Other sports benefiting the developement of youth baseball skills?

He is 7.

He should be doing sports to have fun!!!!

My son played baseball, football, basketball and soccer.  The only thing I could not get him to try, and I tried hard, was ice hockey.  He played them all and figured out what he liked most.  On his own.

 

That's all I'd worry about for now.

 

Agreed, have basketball practice tonight ... I'm just asking for opinions about the crossover benefits or lack of benefits from other sports to baseball. I'm not worried about it - just curious about thoughts on it in general. Trust me, he chooses what he wants to play and it is all about him having fun.

Preteen sports are about fun, friendship, physical activity and participation not development. What's important is learning fundamentals and building a passion for the game. You won't know for sure about skills until post puberty. My son played soccer, basketball and baseball as a preteen. My daughter played soccer, basketball, softball and field hockey.

Fencing.

 

I kid you not. If I had it to to over again with my youngest I'd have given him lessons and seen if it took. The sport requires the same sort of competitiveness, quiet focus and intense but relaxed hand-eye coordination as hitting a baseball.  Plus it's a great "hook" for college if you're one of the best at it.

Competitive swimming did wonders for my son's arm and strength development.

ok thats good, but be careful not to over due it. 

 

The most important thing is that kids should be out and about and not sitting on the couch watching TV or playing video games.

 

There really won't be very much physical crossover benifits for a 7 year old. Their body's just don't work that way yet. There may be some psychological, like increased aggression from an agressive sport but that's about it. With that said the best crossover sport training any kid can get for any sport in my opinion would be swimming or wrestling.

Ping Pong, great hand and eye coordination.

I'm going with basketball.  It is one of the more athletic sports -- has it all.  Short, quick bursts of energy.  Speed/agility/quickness.  Eye/hand coordination.  It is fast -- you have to be mentally tough to stay in the game.  Full of success and failure.       

Ice Hockey.  

For a 7 year old it HAS to be chasing frogs.

 

Good hand eye coordination.

Quick hands.

Good footwork

Strategic thinking

Calm nerves.

Staying in the moment.

Ability to persevere in difficult situations. (cold water)

Teamwork

 

All perfect for baseball. 

 

And gets dirty!

or catching a firefly on a summer night and watching it glow in your hands

"carrying 25 lb blocks of ice up five stories of stairs"....Hank Aaron

"catching bricks for my father, he was a bricklayer"....Jerry Rice

"catching chickens in an alley in Philadelphia"...Rocky Balboa

His son is 7.

Catching grasshoppers, much like frog catching, then putting it on a hook and casting.  Shoulder strength and flexibility to throw gas.  Seriously, just do what is fun for him. 

Actually 6.

Every father needs to have at least 3 sons so the youngest one will benefit from all the lessons learned from the oldest. 

When my kid was 6-7 he wanted to play sports.  Chasing frogs and insects was out of the question.  He's a city boy.  Instead they played sports in the street -- hockey, baseball (with a wiffel or tennis ball), football, and all sorts of rough housing.  He would shoot baskets for hours. 

Thanks for the info everyone.

My bad on not being clear ... I really wasn't asking the question directly related to my young son or any 6 - 7 year old. Just in general, as a kid ages, are some activities/sports more or less of a benefit to baseball than others.

I don't push him. If he wants to play a sport, I sign him up, if not, we move on.

(lionbaseball-well said)

 

We let our play any sport he wanted when he was younger.

Then in middle school he made good travel teams in football, hockey, and basketball.

Demands grew too much.

He stayed with ice hockey until last year- great conditioning.

This year for his other sport he played (local) travel soccer because a bunch of his friends were on the team, so why not?

Liked all the running and scored more goals than we thought.

Most of all:

had fun doing another sport with no pressure and was with his buddies.

For what it's worth, when my son was about 11 his baseball coach told him to avoid playing golf because it would mess with his swing.  He's now an 18-year-old, right-handed PO who I guess could play all the golf he wanted to, according to that coach, but still chooses not to!

Golf and baseball is only an issue if the player doesn't have the time to refine their mechanics and burn them into memory in each sport. If not, I get where the coach is coming from. Except rather than bring golf mechanics into my baseball swing I brought baseball mechanics into my golf swing. I did this despite hitting left and golfing right handed.

JacksDad....let me fill you in about this board.  The wealth of knowledge here is astounding, many of these people have kids that have already been recruited by college, even out of college, some have MLB kids, others have kids still playing the game but not on the MLB track.  All their information is useful because they have been there and they have done this......BUT.....if you list a question about a child under the age of 14 you aren't going to get many serious answers, this is the HIGH SCHOOL board after all.  There are a few threads every year that make it abundantly clear that while there are millions of little league kids, there are only hundreds of thousands of travel ball kids, only tens of thousands of high school ball players, and only thousands of College Players, culminating in 750 guys actually playing MLB at any given time.

 

Please don't let this discourage you, but this board WILL reality check you at every chance.  Many of these people wish they had done things differently, like let there kid play sport X, or insisted that their kid play an additional sport...or even they wish they hadn't let their kid play as much baseball as he did.  All have their reasons, but the general consensus you will get from this board about a kid under 14 is don't take it so serious, let him be a kid, and above all don't be serious about baseball until High School, maybe even High School Varsity.  This is good advice, but doesn't help the parent looking for answers.

 

Next time you post a question on a topic YOU are wondering about leave out the age of your child, make it more like an opinion poll based on others experiences and you may get more serious answers.  This is a wonderful board, with knowledgeable people, and a wonderful tool if used properly.  But it's also a great place to get reminded that your 7 year old (and my 12 year old) have a better chance of winning the lottery than playing MLB, and we should enjoy the ride while it lasts.

 

My oldest son played water polo for a few weeks and felt that it really helped 
with his conditioning.  Unfortunately, his horse drowned and we could not 
afford another one.........

 

........were it not for all the kicking under the surface that you cannot see and

the resulting bruises on the legs, it truly is an excellent way to condition.

 

 

 

 

The original question was posted in the preHS board, because of the interface of this

site, all you see is a new post come up. I dont like how it intertwines but much more affordable.

 

I dont know why you would tell anyone not to give their players age, we are here to help people, if someone finds the need to not give that info, 9 times out of 10 someone is going to ask how old is your player? After reading hundreds no maybe thousands of posts, its very easy to figure out.  Its even easy when people have multiple names. We don't discourage people here, but rather try real hard to help them find a balance early in the process.  Listen carefully to those that have done this before you , and one will learn later on hos much easier it will be.

 

One thing that you said, spot on, this is a High School baseball web but has become so much more since its inception.

 

There are a few here that I know of that have players that are pretty high profile for next years draft.

 

You would never know.  They give great advice while keeping a low profile.  Its called humility, and as a parent its a great trait to possess.

 

BTW, I have no regrets on anything that we did. Son did not play any other sport in HS but baseball, but we did try real hard to let him enjoy other experiences. I think that is one reason why he had the opportunities he has had.  I look at it this way, lets say that you are a teacher, does teaching posses you 24/7, of course not!  Why should it for a pre teen or anyone else for that matter?

 

JMO.

 

It has been MY experience, and perhaps I am wrong, that a question posted in any forum on this board about anyone under the age of 14 gets told to not worry/think/plan yet, the kids only X years old, even in the pre-high forum.

 

The first response to the OP's question was by you TPM and you didn't even answer his question, you said "

He is 7.

He should be doing sports to have fun!!!!"

 

Then some answers came, but others chimed in about frogs, grasshoppers, water polo horses dying...etc.

 

I maintain my post...had the OP just posted without the child's age he would have received answers that likely didn't involve frogs, grasshoppers or water polo horses dying.

 

I get that some of the more experienced people where just having fun, and of course no harm done, but as a newbie myself I wanted to give advice about how to ask a question to get responses to what was asked.  It's not often I am knowledgeable about anything on this board, so I thought I would share.  I also made sure to point out that this board is full of talented people and parents of talented people and that it is very useful, but as a newbie it CAN be disheartening to ask a question and get responses about grasshoppers or the like.  Just because our kids aren't anywhere close to being at the recruitment stage yet doesn't mean me don't have questions.

There is no question there can be some "blunt" answers here.  But that's not bad.  You may agree or disagree with the answers regarding young kids.  I agree with some and disagree with others.  But getting that perspective is important.  For every "it doesn't matter" there are "it made a difference for my kid" as well.  So read it all and make your own decision -- "we report, you decide."

When I told the OP that he was only 7 not to worry about it, it wasn't because I was having fun.

I was saying that he shouldn't be worrying about it. Being blunt, yes, I guess. 

I know you don't get it, but someday you will. 

 

My son took ballroom dancing lessons for 8 years, and his pitching coach (travel ball coach) said it helped his balance.  He stopped when he was 16, but I think it still helps to this day at the age of 18.

Encourage your son to play lots of sports for as as long as possible!

 

(but stay out of Texas if you can't put FOOTBALL FIRST. HS football here is WAY over the top )

I was forced to take ballroom dancing as a kid. I never let my friends know about it. Most of the guys in the class were candy ass, momma's boys geeks. But in the long run if you think chicks dig the long ball, it's nothing compared to guys who can dance.