IMG ACADEMY (My Opinion)

No doubt they offer quality training, but to go there full time also comes with a world class price tag....hehe

Happy to hear you had a positive experience!

I commented back in April so won't reiterate the good/bad/ugly of IMG.  Having had two sons go there for camps and the full time high school and middle school program, mine is just one man's opinion. 

While the facilities are awesome at IMG, and the weather can be great, the price tag is too severe for what the "average" player receives.  I have one son now playing D1 and another playing high school varsity.  For better or worse, we've taken a look at many, many things over the years.

I take the Texas Baseball Ranch and their rough around the edges facilities over IMG any day in terms of bang for the buck.  The pitching instruction from Ron Woolforth and staff has been incredible.  I can reel off quite a few talented middle infield and batting instructors around the country too.  At IMG, Edgar Caceres is the man.

IMG is a for profit academy.  The full time program at IMG will now set a family back $75K+.  IMG brings in a few scholarship players every year (top baseball players who are getting a full ride).  The rest of us subsidize them. 

I strongly recommend against the full time program.  It is not worth the $...

For a camp or the Summer wood bat league, you'd have to weigh the cost/benefit to one's family as those camps/leagues are pretty expensive too.

My son played a few games there during a tourney this past summer.  They're undergoing a huge construction project, so it wouldn't be fair to criticize the fields themselves - but the facility is impressive.  They also run programs for other sports.  There were a couple of soccer teams playing there that stayed in the same hotel we did.  My son also chatted with a couple of girls going through their golf program during a rain delay, and they were getting the same type of high level instruction as the baseball players.

I told my son I'd be willing to send him there full time if he was interested - just as soon as I hit the Powerball jackpot.

IMG is undergoing a new addition of a football field and they are tearing down the baseball field later this year and turning that into something else. They are making a bigger area for baseball that have fields for younger and older kids plus new cage batting areas. We live in texas and are always open to consider quality camps just need to know where they are. Our son is a middle infielder but also plays 3rd. He is not a pitcher. I heard about a well respected pitching camp or school in Texas. I think it was in mesquite, tx.

As for the cost, yes it is expensive and their overhead dictates the cost. Buildings, First Rate Coaching and all the overhead is not cheap. I couldn't afford to have him there all year but 2 weeks of solid training is better than 5 weeks of average camps.

H20

Sorry, couldn't help it.  It looks like the nicest facility I have ever seen.

SUAWTG,

That's a good photo of waterboy. What they do have that stands out from the rest is the Sports Therapy area which is inside next to the Massive 10000 squarefoot weight room. They have multiple Physical Therapists that work all day long to help any athlete with any injury which is part of any sport. They use the latest medical sports equipment and GAME READY if you don't know what that is you need to. go to www.gameready.com.

They have an anti gravity treadmill for anyone that has knee therapy that allows them to run on half their weight.

Yes sorry couldn't help but think of the waterboy with all the gatorade talk

It does look pretty awesome, I am sure my son would love something like that. 

No way I could afford it though.  Hopefully he will get by training on the hill we live on and the weight set in the basement.

The facilities are incredible.  We were there 2+ years and continue to be blown away by what we experienced...in terms of facilities.  Never before or since have we seen anything like IMG for all its sports.  They offer camps for adults too...if I had the time for tennis or golf I'd probably consider a week at IMG.

There were some excellent baseball coaches (Kevin Sharp, Edgar Caceres).  Also some average coaches and some below average coaches.

For the cost/benefit, we concluded we could optimize school, sport, conditioning, etc., by doing it like most people do...a la carte.  We've not been able to replicate the facilities anywhere, but we feel we've found everything else better elsewhere:  academics, college counseling, baseball instruction, weight training/speed/conditioning, etc.  IMG has all those things, plus it runs camps where all those things can be sampled. 

Regarding camps, I'm gald you guys had a great experience.  Certainly an individual thing.  My sons enjoyed their camps at IMG too.  In hindsight, we feel our $ were better spent on ACT/SAT test prep, individual baseball instruction, athletic training at other places (e.g., Athletes Performance), specific baseball instruction (e.g., Texas Baseball Ranch), college camps and showcases where my sons' targeted schools attended, etc. 

I'd encourage anyone thinking of IMG, particularly for the wood bat leagues or for the full time program, to make sure they've done a cost benefit analysis.  It is an extremely expensive place.

I couldn't agree with you more Branson Baseball. Our son hopes is to play in the college level. We are fortunate that his academics are is strongest skill set. His ACT and SAT are so high that he has academic offers from the top schools for engineering. We get about 12-16 a week. He already has a d3 NAIA school (Trinity University)that he hopes to play on but if he doesn't he will be going there anyway for the engineering and try to walk on. As for the IMG we did weigh all options and we have no regrets. We saved for this and he worked hard to get here and it has helped him tremendously.

Yes, but the Gatorade is free. With as much as my son drinks, that almost makes it a break even proposition.

I was happy to see this site since I am looking for more info about the IMG summer wood bat league for my 15 year old,, freshman son.  Any other feedback would be appreciated.  Is he too young?  Is he good enough?  will he enjoy being in the hot sun for 6 weeks?  We live in New Jersey.  It is hard to say how good my son is at this point.  He has always been the strongest player on various club and school teams.  He bats righty and is a lefty pitcher.  He is big and strong for his age at 5 ft 10, 170, but not sure how much more he is going to grow.  He loves baseball and trains all year round.

ANY FEEDBACK WILL BE HELPFUL FOR ME.  HE FOUND THIS PROGRAM ON HIS OWN AND WANTS TO GO.

IMG is extremely expensive.  That's true for the Summer League, camps, and the full time program.

Kids generally love it.  It's beautiful.  The beach is nearby.  They play a sport.  Mom and Dad aren't around.  They hang out with other kids.  They won't be overly supervised.  Kids like all that.

That doesn't mean your son becomes a better baseball player.

He will be plenty good enough to play either in the 15U program or the high school program.  I don't need to know anything about his abilities to say that because the League will be filled with mostly mid to lower tier players. 

Why?  Because most kids are playing for their Summer teams somewhere else around the country and many will be trying to play the best competition possible.  And they're working on getting bigger, faster and stronger, and they're getting baseball instruction...all much closer to their homes and at much lower cost than going to IMG.  And maybe they're working to make some $$$, or helping around the house, or taking a Summer course, etc.

The punch line for the IMG Summer League is it's like Summer camp.  If you would normally send your kid from NJ to Florida for 5-8 weeks of Summer camp and spend thousands of $$$ doing it, then this can work.  Your son will have a lot of fun.  Maybe he'll pick up a thing or two, maybe he won't.

An excellent alternative from a truely wonderful organization would be the Doyle baseeball Academy which is based out of Tiger Town in Lakeland Florida.

Denny has been teaching kids and working with professional players for more than 30 years. You cant do better!

If IMG isn't for a profit academy at $75K a year, they've got issues.  

fenwaysouth's personal financial $ translator:  

1 x $75K IMG student per year

OR

1 Ivy engineering son + 1 state school engineering son + 1 state school liberal arts son.  

Tell me more about these "few scholarships"........

Even middle aged men learn the hard way...tough way to lose $75K.  My wife hasn't let me forget it.

Doyle is a great alternative if the OP is looking for stellar training, great facilities, honest and fair coaching, a Summer camp experience, etc.  2 1/2 weeks and a lot less $$$ than IMG.  Still allows your son to play on a Summer team and get training near home, work to make some money,...

I agree with Floridafan and fenwaysouth regarding costs of this program. Our son learned alot and it has helped him. The costs and benefits are for each parent to decide. The facilities are state of the art and the costs associated with all their programs require an overhead that is passed on to us. They have full time staff in all sports they offer. It cannot be compared to Doyle, I have never been to Doyle and I am sure it is a sound program but that is all they do and I wish we would have tried that but it's our son's last year in high school and he has already been recruited to play baseball with Trinity University in San Antonio TX. A DIV 3 program. 

My advice for parents and athletes is:

Is your son truly serious going to the next level and i don't mean the pros (not just yet) but college. If he is and he lives and breathes baseball then IMG or Doyle is the way to go to get valuable insight and lessons to help them set themselves apart from the rest of the players. 

Our son had many conversations with the coaches that were pro players at one time and the advice that he was given has helped him to achieve better performance. In addition the classes outside of the baseball practices helped him to understand all aspects of the game. 

I do want to say that we did see more than a few students that were not baseball players but parents who had the financial resoruces to send them, "hoping" they would be baseball players. You know the rich kid that really sucks but dad pays his way to be the starter kinda thing. I don't mean any disrespect but this is what I saw each time. Not alot mind you but always a few kids. 

I often tell my son how fortunate he is that he can attend these camps and training compared to my days of just figuring it out on our own. He is 18 and he loves the game. He will start this fall at Trinity and hopefully succeed and if not it was a nice ride while it lasted. 

Just remember that whatever you do with your kids: "enjoy the moment, relish the time spent, it goes way to fast"

So it accepts any player who can pay?

sounds great to say son is trained by former mlb player, but that doesn't automatically mean they have skills to teach. We have both former mlb and minor leaguers giving lessons around town, and in our case the minor league guys do better job and knows more about teaching hitting. Sure soMe mlb players r good at it, but don't  think they r automatically better at teaching. They minor guys r good for sons to talk with. More have chance of playing there than in majors. 

One of the best hitting instructors ever never played past HS and he is BLIND!

Just think how many bowling lessons you could get for $75,000, no rain outs, no stained white pants.