Rising Freshman taking summer off?

My son's future coach wants just the opposite. want incoming to play at the highest level possible.

My son's college Coach encouraged him to play summer ball , only request was limited innings on the hill . He got to hit and play the field and have some fun without pressure of having to constantly work .

On a personal note, as an administrator/coach for my son's summer travel team, the time I spent in the dugout with my son and his teammates during the summer before my son's freshman year was one of the greatest experiences that both my son and I shared. My son worked hard, both on and off the field trying to develop his mental mindset and his physical strength to help prepare for college baseball. I remember counting the days till that last summer game would arrive.
And now, although I'll be on the other side of the fence, I am excited to be able to continue to watch my son play as a freshman on his college team. Opening Day is 4 weeks from tomorrow. Yes!! Good luck with your son,enjoy your time together whatever you guys choose to do this summer. "College Baseball Placement Services" www.collegebaseballplacement.com

It really depends on the player and the position. I think for a pictcher it probably makes sense to give his arm a much needed rest or at least limit the amount of innings he pitches. My son who is now a freshman at a D1 school in Texas, after some discussion decided to play on a more relaxed 18 year old travel team where they did not do alot of travel and the players with prior notice to the coach could miss games to do other things such as take a family vacation or whatever reason. THe key is that the coach needed sufficient time say about a week, to build his roster.

I found this formula worked well for my son who is a position player and other players who wanted to partake in other activitiessuch as to work a job ot take a clas, among other things. The players got their reps in so that they were prepared for the fall tryout session at their respective colleges, yet they could enjoy other things before the grind started again. Almost all of the players on the team were signed.

I found this to be a happy medium between playing thousands of games and being able to enjoy their last summer before college. Our thought and quite frankly most if not all of the parents did not see the value of alot travel to be seen when they were already signed and it saved the parents alot of dough right before college. It was enough baseball to prepare my son for college ball but not to much so that he could not do other things.

I do think that a position player for sure should play some amount of games if not to just get their reps in so they will not be stale during the inportant "show the coach what you got " fall session which does not have implications for roster selections and starting position. Since my son is not a pitcher, I do not feel I am competent to express much of an informed opinion on this matter, given overuse isssues.

Correction the fall session does have implications for roster selections and starting positions for probably most colleges.

To Clarify, my son is a position player.

I would never recommend any position player to take a season off.

My 2013 RHP was told which summer collegiate team to submit his player info to and he is expected to play before heading to college. It was arranged by the school.

Big Ed,

I would have your son get clarification on what the head coach wants. I've not heard of a college coach asking a recruited position player to take it easy the summer before freshmen year. It just doesn't make sense unless he is coming back from a serious injury.

I agree with you. Baseball is a game of repetition, and your son needs the reps as he will be competing for playing time with upper classmen and possibly JUCO transfers that have playing experience under their belts.

Typically, rising college freshmen are doing one of three things:

1)playing summer collegiate baseball somewhere in the US. They were placed by their college coach.

2)playing travel or legion baseball on their own while working out to the schools off-season training program

3)taking college classes at their new school while working out & doing baseball related drills with other rising college freshmen. In all cases, this involves baseball to some degree.

Good luck, and please let us know what you find out.

I would follow fenway's advice.

I would say that the single biggest difference my son found in college was the size, strength and speed of players. Probably the most important thing a rising freshmen can do is get in contact with the strength and conditioning coach and get a solid summer lifting program, this is particularly important for a position player.

My son played summer ball (he is a two way) but has told me that if he was going to do it again he would get in the gym more and do his bullpens and batting cage work on his own.

Mine had the best of both worlds, pitched with a great team (all committed players) once a week (Palomino Level until playoffs, then traveled for two weeks to Ohio and California late July and early August) He worked part-time at a Gym locally so he got plenty of work outs in and did his running and throwing (BP,long toss etc) in between trips north to play with team. His college coach wanted him to play summer, do his conditioning program, and have a relaxed summer. He took two weeks off completely (still worked out in the gym though) before college started and felt great when workouts with team started after Labor Day.

the player wants to be in best baseball shape possible for the fall frosh season

Absolutely have a conditioning program in place (it should have been already)and keep it going through the summer. The college trainers will know VERY early on who's been at it hard... and who has not. This will travel up to the ACs/HC, quickly. If you're not known as the fastest frosh, it balances a portion to be one of the "strongest," especially a position player. (This is where HS football really pays off, especially if the HS program/league is , no pun intended, strong.) If PP, the best baseball of your [I]life should be the months prior to stepping on campus for frosh year, to be prepared, for some, an intense fall competition. Contrary to a comment above, many schools' Spring rosters, redshirt decisions, etc. are made in those first few months for certain players, especially if there are 35+ numbers. This would preclude taking summer off.

the most important aspect in playing summer ball b4 college is to make sure you dont over abuse yourself..my son played short stop and pitched for his legion team and got hurt making a bang bang play throwing off balance..In hindsight i would have limited his pitching to maybe once a week ,,as far as the position playing goes it was just bad luck he hurt himself..the most important thing is not abusing yourself before your first year in college.

My son was a HS senior pitcher last spring and threw a rather pedestrian 45 innings. He asked his college coaches which was better, rest or playing. They STRONGLY encouraged him to pitch and even suggested the team he should pitch for.

 

It turned out four incomming freshman pitchers played on the same team, so they came out and watched. His college team even 'hosted' a Connie Mack double header at their home field and they watched. When they played out of state, they watched.

 

It helped him in the pecking order come fall ball.

Following Fenway's train of thought.. We did # 2.

 

We took a little off his plate last Summer and decided to mix some much needed vacation time together while still continuing to improve his game. His College program sent a Summer Weight and Conditioning training program which he followed diligently ( He even did  it during our vacation time).

 

He is a position player so he got to play some 18U tournaments but pretty much connected with a Legion team to get reps in both IF and OF.

 

From what I have seen from that time and after Winter break before Spring practices, Strength and Conditioning is a MUST!

 

The Summer we spent together before college was one of my best memories. The Winter break time together after his First Semester is the only time in recent memeory that tops that and  is PRICELESS ( You cannot really tell how much you miss them until they come back.. He is our only child)