Offseason Practice

When the weather is bad where we live {San Diego}, as in right {raining heavily and field are flooded} I will work my son out on an asphalt playground, tennis court or basketball court. We use the yellow balls they use in batting cages. I will roll groundballs to him and work on technique. Later I will hit them, nice thing is you can hit lasers and not worry about bad hops. This helps to speed up the game. We also do agility/speed drills using agility ladder, parachute and over speed cables. We are lucky here in southern California with respect to the weather but I suspect you can accomplish a lot no matter where you live if you go by "where there is a will there is a way".

You would be amazed at what you can accomplish working on footwork and technique simply by having someone roll you groundballs.

Hope this helps

Kinda hard to get groundballs in 4 inches of snow.

I live in Indiana so I also now what snow is and that it is impossible to practce outside when there is snow on the ground. Here is what we do.

We have an old barn that is about 40 feet long. At one side of it we have a net and at the other side we have a pitching machine. To catch the ball that are hit. We drop a net n front of the hitter and then the hitter hits into the net. There is a hole in the net that lets the ball through. A few get hit up the center and of to the sides but I would say it stops 95% of the balls. You can buy a 20 ft net on ebay for like $15. If you don't have a pitching machine, you can have someone throw to you through that hole. I would be worrierd about overdoing it with tee work. In my opinion tees are good in moderation to fine tune the swing and maybe to start practice. If you do it all winter your reaction time and coordination may actuall lessen. That is totally an opinion and I have no facts to back it up.

If you have more questions about how mine is set up let me know.

You could throw snowballs! Or really work on your sliding technique.
Seriously, the bad weather conditions that most of us around the country face during the winter makes it a challange to improve skills during the off season.
If there are other players in your area, you can pool togather and find a large shed or barn that you can set up a batting cage in. It doesn't have to be a full size cage, a half cage works well, just be sure you have a good "L" screen. Line drives at 30 feet can be a little unnerving.
Have you ever played wall ball? Get 3-4 guys and this can keep your hands sharp.
Use your imagination and you'll find ways to work on your skills.
And don't let the SoCals get to you! Anything that makes the ground a little wet is considered "bad" weather... lucky stiffs!

What is this bad weather you speak of?

move to Texas

I don't think snowballs are quite heavy enough to keep your arm in tune for the offseason. Iceballs on the otherhand might-and are useful against annoying little brothers too! Sliding sounds like fun. I do what I can in my garage though.

Try your local HS---see if you cannot get access to use their gym


Arent you in college? if so then you should have no problem using their facilities

Good Idea TR, a lot of the local schools in VA let the players use the Gym for workouts on the weekends.

We are fortunate enough to have a small building we rent from the local 4-H and it's big enough to fit two cages in and a row of tees and a mound. We heat it with a kerosene construction heater and it serves the purpose. We even have a dirt floor so they can wear cleats. We pull up the cages and take infield as well.



CV

We also made a deal with the town to use a vacant armory-- we had the pitching machines and pitching tunnels so all we needed was the room--- we made it work with dads in attendance at all times-- if you want it bad enough it will happen

We're in Michigan...I understand your pain. We had a warehouse we used before, but now we have a cage in a balcony at one of our elementary schools that we use for our high school players.
If you are in college as suggested earlier, and you aren't at school, call a local H.S. coach...I'm sure most would be happy to get you some time, especially in exchange for some "instruction" for his current high school players.

A good way for players, especially younger players to develop a good swing is to use a whiffle ball bat and nerf or sponge balls.

During college when we were on the road or in the dorm and going stir crazy we used to ball up a pair of socks and take BP in the room. That was before Play Station and X Box.

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A good way for players, especially younger players to develop a good swing is to use a whiffle ball bat and nerf or sponge balls.

DO WHAT ?

cvsting, Do What?

I use to sit in my living room all winter and throw sponge balls for my kids to hit. You can sit about 15 feet away and not worry about breaking much or getting hit by a ball.

By swinging a whiffle ball bat, a young kid can actually keep their weight back and swing the bat with excellent form instead of having to start their swing early and throw their weight into the swing and drag a heavy bat. (Especially kids under 9 years old although it can be used for any age)

Since then I built a house and put a batting cage with a pitching machine in the basement so my wife can have her living room back.

For pitchers, the Tom House "towel drill" is always a good indoor workout option. I also have a artificial mound that I can move from the backyard into the garage ... you can throw into a screen from a short distance, but obviously it's impossible to gauge location ... you'd just be working on mechanics.

For hitting, you can use one of those hitting 'poles', i.e., that have a solid plasic/resin ball on a fiberglass rod about five feet long. One person hits while the other holds the rod and swings the 'ball' into different parts of the strike zone, i.e., inside versus outside. If you don't have a large unobstructed interior room, you can do it in the garage.

Usually, this isn't a concern out here in CA ... but we're now in the middle of storm #2 since last Fri, with storm #3 hitting tomorrow morning. We're way past our annual average rainfall already ... and still in the middle of our storm season. Getting three major winter storms in five days is unheard of in SoCal. At least this will help replenish some of our water supplies out here.

Just heard on the radio that we've received 17 inches of rain in the last 15 days ... our annual average rainfall is 12-13 inches. There should be some great white water rafting this year ... probably the best in the past decade.