea.
I made all of the boys swing -3 bats for the tournament (not required at 14U). I will probably not require that for the next tournament. They must still use them for all BP and scrimmages, but I am going to let them swing whatever they want for the tournaments. I want them to have more success at the plate until they get stronger. We have 5 more tournaments scheduled through the middle of November and then we will shut down completely until spring to give their arms a rest.
It's going to be interesting to see if playing 14U vs. 13U will help them transition more easily. I'm curious to hear your thoughts or suggestions.
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