How are the younger guys doing?

Well, I'm here getting a jump on the whole HS thing now. My son will be in HS next year and I thought it a good idea to know as much about it as possible ahead of time. So that's why I'm here.

He's looking forward to his 14U AAU season, the team is coming together well and practices are accumulating. He's a RHP/1B/OF, playing for a new team this year. We enjoy the time we spend working together on his game.

Thanks for asking! This is a good site, lots of knowledgeable people to learn from.

My son turned 14 earlier this month so he's the same age as yours dad10. He's working hard this winter and looking forward to the upcoming season. It should be fun. I can't wait.

Jason

I am really ready for the mid/late-February tournaments to get started. As much as I respect the fact that my son (13yo SS/lead-off hitter)has a great work ethic, he is beating me down with his indoor off-season training. I thought that playing school basketball might slow down the regimen, but it was only re-scheduled for later in the evening.

He has constructed a net in his room that he stretches between the top of his closet door and the top of his bathroom door. He hits wiffle-balls off of the tee for an hour or so almost every night (usually when I am trying to go to bed.) He also walks around the house with a pancake glove and a raquetball, bouncing it off of any object that will provide a hop (walls, furniture, dog, siblings, etc...) to "make his hands quicker."

After putting up with a whole winter of hearing the "kerplunk" of the ball against the walls and floor and the "tthwaaackk!" of the bat comming from his room, he had better have a d**n good season!!!

Heavy D,

LOL - And just think - you have several more years of this coming up.

LOL

Best of luck to you and your son.

Thanks for asking...

Just lurking around reading posts and waiting for my boy to tryout for JV as a freshman next month. We're both looking foreward to it.

Hey, My son is 13 and in the 7th grade, Just started tryouts for the highschool B team. He has worked hard to get to this point,I just told him yesterday when we were in the car going to the high school that if he don't make the team its not the end of the world so just relax play hard run hard and have fun doing it.
I could not believe how many kids were out there.

He played with 13 & 14 yrs this past fall and held his own he pitched and played short and had a few games catching.I got him a -3 bat to prepare him for HS he hit realy well with it,he led the team in RBI's.There was one game where he had 7 in one game, I don't know if that is a big # but Comparing him to two of the 9th graders on the team they were hit or miss,every 2 or 3 games they would get a triple.

He is going out for catcher,pitcher and first base on the B team so I have my fingers crossed..

My 12-year-old is playing basketball and doing his best to ignore baseball. His older brother had a whirlwind late summer/fall with the Area Code games and college recruiting trips. Older son is a LHP. Younger son is very upset that we didn't "make him lefthanded." He's a catcher and is learning to switch hit, so I'm sure he'll be fine. Its just hard to live in your brother's shadow!
Youngest starts catching lessons with Mike Macfarlane next week, so hopefully he'll get back in the baseball groove. He plays on a rec school team and a tournament team, which begin play in April. We live and breathe baseball at our house!

My 12 yo is chomping at the bit for baseball to restart. He has been working very hard in the off season to improve. His determination to be the best he can is amazing to me since he is so young. He has clear goals and is doing his best to attain them. I have seen tremendous improvement even since Nov. Yesterday we went out to practice and he cleared the fence 3x with his wood bat. His pitching is still a little unkown since he has not been doing that but has been doing long toss. I did have to laugh though at Heavy D. My son has made up a game where he "pitches" a tennis ball against the couch and depending on whether he fields it cleanly or where it bounces is how the batter hit off him. If it sticks between the cushion its a strike. He does this for hours.

I will say though that us folks with younger kids have been so blessed to find this site. I think it really gives us an advantage in the preparation for HS and beyond. There are the most amazing people on this site. So those of you HS, college, and beyond folks--Thanks from the younger guys!!

My middle boy is 12 and has been working out 3 x a week all winter. I don't know if he's really good or not to be honest. I think this age is too early to tell much of anything. I've got some baseball friends with 10 and 11 year olds and they actually throw around future tense verbs like "drafted" in regards to their kids, and it freaks me out. It's fun to talk, but until the kids have made varsity and start there, I find there's just not a lot to say........yet.

Now as for my sophomore.....I could blab for awhile. But won't!

Anyway, I wish all the youngsters a great year ahead and remember to enjoy this game and keep undue pressures at bay.

KCBaseball,

Does your 12 year old play for Mac-n-Seitz? A good friend of mine from the KC area has a son the same age as mine (13/14 - 8th grade) and he plays for the KC Giants. Both are pretty good teams from what I've seen and heard.

Jason

FlippJ...My youngest plays for the Cardinals. The Mac 'n Seitz teams are very strong, but very expensive and we're not ready to make that jump just yet. Both of my sons play multiple sports till HS and it can be a bit much at times! My oldest has a M'nS membership and works out there. Great facility.
Don't know about the Giants. That's a year older than my son and I have a hard enough time keeping up with his age group!

Krakatoa--Blab away. I love to hear how everyone's kids are doing. One big happy baseball family. We are expecting a fun and exciting year. I think we have a great blend of competition without losing perspective of the fact the boys are only 12. Good luck to all the players this year. Hopefully the best yet!

Big Day at our House. My son made the JV today... only 12yo on the Team. He is not a natural and has to work very hard. That is what makes this SWEET!

goingyard,

Congrats to your son!

Hard work does pay off.

Best of luck this spring.

My 13yr old has been throwing all winter. We followed a long toss program and tubing exercises along with a weighted ball program. His work ethic is outstanding and his velocity has increased alot. He is ready for the season and he is also preparing for HighSchool. All of the preparation and dry swings in the winter will come together this Sunday where he is trying out for a travel team.

I must say, he is beyond prepared and all the hard work in the off-season will definitely pay off.

Good luck to your son baseballbum. I'm sure he'll do great.

I find it interesting though how many younger boys are working during the off season with long toss programs, core stuff etc... Mine included. Is it that younger kids feeling the pressure to get that much better. It seems to me that in my day we practiced and played some. I did pitch (softball) in the off season but no one I knew, male or female, was working the extra mile to be all that they are. I have been impressed with my son's work ethic and how he has worked to improve. Everyday this week we were working on things to improve different aspects of his game. I'm not saying its right or wrong but it is something I have noticed. On my son's team (an average local travel team) there are 2 kids that have been working very hard this off season and their results are tremendous. I wonder where that will put the other kids? Anyway--just babbling some observations-will go back to my coffee now.

My 12 year old has been working out twice a week and forearm/wrists 3 times a week since september. With Christmas vacation off. He really loves the fact he can train. We also do tee-work/soft-toss/handsback hitter with towel drill added on the other days.

He has the exercise bike in his room now, keeps him "busy" while he plays ps2.

My son (12U) did absolutely nothing this winter related to baseball. He played hoops, skateboarded, played with friends, etc. but I didn't let him pick up a ball or a bat from October-January.

We will start practice in mid February for our rigorous schedule.

No baseball for my 12U but he is doing a lot of this! I think that baseball and birddogs go together nicely.

REDBIRD, my son did what your son did last year and he absolutely had a blast. Sometimes taking those breaks does wonders for a kid. I think the son has a passion to do well this year, hence the training and the ethic. But the area is competitive so he has to work hard to stay at a certain level. If he would of just relaxed all winter long I would have been fine with it.

The age he is at now is pretty demanding and those basebaths are a long ways from each other. He will play up one year and I believe he is ready. Thanks for all the well wishes and pitchers are prepared during the off season! No doubt!

baseballbum,

I am not saying my way is the right way but it was a good time for my son to take a break. We have been going hard for 4 years and our kids needed a break.

The way I see it is that we will go year round from here on out on the big field.

BTW, I know about competitive areas...we have had many recent 1st rounders out of this area (Upton brothers, Zimmerman, David Wright, etc.)

I agree with you 100 percent.

And those Upton brothers are the real deal!

Going to see Texas play USD next week as well here in San Diego.

quote:

Originally posted by redbird5:
My son (12U) did absolutely nothing this winter related to baseball. He played hoops, skateboarded, played with friends, etc. but I didn't let him pick up a ball or a bat from October-January.

We will start practice in mid February for our rigorous schedule.

Ditto for my 11YO this year. And even still, for the next month or so, he'll stick to hoops and the school play he's in. Heck, I've subjected everyone to enough swings of my son over the years. Maybe next month, I'll post a video clip of him singing/dancing as Daddy Warbucks in Annie, Jr.?

As far as baseball goes my 13u and I have played a little catch here and there weather permitting. He didn't want to play fall ball because he said he wanted to make sure he started Jr High the right way. So far so good in that category. He wishes Jr High baseball was played in our area and is jealous of you out there that have it available. He is playing basketball twice a week on two different teams and looking forward to the start of his favorite sport in March hopefully.

My son finished the regular season about Aug 1 then right to fall league AND Jr High football. He took off about 6 weeks or so (mid November - January) and then started back up with hitting and pitching once a week all while playing for the basketball team. He's going to start fielding drills now until basketball is over in a couple weeks then he'll go at it.

Sad news, My son 13 7th grade was trying out for the H.S. B team did not make the 2nd cut. I thought he would have made it,he had the strongest arm except for two 8th and 9th graders.when he was at first he snaged everything just him and another kid threw the ball on rope to 3rd everyone else either didn't make it or it was a rainbow. They had eight kids going out for catcher and they just threw them 4 balls to throw down to 2nd,him and another kid (who was older about 6ft)made the throws on a rope and the others were off target rolling in the grass rainbows that drifted in the wind.He pitched and was in the top 3 in speed older kids naturaly will throw harder but they were wild,but he hit the mitt everytime he was very controlled.

His only down fall was that he ran slow, so I just told him it was no big deal he has plenty of time to work on it so he getting ready to play some rec and tryout for a travel team.

quote:

Originally posted by goingyard:
Big Day at our House. My son made the JV today... only 12yo on the Team. He is not a natural and has to work very hard. That is what makes this SWEET!

Goingyard, not taking anything away from your son, but does he go to a small school? A 12 year old playing on the JV team here is unheard of. We have about 500-600 kids per class.

Hi Folks:

My 10 yo has quite a work eithic. He had been going 3 to 4 days a week from Nov. 2003 to September 2005 winter (and that means something here) and summer. He took a break this winter which lasted until late January.

He actually turned 10 in Feb and is quite big (5'0" and 140 lbs.). As a result of pitching underage last year, he will have a significant avantage this year. He now throws 49-52 and all we are doing right now (besides team practises) is long toss. He has made a fairly advanced team on the west end of Toronto (our closest game will be 50 minutes away) and he is ready for a good year. He is learning quite a bit about 1st base right now with his team.

His is quite a hard work story (in progress) and he's more pumped now than he ever was.

Cheers

quote:

Originally posted by Notlongtilicantcatchim:
He actually turned 10 in Feb and is quite big (5'0" and 140 lbs.).

Wow! That is one LARGE 10YO!