Hi All,

At the conclusion of this year's travel season, I asked my 12 year old what he wanted to work on baseball wise prior to tryouts for the 13U team. The tryout was about 6 weeks away, and I was hoping that he would reflect and pick one area to work at before tryouts. His comment was," Don't I need to work on all of it?"

So, I searched HSBBW and found all types of drills. I printed off some and had him choose what he wanted to do. He worked for 6 weeks and the tryout went great!

I asked him what was his favorite part of the tryout? He said, "When we were timed home to first, I heard the coach with the watch say, "Wow". I heard from a friend later that he ended up ranked second in the running portion. This is the kid that has been accused in the past of carrying the piano on his back as he runs...

I love that he chose, worked and succeeded! Nothing builds that work ethic more!

Thanks to all those who post and make things easier for kids to succeed at the game they (and we) love.

It is so wonderful when they set goals for themselves and through their own hard work they achieve those goals. You have just witnessed a mile stone moment.

Ps: Welcome from the Midwest -this is a wealth of parent info here!

My son is 13 and I'm just waiting for the day when HE decides he needs to workout on his own....lol

What drills did your son do that improved his running so much, my son has been accused of running in "cement shoes" on more then one occassion..lol

Its very important for him to have baseball friends that he can work out with. Its really tough to do it on your own. Most kids find someone that they can do it with. If he does not work on his own at the things that will make him a better player the players that do will pass him by.

Core strength
Agility
Speed
Strength
Arm Strength

Improving all these areas will make him a much better player. Now is a good time to get him to focus on more than just playing games and thinking that working at the game means hitting , throwing and fielding only. The summer before he enters hs would be a great time to get on a consistent plan. Good luck.

Hi,

My 13 year old "wants" someone to train with also, he isn't willing yet to do it on his own. I suggested that eventually he will need to find a buddy to train with. His younger brother wants to be a cross country runner, so they run together right now.

I found a posting from Coach May to a freshman player where he described what their rising freshman did to prepare for the season. We based a lot of the drills of his information, plus some other things we found on HSBBW.

His goal was to do something for baseball 5 days a week that could be completed in 30-45 min. If he added a skill to the session, obviously the time it took went up. He got to pick the days he wanted off, usually the weekend, though he changed it up when he needed.

Monday:
Interval run - run for 1:50 and then sprint for 10 sec. Repeat. He got to the point of doing this for about 14 - 16 min. straight.
Long toss
Throwers 10.

Tuesday:
Agility Ladder - He picked 5 exercises to run on a ladder that we drew in chalk on the basement floor.
Dot Drill - 5 dots on the floor and jump from dot to dot in a couple of different ways.
Wrist rollers - dowel rod with weight attached to it with a rope.

Wed:
Hill run - emphasis on form along with running hard.
Long Toss
Throwers 10

Thur:
Agility Ladder
Jump Rope
Medicine Ball Exercises - 3 different core exercises

Fri:
Lead Off Sprints - Take a normal lead from first and sprint for 5 yards. Idea is to be at full speed by 3rd step. Then repeat for 10 yards and 20 yards.
Emphasis on form! I think we did 5 reps at each distance.
Long Toss
Throwers 10

He usually added a skill of his choice... fielding, hitting, or pitching to whatever day he wanted. He hated Mondays... rarely did skills after running the intervals...

We timed or measured his base at the start of the workouts and retimed as things went on. I would have liked to see more core and weight work, but, it was his choice. Plus, I don't think he wanted to go to the weight room with his Mom....

Hope this helps.

Congratulations to your son. He has learned one of the greatest lessons you can learn in youth sports.

Too many of our youth coaches get lost in "trying to keep things fun for the boys." Now, I'm all for keeping a positive attitude, weeding out the screamer coaches, etc., but usually this attitude manifests itself in making practices be full of frivolous stuff, not emphasizing instruction or driving to succeed. In short, it makes a day of baseball into a serving of cotton candy -- pretty, tasty, but not much substance, soon gone and forgotten.

What he has discovered is that all that emphasis on passing, immediate gratification cannot match the sheer joy, pride and satisfaction that a player can get from finding out how good he can be.

What you will soon discover is, that feeling can be addictive. You may soon find you have a competitor on your hands -- a boy who's always trying to see just how good he can become.

Even if he never makes it in baseball, that attitude will serve him well in every other walk of his life.

But I'll bet he DOES make it in baseball, too! Because he already knows something that very few players ever really come to grasp.