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7 replies

Pre-game BP

J jayhook10+ posts
Have an issue to raise for travel ball and high school coaches. It's pretty basic: Do your teams take BP before games? If so, why? Or is it just pre-conditioned or a quirky baseball ritual?

I raise the point as a parent of a 13-yr-old travel ball player. And I do so not to second-guess a coach or be a pain in the butt.

Other teams my son has been on always took BP before games, and so I'm perplexed by a new situation. We're with a coach who apparently doesn't believe in BP. He does a minimal amount of soft toss before games - maybe 10-12 balls per kid.

I haven't asked him about his philosophy. I don't know if it's because he and his assistants can't or don't want to throw BP. In a pinch, I could throw or maybe even sollicit other fathers. At the same time, I don't want to put the coach on the defensive or act like I'm trying to show him up.

Any thoughts on how best to handle the situation? And getting back to the original question, does BP really matter?
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Bulldog 19Bulldog 195,000+ posts
We never really did much in the way of on-the-field BP before a game. Typically one of our coaches would be in the cage throwing when we got out to the field so you jumped in, took 5-8 cuts, maybe some situational stuff, and got out. Then you would head down to the dugout and get ready to play catch and stretch. Much of our pre-game stuff on home games was pretty loose until shortly before taking infield. Some would stay at the cage a little longer, others would throw a little longer, some would take some extra ground balls or fly balls.

When we went on the road, very seldom did we ever take any BP. We would ocasionally take a bucket of whiffle balls and get a few cuts in the outfield or out of the way somewhere if we had some time.
coach2709coach270910,000+ posts
Taking BP before the game can only help you.

Not taking BP before a game isn't that big of a deal.

Mainly we were more like Bulldog and just did it at home in our cage. I rarely did BP on the field mainly because we were still setting it up for the game. I always wondered why we took BP and then went and stretched. For some reason I never made them stretch and then take BP.
Bulldog 19Bulldog 195,000+ posts
quote:
Mainly we were more like Bulldog and just did it at home in our cage. I rarely did BP on the field mainly because we were still setting it up for the game. I always wondered why we took BP and then went and stretched. For some reason I never made them stretch and then take BP.


Well coach, I believe it has been shown that stretching before competition really is of no use anyway. That is why you are seeing most programs moving away from the static stretching to the dynamic stretching. To be honest, our gameday (and really our practice) stretching routine was basically useless. Most of the players didn't bother to do much of it..
coach2709coach270910,000+ posts
Bulldog I would love to have you explain a little bit more of this. Even when I was a player I was never a big fan of stretching and as a coach I just ended up doing what I was told to do many years ago. I would like to switch to something that more beneficial for them.

We always did the two poles at a jog going over and slightly a little faster on the way back. Then we did the normal stretch routine - feet together / down; spread feet / each leg; etc... The impression I am getting is that it's better to do agility type exercises to get loose - high knees; backpeddle, karaoke (carryover); etc....

Sorry for hijacking the thread.
D Doughnutman1,000+ posts
At the younger age groups, you are usually in tournaments that don't have cages or much space at all to do batting practice. Our guys usually throw a few whiffles to get the swings going and it seems to help. My son at 13 played a couple of tournaments with a team that didn't throw any bp before the game and it really seemed to hurt the guys. They didn't hit well until the second or third time through the order. Never did figure out why they didn't do it.

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