Tourney tips and garage equip

My 2017 uses an Easton pop up net, a tanner tee and a small space heater for hitting in the garage in the winter. We use the garage to park the cars in and that stuff easily moves off to the side when he's not hitting. Not much else is needed. We live in Chicago and that's enough to keep him warm on most days. 

 

Btw IMO lay off the heavy duty training for a few years. He's too young for weighted balls and year round training.  I have a 2017 seeing some D1 recruiting action from 9u to 12u he played Little League and on a Sunday part time travel team. He took the rest of the year off.

Thanks and congrats on your 2017. I couldn't agree more on the training/year round,specializing. It's something I think about often. He plays variety of rec sports and will do so for many years I think. Baseball is what really gets him going though. He had to overcome some learning issues and baseball assisted In my opinion so I am pretty supportive of it for him. Admittedly, it's my favorite of all the sports. He asked if we could hit in the garage and I figured that's better than more regimented and $$ winter program with hitting instructor. As far as the weighted balls, I will take your opinion. He is on small side and a contact hitter vs slugger and a few dads recommended them to get hands thru ball better. I am totally against them for throwing and he is not pitcher. The length of baseball freaks me out vs my LL day. For this year, as team, we landed on mid Dec-Feb light conditioning 2 days week with no baseball specific activity. Just kind of fun agility games and races. March - May practice and a few scrimmages. June -July - 6 tourneys. August - Nov totally away from baseball all together. No Fall Ball.  Thanks for reply and my rambling thoughts. Good luck, hope your HS gets outside before May

For tournament ideas a great deal depends on financial situation.  I always look for hotels with pools and a decent breakfast buffet.  The little ones loved to feel in control and have waffles or pancakes or sugar cereal until their heads popped off.  If you are not staying the night then make sure you have a canopy or sports umbrella so they brother and in my opinion more importantly the wife can be as comfortable as possible.  I bought a collapsible wagon about 7 years ago and have never regretted it.  Some tournaments have 500 yard walks to the field and being able to make the journey in one trip and not pass out from exhaustion on the way is very helpful.  For my purposes I always check the local coffee shops stores and restaurants prior to heading out.  If you have an 8:00 a.m. game and a 2 hour drive you are on the road at 5:00 to get there in time and knowing where the local Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts is can be very valuable.  Bring plenty of drinks...On a hot summer day when you have 2 games a break and another each one of you might drink 48 oz or more so that is a LOT of liquid.  Make sure most of it is water but some electrolyte replacement is o.k. I personally prefer fruits to replace lost sugars, oranges, grapes etc. and bananas for potassium but some people swear by the sports drinks.  Five years old is a tough age and they will not want to watch the whole time.  I always had their glove and ball and bat and between every inning 5 minutes of play can go a long way. 

 

Not going to comment on the garage set up I think the advice I have read was sound, don't over train and get plenty of other athletic outlets to become a fully rounded athlete.

I purchased one of these about 10 years ago and son has used it plenty and the cost is right and it's sturdy.

 

http://www.baseballexpress.com...t.jsp?productId=4795

 

Also bought the L screen version and its saved my life a few times.

 

http://www.baseballexpress.com...t.jsp?productId=5110

All great advice. MD, the wagon idea makes great sense. I have seen them more and more. I travel a lot for work and only use roller bags, makes sense locally as well. Much appreciated. My wife and oldest son are way more organized than I am. It's hard on me but I started building checklists for my work and everyday life. They have really started to make life better (less chaos, less wife shaking head/yelling, gain a little time back). I wrote Post as I am building one for family car trips and away sporting events.

For garage hitting and throwing, I bought a 10x16 sheet of baseball netting and tied it to a 12' length of 2" conduit. It fits in hangers on the ceiling and  rolls up when not in use. The netting was about $50 through Amazon, and I found the other stuff at Lowes.

Tips for weekend (I have a 5 year old too)

1. Yes, bring a cooler and pack it with quick grab things, i.e pieces of fruit, bags of nuts, granola bars, gold fish, a box of munchkin donuts, water, sandwich makings, 2 sports drink per game...stay away from anything that would melt like chocolate, or high in sugar.

 

2. The 5 year old should bring a ball if there is a grassy area for them to play, or a pack of balloons that mom/dad could blow up one at a time to play with.  Also a 2 wheeled scooter is always a hit, as well as a dvd player for the car in case in rains the 5 year old can go hide out in there.  And of course an electronic device such as tablet or old phone is always helpful to entertain as well as sidewalk chalk and bubbles.

 

3. Taking the rest from another board who had this discussion last year about pre-high school baseball and what parents bring, probably WAY too much but pick out what you think is needed:

Your first aid kit should include:
1. Activatable ice pack, the type that you break it and it's instantly cold. You would be amazed how many parks don't have ice, and it will be at that park your kid will be hit by the ball and need ice.
2. Advil/ibuprofen, because it really does help with the swelling
3. Ace Bandage, to tie the ice pack onto a particular location
4. Waterproof Sunblock
5. Benadryl AND Afterbite
6. Medical tape, useful for hurt fingers to be splinted together, to make a makeshift pad for the catchers hand/thumb when dealing with a powerful pitcher, and also useful to wrap around a bat and write your kids name on it...imagine 60 kids show up for a wooden bat tournament with nearly identical cheap $25 Louisville sluggers.
7. Band-aids (the flexible kind), neosporin and iodine or alcohol wipes. You would think some hydrogen peroxide, but no, peroxide looses strength when exposed to heat and time so it's not good for hot weather.

8. Bug spray

 

Ball player needs:

1. 2 legal bats, make sure they are legal and what your coach wants him swinging. The reason for 2 is psychological...some kids just think Bat A has lost its "power", so it's nice to have another option.
2. Frog Togg if it's hot
3. Black long sleeve shirt if the temperature even might be less than 75 when you arrive or play, black is the easiest color for most people to find, but any dark color will be okay.  Keep in mind white and some of the lighter colors are not allowed for pitchers.
4. Sun glasses in a hard case
5. An emergency rain poncho from the dollar store, it's flat and small and can be vital for those unexpected storms.
6. Slides or tennis shoes, some batting cages do NOT allow even rubber cleats, if your kid doesn't have another pair of shoes with him he will be unable to attend batting practice, or have to do it barefoot.
7. An old absorbent rag, for when it is drizzling so he can keep it at the mound to wipe his hands and or ball on.

In the parents car:

1. Several dollar store rain poncho's. These are good for the obvious reason but also to rip open and cover the bleachers on a wet day so you can sit.
2. LARGE umbrella
3. Extra pair of pants for your son, these don't necessarily need to be game pants. I keep one gray and one white, both generic brands, for the just in case scenario...sliding can be brutal and if he rips his pants in game one he will be sliding on an exposed knee for the rest of the day.

4. Collapsible Wagon

5. Canopy tent

6. Chairs

7. Wet wipes

8. Old large towel for bleacher wipe-down to get dew off

 

Store most of these things in a big container and just leave in back of your vehicle, if you need them they will be there.

 

 

Good grief.....things have gotten so complicated.  When my son was 10 (7 summers ago) we played 10-12 tourneys....with about half in a 2-hour radius...so we stayed at hotels some and made the round trip for others. 

 

Here's what we did:

 

1) Wake up at 6am.....throw his bat bag and a cooler of drinks in the back of the van

 

2) Leave for the day

 

If it was a hotel trip....

 

1) Wake up at 6am....throw his uniforms in a duffel bag....and make sure he grabs his bat bag

 

2) Grab a couple t-shirts for me....maybe a hat if I remembered...and a pair of shorts....same for the wife

 

3) throw some drinks in the cooler

 

4) leave for the weekend!!!!

 

Don't make it so complicated that it's not fun!!!!   If you need something, run over to CVX, Kroger or Walmart and pick it up....you're never more than 5-10 minutes from one of those places.....

 

If I put as much effort and planning into a weekend as some of you guys are doing, my son would have been done with travel baseball after one summer!!!!    

BTW Im with Buckeye, when it came to traveling when we were younger.

 

if it was a local game, grab the cooler through some water and gatorade in it, grab his bat bag and off we go.

 

If it was an out of town tourney, throw some clothes in a bag for him, some in a bag for the wife and I, grab his bat bag, fill a cooler with water and gatorade for him, fill a cooler with soda and beer for me and the wife and head out.

When my son was younger, my wife got tired of never having the first aid supplies younger players seem to need.  I picked up a plastic toolbox at Home Depot and she filled it with everything you could need short of a scalpel and sutures.  Now that he is in high school, I just show up :-)  I do keep a folding chair in the car incase I don't feel like sitting in the bleachers.

There is value to both being prepared and being spontaneous and having a fun adventure.

 

I would suggest checking out the target area and finding some fun, cool things to do for your player outside of baseball and the tourney.  Sometimes these extra side-trips turned into the real memories.  One trip, we found a water cave to swim through and we all still remember that as one of the coolest things ever. 

 

Make sure the 5 y.o. gets plenty of attention and has plenty of entertainment.  Try to arrange for him not to have to go all the time.  It will make it more enjoyable for him and everyone else when he does go.

 

For really hot days, get a small ice chest and a couple dozen cheap white rags from dollar store.  Roll them up, wet them down and throw some ice on top.  Put the ice chest in the dugout and let all the players use these to put on their heads and around their necks between innings.  They love it and it makes a world of difference.

I would go with a blue tarp for the garage.Get one big enough that it has/needs to be doubled up prior to hanging.Get one that has the rivet holes in both ends.Hang it and forget it.Cars can be pulled in and out with messing with the tarp.Tarp is always in place for use.Your son is getting to the age where it would be a good idea to have a couple of training items around to see how often/much he will use them on his own without any prompting.9-11   10-12 if kids at @ these ages aren't starting to spend some amount of time practicing on thier own spending a bunch of money on cool stuff may not be the way to go.By the time my 2016 was this age everything we/he had was designed to be used on his own and it wasn't alot of stuff.The time I spent with him we started doing other things.While I'm sure other here will tell you better this worked great for my guy.I started out with a post hole digger handle when he was little and had moved him on to a hitting stick @ 10.(weighted bat correct handle broom stick size barrel). We use(still using) the plastic golf balls going from the tee to flip drills to the plastic golf balls.My 2016 played everything/whatever at that age.And excelled.In the back of my mind I always worried that I might/could be pushing him in MY direction.I probably backed off more than most while letting him decide.I guess up to this point its all worked out.On the younger sibling thing I always made it out so that other than pre game and the games it was all about sibling.With a little pre planning you can usually find alot of things to do without spending a ton.Tip for those hot july tourneys.Get an early game with a 1-2 comeback game.Try the early movies air conditioning along with a discount for early showings.Just my thoughts.

No, no, no.....do not do this EVER!!!! Your team will be ridiculed as the "towel boys" for the rest of their baseball lives.   If you must use towels DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES allow a mom of one of the players into the dugout to put the towels on the boys....if that happens, you'll be the "mama's boys" for the rest of your baseball lives....  

Tips for the 5-year-old:

 

MOST IMPORTANT: If possible find another 5-year-old sibling on the team and make sure they become best friends!! And get to know the other parents well so you can start to swap/share responsibility for bathroom trips, concession stand visits, etc.

 

Take lots of things to do, as previously mentioned.  My younger kids loved sidewalk chalk, water guns (or spray fans), colored hair spray (washable of course)...anything they weren't usually allowed to have at home. 

 

We allowed one trip to Target or Walmart on away trips, usually scheduled between games to break things up. Kids could choose one or two things (with a $5 or $10 total limit) to take back to the next game.  It's amazing how much NEW junk made a difference in their attitude!

 

As for travel, I always made sure to take my own laundry detergent, lots of quarters, a sharpie for writing my player's number in pants, undershirts, sliders, etc., and safety pins to keep pairs of socks together.

 

Good luck and have fun.  I miss those days!!

Great point with the laundry detergent and quarters...Totally forgot that!

We don't pack half of that stuff, but I will say the mitigating factors for us are the five year old and the weather, which goes from one extreme to the other in Georgia within an hour pretty much every weekend. I repack my bin every March and it just stays in the car 24/7/365. 

 

As for the first aid side, well we have dealt with mosquito swarms, bee stings, unexpected torrential downpours, cement scraped knees, mud parties, headaches, sunburns...and that just covers the 5 year olds needs...LOL....oh yeah and the ice pack for the ball player   

Lol...thankfully I never had a 5-year old tagging along....my son started playing when he was 9....and at the time my daughter was 11....and acted like she was 18 so she pretty much ran the show the entire weekend!! 

Never sure exactly how to interpret the smiley face and you may have been totally joking but I certainly didn't suggest a mom in the dugout putting towels on the boys.  They can do it themselves. 

 

If there was any seriousness in your post, we'll agree to disagree on not using this tool.  Over the years, with teams ranging in age from 12's to 18's, I've taken many groups to Central Cal Valley summer tourneys where temps around 105-110 are not uncommon.  The cold rags have been a difference maker in teams playing with energy and life or being totally zapped (or miserable, or worse).  Never had them called anything resembling "towel boys" but did observe several opponents wishing they were equally equipped. 

 

On the other hand, I do believe we had the same daughter.

If you have room, take a portable grill.  Nothing better than grilling up some meat between games.  And if your discreet, a little beer never hurt anyone (just be smart). 

 

As for the garage, I use a canvas painters tarp hung from the ceiling.  In the winter, we have a small propane heater to take the edge out of the air. 

I was semi-joking....especially about the towels themselves.  If it helps and keeps the kids feeling better, I'm all for it.    I also understand that things in Ohio and California are completely different with regard to temps in the summer.  We don't play in 100+ temps here.  My comment was completely based on the fact that I've only personally seen the towels twice in my son's 10+ years of baseball....and both times there was a mom who went into the dugout and helped put the towels on the boys necks....one of the teams was 13U and the other 14U.  It made for some fun conversations around the park the remainder of the weekend!!! 

See lots of use of them around here in IL on the hotter days.  Many kids keep them in their coolers and pull them out without the help of momma.  

Some great stuff and opinions. Buckeye, I hear you loud and clear. It's how I live essentially, works for me (most of time) but drives my family nuts and then I wind up going to Target or some store (last place I want to be) and spending a bunch of money on crap I had at home or is cheaper quality than would normally buy. I don't have it in my DNA to be the prepared guy or the one with the awesome tailgate spread who thought if everything. Just don't want to the freezing, hungry, wet guy who didn't think ahead who needs to get away from family for the local dive bar.

In my son's early days of travel ball, it seemed we packed everything but the kitchen sink - popup cover tent, cooler packed with drink, water, snacks, etc, folding chairs, bags of dry snacks (chips, crackers, etc), his equipment bag, luggage if a tournament requiring overnight stay, etc.

 

Over time I simply got tired of dragging so much stuff around.  By the time he was playing HS (last year of travel was his sophomore year), we only brought folding chairs and a small cooler with water/drinks.  Brought some extra cash to purchase burgers, BBQ, fries or whatever from the booster concession stand (yes, even when we were the visitors).  If the forecast was for a very hot day I'd bring the popup - but most HS games were in the evening.

 

Now that he is playing at the college level (D2), we don't even bring the chairs unless I know for sure we'll need them - the home field is also home for a Single A Affiliate.  Just cash for the entrance fee and concessions.  It's nice to just enjoy the game without worrying whether we forgot something.