Quit Baseball awhile back and trying to make a comeback

Hey Cowboy,
Welcome to the site.
If you haven't played since LL, you are very likely going to need some decent guidance in all basic aspects of the game, including hitting, fielding, throwing and baserunning. You are going to need lots of reps with ground balls, fly balls and swinging the bat. You are going to want to get started on a throwing program. Once you get your swing in decent shape, you are going to need to hit against some live pitching. With all of this, you are going to need someone qualified to guide you with proper mechanics and help you with the thought process of the game on the bigger field.

I don't know if your family is financially able to get you going at a local baseball academy but that would be a good thing to do for at least a few months to get you started on the right path. If not, there are other options. This time of year, many minor leaguers are home on a break and willing to help young players out. You can also look for ex-college players or HS coaches who may have some time before things ramp up after the first of the year. Ask for help finding good resources in your area. You may want to ask on the Texas forum here on HSBBW.

Once you have spent time with qualified help, they can guide you on what position you may want to "try out" for. When you do try out, the HS coach may steer you to a position based on what he sees.

As far as working out, that would be great but for now, you probably need to put all or most of your time into baseball-specific work.

Getting started now gives you a chance. If you are reasonably athletic and you find good guidance, there is no reason that you cannot become a good HS player. But it will take a commitment and hard work on your part. Best of luck. Let us know how it goes.

Good for you for asking the questions.

Do you have a friend or family member you can play catch with? Being in San Antonio you can spend a lot of time throwing, etc. In high school arm strength/throwing ability defines a lot of where someone plays. If you don't have anyone to throw with, you can get a bucket of cheap baseballs and throw into a backstop.

If I was in your position and had $100 to spend on lessons, I would get a couple of hitting lessons.

It isn't too late. Good luck!

If you live in Texas, tryouts will be the last week of January. The season starts towards the end of Feb.

Leave the position choice to the coaches. With your frame and speed if you show an ability to hit they will fond a spot for you. But you are thousands of cuts behind players that have not taken a break. Lots of work to do...start now.

Welcome Cowboy.

It is great that you are becoming interested in baseball again as it is a very fun game to play, but it is also very frustrating. As posted above, you need to realize that making the team this year will be difficult as there are many boys that have continued to play baseball since T-Ball and have spent hundreds, if not thousands, of hours practicing and playing the game. Baseball is one of those sports that the amount of time practicing and playing is directly related to how good one plays. As stated above, finds somebody that knows the game that can help you with your swing, and defensive techniques and get out there and practice, practice, practice.

Do not be discouraged if everything does not go perfectly at tryouts. Just continue to work and play and you will be able to tryout again the next year as well. Maybe find someone at school that will be willing to workout with you. Most of all, have fun.

Take advantage of these next two months.

Get a glove, get some baseball pants,
swing, throw, bounce a ball vs a wall and catch it.

Be the guy to hang out with.
Show up everyday.

Good luck. Keep us informed

You are getting good advice. To add a couple of things: if you have space in your yard or garage, get a tee and a net or tarp to hit balls into. Do this in conjunction with some qualified hitting instruction though, because you want to be sure you are practicing the correct swing mechanics. It is an ongoing process of learning, practice and correction, and a tee is a big help in getting those reps of your swing in.

You will likely be working up to 50 and 100+ swings per session. Make sure they are all good ones. It can be a real test of how dedicated you are. If you have access to one, swinging a bat into a heavy bag (the big ones boxers use) is another excellent exercise to practice your swing to the point of contact and to practice generating power in your swing. You can find youtube videos on how to use one.

As far as workouts, there is information on this site, but also take a look at the Jaeger Sports website below which has a lot of good information on maintaining a healthy arm. If you are getting in the number of throwing reps you need in the next few months, you will need to pay attention to strengthening and caring for your arm. Good luck to you!

http://www.jaegersports.com/Ar...th-and-Conditioning/

You really are going to have a major hill to climb here.

I can't stress the concept of getting lessons now and if you have the money available you may have to take several over the next few months to get at least some kind of basic knowlege of baseball fundamentals. The problem you are going to have to overcome is the education that other kids have gotten for the last four years.

Others have posted things to do and I agree. Assuming your throwing mechanics are at least adequate to get a ball from the outfield to the infield a lot of the other things can be taught. If you throw poorly it may not happen, usually correcting that takes months of instruction and even then it may not be fixable.

Probably the one thing you are going to have to overcome with any coaches is the perception that you aren't really serious about trying to make the team. Any coach that looks at your 'resume' is going to ask right off the bat why you didn't play baseball for four years. Even with a good excuse you may find that the coach has mentally written you off. It will take a lot of effort to get back on his radar at that point. Being athletic is a big plus. You can teach the proper way to field a ground ball and hitting mechanics can be tweaked but speed and strength are intangibles that may help you make the team. As a freshman you may be looked upon as a project.

If, and I say if, you don't make the team don't get discouraged. If you really want to do this then don't accept rejection as a final determinant. If you don't make the freshman team or JV (don't know what teams there are at your HS) then find out what kept you out off the team and work on those things for the next year. It won't be easy, you will find that there are kids there that are doing the things that are hard for you with little effort. It should be easier for them, they have four years up on you. But if you outwork them you can catch up.

quote:

Any coach that looks at your 'resume' is going to ask right off the bat why you didn't play baseball for four years

sorry wklink have to disagree with that. I don't think most or any HS coaches will ask or give a rats*** where or what an incoming frosh has been playing. They will evaluate what they see at the tryout.

A lot will depend on the size of the school and or the quality of the program. We are in a district of very large 5A schools with some excellent programs but some schools even at the JV level field teams with players that are fundamentally behind where my son was at 10U. I'm not kidding. Demographics play a huge role. Some schools appear to have to take any kid that comes out. I know of players cut from our frosh program that would make some of these other schools JV for sure.

Cowboy
After an intense period of hitting and throwing leading up to your schools tryout here's some more advise:

Show up early and dressed in baseball attire. All of it.
Listen and look the coaches in the eye when they are speaking.
Run, (don't jog,) everywhere.
Don't goof off with the other players.
Put max effort into getting to every ball hit to you. Even if you don't come up with it good coaches will appreciate the hustle.
Hit the ball hard in the hitting portion and demonstrate that you can bunt down the lines.
If they ask what position you play say "that's up to you coach"
Even if your skills don't match up to the other players, be the kid that they will remember for his hustle.
Lastly; even if you don't make the frosh team you can play Spring and Summer ball with an organization outside the school and then try again next year.

This is all great advice. One thing I would add is that most schools have offseason workouts. Because of state rules, the coach may or may not be able to attend (leaving private instructors to run the show, or sometimes captains), but rest assured the coach knows who is and isn't attending any and all kinds of offseason workouts. Be one of the ones who does - regularly and enthusiastically. The benefit to you, too, is that oftentimes there is instruction going on of the kind you've been recommended here, and it comes cheaper within the program than on your own.

quote:

"Probably the one thing you are going to have to overcome with any coaches is the perception that you aren't really serious about trying to make the team. Any coach that looks at your 'resume' is going to ask right off the bat why you didn't play baseball for four years. Even with a good excuse you may find that the coach has mentally written you off. It will take a lot of effort to get back on his radar at that point. Being athletic is a big plus. You can teach the proper way to field a ground ball and hitting mechanics can be tweaked but speed and strength are intangibles that may help you make the team. As a freshman you may be looked upon as a project."

My feelings are kind of in between Wklink's (who wrote that quoted passage) and cball's (who thinks most coaches only care about what they see at the evaluation). I think most coaches do form some preconceived notions about players, and your history isn't going to help you there. On the other hand, it is probably a bad coach who doesn't leave an open mind at least enough to give you a fair shot at the evals, and I agree with cball that what the coach sees there will matter far more than any lack of history you have. Showing up prepared, after having worked your tail off to "catch up" this offseason, and then ALWAYS showing hustle, effort, and good team attitude will go a long way.

The other thing to note is that, depending on the school and program, the "JVC"/freshman program may be a very real option for you. At the school where I have coached (and where my son is now a freshman), we don't turn many kids away - and if a kid is turned away it is almost always because they haven't shown commitment, hustle, and effort, not for lack of talent.

This doesn't mean everybody plays equally, or even that everybody plays - this is HS, and playing time has to be earned. It also doesn't mean that you are on a track that will always lead up the ladder to JV and Varsity. Some of those kids will never play Varsity, and some others may never even play JV. BUT, as long as they show effort, hustle, good team attitude, and a commitment to try to get better, they will have a team to play on. Funny thing, too: those coaches and their preconceived notions about some of those players often have to backtrack and reassess - I know of several kids whose ceiling was thought to be JV or lower who did what it takes and are now Varsity players. It is up to YOU - you can make it happen, and if you do the work, nobody is going to stand in your way.

Good post, EdgarFan... in fact I think there is something good Cowboy can take from every post on this thread.
For his sake, I purposely assumed with my earlier post that he will be trying out for a larger competitive school. Better to be over-prepared than under-prepared.

"I think most coaches do form some preconceived notions about players, and your history isn't going to help you there."

Regarding this point, our staff is guilty as charged. For players already in the system, we sat down with them at season's end and discussed their plans for off-season and what they need to work on to compete for a spot and excel next year. If they planned to play other sports, no problem. If they needed to work a regular job, no problem. Going to the gym or otherwise working on conditioning, no problem. Working on their game and/or playing more ball, of course, no problem. But if we find out they spent most of their time playing video games and/or just "hanging out", that tells us something. For incoming freshmen, we at least ask around about who might be coming up into the system. If we know they have played well in the lower rec leagues the past summer, that tells us something. If we know they played summer club ball or otherwise trained for baseball in the off season, that tells us something. If we know they are athletic and involved in other sports, same thing. Also, in our small community, we usually hear about any grade or behavioral troubles kids may encounter. All of this info is factored in so that we can make the best long term decisions come time for the very short tryout period. Yes, we try to be open-minded to someone off the radar (or someone on the radar for the wrong reasons), but we are seldom surprised.

We have had several players come and try out after being away from the game for 2,3 or 4 years. We are a medium/small school, so many would-be players have the perception that, if they are athletic, they can make any of the school's sports teams. Some were considered good players before leaving. Every one of them is very surprised to see how much their piers (and the game) have passed them by. Very few stick.

I am inclined to think Cowboy has a shot because he is asking early on what he needs to do. He is showing preparedness, resourcefulness and willingness to listen to advice. Now, if he wants it bad enough to put in the work, I like his chances.

quote:

Originally posted by cball:

quote:

Any coach that looks at your 'resume' is going to ask right off the bat why you didn't play baseball for four years

sorry wklink have to disagree with that. I don't think most or any HS coaches will ask or give a rats*** where or what an incoming frosh has been playing. They will evaluate what they see at the tryout.

I agree that the size of a school will definately impact a kid's selection. Still, any coach that says he doesn't take into consideration the fact that a kid hasn't played baseball for four years is an idiot, or is a liar.

It isn't just the physical skillset that will be questioned. The motivation and the desire will be questioned as well. Why all of a sudden now? There are very good reasons why kids quit playing and sometimes the reasons are beyond the kid's control. That is why I am encouraging Cowboy to try out if he really wants to. Maybe the situation that caused him to quit has changed and he can play now. Go for it and put your best effort in but realize that the hill you will have to climb will be higher.

The reason the motivation will be questioned immediately is because the vast majority of kids quit playing after LL is because the game loses interest for them. A coach has no idea why a kid quit playing during a tryout but he does know that if he selects this 'raw' player then he may have to reject a kid that has played and practices for those four years. Any kid selected will have to be a phenom or a fantastic athlete.

Many of the skills that translate to the field take months to years to learn and if a kid isn't motivated to put in the effort needed to hone these skills he will quickly fail, no matter how athletic he is. Lets face it, T-drills are boring, throwing a lot is boring, practing fielding ground balls or pop flies can get boring. Realizing that the way you did it when you were 11 was completely wrong can be discouraging. Knowing that everyone around you is ahead of you can either motivate someone or discourage them from even trying. All of us with kids know how much practice and learning and instruction were done in this critical age group of 11-14. Most of us also can look back and see how much our boys changed in their abilities and their fundamental approach to the game during this time.

Also realize that Cowboy hasn't gone through this period and probably is still at that 11YO skillset. Any coach will look at that and understand how much he will have to catch up. It is doable for sure but it will require a whole lot more work than many kids would be willing to put forth.

wklink is 100% correct. These coaches already know who the players are before the first practice even begins.

Any kid who hasn't played baseball before trying out at the h.s. level better be a superior athlete with at least a strong arm, some speed and an ability to make hard contact, if unrefined.

Let me add one that thing for Cowboy112 in case he is actually following this thread and what I am saying.

In no way shape or form am I telling you that trying out for the baseball team is a waste of time. I want to be clear on this.

If you want to do this, if you want to play then by all means try out. Go and give it your best shot. The worst thing that will happen is you will get some days outside having fun, you will get to meet new guys and probably make some friends. Even if you don't make the team you will at least have the satisfaction of knowing you went out and at least tried to make the team. 100% of people that don't try end up failing. There is no shame in putting forth a good effort and falling short if you put the effort in.

In my observation at this age a player who enjoys the game gets some good coaching and works at it can have a chance. At this age "raw" and teachable/coachable can be an advantage for a candidate.