High School workout/ or practice?? Whats legal these days???

My question is what sorts of things do you believe is too much or too structured? At our school, we have open gyms 2 times per week. Coaching is NOT allowed, players must lead the workouts. Basically the guys get some throwing and running in.

Our team has always done the same as ChiSox... open gym/open lifting three days per week, some throwing, some running. The key though has always been "open" meaning it's available to anyone who wants to attend, not just the team. And coach may be observing, but not coaching. Everything is lead by team captains.

Coach at a neighboring school was holding practices on the baseball field during the fall - that ended quickly when word got out.

The penalty for breaking the rules is pretty harsh, so for the sake of the whole team, make sure that your coach is following the rules.

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Coach at a neighboring school was holding practices on the baseball field during the fall - that ended quickly when word got out.

So schools can play in games and tournaments in the fall but not practice?

My son’s team played St. Charles North and Palatine last fall in a Fox Valley league.

Open gyms are fine as long as the HS coach is not leading, organizing, instructing the workouts.

I believe March 2nd is the first day of HS practice this year in Illinois.

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Originally posted by TNHN11:
Open gyms are fine as long as the HS coach is not leading, organizing, instructing the workouts.

I believe March 2nd is the first day of HS practice this year in Illinois.

SWEET!!!! Only 55 more days!

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Coach at a neighboring school was holding practices on the baseball field during the fall

I gotta get out there and keep an eye on my competitor's school:

Concerning fall baseball workouts the ihsa does have in their by-laws during specified weeks that ihsa schools can conduct practices and play games against other ihsa schools.

The whole thing is a bit sketchy. I often wondered myself as my son's travel team gathered at a baseball facility on Sunday nights during the winter and we saw a rival school's freshman baseball coach (wearing the school's baseball hat, to boot) working with 30 or so kids. Us coaches kind of went "Hmmmm."

The IHSA's Section 2-School By-Laws (specifically, Section 2.09) gives an illustrative example (#69) of a school conducting pre-season conditioning with the answer of "no". Specifically,

69) Q. May a school conduct pre-season conditioning for a team prior to the starting date for any sport as outlined in Section 5.000 of the IHSA By-laws?
A. No. Conducting a preseason conditioning program as outlined above would constitute a violation of IHSA By-law
2.090. (By-law 2.090)

However, Section 3-Athletic Eligibility By-Laws (specifically, Section 3.16) describes "Open Gym Limitations." I suppose off-season workouts, conditioning, etc., without coaching instruction, could qualify under the parameters of "open gym."

Section 5-Sport Season By-Laws describes the time frames for the sport seasons, natch. Section 5.01 relates to fall baseball.

Here are the links to applicable IHSA by-laws:

Section 2-School By-Laws - See Section 2.09-Season Limitation in Athletic Activities
http://www.ihsa.org/org/policy/2008-09/section2.pdf

Section 3-Athletic Eligibility By-Laws - See Section 3.16-Open Gym Limitations
http://www.ihsa.org/org/policy/2008-09/section3.pdf

Section 5-Sport Season By-Laws - See Section 5.01-Boys Fall Baseball
http://www.ihsa.org/org/policy/2008-09/section5.pdf

If you want any of the other sections, you can type any of the links into your browser and change the section number. Enjoy!

Mythreesons,

Many teams have fall ball games, so why wouldn't they practice on the field?

The high school coach can't coach in the fall.

The high school players can assemble and play in the fall as a team, but not under the high school head coach.

at the last one i only threw being a pitcher then left....but apparently he was going around the hitting drills and things like that(wasn't sure what he was exactly doing or saying) Then had everyone do sprints after throwing. In the years past we would go in on our own and the coach would just be there(sometimes) but not doing to much but just talking with players.

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The high school players can assemble and play in the fall as a team, but not under the high school head coach.

By head coach, do you mean the varsity coach or any of the baseball coaches in the schools program?

It is kind of like anything else, there are always ways around everything & how do you enforce the rules? Are their IHSA police out there?

Man, we can't even keep the Governor honest.....

We've always had it pounded into our heads that coaches cannot have any contact with the team in a coaching capacity in the off-season. I'm not aware of any high school teams in our conference that plays a fall season, but obviously it is allowed according to the IHSA rules.

In our school fall means one thing - football. All the baseball coaches - and I do mean all - coach football, so there wouldn't be anyone to coach a fall season even if we had one!

So does anyone know - could a coach just practice with his team in the fall with no intention of playing a fall season? I just know that the coach I mentioned earlier shut it down as soon as someone brought it to the AD's attention, but maybe they were unclear on the rules as well.

Section 5 clearly states:

5.010 BOYS FALL BASEBALL
5.011 Season Limitation
a. No school belonging to this Association shall organize its Boys Fall Baseball teams, practice or participate in interscholastic contests earlier than Monday of Week 7 or later than Saturday of Week 16 in the IHSA Standardized Calendar.

and...

2.090 SEASON LIMITATION IN ATHLETIC ACTIVITIES
No school belonging to this Association shall organize its teams, practice, scrimmage or participate in any interscholastic sport outside of the season limitations as prescribed in Section 5.000 of these By-Laws;

A reasonable interpretation would be "practice" is perfectly acceptable within the by-laws. The IHSA defines the time-frame as acceptable and defines the activity.

Two fall leagues that I know of feature high school teams. Fox Valley and the league that Harvey Foster runs in the NW susburbs. Cant speak for the FVL but I know Harveys league has no high school coach involvement what so ever. Are the coachs at the games? Quite a few show up occasionally but all they do is sit in the stands as bystanders. They know and abide by the rules. Both leagues are non IHSA sanctioned and any athlete partaking in a fall IHSA sport is not allowed to play. Teams are organized and run by either parents or team captains. Harveys league is for high school teams only while FVL also allows fulltime travel teams to compete.

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Originally posted by bama1957:
I know Harveys league has no high school coach involvement what so ever. Are the coachs at the games? Quite a few show up occasionally but all they do is sit in the stands as bystanders. They know and abide by the rules.

I have seen coaches in the dugouts and coaching at Harveys games.

The sad part is that the HS Coaches are REQUIRING their kids to do more and more each year. It's a shame that I ask the kids that I coach all summer and fall (50-60 games) to get together for two hours a week, but they can't because they have to attend one of their 3 "optional" high school workouts which go on for 3 hours each day.

Along the same lines I was working with a couple kids today who said that they have early morning lifting for baseball before school three times a week, and then have to go to football lifting after school. That is one of the most counterproductive things I have ever heard.

The kids are the ones that are suffering here, they are being torn in some many directions and being spoon fed EVERYTHING.

I've only been out of high school for 10 years, but it is completley different now. During our off-seasons a few of us (football and/or baseball) got together and challenged each other in the weight room, at good ole' Grand Slam, on the T in my garage, in the field house, wherever we could find space. Now the kids schedules look like a campaigning politician and parents/coaches wonder why the kids aren't "taking responsibility" or "showing intiative" . . . . it's because they DON'T HAVE TO!

Some could argue that I am part of the problem by owning and operating a training facility. I can assure you that 1/2 hour a week in a cage is not what is cluttering the kids schedules. Furthermore I encourage the kids to "figure it out" for themselves and learn through reps and failure, not by someone telling you how to do everything.

Sorry for venting, but I logged on after hearing about the two-a-day lifts and this topic was perfect for letting this all fly.

Happy New Year!

-Nelson Gord

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Along the same lines I was working with a couple kids today who said that they have early morning lifting for baseball before school three times a week, and then have to go to football lifting after school. That is one of the most counterproductive things I have ever heard.

How so? As long as they're not doing the same thing, I don't see anything wrong with it. I know of a few football players at my high school who lift before school and then lift after school. The key is they aren't doing their core lifts more than once a week.