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This post is motived by recent @JucoDad and @Dadbelly2023 notes on declining participation on this site -- something I hope to help reverse here. I'm a frequent reader/lurker who's gained a ton of wisdom and perspective from this site and truly appreciate the wealth of valuable knowledge shared here (especially by the veteran contributors).

I don't post much mainly because I'm at the "learning" stage, rather than the "sharing wisdom" stage, of my son's baseball career. And also because he was never old enough to really need expertise and guidance....and, then, suddenly he's grown up, played his first game as a high school freshman last week, and has serious aspirations to play in college.

Here's my question -- my son is a pretty serious, self-motivated athlete, starting SS/RHP and leadoff hitter on his JV team, who really took to nutrition and weightlifting over the last year or so, sprouting up from 5-8/140 in 8th grade to 5-10/170 today. A couple weeks ago, at the end of his high school 's winter workout program, the team did a "metrics" day. He ran a 7.23 60, which was tops on his JV team, but I gather from scanning PG metrics is considered "good" not "great" for a 15 y.o.

Does anyone have advice on how he could train to get faster?

His travel team is probably going to do a PBR team day this fall and he'd love to get his time below 7. I have no idea how realistic a goal that is or isn't -- or what the most productive way to pursue it would be.

In the past, he's worked with a pitching coach and currently hits weekly with a trainer he loves. But despite my (costly) immersion in the youth travel baseball world, I haven't come across any trainer that specializes in speed, although I do see that kind of thing on social media fairly often.

Given my son's level of motivation for all things baseball, I'd like to set him up as best I can. We live in the DMV area, fwiw. Any advice would be appreciated -- on the speed training specifically, but also general advice for a kid just starting his high school career. Thanks in advance to everyone!


Original Post

My daughter (softball) was awkward running after growing from 5’2” to 5’10” from one season to the next. She went to Speed Camp at a college track powerhouse. Getting her running straightened out drastically improved her speed.

My son was always one of the fastest kids. After freshman year of high school I sent him to a training facility with focus on how to run a timed sixty properly.

The first thing to do is get strong in the legs. While it won’t change speed learn how to read pitchers for jump. Don’t compare your son to his teammates. Compare him to kids with college potential.

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