What To Do The Year Before High School?

Guess I should have stated a year of Senior Ball at 15-18 or Travel team at his age?

Forget the labels of travel ball and senior ball. You need to look at the talent level of the teams and the talent level of your son. Where does he fit? Can he contribute on both teams? If the answer is a resounding YES, then maybe you should even look at a more advanced team (usually labeled as a “select” team). So there is no pat answer. If he’s the most talented player on a weak team, in a weak league, he won’t be challenged and won’t improve. If he plays on a strong team and has to spend a lot of time on the bench, he won’t improve either. He needs to fit.

Fungo-Thanks you are the all knowing guru. In hindsight the answer was really obvious. Have him play in the most challenging league that he will still get a lot of playing time.

FUNGO=BRILLIANT

Thanks Again.

ZacksDad,

Great advice from Fungo but I would like to add one thing.

At the age your son is at you also want him to be involved with a team that has a coaching staff that will take his skills and work to develop them.

It is not always true that just because he is playing against great competition that the coaching staff knows what they are doing. In youth baseball you have a ton of "volunteer" dads, (which we all were at one time or another, myself included) some have baseball backgrounds and can teach the game and some do not. Just make sure you know which one you are getting.

Good Luck....O42

Orioles 42-Thanks for the input and that I do know what you are talking about. I am one of those voluteer dads-and I have never played baseball before. I am a good athlete but as far as personal experiences in playing BB I have none. This is one of the reasons why we are getting him some professional, private, instruction this coming up year. I feel like if he just has me his game will suffer.

Zacks Dad there is a wealth on knowledge out there. make sure you use the search function on this site and also make sure your kid is having fun!!!

I myself played basketball all my life and didn't know much of baseball. But two years of woodshedding on the internet and joining this site has made me better in coaching and helping my son.

Good luck and welcome aboard!!!

The year before HS is very important as they all are. Has he played on a 60-90 field? Long toss. Alot of speed and agility work. Get in great shape and start working on a good work out routine for the rest of his life building a great work ethic. Work really hard on learning to use the whole field at the plate. The pitchers in HS are going to be alot smarter and better coached than he is used to seeing. They are not going to be just trying to throw strikes. They are going to change speeds much more effectively and work in out and up and down more often and with much more effectiveness. This can be a real tough lesson for young hitters no matter how talented they are. For the first time in his life he will be competing against kids not his age but 1 2 3 4 years older than him. Even if he is extremely talented for his age the other kids are going to be much more mentally mature in the game. They will be bigger stronger and most of the time faster than he is used to. The game and practices will move at a much faster pace than he is used to. Playing on a very competitive team against very good competition is a must in my opinion. But to me even more important is to prepare himself physically and mentally for the HS game. I would make sure that he starts if he has not already building arm strength and working on the physical side and mental side of the game and not spend all his time just playing games. He will find as he gets older that getting better at baseball alot of times has nothing to do with a ball glove and a bat.

To add to the many good suggestions offered here I'd use this year to start transitioning to the -3oz. bat.
Somebody mentioned that it was one of the things kids have trouble getting used to.
As Coach May said, spend some time on the strength developement side too.
Steve

That is a good point rollerman. This year will be his first year with a big barrell bat and I was surprised how much his bat speed went down because of the bat weighing 4oz. more.

Wow, 15 in eigth grade. My Sophmore just turned 15.

Yeah-he was held back a year in 1st grade. In a sense (from the physical maturity standpoint) I am thinking it may be a blessing in disquise.

Zack's dad: I sent you another Private Message and you never replied. Did you ever find a team in your area?