Serious Baseball Player Now Plays Basketball

Calsportsmom,

I was in the same situation as your son when I was his age. As a freshman, I decided to stop playing basketball even though the coaches were always on me to play because of my height. Because of this, I was able to play varsity as a freshman because i could prepare myself 100% for baseball. Looking back, I can honestly say that it helped my baseball career, as I went on to college and am now in pro ball, but I also look back and wish that I had played basketball.

Coming from a baseball-first family, I always focused on baseball. That's part of the reason I enjoyed playing basketball: there was no pressure on me to go to college or go pro, so I could just play worry-free and have a blast. For your son, as a freshman, I would say let him play all he wants because he has plaenty of time to pick one down the road. Basketball is a great game and the more time you can keep your son active, the better!

Cal ... You got a great response from someone who's recently gone through the experience. I'll provide one from the dad of a high school freshman.

My son's goal is to play college baseball. I did. His sister plays college softball. So it's a reasonable goal. He is going to play three sports freshman year. I'm happy he is. It's too early to start dropping sports. He was co-captain of football, basketball and baseball in middle school last year.

I told him he needs to assess each year how his baseball is progressing and how the other sports he's not putting as much side work into are progressing. I told him if he's not going to be on varsity by junior year in the other two sports he should consider spending that time on baseball training. The potential to make it in all three are there. But the class above him in basketball is loaded.

He's not dropping any of the baseball training we had planned. He's playing fall ball. He's working out with the baseball team and on his own (doesn't hurt mom is a personal trainer). He quit football and went back to s****r (played travel until 8th grade) due to the banging in football and playing fall ball on the weekends was tough. A couple of weekends he couldn't grip the bat.

We can't start high school baseball officially until the second week of March. He'll start working out on his own a couple of times a week starting in February. He has to be ready. He's been told he'll get a varsity tryout. I think varsity is a longshot frosh year. But it puts him on the radar screen.

He practices basketball all summer on the playground, plays a lot of one on one with another baseball/basketball teammate, plays pickup games with the varsity in the gym a couple of times a week and attends a couple of quality summer basketball camps.

The problem with excelling in baseball and basketball is their travel seasons (USSSA baseball and AAU basketball) overlap. He'll always chose baseball. He's been playing travel basketball at a lower, more local level in the winter.

By the way, his sister played volleyball, track and softball in high school, plus travel softball. Her focus was softball. She played and practiced nine months of the year. She never did the work to be the best volleyball player she could be. She didn't have time. But she enjoyed playing.

Add: A recent 7th round draft choice out of our high school played three varsity sports his soph year. Then the scouts recommended he focus on baseball in the fall. He still played basketball. He spent his fall in intense baseball training and playing for a top travel team. He was all-conference in football his soph year. He said it killed him to quit. But he met his goal. He was a high draft choice.

I think there is a great sign off from one of the members here that I cannot recall at this time, but it goes something like this..

"Play two (or three) sports until the competition tells you otherwise"

The competitive nature of being involved in basketball, or football, or s****r goes a long way to developing a baseball player...makes him stronger,develops footwork and speed, make hime more competiive, and forces him to be in great condition. The time must be made if your sport is an overlap to find time to train for the upcoming sport on the side.

Academically it gets harder and harder to maintain everything as high school/college requirements begin to unfold. Make sure he/she has excellent study habits/priorities and strong parental support to develop time mangement, otherwise you can have a rude awakening academically jr/sr year.

Thanks to you all for your great advice. You have put my mind at ease. I do believe that basketball will help him stay conditioned for baseball. He also goes to a sports performance facility twice a week for additional conditioning. I am a very hands on mother when it comes to academics and he understands that if he gets a C on his report card, he is not allowed to play sports. Thanks !

Since you mentioned attending a sports performance facilty I have another point to make. Your son probably has a busy schedule like my son. Aside from playing three sports, he attends voluntary baseball workouts at 5:30am twice a week. Later this fall he has to start preparing for basketball while still playing s****r. While basketball is still going on he has to start preparing for baseball.

It's a heavy schedule. I discussed it with my son today. I told him if his grades drop it won't matter for how many sports he can prepare. He won't be doing it. While we're a very athletic family, grades have always come first. 3.7 or better and baseball will open a lot of college doors.

......

Joke on academics I hope won't offend anyone. My mother's side of the family is Jewish. There's a heavy emphasis on academics.

Q: What's the Jewish stance on abortion?
A: It's a living fetus until it finishes grad school.